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In this episode of the Start Teaching Guitar podcast, we’ll be covering how to attract more guitar students. Marketing is one of the most important parts of having a successful business of any kind, so we’ll cover some of the basics and talk about several ideas you can use today to start finding more students.
I go into MUCH greater detail about each item in the podcast, but here’s a rough outline for you:
3-Pronged Approach To Marketing
1) Traditional Marketing
- Newspaper classified ads
- Yellow Pages ad
- Radio ads
- TV ads
- “Slides” in your local movie theater
- Flyers in your local music stores
2) Internet Marketing
- Your own website
- Opt-in email list
- Craigslist
- Online teaching directories
3) Word-of-Mouth Marketing
- Business networking groups
- BBB
- Chamber of Commerce
- Student referral program
- Build your reputation, authority and expertise
Remember to start small, pick a few of these ideas and try them out. Keep what works for you and drop the rest.
If you have any additional marketing ideas that I didn’t mention in this episode, please call in and leave them on the Listener Feedback Hotline or leave a comment below.
Thanks for your support!
Items Mentioned In This Episode:
- 8-Year-Old Guitar Teacher!
- Bluehost website hosting
- Elance.com
- Rentacoder.com
- Aweber opt-in email list hosting
- Craigslist.org
- Findguitarteachers.com
- Getlessonsnow.com
- BNI (Business Networking International)
- Better Business Bureau
- Chamber of Commerce
- “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port
To call in with a question, a comment or to leave feedback for the show, call the Listener Feedback Hotline at (719) 428-5480 and leave a message! I just might include your recorded message in a future episode.
If you have a quick minute, please click here to leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes tremendously! I really appreciate it!
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hello, this will be my first time deciding to start my own guitar business,and I’m terrified. I’ve been playing by ear for about 29 years and can only read your basic
notes. However, I can sit in any jam session and fit right in. But my concern for the moment is I only want to teach kids in the rang of 6 to 10 years old. Why, I feel
more comfortable due to the fact that before retiring as a police officer I ended my last three years in the schools teaching the DARE program.
My question is…is ok for me to teach when I only play by ear.
Hi Timothy,
It’s absolutely OK…you have everything it takes to be a successful guitar teacher! Don’t focus so much on your limitations…focus on all the things you have to offer your potential students, instead.
You probably wouldn’t be a good fit for someone wanting to learn classical guitar or Jazz (since sight reading is a key part of playing those styles of music), but for everyone else, you only need to be a step or two ahead of where they are on the guitar to be able to teach them effectively.
Like I said, you can totally do this. Don’t let any kind of fear or self-limiting beliefs stand in your way!
The Aweber opt-in email list hosting is a great tip! I’ll be investing into this very soon! There were some great tips on the podcast. One site that has also helped me with bringing in students is privatelessons.com. Great job and I look forward to the next one!
Thanks for the tip, Don! I really do love Aweber…it beats out every other email list service I’ve ever tried and it’s so easy to use.