Music Teacher's Helper Blog

New Year’s Day is fast approaching, and you know what that means: New Year’s Resolutions!  In the coming weeks, millions and millions of people (literally) will pledge to do things differently in the coming year.  While many will resolve to pay down credit card debt and lose weight, plenty of others will make resolutions that we can help out with.  Here’s a quick two step process to turn resolutions into students.

Step 1 – Create advertisements with resolutions in mind.

A few people will blatantly resolve to learn a musical instrument or get better at their particular instrument.  You probably won’t need to market specifically to those people, assuming of course that you’re already marketing yourself in the traditional ways.  If they’re dedicated enough, those people will find you.  Our goal is to find those people whose resolutions could, but don’t necessarily, include taking music lessons.

Here’s a brief list of the resolutions I’m talking about:

I resolve

• to try more new things
• to have more fun
• to learn a new skill
• to spark my child’s interest in something
• to do more to prepare my child for high school/college
• to spend more time with my children (if you do family or group lessons)
• to be more courageous (what takes more courage than performing?)
• to raise my grade in band (students)

People will make hundreds (if not more) of vague and general resolutions this year.  Your job is to figure out which of those resolutions your ideal student is making, then create an advertisement centered on that particular resolution.

Step 2 – Distribute your advertisements.

Step 2 is kind of a no-brainer after Step 1.  After all, why bother creating advertisements if you’re not letting anyone see them?  With New Year’s marketing, the two keys to success are timing and location.

Since so many people drop their New Year’s resolutions by the second or third week of January, you don’t have a large window of opportunity to act.  Resolutions are no longer on the forefront of people’s minds by January 10th.  Most businesses are closed on January 1st but are open on the 31st and the 2nd.  Ideally, you want all of your ads placed on the 31st so that people will see them first thing in the new year.  If you place your ads too early, people are still recovering from Christmas and might not call.  People are the most ready to act during the first week of January, so that’s the ideal time for them to see your ad for the first time.

As for locations, think about all the places that experience increased traffic because of resolutions, such as gyms, the YMCA, “Whole Foods” stores, and the public library.  Most of these locations have community bulletin boards where you can place an ad for your lessons.  Obviously, you should also place your new ads in all your regular venues, such as music stores and schools.

Keep in mind that these ideas will only work if your target clientele makes resolutions.  If you only teach music lessons to pre-schoolers, you can probably ignore most everything in this post.  Otherwise, best of luck to you in recruiting new students in 2009!

Your Turn

How else can you get the new year to market for you?  Share your ideas and your success stories in the comments below.