Attracting New Students
How do you attract new students to your studio? How do you keep existing ones? Seven New York City studio owners, some with over 30 years of experience, share what they’ve learned.
COMMUNITY
Directors of long-lived, successful studios weave themselves into the fabric of their neighborhoods and the community around them.
Elise Long, director of the 30-year-old Spoke the Hub Dancing in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has been called “a cultural pioneer” and a “neighborhood staple.” Jennifer Kliegel, owner of The Dance Studio of Park Slope, opened her studio in 1975. “I feel that our relationship with our neighborhood is like a big family,” she says. This relationship was confirmed by the community’s vocal outrage when her landlord refused to renew her lease last year, and cheers when Kliegel relocated three blocks northwest.
In 2005, artistic director Valerie Green opened Green Space in Long Island City, Queens, in a newly- renovated artist-specific loft with views of Manhattan. Sherri Hellman’s Creative Arts Studio, now with two sites, opened in Boerum Hill 16 years ago. Hellman continually researches and constructs new and innovative classes. She searches for “something unique” that might interest the neighborhood.
Neighborhood studios are integrated into their community in other ways. When Creative Arts was forced to move, Hellman offered a school pick-up service for the first year. Jennifer Kliegel donates time choreographing local school shows. Some studios volunteer their space for charity events. This builds good will and introduces new people to your space. Gift certificates donated to local school and community group raffles allow studios to illustrate their investment in their community while advertising their programs.
Executive Director Marya Warshaw of 17-year-old Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) in lower Park Slope says the studio has played “a significant role” in the development of her area. BAX, Spoke the Hub and Boerum Hill’s Micro Museum, a multi-art’s center, have all sponsored discussion series or town-hall style evenings on everything including art, politics, local concerns and global-warming, serving the community while introducing new adults to their organizations.
HAVING “FUN”: CREATIVE PROGRAMMING, TEACHING AND FEES
One of the keys to keeping and expanding clientele is fun, says Shari Polis, director of UpBring Dance Company, which rents space from Micro Museum. Creating fun is work, but the payoff in positive word-of-mouth is invaluable. “Word-of-mouth is the most effective advertising,” says Green. Moms are happy to have “an afterschool activity where children are learning and having fun in a place where they are well-cared for,” Kliegel says. “And word spreads fast.” Parents are not the only way to spread the word. Sherri Hellman has found that working with established neighborhood businesses helps “get the buzz around town.”
By far, the most important component of positive word-of-mouth is the quality of a studio’s teaching and a supportive, accepting, non-competitive atmosphere. “When all is said and done,” Igal Perry, artistic director of Peridance Center tells me, “the good teachers build their following while the ones who don’t have high integrity fall out.” Studios that encourage students to try many teachers tend to have high retention rates. Asking teachers to sub for each other allows students to experience the many teaching styles supported by the studio, as do missed class policies that allow students to take any of the studio’s classes as a make-up.
Offering dance studio standards as well as exercise classes including cardio, tai chi, yoga, stretch and Pilates can bump up your business. Consider partnering with a fitness center in order to expand your offerings and client pool. Including social dance and international dance can also attract new parents.
Creative Arts has offered stage fighting, and Spoke the Hub is considering sign language. The Park Slope Dance Studio includes belly dancing and kickboxing among its offerings. BAX has tumbling for kids and a massage class for adults. Spoke the Hub, BAX and Creative Arts also offer arts and crafts classes, music and writing workshops, which are great ways to bring in new clientele. Several studios run birthday party programs and arts-focused summer camps; these are particularly effective at bringing new families to the studio.
The dance population being top heavy with girls and woman surprises no one. But hip-hop, as UpBring’s Shari Polis notes, has opened a door. A number of studios, BAX among them, have successfully experimented with boys-only dance classes, and Perry notes a growing number of boys in youth classes, perhaps due to the popular TV dance shows. In order to entice adult men, Long is planning to offer a men’s-only exercise and movement class.
Performance programs are also important in attracting and keeping students, particularly as they enter their teens. Spring concerts are a culmination of a year’s study. Kliegel says they build confidence among families. Hellman’s concert “always brings in new students, and it’s a great way for current students to see classes they may find interesting in the future.” Perry has “noticed that the classes with the most successful choreography often attract new students the following year.”
UpBring Dance Company gears its entire program towards performing, encouraging students from a young age to audition for its youth company. UpBring Dance enters competitions and performs in the area at places such as Great Adventure and Hershey Park. Hellman helps interested students audition for professional work at Nickelodeon Television Network and VH1’s RuPaul Show, with whom Hellman has contacts.
Although constructed differently, BAX, Spoke the Hub and Creative Arts all have young choreographer programs which include performance opportunities several times a year.
Although most studios find that convenience—time, location, dance styles and reputation—are most important in attracting customers, some offer financial incentives as well. Early registration discounts and other “promotional carrots” at the beginning of the year are always a good idea, as are discounts for students who take more than one class a week or for families with more than one child in a studio. Peridance offers a professional discount and partial scholarships to professional-track students. Adults who buy a block of classes in advance receive a discount. Also, think about offering discounts or T-shirts when students bring in new students.
Don’t forget the power of hospitality. Big sister/brother programs between teen students and tiny tots can help form strong relationships within the studio. These partnerships can help make the studio a welcoming place for younger students, keep teen dancers engaged, give them a sense of the job of a teacher and build their self-esteem. Similarly, asking long-time students to act as the “buddy” of a new, older student who arrives without a friend, can help bond that student to the studio.
ADVERTISING
Kliegal’s parent surveys indicate that advertising is low on the “how did you hear of us” chart, and most studios limit their advertising to a few times a year. “Ads are very expensive,” says Long, who advertises only in a single local paper. Warshaw limits most of her advertising to the fall when she lists BAX’s new season in local papers and websites, and Perry limits his advertising to a few children/parent publications, and, because of the reach of his studio, to a few international publications. “Magazine advertising,” Perry says “is the least effective way of spreading the word.” However, he says, “Internet exposure is very effective and growing in its importance.” It is always important, however, to heighten advertising during major changes in the studio’s address or description.
There are free ways to obtain media attention. Maintain and utilize an active press list; press releases, particularly to local arts writers, but also to those on city papers, often result in coverage of special events, performances, request for photos and inclusion in free listings. Apartment building, religious organization and food co-op newsletters are often eager for local color. Some local arts councils have free artist listings, as do some professional organizations. Knowledgeable clients may seek out these types of sources when searching for a reputable studio.
Open houses are a common means of introducing studios to prospective clients. Several studios offer observation or trail classes in lieu of open houses. Green Space finds the expense and time commitment not worth the outcome, but Green does offer free trail classes to adults with a coupon. Some studios encourage teachers to promote their own classes. Jennifer Kliegel supplies business cards to her faculty, and Creative Arts encourages teacher self-promotion by basing teaching salaries on how many students are in a class.
Studios have found other innovative ways to attract new students. Selling jackets and bags with your studio’s logo is both advertising and a potential source of extra income. Some adult programs have tried “dating dance classes” and “dinner dances.” Community and city festivals offer opportunities to show off student performers and to offer free sample classes. “Taking the show on the road” to senior centers and adult learning facilities serves the community, gives students a chance to perform and is good advertising. Think about offering a free lesson for adults in wine stores, and for children in libraries and local schools. Or offer stretch classes for adults at the same time as a toddler class. Spoke the Hub’s Long says she hopes to “be a one-stop shopping center. Mom can get a little pampering and self-care while junior dances up a storm, all at the same time!”
In the end, all the studio owners emphasize that the studio itself—order, cleanliness, safety and a talented faculty— is the best advertising your studio can have.
The following studios contributed to this article: · Brooklyn Arts Exchange/Marya Warshaw, executive director- www.bax.org, Park Slope, Brooklyn · Creative Arts Studio/Sherri Hellman, director— www.creativeartsstudio.com , Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn · The Dance Studio of Park Slope/Jennifer Kliegel, owner— www.thedancestudiops.com, Park Slope, Brooklyn · Green Space Dance Studio/Valerie Green, director- www.greenspacestudio.org, Long Island City, Queens · Peridance Center/Igal Perry, artistic director— www.peridance.com, Union Square area, lower Manhattan · Spoke the Hub/Elise Long, director- www.spokethehub.org, Park Slope, Brooklyn · UpBring Dance Company/ Shari Polis, director—www.upbringdance.com, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn · Micro Museum/Kathleen and William Lazziza, founding directors, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn