I LOVE the new school year! It’s that time of year where parents want the best, and enroll their kids in ALL the after school activities. Especially music lessons!

If you are thinking about starting your own studio RIGHT NOW IS THE TIME TO ADVERTISE that you are open / will be open for business this school year.

Then get to the presses and start making posters you can display or hand out to interested potential families.

BEST TIPS FOR BUDGET FRIENDLY ADVERTISING:

UTILIZE FREE ADVERTISING BULLETIN BOARDS! There are lots of places you can find a bulletin board. Make sure though that it’s open to anyone to post on first because some bulletins only allow non profit or have requirements to be able to post. Speak with the store manager first. Panera Bread has a bulletin board along with many grocery stores!

UTILIZE LOCAL BUSINESSES! You can also ask local shops or stores if you can display business cards or a poster in their shop. This becomes All FREE to advertise!

FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM ARE YOUR PERSONAL STORE FRONTS! You can make a post on your personal feed or business page and ask your local friends to share your post. And to make sure you stand out in local searches make sure to tag your city so that will show up on the search bar and in local friends posts.

BE THE ONE ALL THE MOMS WANT! Have you joined the local Facebook mom group? MOPS or often times there is just a local mommy group. Moms are ALWAYS asking for recommendations for a music teachers. Be the one that posts and also if you post in there enough, they will start to tag you as, “so and so is a teacher!'' My babysitter is super active on those pages and whenever she sees someone asking she always recommends me so that’s super helpful too! WORD OF MOUTH!

NEIGHBORHOOD ADVERTISING! Gone are the days of putting advertisements in the mailbox, you can still do that but another great idea to advertise, subdivision newsletters or the Facebook Neighborhood Page. Scope out your area and nearby neighborhoods and contact the HOA to see if you can be included in the next neighborhood newsletter or on their group page. There might be a fee, but with a newsletter that has 600 residences or more it might be a worthy investment. Most HOA’s newsletters, are reasonable.

WHAT TO USE FOR ADVERTISING POSTERS: You don’t have to spend major bucks to get your name out there, you just have to be consistent with posting flyers, telling people that you teach lessons while you are at church, or with the groups you are part of or even when you are out and about at the grocery store. Flyers that you post don’t have to be fancy either about your advertisement. Don’t go spend money on a thick poster board or pamphlet at Staples. While they look nice, they cost a pretty penny to make, it’s not really that necessary. Check out my typical poster I’ve used and had great success with when I have to advertise. I love using the little tear away strips, that you pre cut, because you get more use out of your flyer and you can continue to check in on it and see how much interest there is. Check back in a week and if only 1 tab is missing might be time to relocate it. If all the tabs are missing, PUT UP A NEW FLYER!

The best advice is to make your advertising, keeping it simple for you to make over and over again, efficient and to the point and easy for your prospect families to use so that you get your email box filled with prospect students wanting more info and the phones ringing!

Next step is to be prepared for what they are going to be asking you when they call to check your availability.

STARTING YOUR STUDIO SOON? You need to have a studio policy! Once a parent says, “YES! We’d love to start with you!” You need to have a policy in place as a way to protect you and your business and help answer all the questions before they happen. GET YOUR CUSTOMIZABLE PRE-MADE TEMPLATE HERE that covers Tuition Fees, What happens during snow days, Termination Policy, Studio schedule and more!

Be on the lookout! Get more in depth info and strategies like these in my upcoming COMPLETE 12 week course releasing this fall to help you START your studio, BUILD your students, RUN all the internal stuff easily, and MAINTAIN a THRIVING and SUCCESSFUL Private music studio! Be the first to know more by SUBSCRIBING TO OUR LAUNCH EMAIL LIST! Hours and hours have been put into the course and I know it will help make your life easier in setting up your studio and helping it run more efficiently!

Happy Teaching,

xo Becky