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Advertising and Marketing Tips (All Teachers)
Hi All, was just wondering if anyone had some good recommendations for companies that produce nice affordable business cards. And more importantly places where you guys have had success giving them out? Never been good at this whole advertising thing so any advice on where to put flyers etc. would be great =) I’m specifically looking to attract more daytime hours. Anyway thanks to all of you lovely people. Tom
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14 Replies
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I bought these ones and used to had them out to all new students at the end of their first lesson suggesting that they should stick it on the fridge door so that they had my contact details if they needed it (also worked well as if a friend asked about a good guitar teacher then that student could pass on my business card) – https://www.moo.com/uk/design-templates/business-cards/pack/guitar-silhouettes.html – I also used to have a good splattering of them in local music shops, at the university, colleges and local schools (not to mention battle of the band nights etc at local music venues!). Would also recommend Vista Print as well for bigger posters and adversing – http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/search/guitar-teacher.aspx – as for getting “off peak students” I use to implement an “off peak rate” to entice more uni students to come in the day:)
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Most of my students have come from flyers I have handed out. The best place to hand them out is directly outside the school gates after the bell goes. Be friendly and get talking to the parents, it is so much more personable than any other way; they really appreciate it when they can see a human being behind the advert and they love being able to ask questions straight away, rather than a faceless email or text. It also gives you a chance to get first lessons booked on the spot, as you can talk about their son’s/daughter’s desires and abilities and give them the encouragement and motivation to get started immediately!
Also, bulletin boards of community centres, music shops (don’t always allow due to conflict with resident tutors), leisure centres, theatres, doctor’s surgeries, supermarkets and grocery shops etc. Hand them out on the street, take them with you when you busk, at gigs, open mics, wherever you play. Always have some business cards in your pocket.
I have used http://www.instantprint.co.uk for my flyers and business cards – they have very good prices for batches of 1000 A5 flyers, dependent upon how you laminate them. If you have photoshop or a similar program it doesn’t take long to knock up a nice looking flyer, and it probably looks better than using the standard templates online.
Get your assets together: a nice photo (or two if double-sided) of yourself or your guitar/studio. Use your website blurb and condense it down into a short concise block of text to explain your services, your contact details etc. Then it’s just a matter of arranging everything so that it looks aesthetically pleasing and catches everyone’s eyes.
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Hey
Lots of ideas, usually they say you get less than a 1% return on flyers, it’s time consuming and can have costs.
The key aspect is branding, such as tying together:
Email address
Name (even if it is just yours)
FB page updated regularly
Interactive media – videos are better than photos and attract more views on social media
Twitter (if you want)
FB promoted posts – especially on a good video, I did #14 for one week and got 36,000 views and lots of bookings
Do what other local tutors do not do – especially online, be seen to be proactive and “on it”.
Use the same artwork across the board – social sites, cards, flyers and so on.
Strike a deal with your local music store – buy an instrument there and they get a free or half price lesson from yo
Offer deals, I do 99 quid for 5 one hour lessons – one s free basically.
First lesson half price also works well
If a student gets you a lesson – they get one half price or free…. works well
Local music stores/pubs/pizza shops and so on for posters.
Try and get some students on a gig with a basic backing band – always pulls in lots of new clients.
ANything that makes you different – use. Who have ypu played with, where did you learn, what are your qualifications and so on – all helps build an approachable profile.Im not a big person for flyers, Id get 20 printed and locate them in local pubs and take outs though. ALso make sure you are registered on ALL teaching sites for your instrument.
Hope that helps
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Wow Lewis, you are on it, I like it! Well you both are!
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Wow where to start!? Cheers for the advice guys some fantastic ideas in there making me a marketing to do list right now. Thank you Matt as ever you are fantastic and “on it”! Will definitely get some of the cards/flyers round the local colleges and Uni. Giving them out to parents is also a great idea as is the whole refer a friend thing you brought up Dave. Nice to meet you btw =) Also nice to meet you Lewis! I love the idea of handing flyers out after school! Definitely going to get on that as there’s actually a local school that has a huge waiting list for guitar according to a couple of my clients. Did you offer any promotional deals when you approached parents? Bit fuzzy on how to start that conversation you know? Back to Dave, cheers for all the ideas! Actually already have a deal with two of the local music stores but tbh getting clients from them is rare. I love the referral idea though and I noticed on your face book page you offered a cheap lesson for a share which is another great idea. Hello Eliza lovely to meet you!
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I’ve never done it myself, but I know some other music teachers who put on shows at the end of each term, with each of their students performing something that they’ve learned in it – invite all their friends and relatives and some of them may become insterested in having lessons too! A fair few of my students have come to me because of recommendations from their friends, so word of mouth is really one of the best ways. Great ideas above, too – I love the idea of the friends-recommended discount!
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Wow, great ideas all round! So impressed!
@Matthew I LOVE the fridge idea. Good one! And a good idea for the off peak rate too… something to think about.
@Lewis Wow, I didn’t even know you were allowed to stand outside a school and hand out things.. It’s something I’ve thought about doing before but for some reason I was always scared about being taken away by the authorities haha! Awesome suggestions of places to post fliers.
I’ve had a lot more success in the past with fliers than with online too. And it feels more quantifiable than just hoping people will follow you on facebook/twitter which is more of a long term method for developing trust with future clients. I just often don’t have the patience or the social media savvy for that stuff@Dave, totally on point. I love that you’ve really capitalised on the online space. It’s so interesting that you did so well with facebook promotion! I’d been warned off that, but maybe the information I was getting was wrong? Also great idea about the local music store. I wish I could take more advantage of that as a singer!
IDEA: maybe we could all like each others’ business facebook pages? I don’t know if this would help (I have a hard time sometimes figuring out exactly how facebook fits in the marketing picture, but I suppose a few more likes is probably a good thing)?
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I’m up for that! Just invite me to all of your stuff people!
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That’s a great idea! Hit me up with some links!
My teaching Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/RJ-Music-Tuition-439747469442058/?ref=bookmarks
And I’m going to be a bit cheeky and post my musician one too because I’m trying to build that one up a bit at the moment!https://www.facebook.com/beckieoldhammusic/
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My business page is: https://www.facebook.com/elizafyfeteaching
And go on then, https://www.facebook.com/elizafyfemusic -
Loving seeing and liking peoples’ business pages!
Mine’s https://www.facebook.com/kathuntervocalstudio/
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Anyone else have facebook business pages to share? Would love to see some more!
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Hi everyone,
This is my first post here.
I was wondering if there are any MGR teachers who were previously Clive’s Easylearn Pop Music School franchisees, like I was a few years ago? I ran 4 separate schools in my area. A really good idea and worked well at first until the recession (and YouTube) put an end to it. Since then I have only taught privately as well as in a couple of schools and I have to say that by and large it has been ok.
When I had the pop schools I tried nearly every form of advertising and promotion (including radio!!)and spent a small fortune in the process. Some things worked better than others but I came to the conclusion that there is no magic promotional tool. It’s all about using different methods and NOT spending too much money (none at all ideally!) All I have now is my MGR website and I put some cards in a local music shop. Also, you can’t underestimate word of mouth, so doing a good job brings it’s own rewards.Cheers
Gary Heyes
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Hi everyone, if you need more information about this topic you can find it here – https://musicteacher.kinsta.cloud/community/groups/music-teachers/forum/topic/advertising-tips-all-teachers/
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