All posts by Adam Bram

Lesser known benefits of Online Music Lessons

There are many benefits to online music lessons. The savings in costs, in both time and money, are more widely recognized. Savings in areas such as transportation, studio expenses, canceled lessons, and billing issues are just a few. But did you know that there are few lesser-known benefits of online lessons? Here are a few that you might not have given much thought.

Teacher or student moving

Americans are very mobile. Whether you are a teacher or a parent/student, the chances are one of you will move away from the other before too long. Your teacher-student relationship is significant to you. It might have taken you a while to find that teacher that really “clicks” with you. As a teacher, you might have found that student that you enjoy teaching. Your relationship doesn’t have to end. Online lessons allow you to maintain your teacher-student relationship no matter where either of you resides. This includes one of you moving to a different country. At MusicTeacherNotes, you can teach or receive music instructions from virtually anywhere in the world.

Growth Opportunities

Looking for more students? Online music lessons allow you to grow your studio or music lesson business beyond your local area. With online lessons, you can instruct students from around the country or world.

You can expand your business into areas you never thought possible.
This also allows you to develop a new community. Your students will feel part of something that is beyond their area. Your business hours are also not restricted to the area of residence. You can teach your local students during regular business hours, and instruct students from other areas when it fits both of your schedules. This allows for much greater flexibility for your business.

Personalization of Instruction

Do you have an interest in learning an instrument that is rather rare or exotic? Perhaps an instrument that is unique to a specific country or region of the world? Your teacher might not be familiar with this instrument. Or maybe it’s a situation where the instrument is just not taught by your teacher. Your instruction is limited to your area. With online music instruction, you can give or receive music lessons from virtually anywhere in the world. The opportunity of online lessons greatly enhances your horizons, both as a teacher and a student.

Enhanced focus and concentration

Are your student’s sometimes not ready or prepared for their lesson? Online lessons encourage the student to be much more focused and prepared for their lesson. They will be more attentive and free from distractions during their online lesson.

These are just a few of the wide-ranging benefits of teaching music online. MusicTeacherNotes is committed to helping private music teachers get the most out of providing both in-person and online music lessons.

A Music Teacher’s Guide to Marketing Terms

September 17, 2019Music Teacher MarketingAdam Bram

The following is a list of marketing jargon and lingo. Many of these terms are included in the music teacher marketing articles we’ve written. We’ve provided this glossary of marketing terms to help music teachers understand marketing jargon quickly and easily.

A/B testing: A way to compare two versions of a webpage or marketing message to see which one works better.

Advertising: Paying for TV, radio, print, or online ads to promote a product or service.

Affiliate marketing: A way to earn money by promoting another company’s products or services.

Analytics: Looking at data to see how well things are working and making smart choices.

Brand ambassador: Someone who is hired to talk about and promote a brand, usually on social media or in public.

Brand awareness: How many people know and recognize a brand.

Brand equity: The value a brand adds to a product or service, based on its reputation and quality.

Brand identity: The visual and written things that show what a brand is, like logos and messages.

Branding: The process of creating and promoting a unique brand identity, like logos and slogans, to make a product or service different from others.

Call-to-action (CTA): A button or prompt on a website that asks people to do something, like buy something or fill out a form.

Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on an ad after seeing it.

Competitive analysis: Looking at what other companies are doing and how they are doing it, to figure out how to do better.

Content creation: Making new things like blog posts, videos, and social media posts, to get people interested in a product or service.

Content marketing: Making and sharing information that people find useful or interesting, to get them interested in a product or service.

Conversion rate: The percentage of people who do something that is wanted, like buy something or fill out a form, after visiting a website.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO): Making changes to a website or page to get more people to do what is wanted.

Conversion tracking: Watching what people do after clicking on an ad or visiting a website to see how well the advertising is working.

Cost-per-click (CPC): How much an advertiser pays for each person who clicks on an ad.

Cost-per-impression (CPM): How much an advertiser pays for every 1,000 times an ad is shown.

CPM (cost per thousand) advertising: A way of advertising where advertisers pay for every 1,000 times an ad is shown.

Crisis management: Planning for and managing problems that could hurt a company’s reputation.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Software or tools used to help manage and understand customer interactions and data, to improve sales and marketing.

Customer acquisition: Finding and getting new customers through marketing.

Customer feedback: What customers say about their experience with a product or service, to make marketing and products better.

Customer journey: All the steps a customer takes when buying a product or service, from first hearing about it to buying it.

Customer lifetime value (CLV): The total value that a customer brings to a company over time.

Customer relationship management (CRM): Understanding and managing customer interactions to keep customers happy and coming back.

Customer retention: Keeping customers interested and happy so they keep buying.

Customer segmentation: Dividing customers into groups based on things like age or behavior, to make marketing more effective.

Customer service: Helping customers before, during, and after they buy, to make them happy.

Demographics: Information about a population, like age or income, used to understand and target specific groups.

Direct marketing: Talking to potential customers directly, like through mail or email.

Event marketing: Making or sponsoring an event to get people interested in a product or service.

Google my Business (GMB): A free tool provided by Google that helps businesses show up on Google Maps and search results. It allows businesses to create a profile with their address, phone number, hours of operation, and photos so that people can easily find them online.

Guerrilla marketing: Using unusual and creative ideas to promote a product or service, often without spending a lot of money.

Impressions: The number of times an ad or web page is shown to people.

Inbound marketing: A way to get customers interested in your product by creating fun and helpful content, instead of just showing ads.

Influencer marketing: When famous people on social media help promote a product or service to their followers.

KPI (key performance indicator): A way to measure how well your marketing is working, like seeing how many people are visiting your website or buying your product.

Landing page: A special website page that’s designed to get people to do something, like sign up for a newsletter or buy a product.

Lead generation: Finding people who might want to buy your product by using things like ads or free trials.

Lead nurturing: Building a relationship with potential customers over time by sending them helpful information and updates.

Market research: Learning about your customers and your competition to make better marketing decisions.

Market segmentation: Splitting up your customers into groups based on things like their age, interests, or where they live.

Marketing automation: Using special software to help with repetitive marketing tasks, like sending emails or posting on social media.

Marketing mix: A combination of things like product, price, and advertising that companies use to sell their products.

Marketing plan: A fancy plan that businesses make to help them sell their products.

Marketing ROI (Return on Investment): A way to figure out if your marketing is making you money or not.

Marketing: When a company tries to sell their product by showing people how cool it is.

Mobile marketing: When companies advertise their products on people’s phones and tablets.

NPS (Net Promoter Score): A way to figure out how much customers like a product or service by seeing how likely they are to recommend it to their friends.

Omnichannel marketing: Using lots of different ways to advertise a product, like on TV, online, and in stores.

Organic results: The part of a SERPs page that lists web pages that are found to be most relevant to what the person searched. Organic results are sometimes called natural results because you cannot pay Google directly to rank higher.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising: Advertising that people see when they’re outside, like on billboards or bus stops.

Outbound marketing: A way of advertising where companies reach out to potential customers through advertising, direct mail, and other methods.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: An online advertising method where companies pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads.

Persona: A made-up person that represents a target customer, based on research and data about their demographics, behavior, and preferences, often used to guide marketing and sales strategies.

Product placement: When a product or brand is shown in a movie, TV show, or other media with the goal of promoting it to viewers.

Psychographics: The study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles that are used to understand and target a specific market.

Public relations (PR): The practice of managing communication between a company and its stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, and the media. PR aims to build a positive image for a company and maintain a good reputation.

Remarketing (also called Retargeting): A type of online advertising that targets users who have already interacted with a brand or visited their website.

Retargeting (also called Remarketing): A type of online advertising that targets users who have already interacted with a brand or visited their website.

ROI (return on investment): A way to measure the success of a marketing campaign by calculating the revenue generated by the campaign divided by the cost of the campaign.

Sales forecasting: The process of predicting future sales revenue, often based on historical data, market trends, and other factors.

Sales funnel: The process by which a customer moves through the stages of awareness, interest, desire, and action to make a purchase, often represented as a funnel-shaped diagram.

Sales pipeline: A visual representation of a sales process, from initial contact to final sale, often used to track and manage sales opportunities.

Sales prospecting: The process of finding and reaching out to potential customers, often through cold calling, email, or social media.

Search engine optimization: Improving a website or its content so that it shows up higher in search engine results like Google.

Segmentation: Dividing a bigger group of people into smaller groups with similar needs and characteristics. This helps companies tailor their marketing efforts to each group’s specific needs.

Search engine marketing (SEM): A type of online advertising where companies put ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) to get more people to visit their website.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page displayed on a search engine after a query is typed.

Below is an example of a SERPs page. Notice we’ve highlighted the different sections so you can see how its separate parts.

Part 1: Organic Results
Part 2: Local Results (also called local search, map search, or map results)
Part 3: Pay-per-click results

Social media marketing: Using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote a product or service and interact with potential customers.

Social proof: The idea that people are more likely to trust and follow the actions of others. Marketers use customer reviews, testimonials, and social media posts to show social proof.

SWOT analysis: A tool that helps companies plan and make decisions by looking at their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Target market: The specific group of people who are most likely to buy a product or service. It’s important to know who the target market is so that companies can focus their marketing efforts towards them.

Unique selling proposition (USP): A unique benefit or feature of a product or service that sets it apart from competitors.

Viral marketing: When companies create content or messages that are easy to share and spread quickly through social media and other online platforms to promote their product or service.

Tips on how to grow a music school using the best Google strategy

September 12, 2019UncategorizedAdam Bram

Every music teacher wants more students. If you teach private music lessons in your local area, you need to learn how to grow a music school using Google’s local search. We’ll explain some of the nuances about Google’s local search as it pertains to music schools, and we will show you how you can master them to gain a competitive advantage over your competition. If you engage your marketing strategy with a dominant local search presence, you will tap into a channel that can drive a continuous stream of new music students to your website.

What does Google do?

You probably already have a reasonable idea of how Google works. When you type in a search query, some results display. The page that Google displays after you type in your query is called a SERPs page. SERPs is just an acronym for Search Engine Results Pages. Below is an example of a SERPs page. We break the SERPs page into three distinct sections. The section we colored red (#1) are organic results. The section we colored purple (#2) are local search results. And the section we colored green (#3) are pay-per-click results from Google Adwords.

Music Lessons Near Me SERPS CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE IMAGE

How does Google decide what web page results to display when you type in specific keywords?

If your goal is to grow your music school, the answer to this question is the key to planning your entire website strategy. Let’s start with the definition of a keyword. The definition below may not be mainstream, but it’s a definition that will serve you well as you think about your music lesson website.

keyword

a single word or a group of words, that when put into a search query, convey intent to a search engine. A keyword can be one word, like “music,” or it can be multiple words, like “music lessons for children.”

To make this definition clearer, let’s use some examples. Suppose someone goes to Google and types: Music. What is the searcher’s intent? We don’t know. Music is a one-word keyword, and because it is so short, it isn’t possible to know what the intent is with any degree of certainty. It could be a person looking to download music. It could be someone looking for the definition of the word “music.” It could be a lot of things. All Google can do is guess at the intent, which you can see below.

CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE IMAGE

To rank on the first SERPs page for a one-word keyword is nearly impossible. Google scans billions of web pages and ranks them on a variety of metrics. Without getting too deep into how they do that (we will save that for another article) know that the top-ranking page has the most “page authority” for the keyword that the searcher typed in. Pages with less page authority rank lower in the SERPs.

Now consider a different search phrase: Children’s music lessons. While the intent is much clearer with this keyword, it is still somewhat ambiguous. It could be someone searching for “online” music lessons for children. It could be another music teacher interested in tips on how to teach music to children. We also don’t know the instrument since the word “music” is generic. When a keyword or key phrase only has one, two, or three words, it can be considered a short-tail keyword.

Now let’s assume someone types: piano lessons for kids near me. This keyword has obvious intent. It’s far more useful, and if you happen to teach piano to young kids near that searcher’s town, you would want to rank for it. If the searcher clicks your listing, you have an excellent opportunity to acquire a new student.

Should I try to have my music teacher website rank for organic listings?

Local search and organic search are two distinct sections of the SERPs page, as you can see from the image at the beginning of this article. However, there are overlapping strategies for someone who is trying to rank in both organic and local. In other words, some of what you’ll do to increase your chances of ranking in local will also apply to attempting to rank in organic. For that reason and other reasons, yes, to increase your chances of growing your music school via Google search, you should try to get your music teacher website to rank for organic — the more real estate you own on a SERPs page, the higher your chances of getting clicked. However, showing up in the organic section can be more challenging and less productive. Look at the screenshot below, and pay attention to the results with a pink background.

CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE IMAGE

The results highlighted in pink are sometimes referred to as aggregators. Aggregators are websites, such as Yelp, Care.com, and others, that have enormous page authority. Their business model is to compile data from other websites and dominate the SERPs. For example, assume you are looking for a restaurant. You might click on Yelp and then have to search again for the restaurant in Yelp, instead of finding it directly from Google. Some aggregators make businesses pay to be a part of their ecosystem. Without getting too much into whether or not aggregators are good or bad, just know that they occupy a lot of the organic spots on a SERPs page. If you want to list on page 1 of the organic listings, you may have a lot of aggregator sites to compete against. In the example from the image above, you can see that nine of the ten listings on the SERPs page are aggregators.

So why bother trying to rank for organic at all? One reason is that Google does update it’s algorithm every so often to improve the user experience. It’s possible that Google will update their algorithm and move aggregator sites to a different place on the SERPs. If you continue to focus on good SEO (search engine optimization) practices for organic listings, then you may be rewarded by a rapid jump in the organic part of the SERPs.

Another reason is that many searchers do not want to click on aggregator sites. Many searchers scan right past them and click lower ranking sites that are not aggregators, even if they have to click to page two or three of the SERPs.

But we are going to focus on local search in this article, so the big reason to not neglect organic rankings is that it simultaneously helps you with local rankings if you follow the tips in this article.

Understanding local search for music teacher websites

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Take a look at the image above. It is the part of the page that lists the local results. This particular set of results happened when I typed “piano lessons for kids near me.” There are a few important things to notice.

The first is that there are three natural results in this section. The forth is a paid result. Google has a feature that now allows certain Adwords results to display in the local search section. Paid local search is a great option if the local search section is very competitive. However, in this article, we are just going to focus on the natural search results, of which there are three that display. Google only displays three, but the searcher can find others by clicking the “More places” link near the bottom. Most clicks come from the top 3, so you want to rank there.

Local search is advantageous to you because you aren’t competing against the entire world. You are only competing against other music schools in a small radius near you — about an 8-mile radius, in fact. Most people who type in a keyword query with local search intent will click one of the top three results in the local search box.

How to grow a music school by dominating the local search results!

To show up in local search results, Google needs to know a bit about your business. First, it needs to understand what your business does. Next, it needs to know where your business is. There’s a bit more to it, but that the gist of what Google needs to know. For organic listings, Google deduces that information based on your web page’s content. In local search, you tell it directly to Google. You do this by using something called a GMB, which is an acronym for “Google my Business.” GMB is essentially Google’s way of finding out about your business. You create a GMB profile, and Google will send you a postcard with a verification code on it so it can verify your business’s location. And because Google has several ways to deduce where the searcher is, Google can display your business if it’s near the person searching.

When you fill out the GMB profile you will be asked:

Your business location/address
Your business’s phone number
Your business’s website
Business hours (Recommend that you use the same settings as you do in your MusicTeacherNotes.com account)
Your business’s category (Choose a primary category and several applicable secondary categories)
GMB Categories

Getting listed in local search or map search listings isn’t terribly difficult. However, ranking near the top of the local listings where you are likely to get the most leads can take work, especially if your business is in a populated area. If it’s impossible to rank in the top 3, then paid local search is an excellent option.

Just like organic rankings, Google ranks local businesses, too. If there are twenty music studios in your local area, Google has to rank them somehow. And because Google only displays the top 3 of those results in the local search part of the SERPs, you need to understand how to increase your chances of ranking near the top.

Consider the keywords and categories you want to rank for very carefully. Imagine you are a parent who is interested in finding a piano teacher for your child to take lessons from. What would you type into Google? Here are some likely queries:

piano lessons near me
piano teacher near me
piano instructor near me
piano lessons for kids near me
piano teacher for children near me
piano instructor for beginners near me
piano lessons [location name]
piano teacher [location name]
piano instructor [location name]
piano lessons for kids [location name]
piano teacher for children [location name]
piano instructor for beginners [location name]

You might think that using the keyword “music lessons” makes sense. However, if you are looking for piano lessons, then you are likely not going to search for the more generic term, “music lessons.” Rather, you are likely to search using the specific keyword, “piano.” This presents a challenge and an opportunity for music teachers. It can be a challenge if you teach more than one instrument because Google wants you to create a primary category for your local listing. That means you need to consider the most beneficial category for as your primary category for your situation.

Google updates GMB all the time, but as of this writing, the options for music teachers to use as categories were:

Music Instructor
Music School
Guitar Instructor
Guitar Store
Piano Instructor
Drum School
Vocal Instructor

Suppose you teach several instruments, like guitar, piano, and saxophone. How do you choose the best category if you have that common issue? First, consider what most people type and how big the competition is. Do a search for different types of music lessons in your local area to see who shows up. That can help you strategize. Consider how many students might be searching as well as what you want to teach. If you teach drums and piano, but you don’t want to teach drums, you should focus on what you like.

Google lets you choose secondary categories, as well. For example, you could choose

PRIMARY CATEGORY: Guitar Instructor
SECONDARY CATEGORIES: Music Instructor, Music School, Guitar Store

That will allow you to rank for the secondary categories, but only the primary category displays on the result page, as you can see in the image below.

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What about reviews for local search?

If you look at this stack of local results, you can see that the three results all have a lot of reviews and 5-star ratings. This helps searchers decide what to click. Notice the second result only has two people who reviewed it. The other results have many more. A searcher is likely to consider that when they click or call. You should develop a strategy to get reviews from your students so you can increase your chances of getting clicked. Whether reviews increase your position in the local search rankings or not is debatable. But they definitely increase your click-through-rate (CTR).

Reviews for local search for a music studio

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Should I add keywords to the name of my business?

Notice the names of the businesses. Keywords in the business name may help you rank for those keywords. However, they can also get you suspended and kill a significant portion of your business. Assume the name of your company is “Bob’s Music Lessons,” but in your GMB profile, you call it “Bob’s Music Lessons – Guitar, Piano, and Drums.” That is called keyword stuffing. Google considers keyword stuffing a type of web spam. From a user experience perspective, it makes sense. You don’t want to look on Google Maps for a business and see dozens of extra keywords next to their business name. A lot of businesses get away with it, but it can backfire because Google can suspend accounts they catch doing it. Google expects businesses to enter the exact name of their business on their GMB profile. If you can incorporate legitimate keywords into the actual business name that you choose when you create your business, that is one thing. But using extra keywords in the title on your GMB is another.

What kind of image should I use for my music lesson business when I create my GMB profile?

When someone types in piano lessons for children near me, the ideal situation would be that the image on the map search would be a nice, authentic picture of you teaching a child the piano. However, if you teach multiple instruments, you cannot cover every possible situation. In that case, you need to choose an image that works for most situations. The images you see chosen below are generally acceptable, except for the paid ad. The paid ad shows the outside of the building where they are located. While this might seem like a good idea, it doesn’t convey to the user what the music lesson experience might be like. Additionally, the business location might change, and the music school will need to find a different image. It would be best to choose an image that allows someone to visualize and image the music lesson experience with you.

CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE IMAGE

What are some other tips to increase the likelihood that my music studio will show up in Google local search?

There are lots of great tips for local search online. This video called, “How to rank in Google Maps tutorial,” covers a lot. It isn’t specific to a music teacher trying to grow a music school, but the tips are invaluable.

Make sure your information is complete and accurate

If you do not completely fill out the GMB profile, you decrease your chances of showing for local searches. Google’s algorithm is better able to match a searcher to your listing your provide complete information about your music studio.

Update your GMB profile as your business changes

Local search can be a powerful tool. As such, you should make it a priority to take care of it. Update your GMB profile if your music studio changes. Add new photos and videos to it as you can. Keep it up-to-date, and it will pay off.

Set accurate hours

As a music teacher, you might have unusual hours. Enter your general availability for each day of the week. To grow your music school you need students to contact you. This means you don’t want to show closed for lessons when you might actually be available.

Respond to your reviews

Reviews are powerful. Many people consider an online review as trustworthy as a personal recommendation from a friend. If someone gives you a review, you should reply to it. You might simply say, “Thanks!” You could add a little more as appropriate. If someone gives a negative review, you should also reply, even if uncomfortable. You should:

Evaluate and consider their negative feedback.
Respond to the negative review publicly via GMB.
By courteous and empathetic while offering solutions.

Add photos

The cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words. It’s certainly true when someone is trying to visualize an experience. You can upload photos of you teaching different instruments and age groups to your GMB profile, helping people see just what it is you do.

Spend the money to have a superb website

You will list your website on your GMB profile. We will save what makes for a great music instructor website in another article, but understand that your leads will go to your website. Most leads will do that on a phone or mobile device. You need to fast, mobile-friendly website for your music lesson business if you want to compete.

In conclusion

Google’s local results are based on three primary factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. Relevance means Google will want to rank you if you match the intent of a Google search. Distance means the closer your business is to the searcher, the more likely you are to show up. Prominence is a bit more involved. Prominence is kind of everything Google sees about your business. Google can discern if you have Yelp listings, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and more. They also scan your website. The more prominent you are in those places, the higher your prominence score, and the more likely you are to rank.

Ranking on Google local search is a very worthwhile way to spend marketing time for your music studio. Ultimately you just want to know how to grow a music school, and there are certainly many ways to attract new music students to your website. But local search can provide a steady stream of new leads indefinitely, and that’s why it’s well worth the effort.