Bit-Sized Tips To Attract Potential Students in Under 60 Seconds

Introduction

This is a hot and kinda time-sensitive opportunity that you need to consider getting into if you’re a music teacher.

Short-form content is exploding right now on social media! 🎥🎸📱

Did you know that you can use short-form video content to attract potential music students, and do it in under 60 seconds?

Short videos under 60 seconds are getting tons of views on all the different platforms today, and it’s important to follow the trends if you’re running an online teaching business or planning to start teaching music online.

This kind of content is very much suited to today’s digital age where everyone is trying to get our attention, and people no longer have the bandwidth to watch longer videos.

You can use this opportunity to capture ultra-short videos that are easy to make with an Ikea light/stand and your phone (or any other gear you have for the purpose) and upload them to social media to attract potential music students.

Tip #1: Make Youtube Shorts

Youtube Shorts time limit is 60 seconds and these videos are shot in an portrait phone angle as opposed to standard wide-screen videos.

You can use Youtube Shorts as a music teacher to showcase your talent, engage with potential students, but also promote your paid offers like online lessons, courses, or a music membership site.

At first, it might be difficult to get into the groove with this ultra-condensed type of format, but if you go straight to the point you’ll realize that you can teach a lot in just 60 seconds!

🔍 Go for very specific topics, like: 

• Here’s how to play micro-bends on a guitar
• This blues lick works EVERY TIME!
• Left-hand strength exercise
• Do this one warm-up to protect your voice

As you can see, ideally topics for Youtube Shorts are engaging, specific and feature a click-bait title so that more people choose to click on the video and view it.

🎬 Types of content you can post as a music teacher to attract students:

• Music performances (to showcase your skills)
• Mini-lessons (to showcase your expertise)
• Quick Tips (to inform)
• Gear reviews
• Theory lessons
• Behind-the-scenes videos (to promote your paid offers)

📩 Use prompts to try to get people on your email list or to visit your website, so that you can get the contact information of your potential students.

Finally, be consistent.

They say with this stuff it’s kinda backward thinking, so having that in mind: quantity matters more than quality (in this case at least!)

Make sure the teaching and content are good quality, but don’t worry much at this phase about production value, audio video quality, how amazing your led strip lights look in your super clean music studio/room… you know things that are nice to have but not necessary for students checking out your content.

Here are a couple of examples of music teaching Youtube Shorts:

Tip #2: Create TikTok videos

Okay, I know most of you musicians will cringe at what I’m about to tell you (like me!) .

You should, possibly, maybe… consider…

Doing TikToks.

I know exposing yourself as a music teacher online is uncomfortable for most of you out there. 🙈

But being active online in one form or another is pretty much the only way you can attract new students online, as you need to find a channel to build your audience.

You need to be accessible online.

So you can use the power of the TikTok network to create short-form instruction video content, where you teach different things on your instrument.

The maximum length of a video for TikTok video is currently capped at 10 minutes.

I know that’s not short-form content, so my advice is to just stick to the 60 seconds limit when creating content for this platform. 📏

TikTok was the one to make short-form content go viral, with all other platforms following the lead later on.

🎬 So you want to make your videos short, instructional, and engaging.

Use this opportunity to capture the attention of potential students and create an audience that likes what you’re doing, while also making the whole process easy for you (recording and editting the video). Ideally, you’d have a dedicated spot in your room with everything ready to go, video background available and all the other gear you might need.

You can also just re-edit any old videos you already have with your performances or music instructional content and make short videos out of them.

As with the Youtube Shorts, same ideas when it comes to video content and topics you can cover apply for TikTok as well to grow your following.

But from an online business perspective, regardless if you currently have a paid offer (lessons, course, membership, other) or you’re in the process of starting an online music teaching business, this is one thing you should always have in mind:

📝 Try to capture information from your potential students.

This means you should post links and direct students to visit your website for teaching music.

You could offer free stuff in exchange for students subscribing to your email list and leaving their contact email address.

You should encourage students to send direct messages to you to get in touch if they would like to take lessons or buy your products.

Don’t just build a following on social media, as you don’t really have a way to contant those people directly, so get smart & creative early on. Capture contact information from students whenever possible!

Here are example short-form clips from TikTok to give you an idea:

Tip #3: Post Instagram Reels

Finally, there’s Instagram.

This is yet another social media platform. 😅

I know, it feels so cringy at this point for me to even suggest this but listen…

You can record short music lessons or performances and post them as Instagram Reels.

Instagram Reels are up to 60 seconds long. ⏱️

Use the short videos format to showcase your teaching.

There are lots of things your audience can learn about you as a teacher, from content you post online.

You’d be surprised how much exposure you can get just by consistently posting helpful mini-lessons on Instagram.

On this platform, as with all the others, you can post a link to your music teaching website – right there on the profile. 🔗

Users of Instagram are used to checking out the videos, and if they like the content they often look up the famously called “link in the bio” to learn more about you.

From an online business perspective, you simply must have a website as a music teacher, if you’re looking to start or grow your business online.

Post short videos, be creative, and see how far you can get. 🚀

Example short form content from Instagram:

 

 

Conclusion & Why You Should Do This NOW

I think this is a great opportunity today, for music teachers to attract an audience online.

Short-form video content has become a thing, and at the moment there are not enough creators uploading this type of content out there, so there’s an opportunity for you.

This means you might get more organic traffic and exposure if you start uploading videos, than waiting.

Short-Form video content under 60 seconds is somewhat easier to produce in comparison to blog posts, standard Youtube video clips and such. It’s a win-win and video shorts can help you attract potential students. 👀

Experiment with different formats, ways to record this content as well as video topics.

Find out what works the best for you and your audience. What kind of videos are popular, and also what type of content you can produce with the least amount of effort – so that you’re happy to make those short videos consistently.

👨‍🏫 Remember that posting short form videos on social media is a great way to showcase your skills both as a musician and also a music teacher.

You can use these videos and the attention you’ll get to promote your digital products, online 1-on-1 music lessons, group lessons packages, digital music courses, memberships or any other service you might be offering as a music teacher.

Engage with the students through video as well as via comments and DMs to solidify the connection.

Remember that you’re doing this with the intent to promote your online music teaching business, so make sure you have a way to capture contact information from those students looking to get more involved.

🔥 Like what I’m about to do now with the email optin below that offers website visitors a great value for FREE, and I get to keep in touch with my audience when I post new content and stuff that they would like to check out:

My last advice (or two!) would be:

Jump on this opportunity to grow your online audience with short-form video content.

Keep things simple and easy to record and upload for you.

Be consistent. 💻🎶

If you don’t want to be on all the platforms, that’s fine and actually recommended. Just focus on the one for start and see how it goes.

Use those 60 seconds to truly help your potential students make progress.

Be creative and enjoy yourself, and BE YOURSELF! 🌟

Question for you:

Do you have a following on social media as a music teacher? If so, what kind of content do you post, and what works the best for you?

Post in the comments below.

All the best,

Bogdan

Founder, MusicTeachingBiz.com