If you’ve been a dance teacher for a while, you’ll have noticed a difference in how your students are finding you, or perhaps you’ve noticed that they are no longer finding you at all! That’s never a fun scenario.
Or, if you’re a new dance teacher you’re probably looking for ways on how to get the word out about your classes. Depending on where your classes are held and whether you have to pay rent for a studio or not, it’s just not cost effective to have a class with only two or three people in it.
What to do?
Well, the first thing that I would suggest in both cases is to get yourself a website! That is a definite must. If you want to be found, a website is what you need. There are so many different ways you can get yourself a website and a lot of them are very cost effective, even for independent dance teachers.
But, just because you have a website doesn’t mean that people will automatically find you, what else should you do?
There are many different ways to create an online presence, and once you have a website most of them will help increase your website visibility, and that’s always a good thing. The more visible you are, the more often you will get found.
Here are a few examples of other marketing tactics you could use:
- write a weekly blog
- write articles demonstrating your knowledge
- create a regular podcast of helpful tips, video or audio
- have an events list, for both your own events and others in your region
- write a press release and submit it online
- post ads in online classifieds
- have monthly newsletters
- set up an autoresponder system to automatically handle new prospects and to keep in touch with those who sign up for classes
- create a Facebook page
- create a Twitter account and tweet regularly
- the list goes on and on…
And don’t forget those good old-fashioned tactics that still work to some degree:
- put up posters around your town
- place an ad in the local newspaper or magazine
It’s no longer enough to just do the local posters and hope everyone will find you. Nowadays there are so many more options online that you can utilize to get the word out, and so many of them are free! And don’t worry if you’re not tech-savvy, just get in touch with a Virtual Assistant to help you out, easy peasy.
Start with a website first and then incorporate a few more marketing tactics – before you know it you’ll be on your way to having busy classes!