This Could Be Why You've Been Struggling To Land Paid Projects
I made this video so can see you how easy it is to build a basic website for your home studio. It's not hard, and it doesn't take any special skills or money to do this.
There are ZERO excuses not to have a website for your audio work in today's world. If you doubt the importance, feel free to read the rest of this article.
Click Here To Start Building Your Website
Click Here To Start The Full (Free) Website Course
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Why It's So Hard to Find Paid Work For Your Studio
The other day one of my students took me out to lunch, and we had a fantastic conversation about word-of-mouth advertisement and networking for home studios.
He's been at this for a while, and has already had some repeat customers with his studio, but he's having trouble gaining new clients.
To fix this, he had been busting his ass networking around town to land some new clients, but he wasn't gaining much traction.
This can be extremely disheartening for most people, as it takes tons of mental energy to “whore yourself around town” like this (I say this in a good way haha).
The Problem
Most people don't think about what's really involved when it comes to gaining a new client.
Whether the potential client was someone you talked to directly (networking), or they were recommended to you by someone else (word-of-mouth), the process is pretty much identical.
Here's an easy-to-follow guide that explains the basics of how someone can go from a complete stranger to a paying customer.
1. One of your past clients recommends a potential client to you or You meet a potential client at a gig and give them your card (you do have cards for your studio, right?)
-This is the first time they've heard of you or your studio
-They want to learn more about you, so…
2. The potential client Googles your name (or your studio's name).
-If you gave them a card, your website should be on it so they can skip this step. You want to remove as many steps in this process as possible.
3. What did the potential client find when they Googled your name?
-If they only found your personal facebook, they won't learn much about your studio.
-If they only find your studio's facebook page, they won't take you seriously – you just look like a “low value” amateur to them. This is, unfortunately, the case for most studios.
-If they only find articles about a murderer, you're fucked. (kind of like me – just google “Brian Hood”)
-If they actually find your studio's website, well then holy shit! You've met their expectations so far…
4. The potential client found your studio's website. Great. Now what?
-Does your website look good?
-Is it professional enough that you come across as a “premium service?”
-Can the potential client easily listen to your past work?
-Can they find photos of your studio? Do the photos look professional?
-Can they find more information about your experience as a producer/mixer/fuckboy/whatever?
-CAN THEY EASILY CONTACT YOU FOR A QUOTE? (you do want their money, right?)
5. Assuming you haven't screwed up the previous two steps, you now have a quote request sitting in your inbox.
-From here, you just have to deal with the thousand of other factors that come into not ruining this opportunity to record/mix/master/whatever this new band.
My Advice
So after breaking this down to my student over our delicious lunch, he realized that he had been cheating himself out of potential work just because he didn't have a basic sales funnel set up to capture the existing leads that wanted to contact him.
Bands had been googling his studio's name, and finding nothing.
No quote request form.
No portfolio of his past work.
No discography.
No way to see what services he offered.
No contact info.
The only bands that ever actually contacted him for a quote were the few that went out of their way to ask a mutual friend for his number.
This has been going on for years, which means potentially hundreds of bands had looked him up online and either…
A: Moved on because they didn't like what they found or…
B: Moved on because they couldn't easily contact him.
Don't assume every single band will scour the internet for hours just to find your contact info.
People have short attention spans, and if they have the intent to seek you out for a quote request, you'd better have a system in place to capture those quote requests before they lose interest or get distracted.
If you fail to do this, not only costing yourself money but you're impeding the growth of your studio.
Why Am I Being So Dramatic?
I've seen one band send me as many as 15 more bands to work with.
Each of those 15 bands then sent me 1 to 3 more bands (and so on)
If I didn't have my website set up and ready to accept quote requests, I could have easily missed out on that first band.
Let me really drive this point into your head:
This simply means that by missing out on one quote request from one key band, it could cost you tens of thousands of dollars in lost work.
It's not just a money thing, either. Missing out on one “anchor band” at the wrong time can be the difference between “making it” and never really gaining any traction with your studio.
Has This Been Happening To You?
Think about it…right this second, can a band easily contact you for a quote request?
Can a band find a collection of your past work to help them determine if you're the right fit for their sound?
Can they even see what services your studio offers?
Even if you're new at this and have never been paid for recording before, this is your chance to stand apart from your competition.
For anyone that takes their studio's success seriously, I took away all obstacles for creating your studio's website.
I spent 2 weeks creating an entire course that walks you through the entire process of creating your website from start to finish.
You don't need any sort of technical skills, and you don't even need money to start building your site.
The entire course is free, and available now to watch.
This mini-course consists of 10 videos that explain how to build each section of your studio's website.
If you follow along with all the videos, you'll have a professional website before the end of the day.
Ready to start?
1. Click Here To Watch My Free Course On Building Your Recording Studio's Website (this is 100% free, and always will be).
2. Click Here To Start Building Your Website (disclosure: This is an affiliate link)
You have no excuses about getting a website created for your studio. Even a tempory placeholder site to collect quote requests is better than nothing.
If you have questions about any of this, or if you need any help, just leave a comment at the bottom of this page! Also, I'll be more than happy to critique your new website if you post a link in the comments.
