More on advertising...

[Avery Todd]

Rob,

   Do you do any tuning for the orchestra?

>What about placing an ad in the program of the local symphony
>orchestra?  We have a rather impressive symphony here that regularly
>hosts many well known pianists. Has anyone placed this type of
>advertisment? Any kind of worth while response???
>
>Just wondering,
>
>Rob Godale, RPT

   This probably isn't the same as what you're asking but when I started
doing the tunings for the local symphony in San Angelo, TX (where I used to
live), I was still fairly new in town and trying to build more business. I
offered to tune for free in return for them placing a line at the bottom of
the program page when there was a pianist (not buried somewhere in the list
of contributors) saying "Pianos tuned and maintained by Avery Todd".
Something along that line. Any extra work like voicing, regulating, etc. was
to be paid for.
   The remainder of the season, they could put my name wherever. It succeeded
in getting me a fair amount of the "better" pianos' owners in town as
customers. I didn't mind doing this because they normally only had one
pianist per season. Occasionally none. But there is also a (semi) major
competition the symphony sponsors every year. I usually got app. 6-8
full-price tunings out of that.
   Also, there were a lot of smaller towns around San Angelo. One that I
used to go to was about a 3-hr. drive away and I went there twice a year.
A local piano teacher there handled everything for me, including placing
an ad in the local paper about 2-3 weeks ahead of my arrival date. In
return for doing this, taking all the calls, arranging appointments, etc.,
I tuned her two pianos for free. She also taught music in the public school
system, so I got those, too.
   Large churches are also a good source of business. Most Baptist churches
(and some others) have a piano in almost every room. A large part of my
business was First Baptist, Methodist & Presbyterian churches and others.
There were also calls and referrals from their members.
   I always had a small listing in the yellow pages but I still believe the
best long term advertising is word of mouth. Hopefully, of the good kind. :-)

Avery