Simpedia

Kat M., California

Just want to share some things I’ve learned the past few months that I hope may help you in your journey with growing your student base. I am a newer teacher and just started really pursuing the possibility of doing this full time. Here are a few things I did to spread the word.

1. Message friends/family on FB/IG or send text messages!!! You never know who needs your piano lessons! I’ve gotten so many messages back saying that they’ve been wanting lessons and they’re glad I reached out to them.
2. Reach out to the owners of your local dance studios/arts studios and see if they can feature your offer in their newsletters.
3. Go to meetup.com – I looked for family groups in my area and messaged the leaders of the family groups. I have gotten feedback from a few and one of them sent out my info to her email list of about 600 families!
4. Look for family/arts oriented FB groups and message the admin to see if you can provide value (your free class offer!) to their group.
5. check the Charter Schools in your area. Most Charter Schools will allow you to become a vendor (after you complete the required screening process) for their school and the charter schools will actually pay for the student’s piano lessons!
6. Check your senior groups in the area. As of yesterday, I just officially became a part of a Senior network in a couple different cities in my area and they’re advertising my free class offer as a part of their Health and Wellness program, believing that music is a great way to keep Seniors healthy!

What kind of results am I getting from this? Well it is slowly but surely building the awareness that I teach piano! So far I’ve had about 50 students try (some are just about to start) my free 4 class offer, 30 students finished so far and out of the 30, I’ve had 9 sign up officially last month and at least about 4 more this month are wanting to sign up as well. Out of the 30 that finished, counting the 4 that are still about to sign up, that’s almost a 50% retention rate! Of course, I have no clue how this compares to everyone’s experience but I am very happy with the growth I’ve had as a business woman, as a piano teacher and also as a pianist because I’ve been practicing more now than I ever have before since I started teaching!

Also, everyone that hasn’t signed up, are for reasons that didn’t really reflect my quality of teaching. Most of them have expressed how they’ve loved the method and the way I teach but can’t continue because of financial concerns (laid off, furloughed), or they actually had deaths in their families (I have 2 trial students whose grandma died of COVID 😞), or they took my free class as a substitute while waiting for their regular teacher to start in person classes again. I’ve had testimonials from these students who have a regular teacher saying how they love the simply music method more than what they’ve been taught by their regular teacher but because they just want in person classes more, they’re going back to their regular teacher instead of continuing with me online. And all of them have been so thankful that I’m offering something like this that has so much value especially during this time.

I hope this helps and gives you ideas on how to grow and reach more potential students! It’s definitely a lot of work… I’ve been teaching a LOT FOR FREE!!! But, I think it’s worth it and I’m loving the growth and the process more than the results. 🙂

Stephen R., California

Having an ad on Google and Yelp also works wonders!

I have free listings! I’m not paying to advertise.