Website tips for piano teachers (and any other local business)

Like everyone, I look at a lot of websites.  Since I have made my living selling from websites for over ten years, I tend to look at them critically.  Because many of you are piano teachers that either have or want to have a website for attracting students, here are some things I have learned about internet marketing that might be of value.

1) Don’t overpay for design but don’t settle for a horrible design either.
Design is a funny thing.  It is important but it is not as important as you might think.  The effectiveness of a great looking site versus an OK looking site is pretty marginal.  So don’t pay thousands for a website.  But on the other hand, a horrible site will turn people off.

You should plan on spending between $500-$1000 on a basic site for a piano teacher.  That will get you a better-than-average design that will not turn heads but will not turn anyone off.  If you don’t have a designer in mind, go to elance.com or guru.com and just post a project for bids.  You will get swamped with designers that want to do work for you.  Just look at their portfolios and ratings and pick one.

2) Don’t turn off your customer by focusing too much on yourself. 
I have a huge pet peeve with small business websites.  They are usually focused on the business rather than the customer. 

Don’t spend much effort trying to tell people how great you are on your website.  Everyone says the same stuff, and nobody believes any of it.  Whatever you do say should be concrete and objective.  Absolutely post your degrees and awards.  But don’t expect statements like “I care about my students” to do anything for you.

Here is another big turnoff.  Don’t hammer people with your studio policies from the minute they get to the website.  Don’t tell them that if they don’t pay, no lesson will be given.  Don’t tell them about late fees and how you will charge $15 for bounced checks. 

Now I am not saying not to have those rules.  But the website is not the place to post them.  Your website is like the front door to your studio.  If someone was coming to see your studio for the first time, would you meet them at the front door with a list of rules?  My guess is no; you would try to establish a relationship before you bring up your policies.  The same is true for your website.

Before you put anything on your website, ask yourself how you would perceive it if the roles were reversed and you were the one looking for a teacher.  Eliminate negatives that might give a wrong impression of you.  I know some very nice business people, but if you read their websites, they sound anything but nice.

3) Provide information that is USEFUL.
Once you get rid of all the boilerplate hyperbole and studio policies, your website may start to feel empty.  So what do you replace that stuff with?  The answer is simple; useful information and other things that set you apart from the hundreds of other piano teachers within a 20-mile radius.

Spend some time thinking about what makes you different than your competition.  Then spend a lot more time writing about that topic.  Or, provide some truly useful links for students or parents of students.  If you have any written music that you can give away for free, do it.

Make your site a place that is useful and you will establish credibility.  Establish credibility and you will have lots of business.  It is as simple as that.

4) Be care with online advertising.  Almost all of it is a ripoff.
Once you get a website up, you will get a lot of solicitations from businesses trying to sell you advertising.  Make no mistake about it; practically all of it is worthless. 

By all means, try advertising, especially on reputable search engines such as Google and Yahoo.  And try to get inexpensive advertising on local sites that are frequented by the people you want to reach.  But test with small amounts of money before you spend a lot.  Online advertising is a huge topic in itself that requires a lot of expertise. 

Some might wonder if they need a website at all.  Unless you are overwhelmed with students, the answer is yes you do.  Websites are the new yellow pages.  But unfortunately, many websites are ineffective due to lower traffic and other problems.  If you can find a way to get potential customers to the site and can put on a good face once they are there, your site can deliver a steady stream of leads.