Online Music Lesson
School of Rock
When Covid-19 compelled colleges and extracurricular suppliers to shut in-person choices, organizations like School of Rock pivoted to serve and interact with college students.
While many applications moved to pre-recorded video or conventional display screen time, School of Rock cracked the code in digital instruction, engagement, and music schooling, whereas boosting recruitment, creating new applications post-pandemic, and most significantly rocking on.
I not too long ago linked with Elliot Baldini, CMO of School of Rock, a world music schooling franchise with practically 300 colleges (and in 15 international markets!), who advised me about School of Rock’s quest to maintain college students centered and the advertising and marketing methods he’s deployed to satisfy new college students.
Gary Drenik: School of Rock’s viewers was primarily engaged via in-person classes and occasions earlier than Covid-19 with the very best degree of enrollment within the group’s historical past. Can you inform me how School of Rock shifted its operations to maintain the corporate on its development path?
Elliot Baldini: That’s right. Our strategy to music schooling revolves across the notion of efficiency. We consider that college students are impressed by their favourite artists—whether or not seeing them on stage or listening to their information—and have aspirations to play comparable types of music. Our curriculum makes use of traditional songs as the muse for instructing college students musical ideas and methods. For instance, we might train college students the way to play a traditional rock guitar solo, after which use it to introduce scales and mechanics. We even have help instruments resembling our proprietary line of music lesson books and an built-in studying app. This patented pedagogy is what we name The School of Rock Method™.
While Covid-19 restricted our potential to deliver college students collectively in individual, we realized our Method might be delivered remotely. The components and rules might be modified for on-line studying. We transitioned our 40,000 college students to digital instruction. Weekly in-person, one-on-one instruction shifted to weekly one-on-one digital classes. Live in-person performances modified to on-line collaboration between bandmates to report and produce music. We even developed a expertise that permits our college students to rehearse and carry out collectively on-line concurrently. Within a number of weeks, we have been delivering 1000’s of on-line classes every day world wide.
Drenik: As the corporate embraced digital instruction, how did you modify your acquisition and retention advertising and marketing methods?
Baldini: Like many companies, we have been compelled to rethink our choices and advertising and marketing efforts to draw and retain college students.
Live performances are usually important to our clients’ satisfaction and retention. Since in-person actions have been restricted, we wished to make sure our clients might obtain different distinctive and high-engagement academic experiences. We’ve had long-standing relationships with the music group, together with artists, publishers, labels, academic institutes and extra. We partnered with these teams to launch School of Rock Artists Sessions. This program allowed college students to attach with and be taught from among the music business’s most influential individuals through on-line classes, workshops, and Q&A periods. This collection included musicians from the bands Sum 41, The P!NK Band, Bon Jovi, Slipknot, Alice Cooper, and Guns N’ Roses.
We additionally refocused our acquisition efforts. Customer prospects have been altering their habits. For instance, curiosity in on-line schooling considerably elevated. We shifted our paid, natural and earned actions to align with this development. We made complete modifications to our web site structure and content material, aiming to seize and convert incremental natural quantity, highlighted our digital choices inside paid media messaging, and centered our PR efforts on on-line programming. Combined with the track-record and credibility of our School of Rock Method, this messaging proved to be compelling amongst prospects.
While statewide pandemic necessities proceed to ease, we’re persevering with to make the most of the efficient methods we applied during the last yr. According to a latest Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, only one in 5 adults really feel snug sending their kids again to high school. We’re working to make sure there are lodging accessible for everybody, whether or not that be totally distant, hybrid, or full in-person.
Prosper – Comfortable Attending School
Prosper Insights & Analytics
Drenik: How else has music schooling and extracurricular actions advanced? How did School of Rock embrace and accommodate the modifications?
Baldini: The pandemic precipitated important provide chain shortages throughout the musical instrument business. Compounding this difficulty, shopper demand for musical devices elevated. New and present college students have been reaching out to us determined to search out gear. In some instances, this incapacity to search out gear precluded college students from additional progressing alongside their musical journey. To assist these college students, we additional expanded our GearSelect program. Through GearSelect, all School of Rock college students should purchase devices and different music gear from among the world’s most progressive and recognizable manufacturers. Fender, Zildjian, Roland, Boss, Gibson, Hal Leonard and over 40 different manufacturers can now be bought at School of Rock.
Drenik: As restrictions are lifted, what new advertising and marketing and messaging methods will School of Rock be leveraging?
Baldini: We’re very excited to have fun and message our performance-based curriculum. In a standard yr, School of Rock places on over 4,000 dwell live shows world wide. The common School of Rock pupil performs in entrance of an actual viewers at music venues three to 5 instances every year. Additionally, individuals deeply miss attending dwell live shows. According to a latest Prosper Insights & Analytics Survey as of May 2021, 22% of adults ages 18-24 are most trying ahead to attending live shows once more as soon as the pandemic is over. Whether mother and father are on the lookout for a summer season music camp or a brand new after-school extracurricular throughout the brand new faculty yr, School of Rock will assist their kids take the stage and carry out!
Prosper – Going To Concerts
Prosper Insights & Analytics
This messaging will likely be integrated into our portfolio of promoting ways. For instance, we’ve simply launched a really strong CRM and electronic mail automation program that can assist information new clients via their resolution course of. The dwell facet of our instructional strategy will likely be completely built-in into the content material new prospects obtain.
Drenik: What’s the most important lesson you’ve realized as a marketer this previous yr, and the way are you making use of it to your work?
Baldini: I’ve realized that the faster you’ll be able to settle for the truth of a troublesome enterprise problem, the faster you’ll be able to start specializing in an answer. It’s regular to get annoyed by adversity—it may be demotivating. However, entrepreneurs can discover new alternatives and aggressive benefits by accepting exterior market challenges and transferring shortly to discover a answer. Our proficient company workers and wonderful franchisees have been capable of pivot to a distant curriculum inside a really quick interval. While this was a troublesome time, the work we’ve finished honing our on-line expertise has positioned School of Rock as a bigger long-term participant in on-line schooling. The expertise and processes we developed will likely be extraordinarily invaluable in quite a lot of different functions down the highway.
Most importantly, shortly shifting our instructional supply strategy helped us purchase new on-line college students at a better charge than our rivals. We continued to develop our pupil base over the previous yr, and we now have our largest enrollment rely ever. We continued our footprint growth efforts and plan to open over 25 colleges this yr.
Drenik: Thank you Elliot for sharing your insights on how companies can leverage 2020’s life classes to benefit from 2021. It’s thrilling to see how by leveraging expertise college students have a chance to develop outdoors the classroom, Rock on!
