Music Teachers: Expand Online

Music Teachers: Expand Online

By Jaime Slutzky

Tangible, actionable and relevant information for music teachers who are expanding online with courses, membership sites, workshops and interactive group programs. Tune in for musings, conversations, ... more
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  1. Number 1: 205: Let's Jumpstart your Online Music Course

    It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.

    19min
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  2. Number 2: 204: On Air Coaching with Ms. April Topic: Expanding the reach of your online courses

    Ready for another On Air Coaching Call? Great, today I have with me Ms. April, a voice, piano and theory teacher from Ontario Canada. I have a great affinity for Canadians because I am one! Although I’ve been living in the USA for my entire adult life! Anyway, let’s get right into the coaching call highlights. In March 2020 (doesn’t that sound like the start of every conversation lately???) April had to quickly shift from in person teaching to online teaching. And once she did, she realized that theory was something that just didn’t translate as well as the other parts of her lessons… which made her go down the course creation path. April’s initial goal was to have her existing students continue with their theory. That's it. Just some courses that her students could use to learn the theory outside of lessons. Using the theory books that she was already teaching, she received permission from the publisher to record herself teaching the material week by week. This is what she sent to her students. It was a solution that worked for her and her students. She received fantastic feedback from parents too! The feedback has led many parents to request that theory continue to be delivered via online courses instead of inside the lessons, whether online or in person! What can you give to your current students in order to make it more successful for them in their own learning? That’s the first place that you can look to create an online course! Now that April knows her courses are successful at teaching theory, she wants to go beyond her private student base… and now we’re getting into the coaching part of the call! She has tried to be present online, on both Facebook and Instagram. She has done some ads, but doesn’t want to be spending a whole lot of money with that without knowing if it’s really helping. She is focusing on trying to get the word out, doing interactive posts, and sharing what she’s offering. She realized that instead of just trying to outright sell her courses when people would inquire, that having a little bit of a conversation with them rather than just trying to sell it to them outright was a much more successful approach. I asked her if she was interested in having a larger group of students go through the theory courses together, rather than independently which piqued her interest, for sure! Which got us talking about launch events (how fun, right?) That could be a challenge, a workshop, a webinar, etc. - or even an email sequence of some kind and get them to buy into your methods and your teaching style through some free introductory outlet. April and I chat about some ways to come up with that free content that is valuable to her audience, as well as ways to incentivize signing up right away. April’s students are kids and therefore it’s really talking with and to the parents that is going to lead to courses being purchased. You could do a webinar for parents - show them how getting their theory through video lessons is going to help their child be more successful, and show them exactly what their child is going to be going through in their online course. Show them that there's THIS potential. And the other way that we determined that April could have more students using her theory courses is to collaborate with and partner with other music teachers who use the same collection of method and theory books. The thought being that if other teachers were not interested in creating their own theory courses, they could send their students to April’s courses and form a partnership with her. This direction is something I really hope April pursues because it’s a winning one for all parties - April, the students and the other teachers. As April continues to explore launch events, she’s going to want to evaluate the benefits of groups or cohorts going through a theory book at the same pace. It might include having monthly workshops or group zoom sessions to discuss a set of lessons. And it might come to a point where April has a few teachers that she works with who do those group lessons with her – these are the teachers who have all their students going through April’s theory courses while they teach the method books and practical elements. There is really no limit online – right? We’re always expanding! So, there’s the angle of going straight to the parents and the angle of working with other music teachers… but the fundamental elements don’t change: need to have some kind of launch event that will entice the other party to be open to the possibility of this format for their student/child. “It's really the teachers that use the theory, it's not the parents that go out seeking theory lessons.“ Back to the launch events… we discuss the role of an email marketing platform (I recommend ConvertKit BTW) and April’s question specifically is “what would be the step by step that you would take in order to get them onto that list to then have that progression go through of the know like and trust email sequence?” The two methods of having people join your email list are through some kind of freebie that you’re giving away or through the launch event. For freebies… I love when we can do a download that the parent can learn about the advantages of piano. Are you on the fence about piano lessons for your child? Here are some of the reasons why and here is an activity that you can do with your child to see if they're ready. Any time that we can educate the parent and inform the parent and excite the parent where they can translate that into the conversation that they're having with their child. It's a winning situation. When I'm working with people who work with adults, it's a little bit different because you want to make sure that whatever your freebie is is something that they can actually do. And in April’s case where the student is a child, you want to make sure that what you're bringing to the table is something that the parents feel confident in. It's that it's that trust factor. We talk about linking social media posts with this type of content back to the freebie, instead of it staying in social media land. For the email sequence, I recommend a 5 - 10 day sequence of 3 - 6 emails. Here's your checklist Something really simple that they can do with their child every day or every other day Give them content in the same way that you’re going to deliver content inside your course (video content, audio, pdf etc.) - they need to really connect with you and your teaching style Once the email sequence ends, send monthly emails to your list to keep the idea of piano lessons top of mind and for the parents to determine when/if their child is ready. And once the once-a-month thing becomes doable, start sending emails more often. But no more than once a week, probably. And we want these to be educational not promotional :) We wrap up the conversation with a bit more chatter about ConvertKit and using social media. If you’re interested in connecting with April, her Instagram account is @msaprilsmusicstudio and Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/msaprilsmusicstudio/. Would you do other music teachers a huge favor and take a moment to leave a quick rating and review for the podcast? Share what you’ve been loving and insights or takeaways that you’ve had from this or other episodes. Be sure to book that call with me http://callwithjaime.com/ and let’s connect on Instagram! It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.

    34min
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  3. Number 3: 202: On Air Coaching with Joellyn Andrews. Topic: Email List Building for Music Teachers

    This is the first of several on-air coaching calls that I am airing this month. Today's episode is circled around adding an email list to your studio, and Joellyn has graciously joined us to ask really pertinent questions. As you listen in to Joellyn’s questions, I want to invite you to think about how YOU are going to grow your studio and what the next online step is going to be. One thing I mention in my conversation with Joellyn is ConvertKit, which I really recommend that you check out. (That’s my affiliate link) And, as always, I love being in conversation with you. So any feedback that you have for me or for Joellyn, please share with me over on Instagram at @jaimeslutzky or feel free to send me a friend request at Jaime Slutzky on Facebook. Now, for this coaching session where we talk about some of the considerations going into adding an email list to your studio. Joellyn had posted in a Facebook group - about the whole idea of having an email list for her studio and after chiming in on the thread, I invited her to join me for this coaching session. She has been working on marketing this year, but not seeing that turn into new students… it’s kinda just been “like a trickle.” So, she also started a Facebook group because that seemed like a new and fresh avenue. And other people were talking about it in regards to marketing- start a community. That hasn’t converted to students either… so this is where we start. The Call To Action What is Joellyn inviting group members to do once they start interacting with her content? How does she want her Facebook group and her email list to function together? Part of this journey is really just trying to figure out how you want things to work and discover how you can best serve your audience. Tweaking Joellyn’s approach and trying to get people onto her new email list is a starting point. It's really a matter of understanding what you're wanting to get out of that list and how you are going to serve the people on it. Everything that we do, if we don't create it for the benefit of the consumer, then it's going to fall flat. Joellyn and I go on to chat about how to give people just enough in your unrestricted free content to want to provide you with their email address, and the importance of nurturing that audience by continuing to provide value and credibility to the content you share and what you have to offer. I advise Joellyn that, with your email marketing strategy, it’s ok for you to give away a lot in there- just because you give the how doesn't mean that you give the energy that's going to help them put the how into practice. “So I'm going to hold their hand really. It's like you can give away everything. But what they're paying for is for you to hold their hand through it.” I asked Joellyn, when it comes to getting people interested in her email list, if she has any ideas as to what type of freebie or product that to give away. Her first reaction was no, but we talked it out. Thinking about quick wins that she’s getting in her interest-based piano lessons. This also brought up the question of what type of people she would ideally like to work with? But then also, if the ideal client is working with children, the parents are your audience - so how do you tailor value toward them when it’s the child who is actually benefiting? Therefore what does the parent need to do in order to say, YES, my child's ready for piano lessons with Joellyn! Joellyn had the best answer- They need to see the results! And YES, she is exactly right! You don’t necessarily need to give away something to DO, you can share results that will make the parents really appreciate the value of your lessons for their child. Something that the parents can see their kid's eyes lighting up, that's the kind of experience we want the parent to have for them to say, OK, I think I might try lessons. The freebie is definitely important being that this email is the one that gets opened most often, but then we move into talking about ‘post-freebie mode’ where we switch into educating the parents into all the reasons why having their child in music classes and having their child learn is a value. We can remind them of the freebie and WHY they chose to sign up and get that, and then we go into a little bit more education and giving them the experience of what it looks like to work with a music teacher. We talk all about email sequence and cadence, and I share with Joellyn some of my best recommendations as far as timing and how not to inundate your audience, but how to give them enough information that they are going to take action quickly while this is on their mind, because the longer that they're on your email list, the longer it may take for them to actually take action. It’s also important to keep in mind that you want to do what is sustainable for you to make happen as a music teacher, but also that you can recycle your content rather than starting from scratch each time. And remember, the focus of your email should ultimately revolve around what is going to benefit your audience, especially at that moment they are reading it! Give people the opportunity to explore working with you, and then you can offer sales emails every once in a while. Joellyn asks, what's the correct practice on asking people for their email addresses and properly adding them onto her list? We talk about the incentive of the freebie, word of mouth advertising, current students being added, and really knowing that it’s permission-based and making sure people are giving us permission to email them. Next, Joellyn asks about what services I recommend most often for email lists? As mentioned earlier, I recommend ConvertKit most often. (My affiliate link again!) And remember, it doesn't cost anything more to go through someone's affiliate link than if you went straight to their website. It just means that they're going to pay me a percentage of what you pay on a monthly basis as a thank you for sending the client over. My reason for Joellyn for going with ConvertKit is because of the price point and functionality. I really like the ease of use and I've been able to help a lot of other music teachers feel comfortable using the platform and I can't say that for some of the other platforms that are out there.They have landing pages and they have forms so you can actually have a landing page right on their site. It doesn't have to live on your website. You can actually have it right in there that you can send people to as well, which is always nice. One of the really nice things about ConvertKit and many of the other platforms that are out there is that you can write your emails in advance. This brought up the follow up question of, could I ask permission through emails? The short answer is yes, you could email them a landing page. As long as you get permission from them, you can add them. You really just don't want to add them blindly. One of the last things that I touched on with Joellyn is when we grow an email list, the biggest advantage to us as the service provider is learning who the people are, who are on our email list. So you want to give people an opportunity to re-engage with you. We talk about fun ways to get the engagement going, and really making the opportunity for a two way conversation We are starting the email with the emails that go out the broadcast emails, but we're always looking to engage with people because the better that we engage with them, the more likely that we're going to create content that's going to be relevant to them and then they're going to become our customers. I really loved this on air coaching session with Joellyn talking about all things related to email list building. Interested in being on the podcast for a coaching session like Joellyn? Be sure to reach out on Facebook at Jaime Slutzky or on Instagram at @jaimeslutzky. And of course, if you would like to have a call with me off air, head on over to http://callwithjaime.com and book a call. I’d love to chat with you! It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.

    32min
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  4. Number 4: 201: Music Teacher Spotlight with Brocha Kahan

    I am so excited to share Brocha’s story with you all. You’ll hear all about the trajectory of her music teaching and what she did before creating courses. If you’re a music teacher listening and looking for inspiration, this episode is for you! Brocha started her journey as a piano teacher, as she says, “just a regular piano teacher teaching piano....and mostly just teaching my students for exams.” At the time, she was completely content with what she was doing, gave her best to every single lesson. She also acknowledges that doing those things and having had a studio really helped her to transition to her online course. If you have a solid studio and you’re looking to fill in the gaps of your actual studio, creating a course is the next step. But you aren’t just limited to a course - you can make workshops, you can create a membership... they're also closely related. And this is exactly what Brocha did. After having her first child, she was reluctant to go back to work. So, she managed to build her in-person studio to full-time. The only problem was she didn’t really know how to market it, and pretty much just winged it. She focused all of her time and energy on putting 100% into her lessons and making sure her students were happy. Enter COVID. Brocha had wanted to go online for a few different reasons, but she knew she had to put herself out there in order to land students. So, she managed to work on her social media, and ultimately was able to get more students and run her own studio online. She didn’t start off full-time, but it was enough to get it going. She said “I literally had no idea about tech or websites. Nothing landing pages, nothing. Marketing, nothing. I literally just learned from scratch. Basically, I had a huge dream to do it.” Brocha admits that she would have had much faster results than she did if she had found the right coach to help her on her journey of creating and marketing a successful online music course. But, she went ahead and taught herself, leading her to the system that she has in place now and that keeps getting her the sales she is getting now! But let’s back track a bit… Brocha started learning some of the marketing techniques to be able to get online students. She got to a point where her online studio was good enough, but that was one on one lessons. She quickly realized that in order to be able to be there for her child’s bedtime, to be able to create her own schedule, one-on-one lessons wasn't going to cut it, and it wasn’t what she wanted to do forever. She started looking for someone to help her go into the one to many model. So she created her own course. She started by thinking- What do my students really enjoy learning? What is missing in the music education space? Now, Brocha has her course, and has also moved into coaching other music teachers. And hey, that’s why Brocha and I are working on these projects together! Who doesn’t love an organic story like this one? Brocha was teaching in person, then the lockdown happened, she figured out how to get students who are willing to work with her online, figured out the whole marketing thing (and enjoyed it), found success with the marketing and with the course, and has created a framework to help other music teachers do what she herself has done. And of course, had a baby along the way, too. What a journey! Brocha now offers social media and course creation coaching, with a primary focus on social media coaching. With her course and coaching, it really has allowed her to be home with her kids, who have so much of Mom when they get home from school. “If you have a good studio, if you have a good basis for your studio, you're going to be able to do a lot. If you have a good basis for your social media and you have a good basis for quality people who follow you and can learn from you, then they're going to say yes.” If you're listening or reading this in real time and you haven't signed up for our webinar this Thursday, December 9th, be sure to click the link to sign up: https://onlinemusiccourseaccelerator.com If it's after the fact, definitely reach out to us on social media because we have every intention of running this again... over and over and over again. The opportunity is limitless. The opportunity is absolutely limitless. I hope that you found Brocha’s story to be the source of inspiration and motivation you needed to take action on your dreams and goals. As always, feel free to send me a message over on Instagram @jaimeslutzky or connect with me at http://callwithjaime.com You can find Brocha over at @iambrocha on Instagram as well! It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.

    28min
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  5. Number 5: 194: On Social Media

    When it comes to social media, it’s so easy to post things that don’t move your business forward and even easier to feel unsure of what to post. Let’s set the record straight with a few tried-and-true posts! There’s so many trends and so many things going on on social media that I am officially breaking my silence and sharing a few tips on posting… this is going to be run! If you’re wondering why I haven’t really talked about this before, it’s because I'm a techie and never let myself push too far outside of that box. Marketing felt so far outside… but I was wrong. I have thoughts and suggestions that are worth sharing (not to mention that I’ve been on social media longer than I have had my business and we’re already over a decade on that!) Here are three things that every music teacher can and should post on social media on a weekly basis and a couple of things to avoid. #1 Actionable Content My favorite thing to post and this is actionable content. We want to post things that people can actually do and take action on. Here’s some examples: If you work with kids and you are marketing to their parents and your social media feed is for their parents, give them some fun activities that they can do with their kids and then in the caption for that post, make sure to tell them what you want them to do when they are taking that actionable content- post to their story and tag you in that where they're now sharing the action that they took with their child. If you are working with adults, maybe the actionable content is to try a certain technique or to do something that allows them to test out actually play the instrument or try something that can then be shared back on their stories or on their Facebook page. The idea with actionable content is to have people associate what they see from you in their feed as something joyful, fun, and exploratory that they can do in their music space. I have a client who does a really great job with this. She works with young children and so her feed is for the parents and she posts things that they can do with their kids in the car. #2 Student Wins and Successes You can and should post your students wins, your students success, your students testimonials, and reviews. These are great because they are putting your work in someone else's voice. This is where you go from being, “Oh that music teacher who posts on social media” to “Oh that music teacher that I want to work with...” because it's in someone else's words. Think about it. How popular are Yelp, Google reviews, Podcast reviews and ratings. People want to hear what others have to say about you. When we can bring that into our feed, it just adds so much power to everything else that we are doing. #3 Authority Posts Make sure your posts are showcasing your authority. They should showcase that you really do care and that your business is thriving and growing. These are: anecdotal things that might have happened in your studio exploratory things that you are trying for yourself in your own music practice opportunities for you to say I'm not just the teacher- I am always learning, I am always exploring, I am always doing, and I can teach to you. We want people to look at you, not just as the piano teacher down the street, but the piano teacher who is constantly improving herself or himself to better their lessons to stay at the forefront of opportunity for their students to have successes unto themselves. Let’s work to have people see you as THE piano teacher or THE guitar teacher or THE voice teacher! Authority posts demonstrate that you know what you're talking about. We want people to know that you are truly an authority and that you're not just doing this out of rote practice. OK, you knew it was coming... I also want to note some things to avoid -- Don't shy away from sharing that you have openings or that you are offering a new program. Just make sure that we are not posting exclusively promotional content all the time. Sign up, sign up, sign up, do this, do that, do that, do this. We don't want people to always feel like when they see our stuff that we are expecting them to pull out their wallet, or give us their email address, or join something. Sprinkle in your promotional content because you are running a business and it has to happen. Make sure that your feeds don't feel overly promotional. Avoid sharing too much of other people's content. Like I said, I want you to be seen as the go to, I want you to be seen as the authority. I want you to be known as the best choice for the people who you best want to serve. When we post other people's content, we are essentially saying, here's somebody who knows something more than I do. When we do learn really cool things from other people, let's flip that around and say, “Okay, I learned this really cool technique…” and then you formulate that in a way that it becomes an authoritative post rather than just sharing someone else's content. My goal with this episode was entirely to help you think about social media as a vehicle to grow and to extend yourself and to feel really good about interaction. I love being on social media and seeing your posts. If we are not friends on Facebook, go ahead and send me a friend request at Jaime Slutzky. If you don't follow me on Instagram yet, go ahead and follow me @jaimeslutzky. And of course, if you would like to have that call with me, head to http://callwithjaime.com and book a call. I’d love to chat with you! It's time! Round 3 of the Online Music Course Accelerator is open for application. Click here for details.

    10min
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