How to Attract New Students with a Professional Website
Enjoy This Week’s Transcript!
Happy Monday and happy November! This is such a beautiful month and a great time of year to be a studio owner. I love preparing students for holiday recitals. There's always a new excitement around learning challenging holiday music and duets. I hope you all feel ready and prepared for some virtual recitals for your students and if you're looking forward some tips then check out episode 31: How to Host a Virtual Recital Your Students Will Love.
I have a really exciting announcement for you today!
number 2: I have a new product in the works that I'm ecstatic about! It's a brand new course and the focus is teaching you how to create and sell digital music courses so that you can have a passive revenue stream. In this course I show you how to script, produce, edit, design, host, price, and market your music courses! I get questions all of the time from musicians wanting to create courses and I just can't wait to let you inside this course.
If you'd like more information about course creation you can join the course waitlist - just go to teachmusic.online/waitlist to get on the waitlist!
OKAY
Today I'd love to re-motivate you and help you get some fresh ideas for creating a studio website!
To start I want to share 5 reasons why you need a studio website!
Home base for your studio - Your website is a place where students/parents can always come back to find you. Also it's a place where you'll be able to keep updated with pricing, policies, and studio offerings. This is your home base.
Shows how professional you are - In a competitive world of online music teaching you need to stand out! One of the easiest and quickest ways to do this is by showing visually what in incredible music teacher you are. This is done through design, photography, and video which are all going to be a part of your website.
Great place for directories and to send referrals - When others share about you and how amazing you are, they need somewhere to send them! Your website is the best place to prove your amazingness to all of those interested clients out there.
Google search results + Google business link - Your Google Business page needs to lead somewhere. The sooner you get your website going the sooner your website will be indexed by Google so people can start finding your website organically.
Student resources and scheduling - Students need a place where they can schedule lessons and find your studio registration and/or policies. Your website is a way to automate these onboarding procedures which will save you time in the long run.
Next let's talk about website photography:
Photography Guide
Headshot: At a minimum, you need to have a new and updated headshot of yourself, (within the last 5 years) NO EXCUSES! Find a friend with a decent camera, go to a place with some solid backdrops (a brick wall works great) and take some fun pics! Or have them come and take photos of you in your studio (decluttered and professional looking). Please don’t use a smartphone for these photos, that will not do the job.
Studio Images: Clean up your studio, organize all the cables, and snap some photos! Again, the best would be to use a DSLR or Mirrorless camera and reach out to someone who knows how to use the camera. Can you trade them some fresh cookies for their time? Can you pay for them? Whatever you’ve gotta do, let’s make it happen! Make sure your studio looks clean, modern, and has lots of bright natural light. If you have no windows then ask your friend for photography lighting or purchase yourself a ring light on Amazon.
These studio images will show that you are professional, organized, and know-how to present yourself as a business. This is where first impressions begin!
Teaching Images: Get some photos of yourself teaching. The best choice would be to have these done by a professional but use whatever you’ve got access to. Grab your spouse or daughter and have them take some photos of you teaching with their smartphone. Smartphone images are a great start!
More studio and instrumental graphics: This is where you’d have your professional photographer take additional photos! Here are some photo ideas. These photos can be done in your studio if you have a nice studio OR you can borrow a music store or find someone with a nice studio space to borrow!
Photo ideas:
Writing in a notebook
Teaching to your computer screen (posing)
Playing your instrument (big smile on your face)
Playing a duet with another student
With your family
Photos of method books
Writing in the method books
Instrument alone
Hands-on the instrument playing
Doing this yourself is the best way to truly represent your brand. However, I know that not every teacher will have access to this kind of photography immediately. Here are a few websites with free stock imagery that you can use as placeholders while you get your own images.
Website for stock imagery
https://www.pexels.com/search/music/
The last thing we are going to cover is which pages you should build for your website. Inside TMO I share templates for each of these pages to give you a specific outline so you aren't just starting from scratch. I also show you how to build these pages inside Squarespace as well as design them. This along with examples from my site and others makes building your website easy and fun, like it should be!
Okay the pages you need for your site are:
About page
Studio Information
Video demonstration
Home Page
Contact or Book a Lesson Page
Once you have these, you should be set! Good luck and happy teaching!
Please leave a review on iTunes
Please don't forget to review this podcast on iTunes, your reviews mean so much to me! Your reviews also help other teachers find the podcast and know that it's one that can benefit their business as well. Click the link below to review the podcast:
Don't forget to watch my free masterclass!
I'm currently running a marketing masterclass - have you taken this free class yet? Click here to sign up for an upcoming time!