Marketing my studio makes me feel icky. I didn’t become a music teacher because I was excited to advertise myself and my lessons. In fact, marketing feels like an annoying but necessary byproduct of being a private instrumental teacher. But I need to fill those empty lesson slots and grow my studio.
Marketing my studio makes me feel icky.
I didn’t become a music teacher because I was excited to advertise myself and my lessons.
In fact, marketing feels like an annoying but necessary byproduct of being a private instrumental teacher.
But I need to fill those empty lesson slots and grow my studio.
I asked Kelly Riordan (from OutsideTheBachs.com) to give me some pointers about a more authentic way of marketing.
Table of Contents:
It’s all about promoting your studio and teaching in a way that feels like you.
It’s not about being pushy or sales or (even worse) pretending to be someone you’re not.
It’s sharing your passion and values in a way others can relate to.
Imagine you’re talking to a friend over coffee. How would you tell them about your lessons?
Transfer that way of talking to your marketing.
I wouldn’t take them down. You don’t know who’ll see them and give you a call!
But I’d take a gentler approach, especially to local schools.
Reach out with the intention of building a relationship, not just pushing your lessons on them.
Offer to meet for coffee after school, be a guest instructor, or share resources that could help the students.
People resonate with people they feel connected to.
At the moment, my posts all seem very ‘Have lessons with me’ and not very, well, me.”
How often do you engage with salesy posts online? Hardly ever.
We go on social media for entertainment, as an escapism.
It’s only when we see something we resonate with that we look further into that person or company.
Use your social media to share your passion and story.
Little things like these are key to authentic marketing and will help you build community and trust.
As musicians, we’re used to refining things and getting things ‘perfect’ before we share them with the world.
You wouldn’t dream of getting up on stage with a piece you’d half prepared.
We assume we have to transfer that to our marketing.
We’ve been led to think we should only show the perfected and polished version of ourselves.
But that isn’t the case.
Students won’t recommend you to others because you always appear flawless.
They’ll talk about your personality, the results you get, and how talented you are.
It’s when potential students see your value – not your sales pitch – that they feel like you’re the perfect teacher for them.
I talk about it in a lot more detail in the TopMusicMag: Studio Growth Secrets.
You’ll learn about refinements you can make to make your current marketing feel more authentic.
You can download the mag for free:
