Friday's Violin Lesson Marketing Revelation

I always preach to my clients, you should look for lessons in business and marketing from every source possible. Develop funnel vision, instead of tunnel vision.

Well, it seems that every week I am always hit over the head with insight from an unlikely source…

…my violin teacher.

For those who don’ know, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up the violin after I turned 30, with no musical training whatsoever. I got a violin, got a teacher, and 2 years later…

…I still suck. But at least I can kind of play in tune.

I had another teacher for the first year who gave me some VERY bad habits. But my violin teacher now...for lack of a better word...rocks!

She’s a “no excuses” violin teacher.

Don’t believe me?

Check out her studio policies, and tell me what you think. In fact, it was her "no excuses" policy that got me to take lessons with her in the first place. And I highly recommend her to anyone in the Austin area who wants violin lessons for themselves or their kids.

Anyway, yesterday my violin teacher asked me about how my bowing was coming along. And I began this long tome about my bowing, intonation, the superiority of Beethoven's 9th Symphony over the 5th...

…luckily, she stopped me before the lesson expired. And she made an enlightening comment. She had asked me about bowing (and ONLY about bowing), but I went on about everything about playing the violin. She told me that when learning the violin I have to take each part separately and pointed out that I have a tendency instead to “take on everything at once” ( I do…ask my wife).

Well, marketing can be like that too. While it is a good idea to do everything at once, you need to make sure you are getting the parts right. Your direct mail pieces should be converting, you should track your internet conversion rates, tabulate the response rates to ALL your ads.

And as you go along, you should tweak your ads to make sure that you are getting the most response and the most sales from them (you must split testing all ads). And just as even the greatest violinists keep practicing and refining their techniques, marketers and businesses alike need to develop and refine their ads to get the best results possible.

Have a Great Weekend,

Carlon Haas
www.carlonhaas.com