Dance Teacher Resources

Grow your enrolments in 2011

Marketing Tips for Dance Studios

Targeted Marketing
Determine your target market. Is it senior students, beginners, young teens, tiny tots? Where does your market live and go to school/work? This will help you to aim your marketing efforts at the right prospects, and achieve better results.

What is your target market interested in? Little children beginner classes featuring fairy dances and costumes? Adult beginner classes featuring Pilates and fitness workouts? Highly technical professional ballet classes? Hip Hop and Funk classes with attitude?

Make sure to emphasize what your market is interested in with all your marketing efforts. Keep a common message that is easy to adopt by a potential student or parent.

Then aim your marketing efforts at this group by thinking about where they live, work, study and what they like to do.

Pamphlet Drops – Do’s/Don’ts and Tips
Don’t just waste time and money on huge pamphlet letterbox drops and adverts in local papers. Make sure that people who could be interested in dance and what you have to offer actually live in the area and/or read that paper. For example, if you are looking to achieve more ‘tiny tot’ enrolments, why not target your marketing effort at primary schools and day care centres? Many schools will let you advertise in their school newsletter for a small fee, or allow you to place a pamphlet in it. And many day care centres have pigeon holes for all the parents, which can make a perfect place to do a targeted pamphlet drop. This can also be a great way to attract Mum’s for adult classes.

If you’re looking to enroll more teenagers, contact local high schools and see if you can put posters up and advertise in their school newsletter. Ask if you can guest teach at the school or help out as part of a dance or PE program, or with an eisteddfod or school musical. This can be a great way to get to know some students and tell them about your school.

An inexpensive way to advertise can also be to place posters on local notice boards at hair dressers and doctor surgeries in close proximity to the school. Ask if you can put some pamphlets on the coffee table. People will read them when they are bored waiting for the doctor!

Website and Online Advertising Tips
Do you have a website? Is it attractive, easy to navigate and informative? In today’s information society, people of all ages are on the internet for hours each day – at school, home, work, at libraries. Everyone now has access to the internet and its usage is increasing daily. Instead of picking up a Yellow Pages or directory, people are increasingly searching online for what they need – including dance classes. Having a strong and professional internet presence is a must. If you don’t have a website, it is time to get one!

These days websites can be very inexpensive and quick and easy to set up, and there are people everywhere with the skills to build websites. Just ask around and get a great deal.

If you already have a website – is it up to date? Does it look fresh and inviting? With the new year just starting, now is the time to update your website. Make sure that you include helpful features such as time tables and links to Whereis.com or Google Maps where a map can be shown. Include teacher histories and resumes and many professional photographs. An achievements section that highlights student and studio achievements can also help build a strong reputation for your school and attract interest. The more information the better, but make sure it is laid out in an easy to read manner with the use of only 1-3 different fonts at most, left alignment and no flashing and distracting boxes and images. The easier to read, the better. Carefully placed moving slide show like images (referred to as Flash) can be effective if done correctly, but gone are the days of flashing words everywhere! It just looks messy and tacky, so steer clear!

Now that you have a website, are you directing people to it?
There is no point having a site if no-one knows your web address and can’t find it easily on the internet through a search, such a Google or Yahoo. You need to make the most of the investment in your website by directing people to it. A great way to do this is to advertise on inexpensive dance related websites that draw dancers, and those interested in dance, to your website. An example of this is School Find, an effective and far reaching service by Dance Informa. To view School Find click here. School Find allows you to advertise your studio with a full business listing, promotional blurb and logo, all acting as a direct link to your website. School Find is not just a list, it is a targeted description of your studio with direct hotlinks to your website and email. Dance informa magazine directs over 40,000 readers with an interest in dance to School Find, plus building links for your site on reputable websites such as Dance Informa assists you to achieve a higher ranking in search engines and give internet goers further avenues to find your site.

Contact advertise@danceinforma.com to find out more about School Find.