5 Things you can do now to attract more students

I live in Bethlehem, PA, a small city of around 75,000 people at the heart of the Lehigh Valley.  We have a really great arts community here.  It has attracted a lot of really talented people, which is great.  But having all these great musicians makes attracting students competitive.  I’m not an expert, but here are 5 things that you can try that have helped me to attract new students, even in a highly competitive environment….

1.       Advertise the old fashioned way – Hang up flyers in places where your target student is likely to see it.  Libraries, schools, churches, community centers, and music stores are great places to hang signs or put out business cards.  Don’t discount the old methods, they still can work.

2.       Specialize – Go after a niche group.  For me at the Music Institute, it’s Suzuki flute.  I’m specifically trying to attract very young students.  You have to go out of town to find another teacher who is active with the Suzuki Association of America so I’ve set myself apart from other local teachers in this way.

3.       Leverage – What is going on in your area that you could provide coaching for?  Is there an audition coming up?  Maybe there is a musical that young vocalists will be auditioning for, or a scholarship competition for young musicians.  Every year when District Band/Chorus audition materials are announced, I immediately start advertising specifically for audition preparation and I always get at least one if not two or three students this way. 

4.       Get out there – Find places to perform where there will be a lot of potential students then talk to them.  Offer to go to a school and do a workshop with the kids studying your instrument or voice.  Perform at a church then hang around to talk to people after to attract students. 

5.       Get all over the web –Build yourself a website, it doesn’t have to be fancy.  If you have high speed internet, you may already have web space and web building tools available to you.  Get in the Yellow Pages online (prices start at free!).  Get yourself on Craigslist - some people are against it for advertising music lessons, but for some people it is the first place they go whenever they need anything, so don’t miss out.  Get yourself on a teacher listing website.  I just started one of these:  www.lessonspark.com, (which also has other studio management tools).  Don’t be afraid to pay a little bit for some listings, the return will be worth it.  The more places and ways you get yourself listed, the more likely you’ll be to eventually show up at the top of a Google search. But make sure whatever you do, link it back to your own site.  Having your own site creates a sense of an established business.   At the very least your site should include your bio and a way to get in contact with you.  All of my ads direct students to my studio website, so most of my inquiries come from the “contact me” form I have on the site.

The key is to be consistent and methodical about getting your studio out there.  I do a monthly review to see if I need to re-word anything, change or renew an ad, or add a promotion related to some new change in the community music scene.  Persistence pays off!