Letter. No. 24 [establishing your music studio: website part I]
Dear Friend,
I diverted last week from this series because I wanted to tell you about an evening on the lake, but I’m picking this back up again to talk about our websites (part one!).
Particularly today, our websites are one of the most important aspects of our businesses (and I know I say that about almost everything I’ve talked about so far, but this one is high on the list of important!). How will people discover your business? Even with in-person marketing and networking, a website reinforces that you are a serious professional running a business. We want to create an experience that’s as easy-as-possible and seamless for anyone who wants to find out more about our businesses, so let’s talk about platforms.
PLATFORM:
I don’t know about you, but the thought of creating code for a website gives me anxiety. Thankfully, there are quite a few website builders you can use. The two that I have experience with are Wix and Squarespace. Both platforms provide clean and easy-to-use templates for building your website, as well as email campaigns and scheduling tools, among other things. I’ve enjoyed my experience with both of these platforms, although Squarespace is the only platform I use now.
Wix: One huge benefit with Wix is that it’s free (of course you can upgrade to another plan). This is a good place to start if you’re on a tight budget because you can experiment with the template and look you’re aiming for without any financial commitment.
Squarespace: Squarespace does offer a fourteen day trial period, but then you have to sign up for one of their plans. I love Squarespace. It’s what I use now, and what I’m planning to use for quite a while. I chose to switch to Squarespace because I’m also selling and marketing other products besides my piano studio, and Squarespace has a seamless system that links payments and other selling platforms together. I also love their design and tools.
Each platform will have a certain feel to it, so the best way to find the one you like the most will be to go to their websites and try them out. Once you’ve decided on a platform, it’s time to think about your brand.
BRAND:
Our brand is the image and feeling we want people to get when they think of us/our business. It reflects what you believe in, who you are, what you’re providing, and in what way you’re providing it. Your brand sets you apart from other businesses. For example: I want my website to reflect my personality and inspiration, so I’ve included background photos of nature, chosen a subtle color palette, and use a font that is simple yet different.
If you’re having trouble finding out what your brand is, sit down and write a list of answers to these questions:
-what colors best describe your personality?
-what do you want people to feel when they’re on your website?
-what are some key traits that characterize you? Are you very clean? Adventurous? Quiet?
-what inspires you? Where do you feel the most happy?
-where are your roots? Do you come from a specific culture or region that play a role in how you live and what you believe in?
-what is your strongest belief? This could be a religion, a social cause, and/or preservation of a community/culture, to name a few.
-is there anything from your studio policy or studio beliefs that can transfer into your website design and brand?
Once you have these answers, you’ll have a much better idea of what you want to represent and share with people through your website. You can start playing around with template designs, and in next week’s letter (part two of building your studio website!), I’ll talk about the pages you’ll want to create.
Until then,
Tara