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. www.GrowYourMusicStudio.com © Daniel Patterson , 2016

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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

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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. www.GrowYourMusicStudio.com © Daniel Patterson , 2016

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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. www.GrowYourMusicStudio.com © Daniel Patterson , 2016

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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 www.GrowYourMusicStudio.com © Daniel Patterson , 2016

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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

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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: www.GrowYourMusicStudio.com © Daniel Patterson , 2016

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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