Best practice: Everything JustinGuitar does right from a marketing perspective

If you’ve ever googled ‘how to play the guitar’, chances are you’ve come across JustinGuitar, and for a good reason! London-based Justin Sandercoe has over 1,100 videos uploaded to his YouTube channel and has earned himself a following of over 1.72 million subscribers as we speak. What makes him stand out in our digital age where anyone can upload free guitar tutorials to the internet? His dexterity goes way beyond his guitar and teaching skills, as Justin clearly knows a thing or two about marketing as well. Let’s dive into the five things JustinGuitar does right to ethically and organically promote his brand.

#1 All levels welcome!

No (wo)man gets left behind in Justin’s guitar course, because he doesn’t pretentiously assume everyone already knows how to strum a basic D chord. Instead, he dials it way back in his Grade 1 Beginner Course and put together a handful of videos teaching beginners how to tune and hold their guitars, how to hold a pick, how to strum, and what a capo is.
A competent instructor understands where his students are coming from and hands them the tools to start learning at their own pace, whether they’re a complete beginner or simply want to brush up on the basics.

#2 Introducing: Nitsuj

While Justin goes great lengths to assure his lessons are beginner-friendly, it’d be easy for an experienced player to lose touch with a complete beginner’s needs and struggles. To combat this, he breathed life into a simple yet brilliant concept: he taught himself how to play the guitar from scratch, but this time, left-handed! This way, Justin became his own guinea pig – appropriately called ‘Nitsuj’ – and was reminded of the challenges he had to overcome forty-something years ago, back when he was a complete newbie to guitar himself.

#3 Guitar roadmap

Learning a new skill can be incredibly overwhelming, and Justin picked up on that whilst scrolling through his YouTube comments. Apart from his tutorials, he also offers a lesson plan (divided into grades and modules), so his students never have to worry about figuring out what to learn first. On top of that, he suggests songs to practice at the end of each module, and even how long viewers should practice certain skills before moving on to the next module or grade.

#4 It’s called playing the guitar, not working the guitar

You’ll often hear Justin say “Practice makes permanent, so practice perfectly”. Well, the man’s got a point! Justin is fine with his students not following the practice routines to a tee, as long as they master whatever it is they’re learning perfectly before diving into the next challenge. He’s not hard on his students; some people have busy jobs and Justin understands those people would rather strum a few of their favourite songs before bedtime instead of learning how to play the C major scale up and down the guitar neck. In other words, Justin always keeps it real and finds ways to make practice fun to better assist his students in their learning journey.

#5 The power of free content

Many creators want to make a dime right off the bat. Not only was Justin a pioneer in the online guitar teaching world, he’s never shied away from creating free content either. Sandercoe is adamant about getting his viewers to know, like, and trust him first before selling to them. He makes learning how to play the guitar accessible and knows that when the time’s right and his students are ready to invest in, say, an in-depth course about music theory, he’ll be top of mind and his audience will happily support him.

Thank you for all your hard work, Justin. It’s not lost on us.