What are some ways that you can grow your business that aligns with your unique vision and studio mission?
Leverage what you already do well and combine that with some effective low-cost marketing strategies, which I’ll tell you about below.
I know you’re up to big things at your dance studio. Before we can go any further into low cost marketing, though, I’m assuming that you:
- Provide quality dance instruction to your students and are aware of your ‘brand’ of dance instruction.
- Have reliable business systems in place for potential and current students to register for classes and participate in everything your studio has to offer.
- Have a solid commitment to customer service and student/parent relations.
- Offer a syllabus that allows for ongoing growth and improvement.
- You and your team are producing successful students at all ages and abilities. This could mean a happy three year old who separates from a parent and fully participates in a 30-minute movement class to a first time dancer moving from beginner ballet to intermediate. Or it could be your star dancer getting accepted into a college program they set their sight on years ago. Not every dancer aspires to be a professional. Know what success means to you and your students at every age and ability.
The fundamentals and basics of any business, especially a dance studio, must be in recognizing where the focus is before you invest your precious time in low cost marketing strategies.
Low Cost Marketing Strategy #1: Logo Items
One of the best purchases you can make in terms of a walking billboard of your business is logo wear and logo items. The options are vast, the best place to find out what would be effective is to ask your current students what they’d be proud to wear around town or at at school. The most popular logo wear items at our studio are zip up hoodies, flannel pants, dance shorts, tanks and tees.
If you cringe at the thought of matching track suits or sporting your logo all over your clothes how about waterbottles, insulated cups, decals, stickers, pens, pencils, reusable tote bags, or backpacks?
Another example, we just had custom coloring pages created with our logo and crayon boxes made for birthday parties and dance camps. Infuse your personality, your studio’s mission and vision, and just have some fun with your logo items.
Low Cost Marketing Strategy #2: Demo Days and Open Houses
Rarely does a new student make a decision on where to take dance lessons based on one point of contact such as a website or brochure alone.
Demo days or open houses at your dance studio are one of the most effective ways to keep new students coming through your door and current students talking about why they dance with you.
One way to take this strategy to the next level is to add a unique theme. At our studio we’ve had everything from an African Zulu Drumming day to a Tap Jam to Hip Hop events and more. You can host an open house on a day you already have classes running and let people observe or tour your facility. What can you celebrate right now? Don’t wait! Now is the perfect time to get the word out about why people would want to take a dance class with you. Again, keep it fun and interesting.
Low Cost Marketing Strategy #3: Friends and Family Appreciation
It doesn’t cost anything to say thank you. Extending your appreciation to your friends and family of your dance studio community feels great.
So many business owners focus an incredible amount of time and money on constantly generating new business. I think that is important, however don’t over look the good will that extending a genuine thank you or we appreciate you can provide. Above and beyond a kind word of thanks you can also extend some special incentives.
At our studio any parent of a child currently taking class will receive 50% off tuition of a class of their choice. This keeps our adult only classes full and gives the parents a tie back to our studio as well. I can’t tell you how many moms say that they love being able to take a jazz class or ballet class again with other parents or adults. This is a retention strategy as well. Not only are the students tied to our studio but the parents love us too!
Some dance studios do a marvelous job promoting the local small businesses of parents of their studio. Where can you publicly thank or praise or acknowledge the work your volunteers provide? This goes way beyond bring a friend to class day, get creative with showing your appreciation for family and friends of your dance studio.
Applications Offline AND Online
Evaluate your current venues for getting the word out about your studio, your students, and the joy of dance. A personal testimonial or recommendation is priceless. People speaking highly of you, your staff, and your programs has power no tangible method of advertising could ever produce.
There is power in letting others know how you positively impact your customer base. This applies to social media too! And it is definitely a tool and platform to add to the list of low cost marketing methods.
Social media done well is an invitation to join your community to work, to play and to celebrate dance education and performance. Demo days, open houses, and guest teacher events are fun to promote and easy to talk about on social media. Plus you can always get the conversation going by saying hello, thank you, and I appreciate you to your followers and fans.
Have video or slide shows to add to a YouTube channel? What about pictures for your Facebook fan page? They are a great way to keep your name out in the community.
Here’s the video from the fun we had last week with the Jason Sadler and Evan White the duo from IWearYourShirt.com wearing the DanceStudioOwner.com logo t-shirt. Again, have fun with social media!
Social Media Can Enhance and Enliven Your Brand
While all the great tweets, interesting posts, thumbs up, friends and likers can enhance and enliven your public image, reputation, and the potential for attracting new students, they will not secure the foundation of your business.
In your approach to social media, I’d like you to take away this thought: Be great with the fundamentals in your business and you’ll find plenty of things to be social about on social media. 
Low cost marketing strategies aren’t complicated, however customizing them to your studio’s vision and mission will make them most effective. In general marketing strategies give the public a chance to see, touch, and experience the spirit, mission and results you produce at your studio without having to make a commitment to registration.
Becoming the talk of the town for all the right reasons will always have the ‘brand equity’ that is priceless.
What have you found to be the most effective way to leverage your dance studio’s identity with low cost marketing methods?
Don’t miss Suzanne at the Dance Teacher Summit in NYC this summer! As a presenter, she’ll be providing even more insight and valuable tips for growing your business.
Latest posts by Suzanne Gerety (see all)
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Great post Suzanne! This is very useful advice for any dance studio owner. The methods that you suggested not only have great, long-lasting benefits, but they make a big impact, at a low cost.
Oh, and I love that video! lol Very cool and funny too! 🙂
Hi Ashani,
Thank you for your comment, you make a great point with the ‘big impact, low cost’. I’ve seen many studio owners spend thousands of hard-earned dollars invest into marketing methods that include over-priced advertising that don’t make sense for what their goals are. Here’s to growing your business by leveraging what you do well!
Yes Suzanne! One of the things I love about social media is that, it really levels the playing field in many ways. Now, businesses of all sizes, big or small, are able to market their businesses in a big way, without breaking the bank!
Hi Suzanne,
This is a fabulous and informative article. Regarding the “Low Cost Marketing Strategy #1: Logo Items,” I’d just like to add that choosing products or apparel that reflect your Studio’s beliefs, values, and mission are very important as well. Your logo is also an important factor.
Fund-raising for your studio and/or for a good cause is also another way to stand out and get your message across to your target market that you are a unique studio.
For more information, You can check out an article on DaceStudioOwner.com “How Do I create a Successful Fundraiser for my Dance Studio?”
http://www.dancestudioowner.com/public/508.cfm
Sincerely,
Karen Silvers
Promo Marketing Expert
Well said Karen, you are a great resource for people – so much experience with what works and doesn’t work when it comes to promotional items. Great reminder about the fundraising as well. There’s a reason you’re the ‘promo marketing expert’! Thank you for the comments.
These are definitely a great set of low cost marketing options for dance studios.
Social media and online video is a great way to market, connect and add value to your studio. Make sure not to forget email marketing which is made quite simple with tools like AWeber and MailChimp.
Hi Carl,
Thanks so much for the comment.
I agree! Email marketing is an important part of the dance business and I appreciate you mentioning it. A great topic for a future post as there are so many details to cover with that, thank you.
Aweber is a great company. I’ve had the wonderful privilege of having some informative lunch meetings and conference events to personally get to know their leadership team. Tom Kulzer and Sean Cohen are the real deal and care about helping businesses grow. I’m a happy client and user of Aweber’s services.
In addition to mail chimp as you recommended, iContact and ConstantContact are popular services as well.
Thanks again Carl for bringing up the tip about email marketing.
Best,
Suzanne
Thanks Carl for posting and mentioning the importance of an email list. Just thought I’d jump in and say that Mail Chimp has been a very good solution for me. I know Aweber is awesome and is rightfully recommended by everyone but I must mention I’ve been happy with the cost and service of Mail Chimp. Suzanne, I do think this would be an interesting post because many studios are probably not using a list as effectively as they could be.
E-mail marketing is a definite must! It’s a great way to keep all of your contacts (including family and friends) up-to-date with what’s going on at your dance studio. I am actually in the process of switching over to MailChimp from Constant Contact. It seems to be the most cost-effective option (it’s free lol). Constant Contact has been great though, so I guess it’s just a matter of preference. I don’t know too much about AWeber, but if Suzanne uses it, it must be pretty great as well.
Hi Ashani,
Thanks for sharing your experience as well, three cheers for email marketing when it’s done well. Just to clarify, many of the services out there offer free sending when you have under 500 subscribers. However, even with Mail Chimp and Aweber when you hit various subscriber numbers the pricing kicks in.
Mail Chimp: http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/view-all
Aweber: http://www.aweber.com/pricing.htm
Certainly email marketing is a much more affordable contact method. One stamp is $0.44.
The key is in the value and content being sent as well.
The other aspect to consider is single versus double opt in.
Again, this is shaping up to be a great topic for further discussion!
Suzanne
What great helpful tips would like to hear more.