Tag Archives: musikgarten marketing

Getting Free Press for your Early Childhood Music Studio

Early Childhood Instruments, Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano Teachers, , , , ,

Last month, we began a children’s music studio marketing series that touched on several ways to attract parents through various low to no-cost marketing tactics, including the value of Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM).

A very effective and no-cost vehicle to generate WOMM is the press release. Editorial publicity is often called “earned” media, and will strengthen a music studios credibility and identity.

However, there is no guarantee that a press release is going to be printed or aired. To increase the chance of being published, keep these things in mind when writing a press release for your early childhood music studio:

  • Make it “Newsworthy” – Most press releases that media outlets receive from businesses are extremely self-serving, and read like any other paid advertisement for that company. Relate your press release to a topic that would be interesting to anyone exposed to that media, so that it is newsworthy. For example, you may want to write about how your children’s music studio is helping to fill the void where public school music programs have had budgets slashed, or how scientific studies show exposure to music help with infants with positive cognitive development.
  • Write it Like an Article – Write the press release from the third person perspective, just as it would be published in the newspaper or online publication. Be sure to cover all of the facts about the topic, answering all of the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions. Editors will often take a well written press release and simply re- publish it verbatim, especially if they are up against a deadline. 
  • Become Your Own Topic Expert – Not only do you want your press release published, but you would also like to have an editor or reporter reach out to you for an interview to add more depth to the topic. Include an informed quote from you on early childhood music learning and be sure to make yourself the Contact person on the press release. Include another quote from a teacher at your music studio or parent of a child student, as “supporting evidence” for your topic.
  • Jazz Up Your Press Release with Visuals – Any advertising or marketing professional will tell you that photos or videos of kids are sure attention grabbers. Provide a good photo of some children having fun in your music studio while learning about music. Better yet, a video is often better for getting the point across, especially to attract broadcast or online media. Just be sure to get permission from each child’s parent with a media consent and release form for minors.
  • Submit your Press Release to the Right Person, and Follow Up – Media and Publication companies typically have several editors/reporters based on different departments, so be sure you are reaching out to the right human being, not just a department. Typically, early childhood music programs fall under the Arts, Education, Hometown News, or Community departments. Reach out to the contact person, and find out the best way to get the press release to them. The contact number on your press release should be one where you can be reached very easily, not to a voicemail box. Reporters have very short deadlines for publication, so it is important that you have quick availability. Finally, once you send the press release to the right person, make a friendly follow up call to see if they received it. That follow up call may just turn into a phone interview!

A well-placed press release can be a beneficial marketing tool of early childhood music studios for many reasons. With advertising, the audience is already skeptical of an articles claims, whereas the media provides third party validation. And while advertising unabashedly says “buy this product,” well placed media says “this is important.” If you write your press release with those things in mind, you may just get some free and valuable publicity for your children’s music studio.

 

Marketing Your Early Childhood Music Program

Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, , ,

Lets Face it. Teachers of early childhood music are not necessarily marketers. Their focus is on inspiring young minds and their adults to love, experience, and learn how to make music. But making a living teaching early childhood music can be a daunting task. Studio owners must not only keep their current music students engaged in learning, they must also keep a steady stream of new students signing up for new classes. When thinking about marketing for early childhood music studios, focusing on parents and parent education is key. The introduction of early music education is almost always initiated by the parents, and in most cases, by the mother.  This conclusion is based on Musikgarten’s thirty plus years of experience in training teachers on how better to market their childhood music studios. Here are a few marketing ideas for early childhood music education programs:

  • Focus on Word of Mouth Marketing – It is often said that Word Of Mouth Marketing, or WOMM, is the most important social media. Mothers always talk to each other about what is going on with their child, and there is no better way to gain new music students than referrals from happy moms. Early childhood music curricula such as those offered at Musikgarten include participation from one or two parents, which creates a social circle within your studio.
  • Offer a Test Drive – For anyone who has ever bought a car, you remember how it felt when you actually sat behind the wheel and drove it. The same can be said for marketing early childhood music education. While a referral can be a powerful marketing tool for your studio, sometimes it takes a little something extra to bring the prospect in the door. Consumers are leery of signing up for a commitment without knowing how they (or their child) will like it, so a no obligation, free first class might be just what you need to nudge them in the door.
  • Combine Both Referral and Complimentary First Class – For music studio marketers, there is a low-cost way to create a program that provides incentive for both the referring parent as well as the new prospect. Simple, complimentary first class cards given to your current music studio parents, serves several purposes. First, by simply having them write their name on cards given out, they provide a means to accurately track which parents provides referrals. Second, they represent a tangible value that acts to remind both referral and parent alike of the complimentary lesson. Simple and low-cost business cards can be printed for this purpose.

Word of mouth is just one very powerful marketing tool for early childhood music studios, but it must be carefully nurtured. We’ve all heard the saying that a bad experience is shared ten times to every once a good experience is shared. It is important to make sure parents are comfortable and pleased with your music studio before asking them for a referral.

In this ongoing series of blog posts, Musikgarten will continue providing more marketing ideas for owners of early childhood music studios. If you would like to receive notification of a new blog post, please contact us by email here.

Marketing your Musikgarten with Out-of-the-box ideas!

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Marketing your Musikgarten classes can be a challenge and sometimes it gets difficult coming up with new, out of the box ideas to try. Sometimes the best person to talk to is another Musikgarten teacher and the Gartenloop is good place to start.

One teacher, Nancy Kubo was graciously willing to share some of her ideas on the forum and agreed to let us reprint a few of them. Here is Nancy in her own words.

I have had a long-running studio program in Seattle with Lorna’s curricula for 30 years now and have a steady enrollment of 170-200 students every year. I have seen the enrollment rise and fall with economic conditions, with the arrival of competitive programs, and with the ups and downs of the birth rate. And advertising methods certainly evolved over the years with the arrival of the Internet.

I’m doing less and less on the internet the last few years, except for presence in three different online parent publication directories. My toddler enrollment in recent years was cut in half due to competition with not only other music programs but also the vast array of activities now available to toddlers.


My current strategy is to imprint the “Musikgarten” name on every parent’s mind in Seattle, so that when they think of toddler activity, or specifically music classes, they think of Musikgarten, just like when you think of tissue you think of “Kleenex”.

Here are some strategies that have worked for me:
1. Yard signs – I use the ones the Musikgarten makes. I got brave and put out 24 signs all around my area of Seattle. I’m kind of shy about it and it’s taken me forever to figure out where they can go without being removed. But now I don’t care, even if they do get removed a week or two later, I got my two weeks of exposure of the name. It only says Musikgarten — I don’t add my phone, and I cut off the musikgarten.org part because I’d rather a parent just Google Musikgarten and my website will come up.


When asked where she puts the signs or if she worries about them getting removed Nancy responds:

OK, where do I put the yard signs: they have to go in dirt/grass. Can’t put at a library, they’ll remove it right away because they can’t support a for-profit business. I do put them at playground corners, even though I shouldn’t, and just hope they stay as long as possible. Also intersections, medians and little traffic circles, but if they are really manicured; I don’t, because some nearby resident probably maintains it.  I look for more neglected, grown over spots, which tells me nobody cares too much. And usually I place at an intersection where drivers have to stop. If they get removed, they are gone. I do not and retrieve the yard signs.


2)  Auction fundraisers – I donate a $200 certificate to about 40 schools every year. Probably less than one third actually get used, but 100s of parents (1000s?) saw my little display and brochure on the auction table when they passed by it at the auction. Each contribution probably costs me about $4 or $5 for the photo printout and brochure and postage.

When asked if the dollar amount of the certificate is more of a draw than a “free semester” or “four weeks of class”, Nancy responds:

The reason I make it a $200 certificate is the parent can jump in anytime during the year for Babies, Toddlers, or Cycles and I don’t expect people to start at the very beginning of a term. This is also a studio grower. The auction organizers want a “value” stated and those three different age groups are different price points for a full term. If they join half way, then it carries over into the next term. But I really don’t give too much attention to all that, of course I’m glad to get certificate redeemers because they usually become steady families. My main reason for doing the auctions is the exposure at the silent auction table. I actually searched on the internet for every private and public school, and preschool in Seattle. Then went to their website to see if they do an auction and asked for the procurement form. I now participate in over 40 auctions. I know $200 is a lot, but I want them to come for at least 12 weeks, to get the feel.

 

3) Sports – I almost forgot to mention sports! I am now a baseball and soccer sponsor! Ugh! If you can’t beat them, join them! So all summer a huge Musikgarten banner hung in two different fields for baseball. Now two banners will hang on two soccer fields and “Musikgarten” will be on one team’s jerseys.

kubo-team-photo

These strategies are ones that my competitors would never do, and therefore really give me an edge over them. Well that’s my recent experience.

And guess what, the toddlers are back!

Out-of-the-box ideas do not work for everyone’s situation. For some areas the marketing tactic that works is heavy internet marketing through Google or Facebook and for other areas a more grass roots effort is a key component.

Do you have out-of-the-box marketing ideas? Share them on this blog or on Gartenloop.

For information on the Gartenloop contact Denise at event@musikgarten.org.

What works and doesn’t work when marketing your Musikgarten classes?

Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano Teachers, , , , , , ,

What works and doesn’t work when marketing your Musikgarten classes?

I need to face a fundamental fact about myself. Although I have been teaching my classes for over twenty years, my weakest skill is marketing my program. Like most teachers, I love teaching, but shudder at the thought of putting myself and my studio out there. Often after dutifully sending out marketing material I throw up my hands and pray for three more students, just three more students.

Here is the good news and the bad news. You will become a better teacher over time and marketing doesn’t get easier.

So what works and what doesn’t work for my studio business? First let’s get the “doesn’t work” out of the way. Doing nothing or wringing my hands and hoping my classes fill up with registrations on their own doesn’t work.  I have learned that to market my classes I needed to step out of my studio and actually tell others about what I do and when I do it.

What has given me the best bang for my buck? Every area is different, but these three basic tactics have given me the largest overall return:

  1. Website: I use the website offered by Musikgarten through AW Technology (makingmusik.com).This service is easy to use, only $14.95 a month, has a modern look, and is mobile device friendly. This is the single most important marketing tool in my box.
  2. Word of Mouth: Creating relationship with my families is very important to me and research shows this will fill your classes more than any other tool. If parents like me and like what I offer there is a good chance they are going to tell their friends about my studio. I highly recommend listening to a podcast produced by Michael Hyatt called,”Do you Want to Wow your Customers”.  I found myself rethinking how I greet my clients as they enter my studio, and how I communicate to them through emails and on the phone.  This podcast has a lot of relevance to how we can grow your business by making it the most awesome music studio in your community.
  3. Brochures: Whether you use the brochures produced by Musikgarten for licensed teachers or create your own, brochures are very valuable. Having this valuable tool in your purse, bag, by your studio door or in your glove compartment is essential. One way I use a brochure is to introduce myself to teachers in local schools. This may sound like cold calling but you need to start somewhere. Most parents will ask their public school teachers for a good “piano teacher” who will teach their three year old. Guess who they will refer if they have your name in their contacts?

Other Tactics to Keep in Mind:

  1. Print ads in your local paper, magazines, or journals: As I mentioned earlier, every area is different. I personally have not had good luck with these, but that does not mean you should not consider or investigate these as an option in your area. Print ads can be expensive, but they may come with some combination of digital ads. You could also consider Musikgarten’s co-op advertising. If you have three or more teachers in your area, advertise together and Musikgarten will partner with you, evenly splitting the cost of the ad between all parties. Contact Bunny at bgodfrey@musikgarten.org for details.

Note: A lot of local papers have event sections for kids that you can be listed in for free. Submit a description, class times and contact info of your program in this section.

  1. Online parent sites: There are many of these sites to explore. It helps to ask families around town what they use to find their activities and that can be an eye opener. Do some research and choose what fits. Other online sites like Macaroni Kid may be an option for you in your community. Network and post on Facebook pages that cater to parents in your community.
  2. Flyers: I still run around town putting these up and I feel so good afterwards, but I will admit I know I do not get more than maybe one or two calls per year. Musikgarten has pre-made flyers that you can easily customize to your studio on the Teacher Extranet. If you want to create your own flyer, I recommend Canva.com. You can use the wonderful pictures and Musikgarten logo available to licensed Musikgarten teachers on the Teacher Extranet and create a professional looking flyer that tells parents what they need to know.
  3. Social Media: I do have a Facebook page for my business, but I follow many other Musikgarten studios that consistently update and advertise via Facebook and I have to admit that I suffer from Facebook envy. Check out The Music Garden, LLC. Keeping content updated is key. You can reference blog posts, promote your classes, share Musikgarten posts from their corporate page or from other sources, and create simple ads. Here is a sample of a quick ad I created for my Facebook page in less than 15 minutes; not perfect, but helps demonstrate what you can create in a small amount of time. An added bonus is that you can add a website link and email this to inquiries as a reminder to sign up for the fall, you can also post this to your Instagram and Twitter account and add it to a flyer with your contact information.

August2016adphoto (2)

  1. Demo Classes: As a veteran teacher I realize this was an important step early on, which brought me good exposure. I offered these classes in my studio and at my local libraries. It gave me a chance to practice my skills on the unsuspected. It also gave me a chance to hand out those nifty licensee brochures mentioned earlier.

For other ideas, check out this blog post from March 2015.

Please know it takes time and patience to bring families to your studio. Also remember that different communities require different combinations of tactics to reach your audience.

After you have chosen your tactics, how can you know which ones work best?  I have created an inquiry list that includes the question, “How did you hear about me”. Start collecting this data when the phone rings. This will give you the best barometer for the most effective tools in your marketing toolbox. Whatever tools you choose remember that you need to assess time and effort versus return.

Tell us how you have grown your Musikgarten studio!