I am starting teaching and hoping to find some beginner and/or advanced beginner students.

I was planning on putting out 10,000 8 1/2 by 11 flyers each week in my newspaper's Sunday papers over an 8 week period. (total of 80,000 flyers) The flyers are simple with a direct message inviting people to experience "the joy" of learning to play the piano, and also offering a free lesson.

I wondered if anyone has ever done flyer ads of a similiar nature, and if so, what percentage response did you get?

Based on what I read about this advertising I would hope to get about 1/4 of one percent phone calls from the flyer and 1/14 of those as students which would be around 14 new students. Can anyone comment on this?

I know word of mouth is the best, but I just moved here and don't really know many people yet.

I have never tried it, but depending on the demand in your area I would think that it would be a very effective way of advertising. I have heard with flyer adds that people have to see an add an average of three times before they phone, so I would recommend sending them out more than once. But it seems like a very professional way of advertising.

Yes-I appreciate your thoughts about this. I think I am going to try it.

Karen, I have no idea what your local paper charges for this, but ours is very, very expensive. I have found want ads as very inefficient. Few people read the paper any more. Depending upon costs, you might look at direct mailing for an area of a couple mile radius around your studio. Even that's relatively expensive. It's also possible to request a mailing list of students enrolled in public school (at least their addresses) so you can target mailings to the appropriate age level.

Finally, you might try hiring some teens to deliver a flyer to homes in your immediate area.

John, I agree with you about classified adds in newspapers, but I would consider a flyer delivered with a newspaper quite different from a want add. Direct mailing might reach more people though. Definitely worth looking at the cost of each.

This might be more effective than the flyer in the paper. I know that I don't even look at the fliers in my local paper; I just toss them in the recycle bin.

Although you'd have to wait until school started, I think one of the most effective ways to advertise is to send flyers home from school. Especially with younger students, parents are looking through their kids' folders/backpacks daily for homework etc. and would see the flyer.

Or, just send letters to school music teachers with your contact info and background - they are always getting inquiries from parents about private piano lessons.



Elaine

I was just going to suggest this! Get to knwo the musci teachrs in your area, especially in the elementary schools. You may even want to call them up or meet with them, but that may not be easy to do. But once people get to know your name in the community, it really helps. Also, you may be able to post flyers with phone number tabs at local music stores, so get to know your local music dealer as well.

Get your listing going on some of the music teacher directories with your profile, photo, info etc. Get a website going with one if possible. 1) Learning Musician 2) Lesson Portal 3) Click for Lessons there are several to choose from. Then get some business cards telling people to "Google" your name. if you are already on the internet with articles, postings, etc. I priced "Coffee News" for a 13 week period and found it very desirable but not affordable for my small business. It might be affordable for others as everyone seems to read the local publications and they are available everywhere. Doing things in person really helps, get out and meet the people, however that is possible in your area. And maybe join MTNA via a California chapter? Good luck. Let us know how you are doing! Hope this gives you a few ideas.

I don't *ever* look at the fliers in my local paper either, yet, it was through a newspaper flyer that I found my tax accountant.

I would be interested in knowing what the approximate cost of inserting a flyer in a local newspaper might be. Certainly, the best time of year to do that is the beginning of September. It might be money less well spent if it were done during the summer months.

Regards,

Karen

I have had very good luck with fliers in the past, but I delivered them door to door. I didnt do nearly as many as you are thinking about and I got several students from this. I think it's a great idea.

Good luck!!

Many printing places will even do up door hanger flyers for door to door delivery. Also depending on your budget and how many students you want to recruit, the business card magnets are great. They stick to metal doors and tend to hang around houses longer than flyers.

You know, Stephanie, that might be a gold mine. The magnetic stickers. If you could get the schools in your area to place them in welcome packages for 1st graders, or give them to local "Welcome to our community" groups that hand out welcome packages.

The cost for flyers in the paper is around $250 per 10,000. If I did it I would use stiff paper. Our newspaper does not usually have flyers of this nature in it; the advertising consists mainly of newspaper thickness advertisements in classified format. So they would probably get noticed. The magnet idea is really cool, and I agree it seems like they would stick around awhile. Another idea I thought of is to attend a local festival and have a little table with a music poster/flyer there and something to take home about a free lesson ....and my phone number....Okay...this will be more fun than my first career....

An even faster way to deliver the flyers would be to hire teens . . . who rollerblade!

Diane,
Blues/Jazz/Rock/Boogie Piano Teacher

Here, we have actual flyer delivery services who will go door to door and distribute. When I checked into it once the cost started at about 250.00 and went up from there depending on how many flyers you wanted delivered. I see these people all over the place and I get flyers myself all the time on my door.

I've done the flier-in-the-newspaper idea. The cost was similar to what was mentioned above but I had to have the fliers already printed (an additional cost), then I had to take them to the newspaper. And I think it's more like 10% response. Yes, it's pricey but I look at it like this: if one person signs up and stays for the year, it's paid for itself. And if more students sign up, that's where you make your money.

I've only done fliers once. I like it better than putting an actual ad in the newspaper because newspapers are throw-away material, and the chance of someone seeing a flier is much better than a small ad in the paper.

For the same price as quoted above, you could do direct mail advertising. It's good to try a few things and see what works. The key is to get your name out there in a variety of ways so that people will remember your name.

***I'm trying something new in the next few weeks: I will be part of a TV informercial that features various local businesses. It's a 2-minute spot that's part of a 30-minute program. It will run several times a week. Cost is $400 a month for a 3-month committment.

karenabcde - $250/10,000 sheets is an excellent price, IMHO. What you might consider doing is going in with two or three other teachers who live in other parts of town and come up with a joint flyer featuring the three or four of you as piano teachers. There may be other music teachers who would be interested. For example, at Tuesday's teacher's meeting, a new string and voice teacher introduced themselves. They would be prime candidates for joining you and sharing advertizing expenses.

D3 - thanks for the feedback. It's nice to have some verification of whether an idea is practical or not.

Oh-the $250 per 10,000 flyers includes the art work. All I have to do is give them my draft and they will put it into printable form at the newspaper art department.

Teens who rollerblade!!!
So what list company has a list of houses with children in it?

If you look in the Yellow Pages under 'Mailing Lists', you'll find several nationwide companies. You give them the zip codes you want to target, the age range (say, 0-10 or 0-18), minimum income (say 40K), and homeowner or apartment dwellers. The cost is per 1000 names/addresses.

Nice, dumdumdiddle.
Thank you for the info.

Nice, dumdumdiddle.
Thank you for the info.

I am currently looking for a teacher, and I found quite a few postings for teachers on Craigs List. Just google "craigs list" and your city and it should come up. There is a section under "Services" called "Lessons" which is where the various lessons are posted.

I haven't found a teacher yet, but I have a few interviews coming up.

karenabcde - your idea of flyers in the paper has been been germinating in my noggin for a while. I finally down-loaded the rate sheet and called our local paper to confirm I was calculating it correctly. The Sunday paper is $350/10,000. $340/10,000 for the other days. Circulation is 42,000. So you can see it would cost roughly $1,470, and that doesn't include printing costs.

However, sitting at the local teachers meeting, it occurred to me that six or eight of us could go together and get the price way down. We've got a new violin teacher, a new voice teacher, and then by adding four piano teachers, from each side of town so we're not competing geographically, we could probably get the total cost down to a manageable figure.

Thansk again for the idea. If I can talk them into it, I will report on how it comes out.

John-This seems like a very scientific approach!

I can't see spending that much for flyers in the newspaper. (unless you went in with a group of teachers like John suggests) Especially the Sunday paper, which is full of inserts that I usually just toss without looking at.

Parents who want their children to study music are a very specialized group. Location is also very important, so if you do flyers, I would do something door-to-door or direct mail in just one part of town. I've been very successful in a private school in town too. Parents who see an importance in putting their children in private school are usually the ones who also want music lessons for their children (and will help them to succeed in music) Students usually have a back-to-school night, and maybe you could get on their agenda?

Stanny, excellent idea. At some point, we'll have to summarize all these ideas and put them on a web page for future reference.

Thanks, John

Our school district has an annual art show at each building. A few years ago, I called the art teacher and offered to have a few of my students play "backround music" at the show. I put a stack of my business cards on top of the piano, and got 4 new students from it. It was a good performance opportunity for my students too.

Another great idea :3hearts:

Why not start a thread asking how students found their piano teacher?
Here's my story:
1) Asked around town....however, all the teachers that were recommended taught primarily classical and/or advanced students. I'm an adult beginner & interested in jazz and new age.
2) Visited music stores for names of instructors
3) Did a web search

End result: Found current teacher from his web site.