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Suzannah
08-28-2008, 12:57 AM
Hi all,

I am writing on behalf of a friend who owns a dance studio for adults and is having trouble staying afloat. At the moment, the studio focuses mostly on a very specific type of dance (like, say, jazzercise, but something else), but also offers a few other classes like bellydancing, yoga, etc.

The studio is in a decent size city (1 million +) that is pretty committed to fitness, is located three miles away from one of the largest universities in the country, and is across the street from another university. There is one other studio in town that specializes in the same type of dance.

Questions we have are:
How to increase visibility in community?
How to reach the gigantic college market?
What other course offerings might make sense?
Who to market to for the rental of the space during the day when classes aren't being held?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Suzannah

vangogh
08-28-2008, 02:50 AM
Hi Suzannah and welcome to the forum.

A few ideas off the top of my head:

1. How about offering existing customers a 2 for 1. Say for 4 weeks you let them them bring a friend with them to class and both can participate for the price of one. That should give your existing customers some motivation to bring others with them. Ideally a few free or half price weeks will get the new people to sign up after.

2. For the college market try advertising in the school paper. Every college has a daily or weekly paper and they should sell ad space. A smaller ad that runs consistently will work better than a single large ad. The key to advertising is consistency. You could also run 2 for 1 deals for a few weeks to college students to get them in the door and bring a friend with them. The ad could double as a coupon.

We were talking in another thread about putting up fliers on school bulletin boards. While for most businesses this probably isn't going to have the greatest return in this case it could probably be good. Target your flier to college students. Figure out what would motivate them the most and tailor the flier (and the ad in the paper) to them.

A free class or two to college students would probably help get them in the door. Most won't come back when it's time to pay, but some might.

3. Since a lot of the courses are fitness oriented why not seeing if there are any gyms in the area not offering dance, yoga etc and seeing if they'd let you advertise in the gym. You might be able to work out a deal where the gym gets a cut for X number of weeks of classes.

4. I'm not entirely sure about other courses, but why not ask existing customers. They're already the people who are interested and will probably have good ideas. The one thing coming to mind is Tai-Bo or something similar. One way to do a little research is simply type Dance Studio into your favorite search engine and see what others are offering. You might even want to search in your specific location and then in other locations to compare. Maybe there's something being offered in other areas that isn't offered much in your area.

5. The space could probably work for a martial arts class. Even other dances that you don't offer, though that might not be the best idea for competition. I'm guessing a long term rental of the space is desired, but it might work to place an ad that the space is available for one time engagements. While it's not consistent you could charge more for one time use of the space.

6. I mentioned a free class above with college students. What about offering an occasional free class to certain people likely to have influence with others. There are always people in the community who have a lot of social connections and are good at spreading the word. This would take a bit of research and planning to find these people and invite them all to a free class, but it might be worth the time to get some inluencers talking about you.

Hope something above helps. I'm sure more people will come in behind me with more.

Steve B
08-28-2008, 06:10 AM
What type of advertising is she doing? How long has she been in business? What is the type of dance she is specializing in?

KristineS
08-28-2008, 10:09 AM
I would ask the same questions Steve B asked. It is a little hard to make suggestions without knowing what exactly she is doing or has done.

One thing I will mention is singles dances. I live in a relatively small town, but I know of a dance studio here that offered classes in dancing for single people. They had a good response and gained some customers out of it. That might be worth looking into.

cbscreative
08-28-2008, 11:15 AM
I agree we don't have much to go on here, but it does appear to be fitness oriented. Vangogh already hit on this, so let me emphasize that cross promoting may be a good option. If you can advertise in a local gym or YMCA, that may generate some interest.

I would add that you look beyond that though. Speaking from a personal perspective, I do not go to the gym because standing on a treadmill is just plain boring, so I opt for something where I'm actually going somewhere like biking or skiing. There will be some in your target market who would never go to the gym, but would be interested in something like dance. Even a local bike shop could offer some potential for cross promoting.

You are probably already doing this, but I would mention it would be a good idea to offer segregated classes too, especially for women. I think your response will be better if they know you have that. I would look for groups you could advertise with like stay at home moms and things like that.

Just a few more thoughts based on what I can determine from your post.

And welcome to the forum!

Suzannah
08-28-2008, 12:01 PM
Hi everyone,

Thanks for the suggestions so far! Sorry I was too vague; I was worried about stuff showing up in search engines.

There's some information about the type of dance that the studio focuses on: here (http://www.nianow.com/thetechnique.php) The classes are mixed gender, but it is mostly women that come. The emphasis of the classes is usually on enjoying movement and feeling good in your body, rather than fitness per se. (but the classes do provide an amazingly fun cardio working). One of the really cool things is that all kinds of people come - young, old, fit, not fit, etc. One thing that people really love is how comfortable they feel during the classes because it is such a nonjudgmental atmosphere.

The studio has been around for about 13 years; she has owned it for about 7. I'm not exactly sure what her current marketing plan is as we just started talking about it last night and I didn't get a lot of information. I will see what I can find out,though.

Thanks!
--Suzannah

KristineS
08-28-2008, 12:31 PM
One thing I know from personal experience is that I'm rather uncomfortable going to a gym, particularly when I feel as if I'm out of shape. If all kinds of people come to the studio, I'd make that the centerpiece of the campaign. I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel as I do who wouldn't mind going somewhere that felt non-judgmental and comfortable.

Steve B
08-28-2008, 12:33 PM
The obvious answer is to advertise. At least it's obvious to me, but you'd be amazed at how many small business owners don't understand that advertising is essential.

I often hear business owners say it's something they'll do later once they start making money. These are the businesses that account for 4 out of every 5 start-ups failing. They never understood that you just can't "build it and they will come".

vangogh
08-28-2008, 12:54 PM
Suzannah the site you linked to I take is a national one and the studio in question is one of the ones in the the particular location. I realize you may not want to mention the specif site here, but if you'd like to send me a PM with a link I can probably reply with some tips to help make the site more visible in search engines.

Blessed
08-29-2008, 09:37 AM
Sorry I'm so late to the discussion here - I must be blind and never noticed the marketing section and those below it.... details....

Anyway - I agree with all the suggestions posted here so far also... does the college have a theatre program? do they do musicals? try to get involved in that market if you can - including buying advertising space in the programs.

the key is to start thinking outside the box - I need more details to really help here (and feel free to PM me too) but those are just a few ideas that I had immediately upon reading your post.

Ad-Vice_Man
08-29-2008, 08:30 PM
I'm far to tired to dive into this right now, but in the mean time, i've been asked this question(in essence) before. you can read about it in my blog.. Free Advertising Advice: July 2006 (http://freeadvertisingadvice.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html)

Note: admins my apologies if this is a forum faux pas.

cbscreative
08-29-2008, 08:58 PM
Admin response: When it's relevant to the discussion, I have no problem with it, and I know the feeling of not wanting to rewrite something if you don't have to. Thanks for asking too.

vangogh
08-29-2008, 10:20 PM
Thanks for asking about the link. It's fine when it's relevant to the conversation. It's when it's only being posted for self promotion when it becomes an issue.

orion_joel
08-30-2008, 09:36 AM
Some ideas for leasing the space when not in use may be

- weight loss group meetings
- mothers group
- arts or crafts groups
- any other sort of club or organization that has regular meeting's

The good thing about many of these other uses that the space could be leased out for when not in use is that many of them may have potential customers for the studio it self. It does not hurt to leave posters or flyers around the place especially if you would have them there anyway if it was not being leased out to someone else for a couple of hours.

Spider
08-30-2008, 11:23 AM
One thing that concerns me about renting the space to other functions - a dancefloor - at least a ballroom dancefloor - is fairly delicate and needs to be kept smooth and shiny, not unlike a bowling alley. Now, it is true that today's floor treatments are far more hardwearing than in former years, but a dirty, scuffed and scratched dancefloor is a real turn-off for dancers, and outside groups are not likely to be as caring of it as I would think necessary. Yoga and exercise groups, and any group that requires its participants to lie on the floor or who do their thing on mats would be okay, though.

ErinWrites
08-30-2008, 12:47 PM
Since she wants to reach the large college-student population, why not print up bar coasters that she can give, for free, to local pubs and "hot spots". That's sure to reach the target in their environment.

She can print one side of the coaster to say: Need To Work On Your Moves?

And then have the logo, phone number and URL of the dance studio on the other side. Maybe also a "First Class FREE With This Coaster" offer, too.

Just a fun, quirky way to get attention - you've gotta cut through the clutter!

:-) - Erin

cbscreative
08-30-2008, 01:03 PM
Spider, that's an excellent point on being careful about the rentals and how the floor gets treated.

Erin, that kind of creative suggestion is excellent. I'm sure the local pubs would be glad to get "free" coasters to hand out. I spent some years in ad specialties (which is what you need to look for to find someone to supply these) so I know they're easy to get and not very expensive. As an added note, many of the ad specialty providers are also screen printers and embroiderers, so you could possibly work out a volume discount by ordering shirts, sweats, and other items from the same company.

Suzannah
08-30-2008, 01:34 PM
Wow, thanks everybody for all the ideas!

Lots of great things I never would have thought of.

I'll take them to her and let you know what happens!

--Suzannah

cbscreative
08-30-2008, 01:56 PM
Just out of curiosity, Suzannah, how did you find us? We're glad you did, but being a new forum, it's nice to know how you got here.

Suzannah
08-30-2008, 08:07 PM
@CBSCreative - Actually, I was a member of the old forum. I only posted a few times about my own business (a tutoring/test preparation business), but I was a long-time lurker.

So, followed everyone over here!

--Suzannah

vangogh
08-30-2008, 11:18 PM
Good to know. I apologize for not remembering from the old forum, but I guess if you didn't post a lot that would explain things. Glad you followed us over.

Also glad we could help with some ideas.

cbscreative
08-31-2008, 07:39 PM
Well, I'm glad you found your way over here too.

Paul Elliott
09-07-2008, 11:55 PM
Just a quick note, Suzannah.

My daughter recently graduated from college and was very active at a dance studio that did swing. It is very popular with that group.

Paul