Test, Track, Repeat

Throw Paint at the Wall

In the beginning, you will need to try every marketing tactic to see what sticks. You can make educated guesses and try first the things you think will work well, but they will still be guesses until you’ve actually tried them.

I can tell you what works in my studio, and Jane in Nebraska can tell you what works for her over there. But what works for you will depend on your community’s culture and your ideal music students.

So try lots of things and know that some of it won’t work but that’s OK. You have to test.

Document and Track

What you don’t want to be doing is splattering random paint on every wall you can find, year-after-year. You need to track your results.

How you do this doesn’t really matter. Keep a Google Sheet, a notebook or download some fancy app; I don’t care. But you must keep track of the metrics. 

The ‘Know’ tier of the marketing funnel is, in essence, just a numbers game. If you don’t know where people heard about your studio, you won’t be able to hone your efforts over time. For each marketing channel, keep a note of these numbers on a monthly basis:

• How much time you invested
• How much money you invested
• How many students enquired about lessons and where each student/parent heard about you (ask them!)
• How many students signed up for lessons and where each of those students/parents heard about you
• How many months each student has been in your studio – just add 1 each month until they quit, then stop
• How much each student has paid you in total for the time they’ve been in your studio (AKA their lifetime value)

Here’s a link to a Google Sheet you can use as a starting point for this, and a tutorial for how to get it set up.

If you have a way to find this out for previous enquiries and current students, I recommend adding that data too. The more metrics to compare the better!