Hello,

I presently teach piano to two different families at their homes and would like to increase the number of students I teach this fall. Here are the challenges I face:

1. My home is out in the country 8 miles from nearest town.
2. Nearest town (pop. ~3500) is primarily blue collar with high unemployment.
3. Second closest town is apx. 14 miles from here, with a mix of blue and white collar workers.
4. Closest serious competing piano studio is apx. 25 miles from here., though there are others (high school students) who teach for as little as $10/half hour in town. I have always differentiated myself as a professional musician on marketing materials in order to justify my higher rate.
5. Area is devoid of any type of "piano music culture".

I presently charge $40/hour to go to student's homes. I tried to market a ten week piano camp this summer, and only got one response despite hanging flyers on multiple bulletin boards in both towns. After I e-mailed the mother my rate (which I had reduced to $30 per lesson/$300 for the ten weeks) I never heard anything back.

With school back in session in mid August, I'm starting to think now about how to promote my services again. I am thinking of "Buy 9 lessons, get the 10th free" promotion, as well as advertising through sites like Craigslist.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!

Christopher

Can you connect with IMTA? You might get referrals that way.

Do you have a website that focuses on your teaching?
Are you a member of the MTNA, or a local piano teacher's group?
Do you know music teachers and church musicians? They are my best source for leads. Give a stack of business cards to them.
Consider charging less for students who travel to your home.

Chris, I understand your dilemma. I used to have a well-established and busy studio in a metropolis area for many years, till I gave it all up to move to somewhere more rural a year ago in pursuit of a quieter life. Now, I can barely find any students even though it is a blue-collar workers' town. My rate has dropped to 1/3 of what I used to get. The classical music scene is negligible. Eventually I have to commute once a week, 1 and half hours drive each way, to another more affluent town where there are more parents interested in music lessons for their kids. I am afraid that may be what you will have to do. You will have to commute to another bigger city or more affluent town, perhaps once a week, if you want to have a bigger teaching pool. Continuing to market yourself in a small community may seem futile, since I believe everyone probably may have seen your posters at some point of time.
Another suggestion is to send your current students to participate in town festivities - to gain exposure. It is inspiring for others to see your teaching and know your value, than some high-schoolers who teach part-time for extra income. You can also send your students to nearby cities as well, for special events, music festivals and competitions. From my experience, parents do not mind driving if your studio has gained a reputation and are producing winners!
Best of luck!

In general, I endorse this idea; however, it is a two-way street. You can also lose students by sending them to festivals and competitions.

Though I never have such problem in my teaching career, I have heard of students being baited by other teachers. I heard it is not uncommon in your area: Los Angeles/OC metro area. I presume one has to be confident and secure in his/her teaching to worry about such matter. For me personally, I refuse to be deterred from sending my students to competitions and festivals out of fear that they will switch "boat".

To address the original post--

Perhaps you can branch out into other music-related business like accompanying? String players and vocalists are constantly in search of accompanists.

Also, do you perform? You may be able to get some money that way.

My gut feeling about your problem is that, unless you are willing to move to a larger metropolitan area or its suburbs, you are unlikely to gain more clients where you live. One person cannot change the musical culture of a local area.

Have you looked at accompaniment opportunities at local churches and schools? Gaining exposure by performing locally has been effective, at least for me. I've picked up a number of students through accompanying at local churches and at a nearby high school.

I agree with AZNpiano in that you can't change the musical culture of your area. Before you can build a successful studio, you have to be in an area with the right demographics. Otherwise, regardless of how low your rate is, it'll be hard to attract new students.

Thanks everyone for your ideas! Now to answer some of your questions:

1. No, I am not presently part of a teaching guild, but I will look into that further. I did, however, sign up today on a couple of piano teacher directories and a national referral service. Has anyone here signed up with pianolessonsinyourhome.com?

2. My main profession is actually as a church organist and choir director. That's what brought me down here to a rather unique church employment situation in the middle of nowhere. All of my current students come from that church. I also sub regularly at 3 other churches (1 in the closest town I mentioned, another about 5 miles from there, and the last about 45 miles from here). Plus a number of other churches I am hired to play weddings, funerals, etc.

3. I'm in the middle of recording my debut solo piano CD which will be released in the fall. I'm hoping that will generate some leads (I do have a piano instruction section on my website) as well as opportunities for seminars and the like.

4. I've had one of my students make it to the finals in the all state piano competition. I've not talked that up much, but I guess its time to start doing that. I too have mixed feelings on competitions, but not for the reasons given. But that's a topic for another day :-).

Keep the ideas coming. I really appreciate it. Something is bound to work. If I can get 2-3 new students by the fall it will be all worth it.

Thanks,

Christopher

Just curious, but how?

When I was in high school, my then piano teacher sent me to a festival. While waiting for the award ceremony, I snuck into another room to hear other kids play. I was floored by one kid's performance, so I asked him who his teacher was. You can figure out the rest of the story. I regret to this day that I didn't switch teachers sooner.

But, more recently, I personally witnessed student-poaching at a similar competition. The students belonged to a teacher in my MTAC branch! I really wanted to jump in and say something right then and there, but I bit my tongue. Fortunately, both students stayed with their current teacher.

You also have to deal with "teacher hopper" parents who are eternally shopping for the teacher who will lead their kids to winning first place. And even first place is not enough! I've lost first-place students to other "higher up" teachers.

So, there are definitely pro's and con's to sending kids to festivals and competitions. You gain some; you lose some. I just pray that the pro's would outweigh the con's.

Get a website.

You can also use our website (check out the links in my signature). We focus specifically on connecting teachers with new piano students. If you have any questions about our program let me know.

Best,

JPE

Follow this link:

http://colorinmypiano.com/2011/05/16/studio-marketing-advertising-on-the-internet/

Thank you Joy Morin for sharing this!

Have you considered offering a free "trial" period of lessons on the materials you are using to advertise? If you are trying to convince parents to make the trek out to you (or consider piano at all in the first place) perhaps a chance to try it before they commit would be a good idea. We are fortunate to have our studio in a rural but culturally rich area. We still do free trials of lessons during our slow months (November and February) to attempt to fill any spaces that are open and it is hugely successful. Usually at least 10 new students stay each time out of 11 or 12 that sign up to try it out. If you're confident you can wow them then it is usually worth your time to try it. Also gives you a chance to feel out how committed the families are before you enter into a long-term arrangement with them so it's a two way street if you're willing to give up some of your time for free.

Setup a YouTube Channel and start putting up some videos...

1) Who you are and what you do...Play a little

2) Have video of your students performing

3) Testimonials of your students/parents

4) Testimonials of the people from the church you work at

This will expand your reach...

If you promote yourself right, people in the areas that can afford you, will come to you regardless of where you live, because they want what you have.

What you need to do is get a website first. Then advertise website in the largest city in your area even if it's a 30 minhute drive or an hour drive. Find either a church or another business (piano shop) that has a studio that you can rent to teach out of.

This will be your studio base and you will have to learn the ins and outs of the surrounding 15 miles. Churches, Schools, Grocery Stores, coffee shops, etc. Anywhere you can oput fliers.

You need to spend a hundred hours at least researching how to design a website and promoting it on Google or pay a firm a shitload of money to do all the website promoting for you.

Of course try to your best to fill up one day first rather than scatter students throughout multiple days because this drain your gas mileage / fuel economy

Hope that helps.

Hey , I was one of the commenters in that thread

But these days, the web has gotten so much easier to do things like that yourself, and usually it's better than someone that you hire.

Just like in piano, the most difficult and daunting, can be made so simple, when you have the right teacher.

I must disagree with you on this.

Backlinking campaigns and citation / review listings for Google Places and Adwords campaigns plus website design and SEO optimization for the website take up an extremely enormous amount of time if you have never done it yourself.

The research it takes just to get started is enormous as well.

That is , if you want to do it correctly ...

Hi Christopher,
I have my studio in an economy that still is bad. I have my studio placed on many piano directories online, free and subscribed. I maintain my own website through a free webserver with no ads. I have my studio on Yahoo and Google Places.

Do not lower your rates too much. I did that and it did not warrant any rush of new students. Check how the other teachers near your area charge their tuition. Maybe undercut them by $5.00, not $20.00.

If you have the credentials and are part of a music association like MTNA, you should be fine.

Our economy is starting to pick up slowly. I'm still trying to be patient. Hang in there.

I agree! You CAN make your own website, but that is just the beginning. In order for your potential customers to FIND it, you need to research and learn a ton about Google rankings, SEO optimization, backlinks, etc. I created my own website and it is now number one in the organic Google rankings! I get calls every week about new students, just from the website alone.

But rather than spend hours researching HOW to do this, I enrolled with a coaching company called Music Academy Sucess (www.musicacademysuccess.com). I received step-by-step instructions and tons of useful information. I had to pay for the materials... but they were WELL worth the investment. My studio has grown by 400% since I started using the system!

Christopher:


I purchased a grand several years ago with the intention of one day taking up lessons again. I too, live in a rural part of Indiana, and was thinking it would be difficult to even find a teacher. The first day my piano tuner came to tune my new grand, I asked him who he knew around the area. He came up with a list of referrals - and among those the teacher I eventually chose. I've been with her for over three years now.

You might try fostering a relationship with the person who tunes your piano(s), and ask if he/she would be willing to refer you. Also, perhaps there are music stores in town or around that might be willing to vouch for you.

But I think you're on the right track by considering multiple marketing strategies and promotional avenues. Best wishes!