Re-starting guitar teaching business

Where in Norway? It's just that I have some Norwegian contacts (mostly keys, singers, etc., but people who know people, which could help). If you beep me some details - i.e. location within, a link to your myspace, your teaching rates, and contact, I'll put it on facebook and get my Norge friends to promote it on the FB accounts and to tell anyone they know who's looking for lessons.

IMO business is just common sense, and the business gurus make it way too confusing with constantly changing (and often meaningless) jargon. I think effective marketing is as simple as answering just two questions:

1. Who will buy what I do?
2. How can I tell them about me?

Notice how those questions are framed. I didn't say 'who will take lessons' - I asked who will buy. More than half the people who buy lessons from me don't take them themselves... they are parents, grandparents, boyfriends, etc. paying for lessons we give to somebody else.

In the second question I didn't mention advertising, market research, competitive advantage, 'unique selling proposition', or anything else that marketing experts preach. It's not that I don't think these things aren't important - it's just that they are peripheral - they are not the central question to answer. The real core of marketing is simply telling your future customers you exist.

How you respond to those questions depends on your market. When I taught in the heart of a big city I used different advertising methods than I do now. Some of the changes I made were for cultural reasons (people don't read newspaper classified ads as much as they used to), some were for geography (in the city there were lots of apartments, so door-to-door flyer distribution was inexpensive and effective), some were for other reasons - what my competitors were doing, who was influencing decisions, etc. All that stuff is what the marketing experts talk about, but it's not going to deliver a one-size-fits all solution. All you're really doing is getting more polished answers to the two questions. And how you polish them is unique to every situation.

Two more things to keep in mind as you develop a plan:

1. Everything you do is 'marketing'
2. Advertising is only expensive if it doesn't work

By the first, I mean you need to avoid working against yourself. Never promise what you can't deliver. Always make sure your appearance is consistent across all your messages - a punk rocker advertising through a conservative message (or vice versa) will not be effective. If you keep your appearance consistent - in your slogan, your advertising text, your art design, your personal appearance, etc., you will be "building a brand". The easiest way to make sure everything you do is consistent is to make sure it resonates with you - if you sell yourself as you really are, nobody will be disappointed, and you'll get word-of-mouth in the appropriate market.

By the second, I mean you need to track your results. The specific marketing methods I use vary in cost from free to over $1000 per year*. The first time you do something, it's a shot in the dark - you're guessing it might work. The second time, you should have an expectation of how many students you'll get from it, and you'll need to keep track to see if it's working as you expected.

*I'm not suggesting you have to spend $1000 per year. In my current situation I own a school with ten teachers (soon to be more), and my cost per student with the expensive methods isn't high. My initial efforts involved a lot less money and a lot more of my time instead!

At the last music store I taught at before opening my own school the owner tried an ad campaign. A month later I asked him if he was going to do it again. He said no, it was too expensive. I asked him how many students it brought in - and he didn't know! All he focused on was how big a check he wrote for it. But the reality of advertising is that it's an investment - the $500 effort that brings in 20 students is less 'expensive' than the $30 effort that brings in just one. So keep track of how you get your students, and keep doing the things that bring in the most students for the investment. Drop the methods that get the lowest return, even if they look cheaper, and try something else instead.

If you want some advice on your specific market, drop me an e-mail - I'll be happy to share my thoughts and experiences.

Where in Norway? It's just that I have some Norwegian contacts (mostly keys, singers, etc., but people who know people, which could help). If you beep me some details - i.e. location within, a link to your myspace, your teaching rates, and contact, I'll put it on facebook and get my Norge friends to promote it on the FB accounts and to tell anyone they know who's looking for lessons.

Reply!

I am in vestfold, stokke to be exact. I charge 200 kroners per lesson or 1500 for a set of ten lessons. My myspace is http://www.myspace.com/adamnao but is more about my artist music than anything like teaching. However I have a teaching page under development http://www.adamteachesguitar.com . Thanks for the help.

Adam

P.s noteboat, please send me a private message about guitar teaching advertising, it would be a pleasure to read.