the piano teacher`s ultimate facebook guide

Transcription

THE PIANO TEACHER’S
ULTIMATE FACEBOOK GUIDE
YOUR STEP-BY-STEP MANUAL FOR BUILDING YOUR REPUTATION, SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT
YOUR STUDIO , AND PREDICTABLY ATTRACTING NEW STUDENTS ON FACEBOOK
By
Daniel Patterson
G ROW Y OUR M USI C S TUDIO . COM
C ONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 4
My Story ...................................................................................................................................... 5
What You Will Learn In This Guide ............................................................................................. 8
A Brief History of Online Marketing (And What It Means For You) ........................................... 9
A Two-Minute Crash Course in Marketing ............................................................................... 10
PART I – FACEBOOK BASICS .......................................................................................................... 12
Why You Need To Set Up A Facebook Business Page .............................................................. 12
5 Easy Steps To Creating Your Own Facebook Business Page .................................................. 13
EdgeRank: Facebook’s Secret Algorithim ................................................................................. 13
Your Secret Weapon for Mastering Facebook.......................................................................... 15
The “Tell Your Story” Strategy .................................................................................................. 15
A Beautiful End Result............................................................................................................... 19
Will Parents Mind If I Use These Pictures? ........................................................................... 19
What About Other Types of Posts? ...................................................................................... 20
Bonus Tips: ............................................................................................................................ 20
Next Actions .............................................................................................................................. 25
PART II – GETTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE… FOR FREE! .......................................... 26
How To Get Control Of Your Future ......................................................................................... 26
Introduction to The Master List of Tactics ................................................................................ 26
Create A Pinned Post ................................................................................................................ 27
Cross-Promotion To Local Groups ............................................................................................ 27
But! But! What Do I SAAAAAY!?!?!? ......................................................................................... 29
Captain Obvious Strikes Again! (Another Reminder To USE Your Page) .................................. 30
The 3-Minute Email That Will Get You Instant Likes ................................................................ 31
A Super Cheap Way To Get In Front of 1000’s of People Fast ................................................. 31
Craigslist Creeps Begone! ......................................................................................................... 32
Forums and Groups: What You Need to Do ............................................................................. 32
www.GrowYourMusicStudio.com
© Daniel Patterson , 2016
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Aggressive Friendliness: Your New Facebook Strategy ............................................................ 33
Don’t Miss An Opportunity To Show Off! ................................................................................. 33
Set Up Your Facebook Button ................................................................................................... 34
Landing Pages: The Front Door Of Your Web Site .................................................................... 35
Don’t Miss These Important Updates ....................................................................................... 37
Time to Take Action! ................................................................................................................. 38
PART III – PAID TRAFFIC FROM FACEBOOK ADS ........................................................................... 39
Expanding Your Reach .............................................................................................................. 39
The Megaphone Strategy: Your Story Goes Big ........................................................................ 40
Facebook Ads: Step-By-Step ..................................................................................................... 40
How To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck on Facebook ......................................................... 41
Who To Target .......................................................................................................................... 42
Tips For Studios With Small Budgets ........................................................................................ 45
Facebook Ads For $1 Dollar Per Day (Or More, If you Want) ................................................... 45
The Lazy Teacher’s Ad Strategy ................................................................................................ 47
How To Monitor Your Ads ........................................................................................................ 48
STRATEGY #2 – The “Likes” Strategy ........................................................................................ 49
Final Thoughts ........................................................................................................................... 50
AFTERWORD ................................................................................................................................. 51
Appendix A .................................................................................................................................... 53
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I NTRODUCTION
Facebook is the world’s largest social media site. And,
it can be a gold mine for a piano teacher – if you know
how to use it.
In this guide, I will reveal to you my “start to finish”
Facebook system.
 You will learn the very best way to use your
Facebook page to build value with current and
new customers
 You will learn a dozen of my best free Studio promotion strategies.
 And, I will give you a crash course in getting started on Facebook ads for $1 a day.
Pro-actively attracting new students is the key to a strong and healthy studio. Five years of
experience has shown this to be true. A strong flow of leads benefits the private teacher and
music school alike:
1. The most obvious benefits is that you can grow your studio to whatever size you want
2. For those who have smaller studios, you can RAISE YOUR RATES and earn more without
increasing your teaching load
3. Higher rates will help you attract and keep a higher quality student. Thus, you increase
the QUALITY of your lessons and your own job satisfaction
If none of these benefits interest you, then I would suggest putting this guide down right now.
Otherwise, let’s keep going!
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M Y S TORY
Before we begin, I will tell you how I came to know what you are about to learn.
I began teaching right before Thanksgiving of 2004. I was naïve. I thought that I would put the
word out in local home school groups and that I would instantly have a full studio.
I told several close friends that my goal was to have “40 students by Christmas”.
Ah, youth.
I didn’t grow as quickly as I wanted (or needed). Nine months later I had about 15 students and
I started looking into advertising my piano studio. I already had a Web site, but nobody came to
it.
After looking into all my options, I decided to run a postcard mailer in fall of 2005. I paid close
to $4,000 to send a series of postcards to 3,000 houses in my ZIP code. At the age of 23, I
thought that was an astronomical amount of money.
I ended up getting 15 phone calls from those postcards and eight brand new students. Over the
next year those eight students would refer 5 more students to me. I used that extra student
money to pay down that credit card over the next six months.
The campaign worked… I had doubled my income by the summer of next year (just 9 months
later). I ran another postcard campaign in 2006 to a different ZIP code. By the beginning of
2007, I doubled my income again. I was seeing over 50 students a week. My only problem was
trying to fit in all the students who were contacting me!
Now… here’s the funny part. In two years time, I spent $8000 in advertising. I considered it a
success when I had 30 people contact me out of 6,000 people. My records show that over the
course of those two years, I had close to 60 people contact me total. This was my total number
of contacts due to advertising and word of mouth.
Fast forward to the present.
OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS (FROM FALL OF 2013 TO FALL OF 2015),
15,000 PEOPLE IN MY AREA HAVE SEEN MY ADS MULTIPLE TIMES.
I did this for a fraction of the cost of using traditional postcard marketing. My online advertising
efforts have resulted in 100 contacts per year. This doesn’t include phone calls and other
unique marketing angles I’ve taken.
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When you actually cost out those two methods (as I have below in the chart), you begin to see
the power of using online advertising platforms.
Here’s the bottom line:
The traditional marketing was NOT as effective as using online advertising platforms such as
Facebook. Total costs for online ads were a tiny fraction of traditional print advertisements.
More people saw my advertisements… and they saw them MULTIPLE times.
I was also able to more precisely measure my exact “Cost per Lead”.
I’ve included a screenshot of the results of just one of my Web lead generation forms. This is
connected to my online ad campaigns:
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Facebook was a BIG part of that online advertising push. I drive traffic from Facebook to my
Web site. Once on my Web site, many people reach out to me me through my Web site’s
contact form.
W HAT Y OU W ILL L EARN I N T HIS G UIDE
This guide is broken into three sections. Think of it as beginner, intermediate, and advanced
strategies. Also, you could think of it as moving from free to paid strategies.
A small studio of 15-25 students could use only the strategies in parts one and two and be set
for life. Larger studios and music schools will need to use the strategies in part three.
In the first part, you will learn:
 mistakes that 99% of piano teachers make when using Facebook – and how to avoid them
 how to set up your own Facebook page so parents can find you in a Google search
 the “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner” strategy for getting your families to share your
page over and over again
 the simple technique that a tiny fraction of piano teachers use on their Facebook page that
instantly boosts their credibility as a piano teacher
In the second part, you will learn:
 the #1 thing that you MUST do that will 10x your chances of getting a student through your
Facebook page – fewer than 1% of teachers use this strategy
 how to use Facebook to get FREE traffic to your Web site or Facebook page
 how to use your Facebook page to stimulate word of mouth (the most TRUSTED and least
“salesy” form of advertising)
In part three, you will learn:
 how to know when to start using Facebook’s ad platform
 why you should NEVER use the “Boost post” button on your Facebook page (you might as well
light a stack of $20s on fire)
 a tutorial on how to use Facebook’s ad platform (you can get going in less than an hour)
 how to make a great Facebook ad that makes parents want to sign their kids up for lessons
Let’s begin!
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A B RIEF H ISTORY
OF
O NLINE M ARKETING (A ND W HAT I T M EANS F OR Y OU )
Online marketing is a game-changer. The benefits to entrepreneurs and our economy are
innumerable. However, the greatest benefit has been for the little guy – people like you and
me. People who own a small business.
Why?
Digital marketing has lowered a new business’ barriers to entry into the marketplace.
DIGITAL MARKETING HAS DRAMATICALLY LOWERED THE COSTS OF
ADVERTISING.
This has leveled the playing field. It will allow little guys like us to get a bigger bite of the apple.
It makes it possible for forward-thinking music entrepreneurs to build a business that would
have been impossible to build 30 years ago.
How?
The first business’ that used the Internet to advertise had a distinct advantage. They had very
little competition online. This meant they paid very little to advertise online. Thus, they
absolutely cleaned the clocks of their competition. Their costs were lower and their profit
margins were higher.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Profitable businesses have seen their
advertising rates increase 3x, 5x, 10x, or 20x over the past fifteen years.
That has NOT been as true for those who teach piano. Our industry’s online advertising rates
have risen much slower than other industries.
Why?
Few people are taking advantage of these tools in our industry!!!
Lack of participation has kept bid prices low on music-related keywords and ad spaces.
THIS OFFERS A HUGE OPPORTUNITY FOR ENTERPRISING TEACHERS AND
MUSIC SCHOOLS THAT WANT TO GROW.
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Are you serious about growing your private teaching practice or launching a music school? You
can do so for a fraction of the cost that it would take someone to launch a business with a
similar profit margin.
On top of that, we have the distinct advantage of being an educational business. Parents are
actively looking for opportunities for their children. This means that there are tactics we can
use for low cost or no cost that cannot be used by other businesses.
Does this excite you? Is your mind already racing with possibilities? Are you experiencing a
mindset shift?
A T WO -M INUTE C RASH C OURSE
IN
M ARKETING
One last thing before you start attracting new students through Facebook.
There are several mindsets you must adopt if you want to grow your studio. I have written
about these in depth on my blog, but I will give you a two-minute version here.
1> Your #1 marketing goal is to get people to DO something – to take some sort of action. We are
not trying to “get our name out there.” We are not trying to get people to remember us. We
are not trying to entertain people. These strategies might work for big companies like Apple or
Coca-Cola. They are not as effective for those of us with smaller budgets.
2> If our goal is for our customer to take action, then we must do something that inspires that
action. If we want to train a new generation of children to learn and love the keyboard, we are
going to have to inspire parents to assume a completely different vision of their child’s future.
This is no small task! Everyone hates marketing. Yet, no parent on earth will tune you out when
you paint a picture of happier, brighter future because of music.
3> Therefore, our chief tool in marketing is not clever catchphrases or boring information – it is
the power of storytelling. Whenever I receive a new contact for piano, I make a phone call to
that parent. Within five minutes, most parents aren’t just sold on joining my studio. They are
transfixed and stimulated by a new and exciting vision of what music can and will be for their
child.
There are many books out there on marketing.
There are even books and blog posts written specifically for piano teachers. These books are full
of general advice. (“Have a Facebook page! Make business cards! Have a nice picture of
yourself on your Facebook page!”).
To my knowledge, piano teachers have very few resources that link how you teach and how you
tell the world about your teaching studio or music school.
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These are not separate topics! They are inextricably connected. When you capture the power,
mystery, and beauty of music within the stories you tell to the parents of your prospective
students, you will attract the best families to your studio.
This guide isn’t just another tactical manual on how to “find more students.”
This guide is about creating a system that elevates your studio and teaching in the minds of
your customers. It is about creating a powerful reputation.
Does your studio suffer from the usual problems?
Late tuition? Lack of practice? Constant cancellations? Sports a priority over music?
Watch these problems MAGICALLY disappear when you attract families that have bought into
your vision. Enjoy working with families make lessons with you a priority.
It begins with the stories you tell.
THAT is marketing.
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PART I – FACEBOOK BASICS
The most important part of my job is to get you outside of your
comfort zone.

Eben Pagan, digital marketer
I believe that every piano teacher should have a Web site and a Facebook page.
Both are essential. However, if I were to coach a teacher on where to begin, I would suggest
starting with a Facebook page.
It is far easier to set up than a Web site. It is easier to use and update. It exists in a place 95% of
your customers already are. It can perform almost all the functions that a Web site can.
There are a few drawbacks… but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.
W HY Y OU N EED T O S ET U P A F ACEBOOK B USINESS P AGE
The employees of Facebook have one
goal. It is to make Facebook a fun and
exciting place for people to visit.
They are doing a great job… Over 70%
of their user base returns at least
once a day. And almost all those users
return several times a day.
To keep things neat, they created
several different types of Facebook
pages.
You have your personal Facebook profile. There are also Facebook pages (meant for businesses
and brands). There are also Facebook groups (meant for communities).
Facebook HQ does not want you using your personal page for commercial purposes. Overtly
advertising your business could result in a temporary account suspension. Multiple infractions
could result in a permanent profile deletion.
Now, the odds of that happening are somewhat low. But why take the chance?
On top of that, by only using your personal page, you are missing out on several great features.
So, don’t cut corners. Make a business page.
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5 E ASY S TEPS T O C REATING Y OUR O WN F ACEBOOK B USINESS P AGE
How do you make a business page?
I am aware that many teachers and music schools already have one.
If you don’t, Facebook has a handy tutorial. Several great marketing blogs have created detailed
guides, as well.
Check the links below. It takes less than 20 minutes to get set up.
Facebook’s Official Page Creation checklist
Hubspot’s 5 Step FB Page checklist (with “how-to” videos!)
E DGE R ANK : F ACEBOOK ’ S S ECRET A LGORITHIM
Now that you’ve learned HOW to set up a Facebook page, let’s learn how it works.
Most people have over 500 friends. What would happen if each friend posted one picture, one
status update, or one link each day? Looking through your Facebook feed would be a daunting
task.
Well, as it turns out, most people post about three new pieces of content on Facebook each
day. That’s an average. This doesn’t include the posts from all of the groups, Pages, and games
that we like. Or that annoying friend from high school that posts 20 times a day about politics.
As Facebook’s user base grew, they needed to find a way to make Facebook more relevant and
fun for you! Remember, Facebook’s job is to keep you coming back to their site.
Facebook engineers built an algorithim called EdgeRank. I’m oversimplifying here, but
EdgeRank does two things:
1.
2.
It watches how you surf Facebook
It watches how other people interact with everything you put on Facebook
With that information, Facebook prioritizes what you like.
If you frequently comment on your best friend’s page or tag them in pictures… Facebook learns
this. It will begin to prioritize your best friend. You will see a disproportionate number of her
posts in your Newsfeed. You will see content from Facebook pages and groups in which you are
a frequent participant.
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Conversely, Facebook watches every photo, status update, and video you upload. Facebook
finds patterns in the people that interact with that content. It shows them to those who are
closest to you.
Have you ever posted something on Facebook that gets a lot of likes, comments, and shares
quickly? EdgeRank assumes that this is something that many people would like to see. So, when
I posted the birth announcement of our son, it attracted a lot of attention. EdgeRank then
began showing it to everyone on my friends list. It got over 200 likes out of the 600 friends I
have on Facebook.
Pretty fascinating. It is useful, too.
Why?
All these rules apply to your Facebook business page, as well!
What does this mean for piano teachers and music school owners?
What we put on Facebook needs to be of high value and quality. Keep in mind… It’s social
media. Facebook’s original intent was for its users to show what they were doing.
So, that’s exactly what you are going to do. You are going to show current parents and potential
prospects what is going on in your teaching studio.
The great news is that I’ve found a strategy that fulfills several important marketing criteria:
1. Must gather likes and shares
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2. In an organic way
3. That adds REAL value to both current and future customers
4. All while telling your studio’s story
Y OUR S ECRET W EAPON
FOR
M ASTERING F ACEBOOK
What is important to parents? What is important to you? What is important to your students?
Teachers and music school owners have to make a choice when promoting their studio. You
can focus on yourself, on your business, or on your students and their families.
I BELIEVE IT IS BEST TO FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMERS.
People are self-interested. We have to cut through their “boredom filters.” Attention is a
currency these days. You have to earn their focus and interest.
How do we do this?
Is there something that happens in the life of your teaching practice that is worth a
celebration? Something that naturally lends itself to sharing on Facebook? Something visual
and momentous?
I submit that there is!
There are few things more exciting than when a student passes a book or when a new student
begins lessons!
Here is the strategy, start to finish.
T HE “T ELL Y OUR S TORY ” S TRATEGY
S T E P 1 . When a student passes a book, take their picture! Have them hold up their new books
proudly. Big smiles are a must. Also, you could take a snapshot whenever a new student begins.
Take a look below at several of the pictures I’ve posted recently on my own studio Facebook
page.
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S T E P 2 . Once you’ve taken the picture, take a few moments to make it look professional. I’ve
experimented with a lot of apps. I’ve found several apps that stand above the crowd.
Currently, I use an app called VSCO Cam
to touch up the photos. It allows me to
apply a bright and cheerful filter (the C2
filter). I then import the pictures into
another app called Typic Pro, where I
add the text.
You might already have a favorite photo
editing app. Do you have an eye for
design and color? Play around with the
settings until you discover something
you love. This is part of your studio’s
story – have fun with it. Put your own personal touch, care, and creativity into each picture.
If I were you, I would avoid some of the obvious filters that come with Instagram and Facebook.
Try to use filters that won’t draw attention to the picture… You want to draw attention to the
student!
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S T E P 3 . Once you’ve finished editing the photos, upload them to Facebook. Write a special
and unique note on the status update. Talk about their personality or something funny they’ve
said recently. One time, I asked a 12 year old what her favorite song was. She didn’t hesitate.
She immediately said: “Livin’ on a Prayer.” I had to laugh. Bon Jovi wrote that song 20 years
before she was born! I immediately knew that was going on her next picture post.
Here’s a good example with a short note that I wrote at the top of the post:
And another example for when a student passed a book:
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That post got tremendous reach because a family member shared this post on their own page.
So, 1,711 people unconnected to me OR my Studio saw this post. I received two inquiries for
lessons based on this post in November.
P R O T I P : For highest engagement levels (remember: this is important for EdgeRank), you
want to upload the photos at times that are most likely to result in a like or comment on your
photos.
According to the site Social Media Examiner, this is around 11:30am or 7pm on weekdays. Also,
they recommend 10am on Saturday mornings. The best days of the week for engagement are
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Thursday and Friday. New posts get 17% more engagement on average. In general, you want to
avoid weekends after Saturday morning.
A B EAUTIFUL E ND R ESULT
After just several months of picture taking, your Facebook page will look quite impressive.
Professional writers and film-makers know that it is better to show than tell. How fortunate
that we are using Facebook – a medium that lends itself to visuals – to tell our Studio’s story!
Imagine what the parents of a potential student will think when they see these posts! This is
the kind of image you want to project. You will gain instant credibility as a teacher.
Don’t forget… other studios think advertising is distributing boring facts about their rates,
policies, and location. You stand out when you create a story worth talking about.
Here’s another benefit. What sort of image does this project to everyone else in your Studio?
For students who get through a book quickly, I write how many weeks it took them to pass the
book. Most of my students get through their books “ahead of schedule” (according to Randall
Faber’s definition of the “average time” it takes a student to get through a level).
Parents see other kids are getting through their books quickly. It sets an expectation. It
normalizes a faster completion time.
It also builds a sense of community in your Studio. Parents of your students begin to see this
activity as different. More weighty. More important. Parents don’t see this kind of effort or care
from other music teachers.
They also don’t see this kind of effort and care put into other activities in their child’s life.
Dance, sports, academics… no one else is highlighting their children’s efforts and participation
quite as personally.
Don’t underestimate the subtle impact these images and stories have on the subconscious
mind.
W I L L P AR EN TS M I ND I F I U S E T H ES E P I C TU RE S ?
Is it OK to post pictures of children without parental permission.
Uh… of course not!
For legal and ethical reasons, you should always ask before you doing something like this.
This is why I always ask before I post. I’ll send an email asking for permission:
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BryanI meant to ask you something at pickup tonight.
Whenever a student passes their book, I put them on the Wall of Fame
WALL OF FAME <-------- click here to see it
However, I ask parents before I do it the first time.
Are you ok with Ayla getting her own special entry?
Thanks,
Daniel
Almost 100% of the time, parents agree without hesitation.
I believe they say “yes” because that there is an expectation set from the beginning. Part of my
initial marketing efforts to new students is promotion of my Facebook page. When a family
signs up, they often join my Facebook right away. They will see these Facebook posts for
MONTHS before their child passes their first book.
By the time I send them this email, it seems completely normal to say “yes.”
W H A T A B OU T O THE R T YPE S OF P OS TS ?
I am ambivalent on posting “cutesy” images or funny music memes. I’ve tried both. They just
DO NOT get the kind of engagement that a “student focus” will. That content might be better
suited for your personal Facebook page.
B ON US T I PS :
Would you really like to supercharge this strategy?
You’ve put in a lot of time to create these beautiful photos. You should get the maximum
benefit from your creativity!
Here are several more things that I do with this strategy.
N AME Y OUR F AC E BOOK W ALL
The Brazilian intellectual Paulo Freire suggested that naming things made them more powerful.
Naming could change the future of a person, an organization, a culture, or a country.
Therefore, when I first used this strategy several years ago, I began to refer to my Facebook
page as “my Student Success Page.”
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I used that term only in conversations with parents or new families. I used it with students. I
wanted all them to realize this was something special. This wasn’t just another person “oversharing on social media.” It is a momentous and special occasion when a child passes a book!
I guess there’s no way of knowing just how influential or persuasive this tactic has been. But,
I’ve had more than one parent refer to my Facebook page as my Student Success Page over the
past few years.
Naming is powerful.
B OOS T Y OUR C R E AT I VIT Y T O T HE M AX
The popular blog Teach Piano Today recognizes the power of this strategy, as well!
They recently wrote a post that will appeal to super-creative types.
They suggest creating “photo props” for children to hold up when you take their picture.
I would add that this works especially well for small studios. Studios with 10-20 children won’t
have enough “book pass” posts to keep your page busy and active.
By highlighting other celebratory moments, you add loads of value to your Facebook page.
D ON ’ T M IS S T HE L I TT LE O PPORT UN IT IE S ! G ET P AREN TS E N G AGE D
When you post a student’s success on your page, there is no better time to ask a parent to
share your page.
After posting, I write a quick email to a parent that contains a link to the post.
At the end of the email, I make a casual suggestion. I tell parents to “like” the post, write a
comment, and share it on their own personal pages.
Many parents do exactly that. I start receiving comments on the post from family members and
friends. Several times I’ve seen someone ask “Who is your piano teacher?”
There’s another example below. This post reached 1,071 people in just a few days. It gathered a
total of 65 likes, comments, and shares. A big part of that “Reach” statistic was people who saw
it due to the share.
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I N F ACT … Y OU S H OULD B E U S IN G T HI S A S P ART O F ALL Y OUR M ARK ET ING
Are you familiar with the concept of “social proof”?
I learned of it in Professor Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. In the
book, he identified six psychological triggers that motivate people to take an action.
One of those triggers is “social proof”.
Picture this. You are driving across country – perhaps on vacation or going to visit relatives.
Around dinner time, you stop in a small town. There are two restaurants on either side of the
road. They are both “mom and pop” businesses – not a chain restaurant.
Both are clean, attractive buildings. Both restaurants have menus that are equally agreeable to
you.
However, one of the parking lots is completely full, while the other only has a few cars in it.
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Which restaurant do you choose? Which restaurant
do you think most people would choose? Which
restaurant has better food?
This is social proof.
Most of my new prospects contact me through a
form on my Web site. I reply with a specific,
persuasive message that I spent over a year testing
and refining. It motivates families to bring their child
in for an interview.
In that email, I refer to my current students and how
quickly they are getting through their books. I invite
people to look at my Student Success Page and
include a link. Almost everyone clicks through (there
are simple ways to measure this).
Seeing dozens of pictures of smiling kids will instantly
set you apart as a teacher. To them, you are now a creative, competent teacher. They respect
you more. They view your Studio as special. They no longer view you as a replaceable
commodity – no different than any other music teacher.
And, according to Robert Cialdini, all of this happened without a conscious thought. It occurred
in the subconscious mind. Far more powerful.
This creates better relationships with your new families, as well. You earned respect by telling a
powerful story with your Facebook page and Web site. You demonstrated value with emails,
phone calls, and in-person interactions. This attracts the best kind of students. Because you
project an air of authority, you will repel cheap-skates and problem parents.
It is almost like magic.
H OW T O W IN F RI EN DS
AND
F ACE BOOK F OLLOWE RS
When a new student commits to signing up, I look up their parents on Facebook. I add them as
a friend on my personal Facebook profile.
When I scroll through my Newsfeed each day, I estimate that at least 50% of what I see is
negative. More in an election year.
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I use Facebook to post interesting articles about world events, science, and education. I also
post bizarre and funny items from the Onion, Boing Boing, or Reddit. I try to keep things “light.”
Of course, I post pictures of my family, as well.
As you post positive and uplifting content each day, you begin to stand out from the crowd. I
frequently see parents of students commenting and liking things I post.
Of course, I return the favor, as well! I see often pictures of my piano lesson kids during the
week. I will comment on these posts. It also gives me something to talk about with my students
when they come in for their weekly lesson.
This humanizes you and makes you closer with parents. It’s another way to increase your
likability with the families in your studio.
P R O T I P : Uncomfortable sharing all the details about your life? Do you find it necessary to
frequently post your political opinions? Or, perhaps you would just like to limit what your
families see on your page?
If so, do what I have done. I have created a “list” called
“Piano”. All my piano families get put on this list. I
determine what photo albums and status updates they can
see.
To create a new list:
1. Scroll down to Friends on the left side of your News
Feed. Hover over Friends and click More.
2. Click Create List.
3. Enter a name for your list and the names of friends
you’d like to add. Keep in mind you can add or remove friends from your lists at any
time.
4. Click Create.
It’s as simple as that! Add people to this list as you add new friends.
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N EXT A CTIONS
A major university conducted a study on successful business people who made more than
$250k per year. They looked for commonalities between all the people being studied.
They only found one common trait.
Successful people were “quick doers”. They were not necessarily the smartest people. They
weren’t quick learners.
The most successful people quickly created new habits and processes in their life when they
learned new information.
I would challenge you to be a quick doer. Don’t just let this guide be your intellectual
entertainment. What I’ve taught here works. I’ve used these strategies for quite a long time
now.
You can use them, too. Here’s what you need to do now:
 CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE
 INVITE PARENTS TO BE YOUR FRIEND ON FACEBOOK
 INVITE FAMILIES THROUGH EMAIL TO “LIKE” YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE
 GET PERMISSION TO USE STUDENT PICTURES
 DOWNLOAD PHOTO APPS THAT MAKE YOUR POSTS LOOK GREAT
 CONSISTENTLY POST POSITIVE EVENTS TO YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE
 ASK PARENTS TO “LIKE” AND “SHARE” YOUR POSTS
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PART II – GETTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR FACEBOOK
PAGE… FOR FREE!
“The world is full of obvious things, which nobody by chance
ever observes.” – Sherlock Holmes
H OW T O G ET C ONTROL O F Y OUR F UTURE
What would happen if you didn’t have to rely on word of mouth, luck, local music teachers,
store managers, or anyone else?
When a teacher gains control of their flow of new leads, they gain control of their future.
As I mentioned, I went from receiving an average of a few dozen total requests for lessons per
year to 200 from the Internet alone. I have since scaled it back to about 100 requests per year
as I am usually full to capacity.
During those five years, my hourly rate jumped to about 3x the average of other teachers in my
city. In addition, I also gained the confidence to demand better output from my students. I
began firing students that didn’t practice. I even began telling families this in my initial
conversation with them.
I could not have done any of this without the certainty that I could maintain my student load!
You can do the same.
I NTRODUCTION
TO
T HE M ASTER L IST
OF
T ACTICS
Getting more leads is the key. That is where these traffic strategies will come in handy. The rest
of this section will be a list of tactics that you can use to get more requests for piano lessons.
There is one caveat. Don’t just look for the “quick fix.”
Would you wait until one week before semester exams to learn a Schubert Intermezzo or Liszt
Etude? You might pull it off (poorly, I’m sure). It certainly isn’t a long-term strategy to get
through music school!
Similarly, random tactics don’t work as well when separated from a coherent strategy.
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The strategy in the first 20 pages of this guide is your “home base.” You must create something
worth promoting before you begin promoting!
Let’s get going:
C REATE A P INNED P OST
On your Facebook page, you have the
availability to create a post that always
stays at the top of your Newsfeed. It’s called
a “pinned post.”
I will use the pinned post to feature a
student performance. Sometimes I use it to
for an important announcement.
It could be used just as easily to display an
inviting message to a new prospect that has
come to your page.
In this post, you could put a link to the
contact form on your Web site. You could
link to a landing page.
You could even ask the visitor to leave a
comment on the post if they would like to
come in for an evaluation lesson.
C ROSS -P ROMOTION T O L OCAL G ROUPS
Go to your browser and open Facebook right now.
I’m serious.
A year ago, I purchased a $100 tool that searches Facebook for advertising opportunities. It has
the ability to check 100’s of interests per second. It finds low-cost opportunities.
While doing that search, I found an interesting opportunity that cost nothing to implement.
In almost every city, county, township, or metropolitan area there are DOZENS of “online
garage sale” groups. There are at least a dozen of these types of groups that focus on my
suburb alone.
Many of these groups have 5,000+ members. Two of them have over 20,000+ members.
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I compiled a list of the admins of these pages. I created a polite form letter asking for
permission to create a post for my piano lessons.
This is a message that I sent to Charla, an administrator of a garage sale group in my area:
I was able to send dozens of these in less than an hour. Almost all said yes.
I was able to get my piano Studio in front of THOUSANDS of people in less than a day with this
tactic. For free!
For someone with a small studio, this might be the only tactic you need to double your yearly
new inquiries.
For a larger studio, this is something that you could assign to a receptionist or assistant. Have
them send the form letter. Task them with making and uploading the post (with your final
approval on the language in the post). In just a few hours, you could have a dozen new
inquiries. Do this once a month, and you’ve just added 144 new inquiries for the year.
Now, I give myself a B+ on the message that I sent to Charla. What could I have done better?
Including a link to my Facebook page in the message to Charla! When I started doing that,
about 20% of those admins liked my Facebook page. These people are typically well-connected
“go-get-em” types. More word of mouth.
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B UT ! B UT ! W HAT D O I SAAAAAY!?!?!?
I recommend an attractive graphic… again, keep it simple. Use a picture from your Facebook
strategy.
In big bold letters, write a message that will appeal to your target demographic… moms in their
30s and 40s. I’m being purposefully vague here. You should talk to the moms of students who
you consider to be “model” students. Ask them these questions:
1Why did you sign up for lessons?
2What else were you considering?
3Why did you choose piano? Specifically, why did you choose me (if they were
shopping around)?
4What was your biggest fear when signing up your child? Did you have any
reservations about signing up for lessons… if so, what were they?
Of those questions, number 4 is the most important. The answer to that question is the “angle”
you should use when making your picture post.
Anyway, along with the picture, you should include text in your post. Something along these
lines will work just fine:
I asked Charla if it would be ok to post this here… she said go for it!
I run Indianapolis’ largest private music studio. Each week over 80 kids
come to learn music from me. Over the past 10 years, I’ve discovered
something that won’t come as a shock to the parents here…
Kids love things that feel easy!
I run a unique music program. Unlike most teachers, I make learning
piano feel easy for kids. Most of the students in my studio are able to play
their favorite songs within a very short time after beginning – Disney
songs, Taylor Swift, One Direction, and music from Star Wars.
If you have an energetic, artistic, or sensitive child… take a look at my
Facebook page / Web site. Simply CONTACT ME here, through Facebook
messenger, or on my Web site. Unlike after-school activities, I make
scheduling a breeze for parents.
A post like this is effective. It does many things that subtly persuade parents to contact me:
1. Instant credibility by mentioning the size of my studio.
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2. It takes a perceived weakness (children being lazy) and turns it into a strength.
3. I differentiate myself from other teachers. I show authority by suggesting that my music
program is different from “traditional” lessons (it is, by the way. You can’t lie. People sniff
out lies very well).
4. I target the kind of child I’m looking for: “artistic, sensitive, energetic.” As a bonus, I am
subtly complimenting kids who are like that – using complimentary terms.
5. I instruct parents to CONTACT ME. This is crucial. People are lazy. You have to tell them
what to do. Don’t underestimate just how powerful it can be to tell people EXACTLY what to
do.
6. I close by reminding parents that most other activities in their children’s lives are a huge
hassle. Coaches scheduling last minute practices. Rain outs. Band practices getting moved.
Impromptu parent-teacher conferences. NOPE. That doesn’t happen here. We are
convenient.
This goes without saying, but you should do this same thing to other local groups. Mom groups.
School support groups. Any group that is community focused is fair game provided you ask
permission first!
As I mentioned before… you could get a lot of mileage on just this tactic alone.
But we are just getting started.
C APTAIN O BVIOUS S TRIKES A GAIN ! (A NOTHER R EMINDER T O USE Y OUR
P AGE )
Most of my new student inquiries come by email through my Web site.
When I reply, I include several links to my Facebook page in the reply. In that email, I reference
that my students have a lot of fun in their lessons. I then put a link that says “CLICK HERE” and it
goes to my Facebook page.
At the end of the email, I include a P.S. that says “Look what students have accomplished
recently!” and then a link to my Faebook page.
About 50% of the time, those people like my Facebook page. Not everyone that contacts me
signs up. But, they liked my Facebook page because I instructed them to. This means that they
are getting all my status updates after that point.
I’ve had people contact me many months later and sign up. Some never sign up but remain a
fan of my page for years… they will even click “like” on my student update posts! These people
have even referred new students to my studio.
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One other cool trick…
Whenever you go to a fan page, Facebook will show you if
any of your friends already like that page. For example,
this is the page for my church. It shows me that 78 of my
friends like this page.
Can you imagine the powerful effect it has on someone to
come to your Studio’s Facebook page and see that 5, 10,
or even 20 of their friends already like your page? This is
why collecting likes can be such a powerful tool for
increasing your credibility.
Trust is the most powerful marketing imaginable.
What happens when display authority and credibility
before they’ve even met you or read your reviews online?
You’ve won the game before it’s even begun.
Because of that…
T HE 3-M INUTE E MAIL T HAT W ILL G ET Y OU I NSTANT L IKES
You should tell new families in your Studio to “Like” your Facebook page.
Now, I rarely recommend asking for “Likes.” It is frowned upon by experts in the social media
marketing community. It just looks desperate.
However, this is one of those exceptions that proves the rule.
A S UPER C HEAP W AY T O G ET I N F RONT
OF
1000’ S
OF
P EOPLE F AST
If you live in the suburbs (like me), there are thousands of kids within miles of your house.
They all live in neat little suburban row houses. Each of these subdivisions contain hundreds of
homes. Most subdivisions are usually governed by a homeowner’s association (HOA).
Most of these HOA’s create a digital or printed newsletter that is sent to every house in the
subdivision. Many newsletters will sell a sponsorship in their newsletter to cover the costs of
the mailing. This is an easy way to get in front of 100’s of families for a fraction of the cost it
would take to mail to them on your own dime. Some HOA’s will sell a sponsorship for $50 for a
subdivision with 300 homes!
To find an opportunity like this, go to Google and type in:
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“homeowner’s association [your city name]”
Or
“residential management [your city name]”
You’ll get a list of many of the management companies in your area. Start going to their Web
sites and filling out contact forms with a simple message like this:
Good afternoon!
I’m a local piano teacher who is trying to get the word out about my
piano studio!
I know that many HOA’s print newsletters for their subdivisions or send
email updates.
I was wondering if you would allow a teacher like me to sponsor one of
your newsletters!
It would be a simple description of my piano lessons with a link to my
Facebook page / Web site.
I do hope that we could partner together!
Very best,
[your name]
What a great use of 30 minutes! You could send out dozens of emails and likely have 2 or 3
positive responses within 24 hours. This will get your Studio Web site or Facebook page in front
of thousands of people dirt cheap… FAST!
C RAIGSLIST C REEPS B EGONE !
Many teachers post their lesson opportunity on Craigslist. Both the “online garage sale” and
“HOA” advice is like that tactic.
However, these two tactics eliminate one of the drawbacks of posting your lessons to Craigslist.
You don’t get the typical Craigslist creeps and scammers contacting you. The beauty of using
Facebook is that you get to see people’s profiles. You can screen people that you get a bad
feeling about.
F ORUMS
AND
G ROUPS : W HAT Y OU N EED
TO
DO
OK, I don’t want to be rude, but this next one is so obvious I almost didn’t include it.
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Do you participate in any local forums, Facebook groups, or social clubs?
If you do, make sure that you have a link to your Facebook page or Web site in your forum
“signature.”
Or, in your email signature.
A GGRESSIVE F RIENDLINESS : Y OUR N EW F ACEBOOK S TRATEGY
People have varying philosophies on how to use Facebook. Some people (like my lovely wife)
are intensely private. They require written applications and references before allowing
someone to become a Facebook friend.
Others will add people they met once at a party three years ago.
Well, if you tend towards remaining privacy, I’m going to make a bold suggestion. We are
business owners so we must set aside our personal preferences. I recommend that you become
aggressively friendly on Facebook.
Add anyone and everyone you know – from your neighborhood, your church, your garden club,
your book club, the local MOPS group, and definitely all the local business leaders (Civic League
members, insurance salesmen, etc.)
Now, I don’t recommend giving up your privacy. Use the “list” technique from part I of this
guide. Whenever you add someone, put them on this more “restrictive” list.
About once or twice a month, share a post from your business page onto your personal page.
Everyone will see it – including all these local people. Facebook is allowing you to advertise for
FREE to these people. It’s truly an awesome thing.
D ON ’ T M ISS A N O PPORTUNITY T O S HOW O FF !
Do you host recitals? Have your students go to Festival, ABSRM, or RCM assessments? Do your
students perform at talent shows at school? Do you arrange for students to play at local nursing
homes?
If so, don’t miss a big opportunity to get your studio page in front of a lot of people.
While at these performances, take a lot of photos.
When you get back home, upload them all. Send an email to the parents of the students
involved. Encourage them to tag photos and even tag relatives in the comments.
When they tag these photos, it pushes these photos to their walls and their friends’ News
Feeds. Instant free advertising.
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Even better, these pictures say more about your students and your studio than a dozen pages
of boring information about how piano lessons increases students’ IQ’s.
S ET U P Y OUR F ACEBOOK B UTTON
If you don’t have a Web site, it can be difficult to encourage people to contact you.
Facebook has a “contact me” button.
Go to your Facebook page:
Once you click on the button, it is very simple to set it up:
Simply choose the “contact us” button and place a link to your Web site’s contact form.
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If you don’t have a contact form or Web site, simply choose a different button. I would
recommend the “Send Message” button… it will encourage someone to send you an inquiry
through Facebook messenger.
L ANDING P AGES : T HE F RONT D OOR O F Y OUR W EB S ITE
A landing page is a special page that is designed for the sole purpose of getting someone to
enter their email address or contact you.
At the beginning of this guide, I mentioned that over 200 people contact per year through my
Web site alone. All of those people contacted me through the form on one of my landing pages.
This is what it looks like:
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Page 36
If you have a Web site, you can set up a page just like this.
If you do this, you can supercharge ANY of the strategies that I’ve given to you here.
For instance, the first tactic I mentioned was creating a pinned post on your Facebook business
page. You could create a nice “call to action” at the end of that post with a link to this page.
Any parent checking out your page could click on the link and come to this page and enter their
details!
D ON ’ T M ISS T HESE I MPORTANT U PDATES
Here’s your final marketing tip.
I am a marketing nerd.
Visit my blog throughout each month. I post new strategies and ideas all the time.
Bookmark my blog here:
GrowYourMusicStudio.com  Click here now to visit and bookmark!
Or, follow me on Twitter.
www.twitter.com/GrowMusicStudio  Click here now to visit and follow!
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T IME
TO
T AKE A CTION !
I’ve given you many tactics in this section.
Don’t forget to actually use them! Smart people learn… Successful people DO.
Consider printing this page out and keeping it in your Studio. It will move you to action.
Here’s your checklist:
 CREATE A PINNED POST
 PROMOTE YOUR PAGE TO LOCAL GROUPS
 INVITE NEW PROSPECTS TO "LIKE" YOUR PAGE
 ASK ALL NEW FAMILIES TO "LIKE" YOUR PAGE
 LOOK FOR CHEAP ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES IN LOCAL
NEWSLETTERS OR PAPERS
 UPDATE YOUR FORUM AND EMAIL SIGNATURES
 "FRIEND" ALL NEW ACQUAINTANCES AND CONTACTS
 TAG FAMILIES IN ALL FACEBOOK POSTS FOR INSTANT VISIBILITY
 SET UP THE FACEBOOK "CONTACT" BUTTON
 CREATE A LANDING PAGE ON YOUR WEB SITE
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PART III – PAID TRAFFIC FROM FACEBOOK ADS
“An idea is a dream. Execution is a business.”
E XPA NDING Y OUR R EACH
How many requests do you need
per year to keep your Studio
full?
My private studio hovers
between 90 to 100 students with
max capacity of about 100. Like
any teacher, I experience
turnover. Thus, I need to find at
least 25 new students a year.
a
I have worked with other music schools as a consultant. They need a lot more leads. For a music
school with 200 or 300 students and multiple teachers, they need a lot more leads each year.
As your need for leads increases, you need to expand the number of places you advertise.
For a small studio, free methods will keep your studio full. This is especially true if you are
conscientious about projecting a positive, student-focused image. A picture is worth a thousand
words. Fill your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) with positive pictures of
students succeeding. This will instantly elevate you above 90% of piano teachers out there.
If you have a large studio, that is only a starting point. You should consider investing in paid
advertising. With a steady stream of leads coming in, you will soon be able to raise your rates.
If you are serious about getting started in paid advertising, there are two places you must
begin:
1. Facebook Ad Network
2. Google AdWords
I recommend starting with Facebook ads, because you can get started for as little as $1 per day.
Only then do I recommend going to Google AdWords. It is difficult to get traction on AdWords
spending less than $100/ month. In major cities, you might have to spend $200+ per month to
get started.
Page 39
For the purposes of this guide, I’m going to confine my comments to Facebook ads.
If you do have an interest in learning about AdWords or getting personalized advice, check
Appendix A.
T HE M EGAPHONE S TRATEGY : Y OUR S TORY G OES B IG
By now, you know that advertising a business a like ours is like telling a story. For most of this
guide, we have talked about telling your story. You are telling that story to your current
families. You are demonstrating your value and showing that your students are successful.
You are also telling that story to new families. You get the word out in Facebook groups. You
have completely optimized your Facebook page. You have call to action buttons, pinned posts,
and links to your Web site contact form.
If this is true, it is time to step up your game. It’s time to use Facebook ads.
You need to realize something though.
WHEN WE USE FACEBOOK ADS, WE ARE SIMPLY TELLING YOUR STORY
AGAIN – BUT THIS TIME WITH A MEGAPHONE.
There is nothing fundamentally different about what we are doing. It’s just that we are paying
to get in front of more people.
This is a critical idea to keep in mind. Studios and music schools waste thousands a year on
advertising because they misunderstand this point.
If you are simply advertising clever slogans or just vomiting out a bunch of boring information,
you are wasting your money!
F ACEBOOK A DS : S TEP -B Y -S TEP
First thing… you’re going to want to set up a Facebook ads account. You can go to the link
below and click “Create Ad”. This is the simplest way to set up an ads account.
www.facebook.com/Business
In this guide, I’m going to show you how to run Facebook ads as inexpensively as possible.
Therefore, if you are just starting out, I have a warning for you.
NEVER hit the Boost Post button while on your Facebook page. You might as well light a stack of
$20 bills on fire.
Page 40
Why?
When you click boost post, Facebook
automatically displays your ad to anyone in
your immediate geographic area. They will
show it to anyone: teens, dads, single baristas
at Starbucks, empty nesters, etc.
Get the picture? This is no good for us.
We have crafted a story that speaks to parents.
Specifically, we have crafted a story for moms.
We want to show that story to moms.
If you are already familiar with Facebook ads,
you know where I’m going with this.
If not, you are in for a real treat.
You see, Facebook allows you to specifically target certain people.
H OW T O G ET T HE M OST B ANG F OR Y OUR B UCK
ON
F ACEBOOK
In this example, I’m going to create an
ad that shows off a successful student
with her new books.
We start out by clicking on the main
Facebook menu on our News Feed.
Choose “Create Ads.”
This will load the Facebook Ad
Manager.
When you create ad on Facebook, you
choose an objective. The objective
could be to boost a post, promote your
page, or send people to your Web site.
Today, I’m going to choose Page Post
Engagement.
Once, I’ve selected my objective… I move forward to the Audience definition screen.
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This is where you are going to save a lot of money if you know what you are doing.
When you start out, Facebook pre-selects an audience in the country in which you are located.
As you can see, my potential audience is 186 million people.
We have a lot of options to tighten up this targeting.
W HO T O T ARGET
Quite simply, we are targeting moms who are active on Facebook.
I’m going to show you the end result below, and then I’m going to tell you how I did it:
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Here’s how I narrowed it down:
1. In the Location box, I selected five ZIP codes in an affluent suburb in metro D.C.
2. Below that, I selected that we will target women between the ages of 24-50.
Already, we have narrowed things down considerably… but we are going to get more specific!
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3. In the “detailed targeting” box, we can narrow down our audience by dozens of factors. These
include income, job description, owning vs renting a home… even what kind of car a person
drives! Play around in this section and see all the ways that you can narrow or expand your
audience.
For our purposes, we are going to the “Family” tab and select that we only want to show our ad
to parents. Facebook will only show your ad to people who have indicated that they have
children.
4. Finally, we are going to click “Save This Audience” and title our Audience “Local Moms.”
What’s the result? We’ve narrowed our audience down to 1,600 people.
Now, there are many other combinations and demographic factors that we can use to expand
that audience if we want to get in front of more people. Remember, Facebook is showing this
to women who have volunteered the information that they have children.
It’s fair to assume that most people don’t volunteer that info (either for privacy concerns or
they were just in a rush when they first set up their profile).
So, we could take out the “Parents” designation. When that happens our audience jumps up
considerably!
What could we put in its place?
Watch this…. Go to the Connections Tab and select these options:
When you select these options, you will target every mom between the age of 24-50 who is a
friend of someone who already likes your Facebook page that lives in the ZIP codes you
selected (I’m out of breath just typing that sentence).
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If you have a Facebook page even with 100 connections, this could potentially connect you to
1,000-3,000 moms right away (depending on the density of the area you live in).
This is an incredibly effective strategy.
One more idea… If you want to target moms, go to the “Detailed Targeting” box and begin
typing in everything you can think of that moms would “Like” if they had kids:
You will find that your audience jumps up considerably.
T IPS F OR S TUDIOS W ITH S MALL B UDGETS
1. If you are on a small budget, you might want to minimize your audience to 2,000 people
or lower. If you are operating a regional music school, you will likely want an audience
size of 10,000 or more.
Remember, the more people you target the more expensive it will be to reach them all.
2. Is this a bit creepy? Is this wrong?
I have no qualms about using this tool. I take the attitude that I’m offering a high-quality
music education to kids. I would be doing a disservice to my community to not let
everyone know that I’m here.
On top of that, I’m not going to be filling their News Feed with giant ads that SELL SELL
SELL! I’m showing them what kids in their community have accomplished in their music
lessons. Can you get much more positive than that?!?!?
This will be a welcome change from the usual hate, politics, and disasters that are foisted upon
us by Facebook and our friends.
F ACEBOOK A DS F OR $1 D OLLAR P ER D AY (O R M ORE , I F
YOU
W ANT )
Now we have to decide how much to spend.
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If you are a small studio, you can choose to go as low as a dollar a day and run one of your page
posts continuously.
If you are a music school owner, you are should plan on a much bigger budget.
If you are starting out, here are the settings I recommend you choose:
A few notes:
1.
You can choose a daily or lifetime budget. You can also choose to run the ad
continuously or to set a definite start and end date (even down to the exact hour to
start and end your ad!).
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2.
3.
4.
For Ad Optimization, I recommend using “Daily Unique Reach.” This will prioritize
showing as many unique people as possible… instead of showing your ad to the same
people multiple times. For larger budgets, I recommend the “Page Post Engagement” or
“Impressions” option. This will show your ad to people multiple times.
Bid Amount, Ad Scheduling, and Delivery Type are a little more advanced… I don’t
recommend worrying about this until you’ve used Facebook ads for a while. To
summarize: these options can really help to keep costs down for people with large
budgets. It’s not necessary for small timers who are only spending a little bit on
Facebook each month.
We’re almost done! Click the “Next” button because going to make our last few
selections.
T HE L AZY T EACHER ’ S A D S TRATEGY
So far, this entire process has been fairly easy. We are merely getting more eyeballs on the
Facebook page strategy that we normally use.
On this page we are going to select where our posts are seen.
This is what the page will look like:
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A few things:
1. We are going to select an existing page post. If you don’t see this option, it is because you
didn’t select “Boost Post / Page Post Engagement” on the very first screen.
In the left column, we will choose the page post you would like to feature. You can scroll back
several years in the list! When I do run ads, I always choose one of the most recent posts.
2. The right column shows us what our sponsored post will look like to someone else. We can
choose to run the ad in three different places:
a. Desktop News Feed
b. Mobile News Feed
c. Desktop Right Column
This is just a fancy way of saying that we are either going to show it on mobile phones or
laptop / desktop computers.
3. I recommend REMOVING the right column ads. The right column ads consistently underperform
News Feed ads. They are less expensive – but people ignore these ad types. Also, the whole
point of this strategy is for our pictures to gather attention. It is will be difficult to tell our story
when the pictures are shrunk down to the size of a postage stamp!
4. One last note… Mobile ads are the most expensive ad type. More and more people are looking
at Facebook through the Facebook app… not on their computers. Thus, it’s more expensive. If
you are budget conscious, you might consider removing the mobile ads type. However, to reach
the greatest number of people possible, you will want to use mobile ads. It’s up to you.
5. You’re done! Click “Place Order.” The success screen will pop up.
H OW T O M ONITOR Y OUR A DS
Once you place your order, you can view how the ad is doing by going to the Ad Manager.
Below is an example of what the ad manager looked like for an ad I ran in November. This was
an ad with mediocre performance:
A couple notes:
1. My ad was shown to about 1,100 people. This cost roughly $12.
2. That might seem expensive, but I used mobile targeting. Additionally, I live in a reasonably wellto-do suburb. I specifically targeted families that make over $150,000 per year. By targeting
Page 48
that higher income demographic, I entered into a more expensive bidding category. If you live
in a rural area, it will likely not be as expensive to reach 1,000 people. It all balances out.
3. My ad received a total of 12 likes, shares, engagements,
and comments. These were from people who were not
connected to my Studio. Twelve different people had a
positive experience with my Studio.
What was my ROI? I take the long view of this. The way I
see it, if I get one student through Facebook all year… that
student is worth $x,xxx dollars to me for one year worth
of lessons. As long as I spend LESS than that amount, I
have paid for my investment.
The truth is that I spend a small fraction of what I earn from students that I’ve acquired through
Facebook.
You are not going to get new message or contacts every single time you run an ad. However,
if you consistently run Success posts to the same audience over and over again… you will begin
to reap rewards over time.
STRATEGY #2 – T HE “L IKES ” S TRATEGY
My goal has been to get you started with Facebook ads. The strategy I’ve divulged on the past
few pages is the best way to get started.
There is an entirely different strategy that you can take with your Facebook campaign. In the
interest of time, I will only speak briefly about it. Many of the technical details are the same.
Over the past few pages, I’ve suggested that you promote individual posts and wait for people
to message you through Facebook or your Web site.
An alternate strategy would be the “Likes” strategy. In this strategy, you don’t promote your
posts. Rather, you promote your page. You are inviting moms to join your Studio page.
I’ve done both… One doesn’t vastly outperform the other. However, there are several benefits
that I can see:
1. Once those moms join your page, they are “yours.” You no longer have to pay to show
them your posts. Those posts will now naturally show up in their news feed. This is more
efficient.
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2. Which page do you think looks more credible… one with 100 members or one with 1,000
members? The answer is obvious. If you want more social proof – definitely use this Likes
strategy.
3. The more fans you have the more likely it is that a visitor to your page already KNOWS
someone who likes the page. Facebook points this out to a new visitor. Again – this gives
you instant credibility.
4. Even though Facebook is decreasing the reach for business pages, they are doing that
more for fan pages with 10,000s of fans… not smaller pages for local businesses. This
means that getting someone to join your page will guarantee that the person does see
future posts you make.
My recommendation is that you try it yourself.
F INAL T HOUGHTS
Several years ago, I got my start in Facebook ads by paying several hundred dollars to take an
online video course. In the past few years, I’ve spent $1000’s on Facebook ads on my own
personal studio as well as consulting for other local businesses (other music studios, as well as
non-music businesses).
That experience is invaluable. Doing is better than knowing.
My best recommendation for you is to GET STARTED NOW.
I’ve barely scratched the surface here.
There are additional ad strategies, including creating original graphics and inciting people to
sign up directly from the Facebook news feed. These require a more skillful touch.
If you would like additional information on advanced strategies, check Appendix A.
Page 50
AFTERWORD
“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture.
It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”
—SENECA, ROMAN PHILOSOPHER, MID-FIRST CENTURY AD
I’d like to briefly summarize what was discussed in this guide:
In Part I, you learned how to effectively market with integrity. You learned how to use
Facebook and your Web site to tell a story about your studio. You learned how to set up a
Facebook page that adds value to current students and people who are investigating you. You
created a VALUABLE asset by having a unique and unusual strategy for your Facebook page.
In Part II, you learned several ways to get that valuable asset in front of potential customers on
Facebook. These were free or low cost methods.
Not only that, these weren’t just “random tactics” or “helpful tips”… these things were
connected to the strategy we developed in Part I.
In Part III, we learned how to get started with Facebook ads. By paying a little bit of money, we
could extend our reach and get our studio in front of thousands of families in just a few days.
I have a final thought that I would like to share with you.
Do not let this guide just be your intellectual entertainment. If you only put into effect Part I of
this guide… you would be doing better than 90% of the teachers out there. You will attract a
higher quality student, and you will attract more of them. You will stand out. You will even beat
the large Web sites in attracting students (sites such as Thumbtack or TakeLessons).
It will feel scary and unfamiliar at first. You might even feel foolish and uncomfortable. But…
This is exactly how a new piano student feels the first day they come and play in our Studios!
As teachers, we NEED to take the role of the learner again. We need to experience that fear and
frustration. When we put ourselves in that position, we develop greater empathy and
understanding for our students.
By doing this, we become the best person and teacher that we can be.
What a wonderful gift to our students.
Page 51
Page 52
A PPENDIX A
Any teacher or music school owner can take their business
to the next level with Google AdWords or Facebook Ads.
The majority of teachers and music schools do not use
these tools. The forward-thinking teacher can still take
advantage of these platforms to get a leg up on
competition in their areas!
In the near future, many teachers will wish they had taken advantage while rates were still low.
I have many things to teach you about AdWords:
o
o
o
o
o
The #1 factor that will determine whether you make or lose money with AdWords. (It has
nothing to do with what you put in your AdWords account).
Should you pay for “Search Network” or “Display Network”? Objective facts
How everyone (including Google’s own AdWords advisors!!!!!!) try to trick you into
overspending on AdWords – and the 2 minute solution to beat them at their own game
(seriously, I’ve saved $1000s per year because of this simple nugget of information).
The AdWords hack I found in late 2015 that got me clicks that cost 90% less than the average.
(Just this one hack will save me $100+ per month in 2016).
How I build relationships with families over time using an “AdWords Sales Funnel”
If you would like to grow your studio, raise your rates, or unlock a predictable source of new students, I
offer two suggestions now:
1. If you would like additional training for Facebook ads and unique training on AdWords for piano
studios, click the button below and leave a message for me.
Putting this guide together took a lot of time! Before I create another resource, I would like to
make sure there is interest!
2. If you would like a “done for you” solution, you may also contact me by clicking the button. I do
private consulting for music studios and larger music academies.
You can take advantage of my encyclopedic knowledge of the AdWords and Facebook ad
networks.
Do not hesitate! Your next student is waiting to meet you!
CONTACT ME NOW

the piano teacher`s ultimate facebook guide

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