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Proven Ideas To 2x Members In Your Dance Studio

Vaishwi Sinha
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There are some activities that are age bound, while others are timeless. Dancing falls in that latter category. Kids love to dance, adults often dance to let loose, while others still use dance as an artistic tool to express themselves.

There are currently over 94,000 dance studios in the US, an indication that dance studios and dance tutors across styles are in demand all over the country. However, just owning a dance studio is not enough to bring in the moolah.

If your dance studio is going through a rough patch and you really need to attract more members, here are some proven ideas to help you do just that.

Proven ideas to increase your dance studio enrolments

We’ve put together some of the most effective ways to increase the number of enrolments in your dance studio.

1. Contact your old members

While it is always great to bring in new members, it is also a painstaking process because you need to hard-sell your dance studio to them. However, it is a lot easier to reach into your database of previous members who have quit and convince them to get back to learning dance.

This is because while there may be a lot of reasons why your old members might have left, they already know you and your studio. So you don’t really need to convince them why your studio is a great place to learn dance. You just need to nudge them in the right direction and maybe entice them with an offer like a discount.

There are multiple ways you could reestablish contact with your old members. You could send them an email, although marketing emails often just get deleted without getting opened. Your chances of engaging them are higher if you have a powerful subject line.

Also, remember that emails that address each of them by name are a lot more likely to get opened than impersonal mass mailers.

A much more effective way to get in touch with your old members is to send them SMS messages. Once again, it’s all about personalization.

A message that reads, “Hi, we have a discount for all old members who come back.” is likely to have less of a positive response as compared to “Hi Ryan, this is Peter from Movers and Shakers Dance Studio. I wanted to let you know that we’re running a special discount for our old members who want to come back, and we’d love to have you back at the studio. Call me and we’ll take this forward.”

2. Distribute flyers

This is an old-school but effective approach to dance studio marketing. A lot of local eateries allow other businesses to put up flyers. Use this to your advantage and build awareness about your dance studio by putting up flyers in as many places as possible.

If your fliers are designed well, they are sure to catch the attention of visitors to these establishments. You can take this marketing strategy a whole step further by adding a QR code to those flyers and offering a discount on your website to anyone who scans that code.

3. Pass around your business cards

This is another old-school way to increase visibility for your dance studio, and in the long run, get in new members. Whenever you socialize and meet new people, be sure to give them your business cards.

Not only will you grow awareness of your business, but you can also include a discount code on that card to help increase conversions.

Keep in mind not to print too many cards at once though, because you don’t want to be left with cards that need to be thrown away. Instead, $20 should get you approximately 80 cards, and you could always reprint once you run out of them.

4. Make them offers they cannot refuse

We know this may remind you of The Godfather movies, but we’re again talking about old-school marketing ploys for your dance studios. Make your prospective customers offers they cannot refuse.

For example, every other dance studio offers free classes. Instead of going down the same route, offer them an added service or a gift. You could offer them extra sessions in a different dance style. Or you could team up with a local pilates studio, and offer them a complementary workout session.

When you team up with other local businesses for these offers and giveaways, you get to cross-promote each other’s brands on social media, greatly increasing the reach of either brand.

Free branded merchandise is another great giveaway that will not only incentivize people to sign up for classes, but it’s also great free publicity for your yoga studio.

5. Supplement your income with events and other programs

If you aren’t making enough by running dance classes in your studio, you might as well use the space to earn your income in other ways as well.

For example, you could sublet your studio to a yoga instructor for a few hours every week. Yoga can be practiced using just yoga mats, and your studio space would be the perfect place.

Another money-making opportunity is to host ticketed events at your studio, such as dance performances or even stand-up comedy.

6. Be ready to answer your clients' questions

Prospective customers often ask a ton of questions, sometimes even inane ones. However, patience is the key to winning them over. Always take the time to answer all the questions they may ask, and you will see the number of registrations to your dance studio increase.

Of course, it also helps to have a well-written, keywords optimized website with plenty of pictures, videos, and all the information your prospective customers would need to know about your dance studio.

7. Make registration easy through online bookings

A lot of times, people get deterred from signing up for dance classes because they need to come to the studio and follow a lengthy process every time they want to pay for classes or manage bookings.

Invest in studio management software that allows your members to control their relationship with your dance studio remotely.

When you choose Bookee as your dance studio management software, your customers get the ability to pay for their subscriptions and schedule classes either on your website or on the custom app we’ll build you from wherever they are.

8. Build a rapport with your members

One of the oldest marketing techniques in the world is word of mouth. However, if you want people to talk about your dance studio with their friends and family, you’ll need to ensure they have a great experience.

Building a rapport with each of your members is a great way to ensure you have a personal connection with each of them that goes beyond just learning how to dance. Simple ways to do this are by greeting them by name every day, conversing with them about things beyond dance, and making them feel like they belong.

When people feel a personal connection with your studio, they’re more likely to recommend your services to their friends and family.

9. Leverage the reach TikTok has

TikTok is where trends start on social media nowadays, especially when it comes to arts like dancing. Make short clips of you or members of your dance studio performing a well-choreographed short piece of dance to one of the songs currently trending on the platform.

This is likely to reach people far beyond the geographical location you’re targeting, and get your studio dance a lot of visibility, which you can capitalize on to increase the number of paying members.

10. Associate your dance studio with your favorite local charity

This is a great way to give back to the community and to get some additional exposure for your dance studio while you’re at it. Support your favorite local charity using your dance studio as a base.

For example, you could run a toy donation drive for a local children’s home around Christmas time. Post on your social media handles about the drive and tag every person who drops off toys for kids at your studio.

Not only will every person who responds to the campaign and drops off a toy learn about your dance studio, but you also get the opportunity to show them around and talk about your services when they come by.

Bookee can help you increase the number of new members

It’s with good reason that dance studios and other membership-based fitness businesses choose Bookee as their preferred management software.

We’ll build you a professional website and smartphone app, all featuring your unique branding, so that your existing and prospective members can make payments, purchase memberships, and manage their schedules remotely.

We’ll make controlling marketing communications easier by automating your email and SMS marketing campaigns. We’ll even show you how to control your social media marketing across platforms from a single platform.

While Bookee comes with a host of other fantastic features, the icing on the cake is the ease with which our software can be deployed and used, as well as our stellar customer service. Choose Bookee so that you can concentrate more on your primary passion, dancing, and breathe easy about running your dance studio.

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