VISIONARY - Music Inc. Magazine

QUICK TIP I BY MYRNA SISLEN I MIDDLE C MUSIC; WASHINGTON, D.C.
MUSIC LESSONS GROUPON
“It’s summertime. People are
going on vacations, and there
are a lot fewer students in our
music lessons program. So, I did
a Groupon with a time frame.
“It’s for either two guitar or
two piano lessons. It covers the
registration fee and the book —
in this case, I used a Hal Leonard
book.
“The Groupon went out
on May 29 and will expire on
Sept. 1. People pay $59. And if
somebody calls and says they
would rather take a voice lesson
instead of piano or guitar,
I say, ‘Of course.’
“I limited it to 200 people
since we have to accommodate
all those new lessons, and we
got 155 to participate, which
is good. I did not put ‘new customers
only’ on the Groupon,
so about five people who are
already taking lessons here used
it, too. But I got about 150 new
customers. And a lot of people
have told me they’ve seen the
Groupon.
“I receive 25 percent of the
asking price on the Groupon, so
no matter how you slice it, you
don’t make money on the actual
promotion.
“But this way, my teachers
are still making money. I’m
helping support them during
the summertime. And the first
person who came in to have
her two lessons didn’t need the
method book, so she put that
amount toward a $99 guitar case.
Also, one of the other Groupon
people has already signed up for
a full schedule of lessons, and
it’s only been a week since the
promotion.
“We would be too busy to
do this promotion during the
school year. But during the summertime,
people’s schedules are
more relaxed, and we can space
the new students out throughout
the whole summer.
“I’m sure I’ll at least break
even on this, if not do better.
It’s a win, win, win.”
JULY 2011 I MUSIC INC. I 19