Question: How can I build up my piano studio (by adding students) in the economic down turn?
In an economic downturn, a family’s budget gets tight. And when a family’s budget gets tight, only the absolute necessities make the cut. So, if you want your piano studio to thrive during an economic downturn the answer is quite simple… make piano lessons a necessity.
But How Do You Make Piano Lessons a Necessity?
It’s all in your marketing! During an economic downturn, piano students are not going to come knocking at your door. You have to go after them! Well, actually, you have to go after the ones who control the money… the piano parents.
Convincing parents to sign their children up for piano lessons, means you are going to have to sell them on the benefits of piano; because as we know, there are plenty of benefits. Parents need to know that piano lessons are something their children can’t live without. They need to know that piano lessons help to develop brain areas used in language and reasoning. They need to know that piano lessons develop creative thinking. They need to know that piano lessons help to develop children who learn to persevere in the face of adversity.
Wow… even as I type I am giving myself a pat on the back for having my own daughter in piano lessons! 🙂
Advertising the Benefits of Piano Lessons
So now your task is quite simple. Put together some effective advertising materials that scream out the benefits of piano lessons, find out where parents congregate, and get that advertising in front of their eyes
Do this and you will find that even in an economic downturn, your piano studio will flourish.
We’re not done yet…
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This information helps student retention as well. The year before the global financial crisis (which of course I had no idea was coming) I included a paragraph or two, or a link to an article, about the many benefits of music education in every edition of my studio newsletter (6 in the year). The following year when the economic downturn struck, many teachers I know were complaining about how many students had left, while I only lost one student and that was due to his heavy workload at school in his final year (and I had been expecting that to happen for some time before the crisis hit).