How To Get More Guitar Students Through Referrals

By Tom Hess

Want an easy way to get more guitar students? Learn how to get a lot more referrals from your current students. This is a great (and simple) way to fill up your guitar teaching schedule without doing extra advertising.

How to get more referrals from your guitar students:

First, overcome 6 common reasons guitar teachers struggle to attract new students. This gives you a much larger pool of guitar students to get referrals from.

Second, create a special live event for your guitar students to attend (for free). Tell your students to bring one guitar playing friend with them. (Let their friend attend the event for free as well.)

At the event, teach about any guitar playing topic that applies to every person in the room. Example: do a master class on effective guitar practice methods. This topic applies to everyone at the event and makes them better guitar players.

Many of your students’ guitar playing friends have a high chance of becoming your guitar students, because:

They see with their own eyes that you are a good guitar teacher.
They begin to trust you. Their trust develops from: 1. Their own experience of being around you, 2. Seeing their friend taking guitar lessons from you and having fun. (This is called the law of social proof.)
You can talk to them in person at the event. You can identify their specific guitar playing goals, needs and challenges. You give them immediate help with their guitar playing and make them see the benefits of taking guitar lessons with you.

Run this event 2-3 times per year and vary the topic each time. This gives your students (and their friends) extra incentive to attend.

Question: “Tom Hess, why limit your students to bringing only one friend? Isn’t it better to ask them to bring ALL their guitar playing friends?"

Answer: No. You want your guitar students to think about a specific person who would benefit the most from your event. This is important, because:

Your guitar students invite the person who is most likely to become your student.
The person they invite is more likely to show up, because the invitation is exclusive to them.
Your event doesn't become so crowded that you are unable to personally interact with everyone. Your students’ friends have a much higher chance of becoming your students after you personally talk to them.

Running these live events helps your guitar teaching business on 3 levels:

It gives you a simple, low-cost way to fill up your guitar teaching schedule.
You get a greater return on your investment into marketing and advertising. You earn A LOT more money from each new guitar student (because they give you more referrals).
These events improve retention of your current students. Your guitar students stay with you longer and become better guitar players as a result. This translates into more money for you.

Important: this strategy only works when you have a steady stream of new guitar students coming into your teaching business. This article helps you attract many new guitar students all year long.

You can learn a lot more about how to get guitar students.