How to promote your dance class | Introduction
In this article you’re going to learn the foundations for how to promote your dance class so that you can pack your dance classes with new students!
If you understand these principles described here, you will be able to get new students whenever you desire.
By using these principles, I was able to attract 20-30 new students per month, every month, in my own dance studio…
And I’ve helped other dance studio owners do the same...
So, whether you’re a brand new dance studio owner looking to start filling up your dance classes…
Or, you already have a well established dance studio, and you want to keep growing…
The principles for bringing in new students are the same.
Want us to help you get more students?
We help dance studio owners get more students through marketing and automation.
Book a free strategy call with us, and we’ll be happy to show you the different strategies that you can implement in your studio to pack your dance classes!
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How to promote your dance class and get more students
As dance studio owners, we got into this business because of passion.
We love dance, we love teaching, and we love to make a difference in our students lives!
What we didn’t know is how much effort and work it takes to actually run, and maintain a dance studio!
There’s no dance studio owner university that teaches you how to run a dance studio, how to get more students, how to do our marketing, etc…
In fact the majority of us just opened up our doors, prayed, and hoped for the best!
I was there myself for 5 years...
Earning $1,300 every month as a dance instructor…
Then I decided to take the leap of faith and do my own thing.
And, I didn’t know what I was doing…
Thankfully I found a couple of business and marketing teachers that shared wisdom through their books, videos, courses, seminars…
I was desperate enough to pay attention, and do what they were saying,
And it WORKED!
So, I’m going to share with you here a few questions that you need to answer, so that you can start putting together a marketing plan!
Let’s dive in.
Who do you want to attract?
Your marketing plan starts here.
The is the FIRST question that you need to ask yourself is:
Who is your dream client?
Immediately, as you read that you might think “everyone is my client…”
Think about it, if you run a dance studio for kids, you want parents or grandparents who want their kids to learn how to dance…
Maybe these parents want their children to do something healthy, and learn discipline.
Or, maybe they want their kids to stop playing video games so much, or stop being shy…
On the other hand, you can be Latin dance studio owner, where you focus on teaching salsa to adults…
In which case, your ideal clients can be higher income senior citizens looking to pick up a new hobby to stay healthy…
Or maybe it is young professionals that want to do something fun after work, de-stress, and meet new people!
Perhaps you own a dance studio that caters more to women’s fitness.
Ultimately, the first step for you is to decide who is your ideal client…
Think about what kind of qualities this person has.
Once you have someone in mind, we can move on to the next step.
Why do they want to take dance lessons?
Once you have figured out who your ideal client is, the next question that you need to figure out is:
“Why do they want to take dance lessons?”
Think about your ideal client’s motivations.
Why would they go to take dance classes, instead of any other activities they can do?
If you run a dance studio that’s focused on women’s fitness/cardio dance classes, then think about the women who would attend your classes.
Why would they attend fitness dance classes?
Maybe because they want to get a good workout in, they find the gym really boring, but they love to dance!
If you own a dance studio for kids, think about why a parent might take their children to a dance class.
Perhaps they want their kid to develop coordination, body awareness, grace, poise, elegance, confidence…
Or maybe they have a kid at home who just loves to dance whenever the music comes on!
So, grab a sheet of paper, put yourself in your ideal client’s shoes, and write down ALL the possible reasons why your ideal client might want to take dance lessons.
If you have students already, next time you go to the studio, ask them why they started taking dance lessons, and write down their answers.
Write down AT LEAST, 10 answers, but the more answers you can come up with the better!
Why would they BENEFIT from taking dance lessons at YOUR studio?
Now that you have the motivations of your ideal client to take dance lessons, the next question you need to answer is:
“Why would they BENEFIT from coming to my studio? Why wouldn’t they go to another studio down the road?”
Notice the way I asked the question…
I’m asking for the BENEFITS of them coming to YOUR studio.
The reason I’m not just asking for what makes your dance studio unique is because you’ll start to think selfishly about your studio, and you’ll come up with a list like this:
- We have really high ratings
- Our teachers are amazing
- We offer the best dance program in the city
- Our studio is a family!
While all those things might be true, they are not enough to convince someone why they should go to your studio…
Let me give you a completely unrelated example…
Think about Domino’s Pizza, and let’s ask the same question about them for a second…
“What makes your pizza restaurant unique?”
They would have said “We’re the fastest at making and delivering pizza!”
Now, even if that were true, it’s still not very clear why that’s a BENEFIT to the customer…
If you were to see an advertising message from Domino’s saying
“Hi, we’re Domino’s and we’re the fastest at making and delivering pizza”
It’s not very persuasive.
What can they do to change it?
Instead of focusing on themselves, if they focused on their unique BENEFITS they can give their customers, they would be a lot more persuasive...
What benefits do their customers receive from them being “the fastest at making and delivering pizza”?
The customer can get their pizza, fresh and hot, at their door in 30 minutes or less…
Isn’t that way more powerful, and much more persuasive?
Imagine again seeing an advertising message from Domino’s that says:
“Hi, we’re Domino’s Pizza. We’re the fastest at making and delivering pizza, which means that if you order with us, you’ll have your pizza, fresh and hot, at your door in 30 minutes or less!”
Do you see how much more persuasive and clear that is?
Back to your studio
Instead of selfishly focusing on yourself, and why YOUR studio is so great…
Think about why your unique studio qualities would be a BENEFIT for your students!
Now, your list might look something like this:
- “We offer the largest variety of dance styles in the city, which means that your kid can try all the different dance classes, and see what dance style fits his/her personality best!”
- “We’re the highest rated dance school in the city because our classes are the most FUN! Which means that if you come to our studio, you’re guaranteed to have a blast!”
So, go back to your sheet of paper and write down what makes your dance studio special, and why someone might BENEFIT from that!
What offer can you give them that they would not be able to resist, so that they come and try your studio?
Next, you’re going to need a way to incentivize people so that they come and give your studio a try.
A simple way to do this is by giving them an offer that allows them to try out your studio risk free!
Here’s a few offers that you can use:
- 1 free class
- 1 free week of unlimited classes
- 50% Off the first month of unlimited classes
- Buy 3 months, and get 3 months for free
- 2 classes for $2
All of these offers have been proven to work, although, the free offers are usually the ones that get the most responses.
What this will do is give people a low risk way of trying out your classes, as well as giving you an opportunity to WOW them with great service, and allow you to sell them a package or a membership when they do show up at your studio!
How To Promote Your Dance Class | WRITE DOWN YOUR ADVERTISING MESSAGE
Now that you know who the ideal client you want to attract is, why they want to take dance lessons, why they would benefit from coming to YOUR studio, and a great offer…
It’s time to put everything together, and write down your advertising message.
But, first, let me share with you a copywriting formula that will make it easy for you to write this message.
Call Out Your Ideal Client + Reasons they want to learn how to dance + Offer + Benefits From Coming to your studio + Offer + Call to action.
Let me show you an example of an advertising message using this formula…
Chicago Parents! If you have a kid who loves to dance at home whenever the music is on… I want to invite you to bring him/her to us to try 1 WEEK for FREE here at our studio!
Right now, we’re giving away 25 FREE 1-Week Unlimited Class Passes, so that you can experience our amazing studio!
Dancing allows your kid to develop confidence, and coordination!
Plus, we have the largest selection of dance styles in the city, which means that you will find a class here that your kid enjoys!
Again, come try a full week on us!
Click the button below to get your free 1-week unlimited class pass before they run out!
Let’s Break That Message Down:
Call out your ideal client: Chicago Parents!
Reasons they want to learn how to dance: If you have a kid who loves to dance at home whenever the music is on…
Offer: I want to invite you to bring him/her to us to try 1 WEEK for FREE here at our studio!
Right now, we’re giving away 25 FREE 1-Week Unlimited Class Passes, so that you can experience our amazing studio!
Benefits From Coming to your studio: Dancing allows your kid to develop confidence, and coordination!
Plus, we have the largest selection of dance styles in the city, which means that you will find a class here that your kid enjoys!
Offer: Again, come try a full week on us!
Call to action: Click the button below to get your free 1-week unlimited class pass before they run out!
It’s Your Turn
You see how the formula works.
Now it is your turn to take all the information that you’ve gathered so far, and write it in the form of an advertising message, that will persuade someone to come to your studio.
By the way, if you want an in depth guide that will show you more about writing good advertising messages that help you get lots of students…
Check our blog post:
“Dance Studio Ad: Recipes For Writing Your Dance School Advertisement”
How To Promote Your Dance Class | WHERE DO YOU SHOW YOUR MESSAGE AND YOUR OFFER SO PEOPLE CAN SEE IT?
Now that you have your advertising message written, you need to get this message out into the world so that your ideal clients have a chance to see it!
Here are several places that you can put this message in so that people can see it:
- Your website
- Social media pages
- Organic social media posts
- Facebook/Instagram advertisement
- Google advertisement
- Business Cards
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Banners
Now, your message WILL vary depending on where you put it…
For example:
If you do an instagram post with a picture of your students, then on the captions you might say…
“Sunday Funday dance classes here with the students!...
If you’re someone who’s always wanted to learn how to dance…
Come try out a free class at our studio!
We’re the highest rated dance school in the city, which means that other people guarantee you’re going to have a blast!
Click the link on the bio, fill out your name, phone number and email, so that you can get a free class pass to come and try out any class you like!”
On the other hand, if you were to write an advertisement message on a business card, it would have to be much smaller…
So maybe it can me something like this:
“Want your kid to learn how to dance? Come try a week for free at our studio!”
Always remember to make it about the benefits the ideal client receives by coming to your studio, not about how great you are...
Once you learn these principles of writing persuasive messages, you will learn how to promote a dance studio and get more students in any platform!
The goal is to get their contact information, not make a sale (at first)
When you put up your message on all the platforms mentioned above, the goal is to get someone’s contact information NOT to make a sale at first.
For example, if you’re passing out business cards, the goal is not to get money from the person who you’re passing out the business card to… (I mean, that would be awesome, but it doesn’t happen that way)
What you should focus instead, is on getting that person's name, phone number, and email so that you can follow up with them!
The same thing happens online.
On your website, you need to have a way for you to collect someone’s contact information.
Your Facebook, Instagram, and Google advertisement should send people to a landing page, which is a simple page designed to get people’s information.
(If you want help setting up your website so that it collects people’s information, book a free strategy call, and we’ll help you out!)
In fact, that’s the reason why most people do not succeed with advertisement…
They simply pay to promote an advertisement message on Facebook or Instagram, and hope that students show up at their studios and enroll themselves.
It doesn’t work that way.
How To Promote Your Dance Class | FOLLOW UP LIKE CRAZY!
The money is IN THE FOLLOW UP.
It’s said that most sales happen between the 5-12th time that you talk to a customer!
So, when someone gives you their contact information, you need to start following up.
I usually prefer to follow up mostly through text because it’s easy and convenient for people to respond to, but you can do it through calls as well.
Here is all the follow up that you need to do:
(TEXT) - Thank you for your interests, here’s our schedule and our address, what day works best for you?
(TEXT) - Appointment confirmation telling them that you saved them a spot for that day they picked
(TEXT) - 24 hours before their trial class, text them telling them “see you tomorrow at the studio!”
(TEXT) - The morning of the trial class you need to text them to see if they are still coming, or if they want to reschedule.
(CALL) - If they didn’t answer their text, then give them a call.
(TEXT) - 1 hour before their class, send them a picture of your building front so that they know what to look out for.
(CALL + TEXT) - In the case that they don’t answer you, they cancel their appointment, or they don't show… You need to keep following them to get them rescheduled!
The best part about this whole process is that most of these text messages can be AUTOMATED!
If you want to learn how to do that, book a free strategy call with us, and we’ll show you how!
How To Promote Your Dance Class | FALL IN LOVE WITH SELLING
Once you have people showing up at your studio from all the marketing and promotion that you have done…
You need to sell them.
What I mean is, you need to get them to enroll and pay for a package, or a membership.
Essentially, this is the part that matters!
You could have done amazing work at writing an amazing advertising message, got thousands of people to see it, and followed up like crazy…
But, if you don’t sell them when they show up to your studio, you’re not going to make any money.
Personally, I hated selling.
I hated asking people to give me money because at that time I was making very little money, and couldn’t afford many things!
So I had convinced myself that taking money from someone is going to make them more poor and me more rich…
Or that somehow asking people to pay for my dance classes cheapened the experience because I should be doing it for the passion of it.
Those are all false beliefs, and if you have them, you need to get rid of them because they will definitely limit you…
But, that’s a topic for another blog post!
How To Promote Your Dance Class | Conclusion
In this article you learned what it takes to promote your dance studio.
You learned how to write an advertising message that helps you promote your dance studio and helps you attract your ideal clients.
Then, you learned that you need to share that advertising message on all the platforms…
And that the goal is for you to get someone’s contact information so that you can follow up with them.
Last, once someone shows up at your dance studio, you need to persuade them to enroll in your studio, and pay you for your dance classes!
Now, you might be thinking:
“Wow! This is A LOT of work!”
And the truth is that it is!
It’s TONS of work…
BUT, if you want to have a successful dance studio, this is what it takes.
This is the same process I used to get our dance studio to make over 6 figures in our first year, and I have helped other dance studios do the same!
So, if you don’t like to work…
Then maybe working as a dance instructor for another dance studio might be the way to go…
Or talk to us, and we’ll be happy to help you out!
5 Free Ways To Promote Dance Classes
If you want to attract more students into your dance studio…
Here are 5 FREE ways to promote your dance classes:
https://getmorestudents.net/dance-studio-marketing/5-free-ways-to-promote-dance-classes/
In this article you will learn different marketing strategies that will help you pack your dance classes!
Want us to help you get more students?
We’re experts at promoting dance studios and packing dance classes with students.
If you want us to help you, book a free strategy call, and let’s talk!