Discover the most common marketing mistake that singing teachers make online – and the easy way to fix it.
Figuring out how to successfully market your singing teaching business can be a daunting prospect. Getting to grips with ever-changing algorithms and online trends while trying to run a busy studio can be time-consuming and frustrating.
So what’s the secret to generating engagement and new business? Marketing expert and singing teacher Allie Tyler, aka the Voicepreneur, says the key is to follow one golden rule.
Speaking on the Singing Teachers Talk podcast Allie advises teachers to be guided by one principle: don’t make it about you, make it about your students.
Common mistake
Allie says the biggest marketing mistake singing teachers make is talking too much about themselves in the context of what they’ve done professionally. What students really want to know is what you can do for them.
“So many voice teachers think they need to talk about the roles they’ve had, the schools they went to and the training that they’ve done,” Allie says.
“But that is the biggest mistake that you can make with your branding. You can do all that when you’re a performer. When you have a performer website, heck yeah put your bio on there, and your pictures and your media and all that good stuff. You are a museum.
“But when you are a business, you are not a museum, you are a store and you have to treat it differently. I’m talking specifically about websites, but I also see it on Instagram and TikTok. There is lot of focus on us and what we do and what we teach.
“It’s coming from a wonderful place but it’s worth asking ‘how many times am I using the word I on my website? And how many times in my Instagram post am I talking about my life?”
Personal stories are great, Allie says, but it’s vital to tie those experiences back into your ideal student’s wants and needs.
“It is a spotlight shift,” she says. “What we teach and what we believe is so important, but we need to translate it [for our audience] and highlight the people that we’re trying to help.”
Marketing inspiration
To delve deeper into branding and storytelling, Allie recommends the work of Donald Miller. He is the author of Building a Storybrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen and the creator of the Business Made Simple podcast.
“When he talks about story branding, he says to remember that every story has a hero and the hero has a sidekick/guide. The guide is the teacher that helps the hero do the thing that they want to do.
“We see this in so many films; there’s always that teacher, that guide person – and that is us! The student is the hero, and the voice teacher is the guide. And that’s a big shift for our marketing; we want to make everything about helping them.”
Easy fix
The good news is you don’t have to completely change what you’re doing, just adjust your focus.
“It’s such an easy fix,” Allie says. “You can just go on to your Instagram or your website, or wherever you are posting and ask: where’s the focus? Where’s the spotlight? Is the spotlight on me? Or is it on the student? Because it really needs to be about them, and what they’re struggling with. If you know those two things, then you are golden.”
Listen to the full podcast interview with Allie to learn:
- How to figure out your business niche.
- How often you should post on social media.
- Ways to rebrand if you want to attract a different type of student.
