Dance Lessons Business - Help With Marketing??

**MissBossLJ** · 01-09-2010 07:50 PM

Hello There,

Well another business i am planning to implement is a dance lesson/school within my area.

Although these can be crowded markets. Within my catchment area there isnt one for young children to attend which caters for Jazz, contempary, Ballet and so on. Its majorily populated by Street dance etc.

So my idea is to hire a venue, recruit a qualified teacher and market it to get the target market in there - which is first school children through to primary etc.

I am going to be ringing round for quotes on venues on monday and regarding the position of dance teacher i have already contacted ten potential people who may be interested within this position.

so this leads me to talk about the marketing, if my target audience is young school children upto primary surely the best method to retrieve the client base would be to go straight into the school direct to the target prospect?

How should you think i should go about this?

Flyers - announcments in the school newsletter. Or Ask to go into the school to speak to the children/parents or whatever?

what would be your best ideas for marketing to the school children and their parents

Regards

Help most appreciated

**cg410** · 01-09-2010 10:44 PM

In my (limited) experience, there's 2 kinds of dance studios: ones that attract younger students and do ballet, hip hop, jazz, etc., and ones that attract older people and do swing, tango, and other ballroom dance.

Just a consideration for who you hire. I'm not 100% sure that you want to exclude the "older people" idea without researching that market.

**jake_russell** · 01-09-2010 11:41 PM

One recommendation is to consider marketing it as a workout/fitness type of thing. I recently read an article where parents are paying for small children to go to gyms where they have dedicated "fun" time that is really just exercise. This may be one of several angles you want to take.
I would try and find a big homeowners association or something and try to speak to them. I doubt any principal will allow you any real access to the students.
Best of luck

**cg410** · 01-10-2010 12:13 AM

She *does* look pretty sketchy...

Originally Posted by jake_russell

I doubt any principal will allow you any real access to the students.

**MissBossLJ** · 01-10-2010 10:45 AM

what is that supposed to mean that i look sketchy?? thats a tad unprofessional here isnt it! not very impressed for that - and also in answer to the above i was thinking of running days for children and seperate days for adults also.

**cg410** · 01-10-2010 12:50 PM

It's a joke, sweetie. Your profile pic looks like a teenager in her bedroom wearing a yellow pastel t-shirt... you'd be better able to try out to be the next lonelygirl15 than you would to fit the meaning of "sketchy."

Part of being professional is being able to make and take a joke. Being able to "laugh with the boys" will be one of your most valuable assets in business. I know a woman that runs a tech supply company that knows virtually nothing about technology, but because she not only puts up with off-color jokes but can dish them right back, her clients love her and stick with her.

Anyway, back to dance. The problem with having separate days for young people and old people is that now you have twice the number of instructors. Yes, it would be *possible* to find an instructor to do both, but he/she likely would not be an amazing instructor because the best have specialties. Also, you're now doubling your audience and potentially doubling the amount of marketing you need to do.

Try to very tightly define your target audience. Maybe you want young people, but teaching 5 year olds how to dance can be very different from 10 year olds. Also think of skill level. Is this just some kind of "Aw I think it's cute to send my kid to learn to dance?" type experience or is it a "Train your kid to be a professional!!" type experience? ...and I don't mean to put down any of the above options. You may well find that more money is to be made on the "I think it's cute" variety over the "professional" variety.

Also, do you have any dancing skills that you can lend to the operation? For example, if you have some dancing experience and you're good with kids, maybe you could lead the 5 to 8 year old "I think it's cute" dance class yourself and hire an experienced professional to handle the kids that are looking to do it more seriously.

Originally Posted by MissBossLJ

what is that supposed to mean that i look sketchy?? thats a tad unprofessional here isnt it! not very impressed for that - and also in answer to the above i was thinking of running days for children and seperate days for adults also.

**MissBossLJ** · 01-10-2010 04:11 PM

Point taken but there is a fine line between jokes and being patronising and one should never judge solely over appearance. So you should watch you dont put your foot in it. Also know one wants to work with a pillock. So Take Note. In answer to the instructor thing, i am planning on keeping one instructor but them working both days....im probably going to start with the younger audience and if proves successful them try and pull in the older audience. I think im going to put it out there as like you said professional about teach them to be professionals etc and also talk about it as a method of fitness for the children etc with real progression with competitions etc, also money to be made on them having uniforms and merchandise i know a successful dance school doing a similar thing in another area. Thankyou for all of the advice, but still what about the marketing aspects if im just concentrating on the younger dance age groups and it being professional and so fourth

thanks for all feedback

**cg410** · 01-10-2010 04:49 PM

Ahh, are you British or Australian? Must be Australian, because I thought they do dry humo(u)r over over in Britain.

Anyway, calling you "sweetie" was patroni(s/z)ing, calling you sketchy was just a joke. Move your "fine line" back a few feet... I promise it will do you well in business.

Regarding giving more marketing-specific advi(s/c)e, defining your target market is the most important thing you can do for your marketing strategy.

For example, you say you want to go the "become a professional" route but then still want to market it as an exercise class. Professional dancers (and those aspiring) won't be interested in that -- they'll be interested in hard-core, foot-busting dance moves. The girls and (gay) guys that will be signing up will *already* be in shape. You need a different approach.

BTW, being the bitchy dance studio owner might be one of the very few exceptions in business that will allow you to lack a sense of humo(u)r. Being a dominatrix or a madame might also work, but you still have to be able to relate to your clients.

**MissBossLJ** · 01-10-2010 05:11 PM

Lol, get your pink handbag out wont you haha, bitchy? one shouldnt point the finger if anything you invented it haha. Also i am most definately full english

. Good points though regarding business. So if i stick to the younger audicence and strictly professional approach then how shall i market it to pull the youngsters in, surely i need to go direct to the parents as these children are young the parents will be initiating the start in the class more then likely? So could you please give me some pointers how i can get to the parents.

Thanks

**jake_russell** · 01-10-2010 05:17 PM

I just want to clarify my previous post concerning the access a principal will allow to a student. What i was referring to is the fact that no businesses are allowed in public schools, at least in texas. With state mandated testing consuming everything they do, the principal will not be interested in someone from outside coming in and talking to the students. I was not referring to you in particular when i made that comment.

Something you may want to check into is using facebook and myspace to market the studio

**MissBossLJ** · 01-10-2010 05:31 PM

Yeh thanks for that that is a great idea! will implement. Also that cannot be entirely correct. Myself im 18 years old and back when i was in school we used to have loads of people brought in to do assmeblies and talk to us so i dont know if thats entirely true?

regards

**cg410** · 01-10-2010 05:41 PM

Much better, LJ.

When you're marketing to kids, you've really got 2 markets: the kids and the parents. Marketing to either one *well* will be good enough. If the kids want it badly, they'll nag the parents until they get it, and if the parents want it, they'll similarly talk the kids into it.

I'd try and push the false hope that these kids can make dancing a career and that after a few of your classes they'll be as beautiful and graceful as the dancers they can see on TV or on YouTube. I know plenty of girls that have tried to make dancing a career (they're good in bed and utterly crazy, which is my type

) but even the ones that last through 10 years of lessons while in school still face extremely poor odds of still dancing after college age. Even if they do make a "career" out of it, their career is done by 30 anyway. Um, so market the exact opposite of that last sentence.

For the kids, be pretty like all the girls on TV, and for the parents, let your kid explore the talent within, see if they've got what it takes to be a dancer, etc. Talk up your instructors like they are God's gift to dance (and many dance instructors certainly think they are, but those are the ones to avoid) and put impressive bios on your Web site.

Now that you've got a message and you know who you want to hear it, you have to get it to them. Internet marketing is great, but don't neglect local marketing. Get the media to come to your opening classes. Offer free trial lessons. Offer referral commissions (in the form of free lessons). Find the spot in your community where parents are likely to be and advertise there. Have flyers, business cards, and a big sign in your window. For the Internet, get a Web site (of course), put up YouTube videos of your classes, and make sure you're in all the relevant online business directories. Don't worry about social networks -- your targets (kids under 10 and parents) don't use social networks!

Originally Posted by MissBossLJ

Lol, get your pink handbag out wont you haha, bitchy? one shouldnt point the finger if anything you invented it haha. Also i am most definately full english

. Good points though regarding business. So if i stick to the younger audicence and strictly professional approach then how shall i market it to pull the youngsters in, surely i need to go direct to the parents as these children are young the parents will be initiating the start in the class more then likely? So could you please give me some pointers how i can get to the parents.

Thanks

**MissBossLJ** · 01-10-2010 05:53 PM

Thankyou, that was a great response and will definately be implementing!

I thought about this idea less then two days ago and i have already shortlisted over 10 venues in the area to cotnact for hire and have 25 dance teachers contacts already so whats left now is the clarification of venue pricing, dance teacher auditions and salary, and then of course the marketing!

thankyou

**cg410** · 01-10-2010 06:04 PM

You're welcome!

Do you have a plan for how to pay for all of this, too? Realistically I think you'll need at least US$20,000 to start to cover rent, security deposit, modifications to the venue, salary, marketing, and so forth, until the business starts to become profitable. Do you have either savings or an investor to get this going?

**MissBossLJ** · 01-10-2010 06:07 PM

No HOW IM doing it is really low overheads, first of all im renting a community hall to do it in, all i need to have brought in is the sound system which is supplied by the teacher, i rent the dance teachers services so the only thing to pay for is the hall rent and the teachers services per dance class its really low and a bit on marketing etc.

Off the subject for a minute are you based in the uk and how old are you i wondered if you are a junior or senior member