10 Things That WILL Benefit YOUR Dance Classes

 

 

1. Capture data – when customers and potential customers visit your website – do they simply visit and leave – or do you offer them something, a reason to contact you?

It can be as simple as “book a call back from us”, “Want to receive our offers and discounts?”, “want to get top tips on feeling great?”

Adding a simple form to your website WILL make a massive difference to your classes – enabling you to keep in touch with your customers and potential customers, and tailor your messages accordingly.

Softwares such as mailchimp, constantcontact, aweber and gravity forms in wordpress websites are fairly simply to incorporate into your site – or simply ask your web tech peeps to do it for you – it is VITAL to the growth of your business.

 

 

2. Get Social – love it or hate it, social media is here to stay – and we say embrace it! It’s an amazing, free way to find, understand and chat to your customers and potential customers AND a fantastic way to collaborate with other businesses that may work in synergy with you.

Schedule your tweets and facebook posts via Hootsuite – easy to manage and you can schedule your whole week – try and post at least once a day on facebook and at least 4 times a day on twitter.  Chat to people and get conversations going.

 

 

3. Ask people what they want – how do you know there is something your customers need or want that you could provide if you don’t ask them?

Perhaps they’ve all wanted T-shirts for ages, or they want a Saturday morning class, or they would love to put on a show – or, how do you know if they are happy, or if they have any suggestions on improvements etc.?  Ask them – again there are systems such as surveymonkey that are free (up to 10 questions) – don’t forget to make Question 10 a question that asks for their name and email address so that you can contact them again in the future.

 

 

4. Get Talking – have you told people about your classes, parties and events? Have you maximised on this? Can you do any more to “spread the word”?

How about emailing all your friends and asking them to email all their friends (sometimes the simplest methods can be the best), have you put up flyers in places around town, have you told the local schools what you offer (so they can share with their pupils), have you joined your local facebook business group? The list goes on…. Perhaps just pick one thing that you are not currently doing and DO IT!

 

 

5. Make it stare you in the face!  What are you trying to achieve? What do YOU want?  Is it to have a packed full class? Is it to get that new handbag you have your eye on? Is money to put towards a holiday? Is it to give you freedom to teach dance when YOU want to teach and give you time to spend with your family? Get your life back?

If so, how many pupils do you need to be able to afford that? How many parties do you need to run?

Then break it down, week by week, and set yourself a target – stick it up on the wall alongside a photo of why you are doing this and look at it everyday! It sounds cheesey, but believe us – it works!

 

 

6. Get your customers involved!  Make them feel part of your business – because they are! Without them, you wouldn’t have a business!

Tell your customers that you love them (well it is Valentines’ weekend afterall!) but even something as simple as sending an email out this weekend entitled “We Love You” with a quick “Thank you for being part of Popdance – we love Popdancing with you – Happy Valentines’ Day”.

Get them chatting on your facebook page – encourage them to get involved – can they help you to spread the word on what you offer, and if so, what’s in it for them?

 

7. Communicate Regularly!  And be consistent with it. Whether it’s a monthly email sharing useful information, i.e. health benefits of dance, what you are up to, what’s coming up, discounts, new merchandise, book your camp now etc.

Pick the same day and time each month and start regular emails. Being useful and consistent makes a big difference – and, it also ensures you get in front of your customers, potential customers and lapsed customers to let them know what you can offer them.

 

 

8. Throw an event! When was the last time you got everyone together? And invited people you’ve not yet met? And they invited their friends? And you got to showcase what you offer to them?

As mentioned in previous tips, charity events are great to do. You can tailor your event to a certain audience, or go for getting the whole family involved – we are running lots of charity events for Make A Wish Foundation this year, across the UK, and it’s great for building relationships with leisure centres, the press, businesses in the area and getting the message out to families too :)

Most sports centres will offer their sports hall free of charge, so there’s no financial risk either!

 

 

9. Talk to the press! You have nothing to lose! Find a good story angle, i.e. do you have a customer who’s life/health has changed since dancing with you? Do you have an interesting story – for instance our oldest Popdancer is 86 and she is doing Popdance Fit classes :)

Write a press release and email it off to your local newspaper, family magazines in your area, and why not go for the big boys too, Good Housekeeping, Zest, Bella, Boots website, Top Santé, OK magazine, Metro, Slimming World have all featured our articles – take a look HERE – go for it – it costs you nothing to ask!

 

 

10. And Relax! Don’t forget that life is for living! We work to live not live to work – so take time out – enjoy yourself – don’t lose touch with what YOU want out of life – with a little planning, hard work and your goals set up – YOU CAN DO IT!

 

 

We would love to know how you get on – if you do just one of the above it WILL make a difference.  If you would like to share your tips with us please email [email protected]

 

If you haven’t yet done so and would like to receive our FREE monthly marketing tips for dance teachers and fitness instructors – sign up HERE

 

If you would like to find out more about working with Popdance (there are many different ways depending on what you want to do), then email [email protected]

 

Have a great week!