With the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the loose these days, it’s becoming difficult to attract customers to your studio. The quarantine has not been serving business well lately all around the world. However, this shouldn’t stop you from trying to promote your studio and finding a good medium price for your services that your clients will accept. Keep in mind the recording studio business is extremely competitive and unless you have a solid formation, it will be difficult to make a decent profit. When all is done, you would be the one at an advantage considering that now is the time to be creating pricing and advertising strategies. So let’s get started shall we?
Supply and Demand
The first thing that you need to be thinking about right now is what you can supply and what your customers are demanding, this will also include knowing who you are targeting, if it’s tourists, locals, professionals, or teenagers just starting out. This is the basis of coming up with a solid marketing and pricing plan for your studio. When you come up with a list of these things, try to look at your competition and see what they are supplying. This will allow you to see if you have any competitive edge and also be aware of any disadvantages you might have.
Once you identify exactly what you can supply, try coming up with a unique selling point. This is something that you can do that almost none of your competitors can and is unique only to your studio. Make sure that this unique selling point is in high demand as well!
Setting the Right Price
When people choose a recording studio to go to, they often think about the quality and the price. Now let’s assume you have already come up with something that customers are demanding as well as a unique selling point. Now you don’t want to make your services over-priced. To make sure of that, take a look at other studios around your area and how much they’re charging and try to compete with that. Always be aware of any price changes happening in the market. Do you want to be an affordable budget studio with low prices? Or do you want to be a specialized and large project-oriented studio with high prices? This can make a huge difference when coming up with a pricing strategy.
When doing a quick google search, prices range from $30/h for budget studios to $100/h for professional studios. This does vary however depending on the aforementioned factors. A budget studio typically works on smaller, less time-consuming projects while a specialized studio works on custom time-consuming projects. Specializing in one will solidify your business accordingly within the market so make sure you take into consideration what studio you want to be.
Active Promotions
It’s extremely important to know how your clients will know that your studio.. exists.. that entirely depends on how well you’re able to promote it. Do you want to invest in Google Advertisements? Or maybe you want to promote publicly to your neighborhood by using flyers. Social media marketing is on the rise these days as well, with more and more people looking for business on Instagram for example. Typically you will want to set a marketing budget, or you may not want to spend anything at all on marketing and just use social media. Whatever platform you choose, it will fundamentally only work if the content of your advertisement accurately represents your brand. On instagram, it’s important to gain a following and have consistent posts. This also includes proper and accurate use of hashtags.
A good advertisement will highlight your strengths and unique selling points very briefly and will signify your brand using subconscious design branding. We will talk about branding shortly. For now, it’s very important to come up with a way to visit your website/social media. This can be done by plugging your information within the ad. If you are a budget studio you might also want to include your low prices in the advertisement. This is to make sure that potential customers will be more inclined to visit you. As a specialized and highly professional studio, you might want to focus more on your specializations instead of the price though.
Branding
With so many recording studio businesses in town, why is it that some stand out while others are known to be just like the rest? The answer to that lies within their branding ability. Branding is being known as the business to do a certain service in the best way possible out of its competitors. What can your business do the best out of the other options? If your answer is nothing, then that’s where your problem lies. To market well is to create value, marketing is half business and half art. Your brand is highlighted by your advertisements, your advertisements should include what you want to be known for. If your view on your brand doesn’t align with your customers’ view, then that is also another problem.
That’s not it though, you have to PROVE your excellency at your domain even after getting your first few customers. Many home recording businesses tend to forget about showing the clients why they are the best at something, after all word-of-mouth is statistically the most efficient way at gaining more customers. To add just a little bit more recognition to your brand, try out subconscious design branding. This focuses on creating a logo or a trademark that can be recognized anywhere. Think of famous logos and why they are the way they are. Select a simple, and minimalistic logo that will make people say “Oh, that’s this recording studio!”.
Pricing Method
Many home recording studios often struggle to pick out the method in which they should be pricing their clients? Will it be per-project? Hourly? Daily? The most popular choice by far tends to be the hourly rate. That’s because customers vary in how much time they take to finish up a project. A well rehearsed client might take less time than a client that is not rehearsed, charging both of them the same price for your time does not seem like a good idea, especially when some clients might arrive late to your studio . An hourly rate encourages your customers and yourself to be time efficient and as a result you will be able to take in more customers.
Conclusion
You have now set yourself up for success. Your prices compete well and your advertisements are bringing in clients that you can prove yourself to so that they can recommend your studio to others. There’s something else that you have to remember though, people aren’t here for your studio, they are here for YOU and YOUR professionalism. You are charging for YOUR time not for your gear. At the end of the day, the environment of a studio is determined by the owner of that studio. Creating a friendly and professional workspace is essential to keeping your customers happy. Remember to prioritize training yourself instead of investing in better equipment, that’s the best way to create a better value for your home studio. To read up more on studio environment and atmosphere make sure to head over to Mello Studio’s website.
