How to Market a Dance Studio Using Email Marketing
Running a dance studio is not merely a business venture and dance studio marketing is very unique, it’s the passion of individuals who’ve grown up dancing and want to share their talents with the rest of the world.
Most people equate the running of a dance studio business with teaching dance. Well, that’s a wrong approach. You cannot compare the two – since, on the contrary to only teaching dance, management of a dance studio is some tough work and requires business acumen. A lot of things must be considered like leases, studio space, control of finances, and, most important of all, ‘marketing your dance studio in an exceptional manner.’
Well, that’s pretty obvious since you’ve got to fill up your studio with students to get it up and running, and how will there be any students if you don’t compellingly advertise your dance studio?
Marketing a dance studio is not as easy as it seems. It’s of utmost importance to define an ideal strategy since you can’t just go about distributing fliers and giving out advertisements in local magazines – this won’t do any wonder for your business, especially not in this digital age.
Why an Email marketing Strategy Works Best
The process of marketing a dance studio is specifically challenging because it falls into the category of niche marketing. You’ve got to tap your target audience directly and somehow convince them to register themselves for your incredible dance lessons. While there are many ways to successfully market your dance studio to the target audience, like creating buzz through word of mouth, recommendations, testimonials, etc., the course of action that works best is an email marketing strategy. It’s not heavy on the pocket and outperforms all the other online marketing campaigns. It’ll help you promote your dance studio, communicate with your target audience, and reach your business goals most cost-effectively. List building for sales is a winning strategy for Dance studio marking.
To help you generate more profit with less money, I’m about to share the best email marketing strategies you can use to create extraordinary results for your dance studio.
So, put your learning hats on:
Add a personal touch to your emails
Personalized email marketing is essential for an overall excellent experience for the customer. However, you’ll have to gather the data of your potential customers for a significant personalized impact.
For starters, it’s a great idea to refer to the customers as “Dear Susan” (or whatever the customer’s name is) instead of “Dear esteemed customer.” Reading his/her name will instantly grab the customer’s attention, and they’ll be naturally persuaded to read the email further. This is the most straightforward tactic to personalize and will significantly improve your email marketing campaign’s performance.
Another tactic can be to include the recipient’s name in the subject line of the email. This technique has been proven to increase email opening rates by 16%.
Personalizing your emails will also help you stand out from the crowd, i.e., your competition. That because most businesses undermine the importance of personalizing emails and don’t even bother to implement the method.
Personalize your emails
Moreover, make sure to not send the emails from an ID like ‘donotreply@example.com’. This action goes against the very aim of sending emails, i.e., getting the consumers engaged and having them respond to the campaign. It’s of paramount importance to establish your authenticity and credibility by using a real email ID so that the potential customers feel that they can trust you. This step is critical to email personalization because being able to trust you is the highest priority for parents who’ll be sending their kids to your dance studio.
Last but not least, never forget to include your authentic contact details in the signature of emails you’re sending out. If your readers can contact you online or exchange a meaningful conversation with you over the phone to inquire about the dance classes, they’ll automatically feel connected. This will be your first step towards building a personal relationship with them.
Don’t hesitate to segment your subscribers
Once you’re done personalizing your email, the next step will be to segment your subscribers. The primary reason for segmentation is to make the email marketing campaign much more targeted for your target audience/potential customers of your dance studio.
To have the best turnout for your dance studio, create segments of different categories of people your dance studio offers classes for. There can be a couple of groups like children, young girls, and boys, adults, etc. Once the segments are created, customize an email for each segment. The customized email should list differentiating features that will serve as points of interest for that particular segment.
For example, if you intend to send out an email for the children’s segment, you’ll be sending emails to parents. An ideal way of tailoring the email to fit the interests of parents would be to list features that’ll grab their attention, like how learning dance will be a healthy hobby for their child, instead of him sitting at home and ruining his eyes in front of a tablet, tv, or phone. To make this more compelling, you can offer some discounts in the same email and even add a testimonial from parents stating how satisfied they are to have made the decision of sending their child to your dance studio.
The rule of thumb, in this case, should be to “create emails that are compelling and convincing instead of an email that’s annoying and loaded with unnecessary information.”
Send mobile-friendly emails
Sending mobile-friendly email campaigns shouldn’t just be a preference for businesses; it should be an obligation. As of 2019, 61% of the emails are opened on mobile phones. If the email you’re sending is not compatible with a smartphone, you’ll end up annoying the potential customers instead of convincing them to sign up for your dance class.
This especially holds true if you’re sending out emails to working parents (as the target of most dance studios are children). They won’t be able to spare time from their busy schedule with kids and work, for opening a laptop and reading an email coming from a dance studio. They’ll prefer having a quick go through on their mobile phone and registering there and then.
Everyone prefers to read their emails on the go these days – between office breaks, while waiting for the coffee at a shop, etc. As soon as they find an email that isn’t compatible with their device, the potential customers will almost immediately unsubscribe to get rid of the constant annoyance – and you don’t want this, especially when your dance studio badly needs some students.
You can easily send mobile-friendly emails by implementing a responsive email design or RED. This ensures the compatibility of emails with all kinds of devices, whether it’s a phone, laptop, tablet, etc.
keep the subject short and to the point
Another crucial but straightforward technique is to keep the subject short and to the point. Also, the pre-header text/snippet text should be used to display a call to action, such as ‘get a 15% discount on your first sign-up at our dance studio’. In addition to this, don’t forget to make your call to action super visible, to ensure that the potential customers accessing it through a small device don’t miss out on it.
Automate Your Emails For Better Follow Up
Connect with your target audience by sending that an email based on what they do. The first step towards automating emails is activation. If a potential customer registers for your dance class in response to the email you sent but hasn’t deposited the payment yet, create an activation campaign. This campaign should be automated to send out an email that guides the customer about how they can complete the registration and make the payment. If you want to go the extra mile, you can even add a video demonstration to aid the customer further.
You can even automate a win-back email
Apart from this, you can even automate a win-back email. For example, suppose you have a customer who regularly attends your dance classes, but their subscription is about to expire, sending them a win-back email will help you make them stay for another year. The win-back email should state that the customer’s subscription is about to expire and list the schedule plus prices of the dance classes that’ll be a part of the next subscription.
Last but not least, you can create a surprise automated email. The email should be well put together for your loyal customers to give them rewards such as offering something free now and then, i.e., a gift card, a discount coupon, a discount code to redeem a yummy box of chocolates. This will encourage customer loyalty and create an element of surprise, which in turn will lead to a sense of belonging in the customer’s heart for your dance studio. Although this will be just a small cost for your dance studio business, this will encourage the customers to stay loyal to your business, and even refer it to their colleagues, friends, and family.
