In this portfolio I have listed some of the promotional material and other necessary resources that I have produced to aid the set-up and functionality of my career as a freelance musician.
Business card:
Pictured is one of the business cards I will use to promote myself. I used a simple black and white theme over the top of an image of my guitar to make my service apparent at a glance, while maintaining a clear and easy to read aesthetic. Additionally I have purposefully left the opposite side of the card in a flat white colour so that I am able to write information such as appointments on them when necessary.
Business cards I feel are essential to the nature of my work as I can keep some on my person all of the time, and they come in especially useful when I find myself performing at events. This is the perfect opportunity for me to advertise myself as people will be able to physically see my technical ability, and I can strike up a conversation with them in person which I feel is more effective than communicating through emails or texts.
Additionally, It only costs around £15 to £20 to produce 100 business cards. this means that if only 1 out of the 100 cards leads to a new client they have still paid for themselves as they’re the same price as what I’ll earn from one lesson.
Social Media Pages:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dan.greenhalgh.guitar
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dan.greenhalgh.guitar/
My Facebook and Instagram pages are connected to each other, allowing me to post to both places simultaneously. This is a useful feature as my pages look cohesive and maintain a level of professionality in their posts.
I chose to use Facebook and Instagram as promotional platforms for my work as they provide me with such a large audience. Facebook has approximately 2.8 billion active users a month as of the fourth quarter of 2020 (Facebook MAU Worldwide 2020 – Statista, 2021.) and Instagram reached 1 billion active users in June of 2018. (Number of Monthly Active Instagram Users – Statista 2021)
I have decided to use these platforms to promote myself for a multitude of reasons that I have explained below:
With so many users on these social platforms, it is almost considered essential that businesses have some kind of presence on them as it is an easy way to connect to your target audience and communicate with them directly.
Instagram in particular is a useful advertising tool as you can use hashtags and location tags on your posts, which in turn push those posts towards people who follow those categories.
Advertising on social media has many advantages, for example the ability to promote a service or product to a large scale audience for a very small cost. One of the most important developments in online advertising is the existence of targeted advertisements. Essentially this means advertisements are pushed towards a target audience strongly as current websites and social platforms collect data about their users, allowing them to understand what advertisements may interest certain users.
Facebook provides it’s users with analytics that show your page’s reach and how effective your promoting is. This can help you improve your reach further by having a visual representation of what posts or advertisements perform well.
Website:
Here is a link to my website:
https://danielgreenhalgh20.wixsite.com/dangreenhalghmusic
Due to how crowded the internet is with web pages, a website isn’t always an effective marketing tool for small businesses and freelance workers. I do believe it is necessary for me to have one however, as it adds a level of professionality to my services. It includes a small section about who I am and my career so far which is useful for me to direct potential clients towards if they are seeking additional information about what I do and wish to see examples of my work.
A website also serves as an additional way for people to contact me directly which is always a good thing for any business.
Online Teacher Profile:
A useful tool for many private tutors are sites such as MusicTeachers.co.uk. I am making a profile for my services on here with links to all of my other online platforms as another method of promoting myself.
I’m choosing to use this site as it allows people to filter through private music tutors by their instruments, genre, and their location. This is perfect as it aims to advertise you to potential clients in your local area, rather than potentially worldwide as social media platforms tend to do.
Another plus to using this is I can see other tutors in my area and better understand how saturated it is with private tuition. This can therefore inform my marketing further by help me to stand out against other more local tutors.
Enhanced DBS Check:
As I will be teaching and working with people of all ages and backgrounds, it was essential that I got an enhanced DBS check as legal proof that I am fit to work with under 18s and other vulnerable people. This was a fairly easy process to complete as the Musicians Union have all the details on obtaining one on their website. While I cannot show my own DBS on my blog, I have linked the page that showed me how to obtain it.
https://dbscheckonline.org.uk/ also offer these services, however I went through the Musicians Union as it was more appropriate due to the nature of my work.
Lesson Plans:
Due to my lessons being one on one, I tailor every lesson to the student based on things like what they want to learn, and how advanced they are currently. This means I rarely use a set lesson plan as every student requires something different.
I do however plan out chord sheets and charts before a lesson so that I can go through it with my students in person. To do this I made an account on https://www.chordsheet.com/ as it allows me to quickly edit sheets from my PC and ensure they are all easily readable with clear text.
Here is an example of a sheet I have made to practice using the site:
Risk Assessment:
Below is a risk assessment I have made to help minimise the risk of any hazards or injuries while working:
GDPR Form:
To promote my business I feel as though it’s a good idea to use images and videos of students performing to showcase their progression, and what my work is all about. To ensure that it is appropriate for me to do so, I have made a GDPR form so that I have proof of consent from students or their carers for me to upload media to promote my business and show off their talents and progression.
Bibliography:
Biscoe, C., 2020. How to Write a GDPR Data Privacy Notice – Free Template. [online] IT Governance UK Blog. Available at: <https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/how-to-write-a-gdpr-privacy-notice-with-documentation-template-example>
Musiciansunion.org.uk. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://musiciansunion.org.uk/working-performing/music-teaching/safeguarding-and-child-protection-in-education/disclosure-and-barring-service-england-and-wales>
Tankovska, H., 2021. Facebook MAU worldwide 2020 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/>
Tankovska, H., 2021. Instagram: age distribution of global audiences 2021 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/#:~:text=With%20roughly%20one%20billion%20monthly,million%20million%20Instagram%20users%20each.> [Accessed 22 March 2021].
Marotta, V., Zhang, K. and Acquist, A., n.d. Who Benefits from Targeted Advertising?. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Mellon University.