Great Moves! Ideas for Contemporary Dance Educators
“Everyone lives by selling something.” Robert Louis Stevenson
Regardless of the size of your community, the dilemma over advertising a service business such as dance lessons is never ending. Do ads really bring in enough students to justify the price? Is word-of-mouth the best advertising? How often is it necessary to advertise? What is the best type of advertising for my business?
Notice the word business. In the world of dance education it often feels awkward promoting a service because many teachers don’t see their schools as businesses first. A dance school is an artistic experience but it’s also a serious business. Depending on how large your student base, advertising is important to keeping the doors open because promotions bring in students who help pay the bills and salaries.
Things have changed about dance school advertising in the last 30 years. It used to be enough to place a weekly ad in the local paper every August, schedule an open house, and teach the students who registered in the fall all term long. While the foundations of dance technique and performance haven’t changed all that much, the competition for students has. Dance schools are now in competition with the myriad of other activities available to children and adults. It’s important to change the way you look at advertising in order to stay competitive and open for business, and that means addressing advertising every month of the year not just in August.
Sound expensive? It isn’t. There are plenty of promotion opportunities year round that cost a fraction of what radio, print, and television cost. It’s a matter of keeping your name out there but in ways that serve others as well as serve your bottom line.
Five Low Cost Service Opportunities That Advertise Your Studio
1. Coloring Contest: Graphic design students are everywhere! Find one to design and sell you an original drawing such as a dancer or a Nutcracker and have copies made with your studio information at the bottom. Distribute them in schools, libraries, and in the businesses of your students’ parents. Offer a month of free dance lessons as the prize. Hold a contest twice a year in the fall and January to bring in new students. Note: contact college art and design departments to find a student willing to create the drawing.
2. Read Aloud Volunteer: Donate the time to the library and local bookstores to read at story time. Get permission to distribute flyers, coupons, or bookmarks to those in attendance and leave extras on the counters. Coordinate with the program director about special books they may be reading and take a student dressed as a character from the book. This is particularly effective during the summer reading programs of libraries and holiday shopping periods of book stores. National Dance Week in the spring is a good time to read and promote your summer classes.
3. Parades and Local Festivals: Children dressed in costumes distributing flyers and candy gets your studio name out there. Purchase a professional quality banner that students can carry in parades or post during performances. One parade and one festival a year is probably enough for this idea since it can be time consuming and involves the travel and organization of several students and chaperones. Caution: Avoid letting really young children wear too much make-up at these activities. Average citizens don’t realize how intensive stage make-up is and may challenge your program in unflattering ways.
4. Volunteer in the Schools: Lend your time (I know it is precious!) to help once a year for the school music festival, holiday play, or spring carnival. Choreograph one or two numbers and make sure your name and business are listed on programs. Give every child and adult associated with the program a flyer or newsletter about the studio. Ask if you can have school flyers inserted in the programs on performance night. Never miss an opportunity to call the newspaper and tell them you’re volunteering and the rehearsal schedule is…. And be prepared for a photographer to show up unannounced (wear your good tights to every rehearsal!)
5. Contact the Newspapers-in-Education (NIE) director: Offer to help with a study guide segment in the paper about the arts. Newspapers are distributed free of charge in schools that request them. You can contribute resources, words for a puzzle, and pictures that will be very helpful in creating a study about the arts. Remember to mention dance history as a possible topic. Offer a contest on the page such as an essay contest about dance that you, a teacher, and the editor judge. Offer dance lessons as the prize. Additional idea: it is not very expensive to support newspapers-in-education. One check per year will get your name listed in the paper as a sponsor and it will contribute to literacy!
Spread these ideas out and have one a month. Two coloring contests, two read-alouds, one parade, one festival, one school play, and a study guide for the local paper can all be organized during the summer months for the approaching studio term. Advertise once in August and January and you’ve covered ten months with effective and low cost advertising that shows you can give as well as receive! People who want to spend their money in businesses that care will seek your out studio when they are in the market for dancing.
Joy Held is a dance and yoga instructor and the author of Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity, New Leaf Books, 2003. Contact her at yogajoy@suddenlink.net.