marketing Archives - Music Studio Startup

Episode 013 – Ashley Danyew on Creating and Marketing Online Courses

September 5, 2018

church music, entrepreneurship, increasing income, marketing, online courses, online marketing, Podia, technology

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or wherever you get podcasts! Summary Ashley’s own journey as a church musician led her to start a blog and create resources for others who have found themselves in similar roles. Last year she began to monetize her blog by creating and launching two online courses. In our conversation, Ashley shares…

Using a Sales Funnel for Music Studio Diagnostics

September 3, 2018

advertising, marketing, online marketing, promotion, studio management, systems, time management

If you’re not sure why you’re not getting new students, the sales funnel might be just the diagnostic tool you need. It can show us a lot, including how we can improve our processes to get more students. What is a Sales Funnel? The sales funnel is the path people follow to become customers. At…

Writing a Better Welcome Message

August 27, 2018

branding, communication, customer service, goals, marketing, new students, student experience, student retention, studio management

Last week’s blog post spoke about the tremendous value that comes from communicating well with students and (especially) their families. Today’s blog is an example of how we can practice good communication at the beginning of a new term (or anytime a new student joins our studio), with a strategically-written welcome message! At first glance,…

Episode 011 – Aaron Garner of Piano Marvel on Starting a Software Company When You’re Not a Developer

August 22, 2018

entrepreneurship, goals, marketing, music majors, networking, productivity, systems, technology

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or wherever you get podcasts! Summary Aaron Garner is a piano teacher and champion for innovation in music education. Like other teachers I’ve interviewed, Aaron’s business idea came from an inefficiency he noticed in his piano studio. The solution he came up with led him to raise $600k in…

Episode 009 – Sean Murphy on Managing an In-School Studio of 100+ Students

July 25, 2018

in-school lessons, increasing income, marketing, organization, saxophone teacher, studio management, summer, systems, time management

Summary Sean Murphy is a saxophone teacher who managed to teach 112 students on a weekly basis by teaching in schools, during the school hours. In our interview, Sean shares his scheduling strategies, communication tips, and how he keeps his income up in leaner summer months. Takeaways Starting out Sean’s personal network led him to…

Episode 007 – Tara O’Brien on Manufacturing and Marketing a New Teaching Tool

July 11, 2018

Kickstarter, manufacturing, marketing, Note Match

Summary Today you’re going to hear from a piano teacher who noticed a problem and decided to do something about it. Tara O’Brien tells us the story of how developed a tool called Note Match to help her students learn to read music faster. Tara’s first Note Match prototype was hand-drawn on a piece of…

Episode 005 – Emilee-Mae Feely

June 27, 2018

Facebook groups, marketing, multi-teacher studio, online marketing, startup, travel teaching

Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Summary Emilee-Mae is an entrepreneur and piano teacher. We could have talked for hours about all of the music-related businesses she runs, but we limited our discussion to her travel piano school, Plume Piano. She’s only been running the business for a…

Music Studio Branding Lessons from Magnolia Market

June 25, 2018

branding, customer service, marketing, student experience, student retention, systems

Full disclosure: I have never seen an episode of Fixer Upper and couldn’t tell you much about Chip and Joanna Gaines beyond their names. My sister, however, is a huge fan. When she heard I would be in Waco, TX last week to speak at the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention she insisted I go…

Episode 003 – Regina Ngo on Teacher Development and Accelerated Learning Programs

June 13, 2018

branding, marketing, multi-teacher studio, professional development

Apologies for the scratchy mic noises in this episode! (Still getting the hang of this podcasting thing. 🙂 ) Summary Regina Ngo is the owner of Regina’s Music Studio in South Pasadena, California. In our interview, Regina shares how she went from teaching at a music school to travel teaching to teaching from her home,…

Episode 001 – Tasha Locke on Starting a Studio with No Personal Network

June 6, 2018

AdWords, marketing, online marketing

Summary When Tasha Locke moved from California to Virginia in 2016, she had to start her studio from scratch with no personal or professional network. A daunting undertaking! In this interview, Tasha tells us how she used Google AdWords promote her website and get her first student in only one week and how, less than…

Six Lessons for More Effective Studio Promotion

June 4, 2018

entrepreneurship, marketing, networking, online marketing, perfectionism, promotion, studio management

This post isn’t so much a list of marketing ideas (although there are some of those) as it is a list of studio promotion principals or lessons I’ve learned over the years of promoting my own music studios and other small businesses. If you can’t figure out why your marketing hasn’t gotten any traction or…

Sizing Up the Competition

April 30, 2018

branding, competition, focus, marketing, niche

If you’re trying to start or grow your music studio in a crowded market, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the other teachers and music schools in your area (geographic or virtual). These are your competitors. In this post, I walk through how to do a competitive analysis AND how to use the insights you glean from it…