Incentive Programs: A Powerful Tool for Student Retention

“Show don’t tell.” I first remember hearing this advice from my 8th grade English teacher. It’s classic advice that you’ll get from any writing teacher, but it’s also really valuable marketing advice.

It’s much more effective to show people real results rather than just tell them what they’ll get from lessons with you. In your recruitment marketing, this means things like photos of happy kids on your website, customer reviews, and performance videos.

What I would like to discuss today, however, is how you can use this principle of “show don’t tell” in your retention marketing.

Your marketing efforts do not end when you’ve filled the last spot on your roster, in fact, they’ve only just begun. The life of your business depends on how well you continue to market to your current customers. Your ability to market to your current clients affects student retention and your ability to get those all-important referrals!

You first need to make sure you’re offering the absolute best service that you possibly can, but then you need to make sure you are communicating how great your service is to the people who are already paying for it.

Your clients want to see things happening! More specifically, they want to see their kids excited, engaged, and progressing.

One way to both nurture and communicate all three of these things at once is through a well-designed incentive program.

Incentive programs can take many forms: Some teachers choose to do an elaborate, studio-wide program with a theme and specific challenges. Something simple and easy to track like a 40-piece Challenge or a Music Money system may be a better fit for some studios. Choose whatever works best for you and your students. Just make sure it includes some sort of measurable, attainable goals.

Below is a FREE printout of Beethoven Bucks and Mozart Money for your incentive program!

Once you’ve chosen your program, how do you use it foster and communicate excitement , engagement , and progression ?

Excitement

Children love a challenge. Whatever type of program you choose, hype it up! Send home teaser postcards. Put up a progression chart in your studio. Come up with an exciting prize (a field trip; recognition at the recital; a real, live fish!). Maybe even decorate based on your theme. Make sure every student and parent in your studio is aware of and excited about your program.

Engagement

To keep kids engaged, you need to ensure they keep feeling forward momentum, and the best way to do this is to keep goals small and attainable.

Say you’re doing a scale challenge: Students are much more likely to stay engaged if they earn a sticker on their chart for every single scale they learn rather than having to wait until they complete a larger category like “all major one-octave scales.”

Are you tracking pieces learned? As pieces get longer, maybe consider rewarding every page of music learned, rather than every piece.

A good rule of thumb is to have goals that students can achieve within one-two weeks.

Progression

Your program needs some sort of tracking system, whether that’s a chart on the wall of your studio or in your student’s binders, music money, tokens, gemstones, punch cards, etc. If it’s feasible with your set-up and your program, I would recommend having something big on display in your studio, but also something that you can send home with students each week. That way, students can see how they’re doing in comparison with the other students in your studio, and parents can see the weekly progress that their children are making.

Incentive programs can be an excellent way to show your clients what is happening in their children’s musical lives. This isn’t just about extrinsic motivation and rewarding students for practice. The point of an incentive program is engaged, happy students. Engaged, happy, students lead to engaged, happy parents, and engaged, happy parents lead to a thriving business.