Tips for using Social Media from CK Danceworks

Use Facebook to Take Interaction with Customers to a New Level

Social Media is So In right now – but also So Useful for our marketing in our small business! We strongly take advantage of Facebook, YouTube, Google Alerts and other web-based things as tools for marketing our business! 

Facebook would have to be our Big One right now. It’s how we connect to our “fans” and customers on a daily basis – even when we don’t see them in the flesh.

• If we are at a dance competition, pictures go up daily of kids before they go on stage, posing for pictures in costumes, or smiling with their awards.
• Deadline coming up for T-Shirt orders? That goes up with a link of the order form as a reminder to everyone to turn in their information so we can include them on the order!
• We also post important upcoming events and performing in the community so that people can find us here and there. Other things, such as famous dance quotes, pretty dance Pinterest pictures, amazing YouTube videos, and old pictures from past years go up regularly and make our Facebook page something our “fans” want to check on often to see what we “posted today”!

Facebook really is a great way to share our daily life with our patrons and an amazing way for new clientele to see what we are about. They can watch videos to see levels of our dancers and to see pictures to get more of an idea of what we stand for. 

Do we see results? Yes!

Normally, after a dance competition, we will see an increase in our “fans” traffic on the Facebook page as they are posting videos, pictures, congratulations and thanks to teachers and other kids. At the same time, our new “fan base” grows as we have newly-interested people sparked from competition who “like” our page to keep track of us and find more information! 

It’s really important to keep this ever changing and new. You don’t want someone to not check your page often because they feel like you don’t update it!
 
Facebook now has over 300 million users, and while that seems like an outrageous number for small businesses to be targeting, it offers a very powerful platform on which to build a presence. For a studio of around 600 kids, we currently have 2,500 fans and we see that grow every day!

Are You Making These 4 Costly Dance Studio Ad and Marketing Mistakes?

I have yet to meet a dance studio owner who says, “I opened my business because I love sales and marketing!” Rather, most of us started with a dream of owning or operating our studio because of a love for teaching dance, choreographing, creating productions and more.

That said the success of any for profit business lies in the ability to have paying customers. It’s sad and frustrating when you spend hundreds or even thousands of hard-earned dollars on advertising and marketing methods that are ineffective today.

Here are four mistakes that dance studios make when it comes to advertising and marketing their programs.  While there are many ways to find new students that can cost either very little or way too much, I’m hopeful you’ll see ways to leverage the efforts you’re making now and avoid these costly mistakes along the way.

Mistake #1: Spending money on Facebook ads (or any ad) without a clear goal.

 A studio owner recently told me, “I have spent over $400 on Facebook ads and I have absolutely no idea how it works or if I’ve gotten any new students but we have more people that like our page now!”  Before starting any ad campaign, it’s important to set a measurable goal set so you can track your progress to determine if the ad is successful or needs tweaking. 

If your goal is to grow the amount of likes you have on your studio’s page, be sure you’re adding value with the content you’re sharing on social media so that you can gain the interest of this potential student to take the next step to call or register.  

Maybe your goal is to draw users to your website for class information or registering. Too often I see Facebook ads direct the reader to a studio website that is not up to date, lacks a call to action, or makes it difficult for that person to take the next step to either call you, come in for trial class, or register.  If you’re using online registration you’re one step closer to making it easy for people to do business with you. 

Mistake #2: Using expensive one-time saturation mailings to fill programs before utilizing low cost and free methods first. 

I sort my mail over the trash.  The goal is to recycle as much paper as possible and find the few items that are important. Saturation mailings, a direct mailing that promises to reach thousands of households may be a great strategy for lawn care companies, local restaurants, residential cleaning services, or florists – but not necessarily a dance studio.   

In fact, a dance studio owner who was about to invest $3,000 in a one-time saturation mailing contacted me to see if I could review the piece.  But we didn’t even get that far. Together, we discovered that her schedule of class offerings couldn’t even support the demand if say, just 1% of the potential reach of this mailing were to actually interest new students.

There were not nearly enough classes for beginners or young dancers offered at the studio. We determined that the investment wouldn’t pay off even after a year.  The text in this mailing was intended to direct people to her studio website. However, on her site there were limited program descriptions, no proper links to social media, no online registration and a confusing tuition page that would turn off any parent of a new dancer.

Lessons to take away: Make sure the basics such as an easy to navigate website and links to online registration and schedules are lined up before you spend any money on a mailing. Do the math! Ask yourself, does it even make sense to spend X on a one-time mailing campaign?

Mistake #3: Relying on newspaper ads as your only source of advertising. 

The local paper is not what it used to be!  Have you noticed changes in the type of ads you see there? Better yet, if you’re still spending money on advertising in your local paper what kind of results have you seen from running those ads? Does your target market (such as a busy working mom or stay at home dad) still look in the local paper when making decisions on activities for their children?  

We stopped running ads for our studio in our local paper over a year ago; the same goes for the phone book. If you feel compelled to invest in newspaper ads, make sure you have a sense of urgency tied in with the copy such as: Registration deadlines, early bird savings, incentive to hold your spot before the class fills, special guest events such as master classes or intensives. Give people a really, really good reason to contact you. 

Mistake #4: Ignoring online reviews.

 Most people cringe at the thought of an angry parent or former student going online and writing a negative review of their experience at your dance studio. You can’t make everyone happy, nor will you, but in today’s age of consumer-driven reviews on sites such as Yelp, Google Places, Yahoo and more, you have to take the leadership role and get involved in managing your online reputation. Know what’s being said about you!

Too often I search for local businesses and see none or only one review posted online – and many times that single review is negative and the business owner has no idea if or how to respond. 

The Internet has made the power of word-of-mouth (free!) advertising faster than ever. In years past, studio owners would ask for a testimonial for a printed brochure. Now is the time to ask for those raving fans to take their positive comments to a review online. Ask them if they’d be willing to take a moment and share those kind words on your Google Places page as word-of-mouth and referrals mean a lot to growing your dance studio business.

Summing it up… 

Make sure you’re maximizing the core no-cost and low cost marketing methods first before you pour hundreds or thousands of dollars into paid advertising. Advertising (paid or otherwise) can be highly successful, but only when the fundamentals are covered. 

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Suzanne Blake Gerety is not only the very busy mom of two young children but is the owner and co-founder of DanceStudioOwner.com, and the Vice President of Kathy Blake Dance Studios. She is a regularly featured contributor in various pieces for Dance Teacher Magazine including, “Ask the Experts”, business articles, and presents seminars at Dance Media’s Dance Teacher Summit New York City.

Suzanne experiences the ups and downs of studio ownership too, which is what inspires her to help studio owners and teachers keep their passion for dance alive as they grow their business. You can connect with her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DanceStudioOwner

Jackrabbit Partners with Email Marketing Innovator – Constant Contact

Jackrabbit’s new relationship with Constant Contact will bring direct access to valuable e-communication tools to Jackrabbit users.

Perhaps you’re reading this and saying to yourself,
“If I use Jackrabbit, do I really need Constant Contact?”

Look at the facts and you can easily see how Constant Contact extends the basic e-communications that Jackrabbit has put in place for you.

Several features Constant Contact offers help you keep your organization top of mind with customers. Constant Contact’s tracking capabilities, reporting, subscriber management, robust design and marketing campaign tools, event marketing, social media marketing, and online survey tools take your organization to the next level in professionalism and effective communications. And it can all be done without consuming large blocks of your time or your staff’s time.

Email and Survey features are two of the most powerful solution areas that you can leverage through Constant Contact.

Constant Contact Email Solution Facts:
You can link directly to a Constant Contact/Jackrabbit page and email families and instructors using editable email templates.
Phase One allows Jackrabbit users to:

• Sync email contacts both ways
• Directly upload emails – select groups of emails in Jackrabbit and click a button to upload into Constant Contact
• Setup a trial account with password and user information
• Estimated to require about 5 days of effort.

Phase Two adds the ability to run Constant Contact report from Jackrabbit.

Benefits of Constant Contact emails:

• Affordably priced for small businesses – and you can start for FREE!
• Easy to add social media – Facebook and Twitter links – to your email marketing campaigns
• Free personal coaching and support by phone, email, chat and in person
• Tools to grow your email list
• Secure email list storage and management
• Drag-and-drop email editor that is easy to use. No technical skills required!
• Anti-spam checker and high deliverability rates that ensure your emails reach the Inbox
• 400+ HTML email templates that can be customized with your logo, colors and photos without technical skills.
• Track and see results with detailed, easy-to-read email reports. Learn who opens and reads your emails and which links they click on.

Constant Contact Survey Solution Facts:

Constant Contact also offers survey solutions that can help you strengthen customer relationships and learn valuable information about your families and students.

Benefits of Constant Contact surveys:

• Affordably priced for small businesses.
• Easy-to-use tools, online survey templates and sample survey questions.
• More than 40 customizable survey themes that make your surveys look very professional.
• Your customers’ data collected in your surveys is secure, 24/7.
• Facebook and Twitter links make it easy to promote your online surveys.
• Track and see results with detailed, easy-to-read survey reports.

“We know that you are always looking for effective ways to strengthen existing customer relationships and to communicate with customers and prospects more efficiently and effectively. Constant Contact offers online marketing tools that provide robust e-communications tools with powerful features that enhance the core communication services that we offer in the Jackrabbit system.”  Mark Mahoney, Jackrabbit’s President and CoFounder

Layering Constant Contact’s solution on the new Lead File option in Jackrabbit gives Jackrabbit users lots of emarketing and e-communications functionality that will help them build and manage strong, lasting customer relationships.

Learn more about using Constant Contact with Jackrabbit.

Jackrabbit has solutions for gymnastics, dance, cheer, dojo, swim, music  and camps. Jackrabbit also provides solutions for child care centers through EZCareOnline.

How to Easily Add Social Media into Your Marketing and Branding: S.T.E.P. Your Way to Success

Business Tips from Suzanne Blake Gerety

Adding social media into your comprehensive marketing plan can appear to be time consuming or even confusing!  When you’re just getting started it’s important to know the fundamentals of social media and how you can properly use them to Share, Teach, Engage and Promote to S.T.E.P. your way to success.

Social media gives you instant access to brand your business, connect to your community and communicate with your current and potential students.  You can easily share exciting news, helpful information, and relevant events that both inspire and inform on social media.

#1. SHARE
Social media is about making connections.  Share, comment, like, and/or re-tweet information that you believe your friends, fans or followers could benefit from such as blog posts, quotes and helpful links.  Be a connector and spread goodwill to your sister arts organizations, local businesses, clubs, and schools.  See yourself as part of the thread woven between your community.

#2. TEACH
Be generous with your knowledge, share your expertise, and add value. It does make a difference. Ask yourself how can I serve my potential and current students best through social media?   By making yourself available for questions, keeping your website current with informative class descriptions and up to date schedules, and sharing news about your studio it encourages people to register and refer your studio their friends.

#3. ENGAGE
Talk to people…and listen too! Reply to them, help them, connect, ask questions and have fun.  Be yourself, let your personality shine through.  Most importantly, take it one step at a time, be consistent and patient. Social media is not a race with a winner crowned at the end. It is now expected for businesses and brands to be found and be accessible on social media.  People like to feel appreciated, heard, and acknowledged – this is an opportunity stand out from the crowd and grow your business.

#4. PROMOTE
After you take time to share, teach, and engage…then you can sprinkle in some time to promote.  Ask yourself, “what’s in it for them” before you post it. Promoting on social media makes sense and is appropriate when you also take time to be social and add value to your community.  It’s easy to invite people to come in for demo days, promo classes, guest events, open houses, or fundraisers for cause events on social media.  In today’s mobile age, make it easy for people to do business with you by posting links to register online via your website and social media accounts.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY TO SEEING RESULTS.
This can be a big stumbling block for people. The novelty wears off for social media, it starts to eat up too much time or they report no impact on their bottom line. Your updates do not have to be complex. Just be consistent. Give a compliment, connect with someone, be generous. Here’s the catch, you may never be able to truly measure the impact of your social media presence in terms of dollars and students. But you can build your brand and make it easy for people to find you and position yourself as an expert in your training and what you are offering.

BE OPEN TO WHAT IS POSSIBLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA.
Google indexes much of what you post online.  Be mindful of this.  You’re representing your brand, your image and your legacy.  What do you want to be known for?   There are simple ways to separate your business social media presence from your personal life. I would encourage business owner and teacher to direct their social media relations with students and parents to a public page on Facebook or twitter account that is strictly professional. It is a win-win for everyone.

Now is the time to S.T.E.P. up your social media presence!

- Suzanne Blake Gerety, vice president of Kathy Blake Dance Studios and co-founder of DanceStudioOwner.com.  Connect on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DanceStudioOwner or Twitter: @SuzanneGerety