How To Get More Students For Your Dance School

Because dance studios are constantly looking for ways of getting and keeping their pupils, I will explore, in this article, how to get more students for your dance school, as well as motivate the existing ones.

Here are some effective and creative ways how to get new students, and these ideas work all year round.

How To Get More Students For Your Dance Studio By Offering A Free Trial Class

If you offer a free trial lesson, you will encourage more students to join, as they can ‘try before they buy.’ This is a great way to entice new pupils because most children who want to dance will enjoy a free lesson and once they have had a taste, believe me, they will want more.

You could also offer an open week, where anybody can come and try a class or two for free.  This also works really well to get new dancers into your studio.

Print out coupons and drop off at preschools offering a free introductory class.  You could also volunteer to go and give a complimentary class at the preschool  or school in your area and send home info to the parents on what you did with their children.

Send all the schools in your area flyers that can be sent home with the learners.  Make sure to put flyers on all the local community and shopping center boards for extra free advertising.

Bring a Friend Day

Book a day, and encourage your pupils to bring a friend to class.  This one works quite well, as a lot of the friends will enjoy the lesson and sign up for more.  Your existing students will also enjoy showing off their class, their dancing and their studio to their friends.

I also like to do a pajama day when I do this, and in this way the friends don’t feel out if they are not wearing dancing clothes.

Give Away Promotional Items

This is a great way to encourage new pupils.  Try advertising a day, where if students register, they will get a free t-shirt, dance bag, key ring, pen or any other promotional item.  In this way, you will encourage your pupils to re-register, and you will also be promoting your business.

Goodie bags are also a great idea.  You could get dance shops to sponsor tights or some other dance related items, which you can offer to new students that register.  The dance shops in question could also come to the party by offering a discount on dance wear or a new uniform.

Prizes

You could hold a competition for your existing students to win some free dance lessons, or encourage them to bring a friend and if that friend joins up they get a discount or a prize.

Use Technology To Get More Pupils For Your Dance School

Set your auto answer or your voice mail to refer people directly to your regularly updated website, or your enrollment page on your website.  Make sure that your website is mobile friendly, as a lot of people nowadays access websites on their cell phones.

Try forwarding all calls coming into the studio to your cell phone when you are not there, so you don’t miss any potential sign ups.  You could also include an enrollment form on your website which they can fill out and email to make the process smoother and faster.

Create a Facebook Fan Page to keep existing and new students motivated. Instagram also works really well to create awareness about what your studio is doing. You can also post video clips of your students and keep followers informed of upcoming events.

Donations

Take advantage of community projects in your area and donate free dance classes or promotional items as prizes.

Performances

Use your good dancers or prize-winning groups to dance at local schools in the area during assembly time to attract new students.

Take advantage of opportunities to showcase your talents at any outdoor events that may be run in your area, e.g. church fetes, cake sales, sporting events, expos etc.

Discounts

Offer a discount for early registrations or to the first 50 registrations.  Offering discounted registrations to existing pupils if they register before a certain date also encourages them to re-register.  Offering discounts for families where more than one member is dancing also works well.

Media Advertising

Here you need to be careful not to waste your valuable advertising budget.  If you want to advertise in a newspaper, it works well, only if it is a newspaper that gets distributed in your specific area.  If you advertise in your local paper, you will get far more views and the interest rate will be far higher than if you advertise in a newspaper that is distributed more widely.  You will probably need to pay for this sort of advertising, so use your money wisely.

You can also advertise free on a lot of websites and classified sites, just make sure you mention the area that you teach from in the advert so that you don’t get hundreds of irrelevant calls.

Build A Website For Your Studio

This is a great way to get those people who search online for dance studio’s. I highly recommend starting a free website using this platform as you can get some great training at the same time.

Having a website is like having your own shop online selling for you when 24/7. Make sure to keep it updated and post your current events often. This will ensure that Google keeps you on the first page when potential students are searching for a dance school in your area.

All that being said, I find that over the years of teaching, the best advertising has been ‘word of mouth’ for me.  This is the best way I have found on how  to get more students for your dance school.  If you keep your existing pupils happy, you will happily be referred to all their family and friends.

For more dance studio management advice and how to get more students, click here.

Good luck with all you new enrollments teachers!