Use Dancing with the Stars 2008 to bring in more students

People are funny in that they like to wrapped up in an experience and live vicariously through others. TV is wildly popular because of this very thing. Case in point, Dancing with the Stars in making it’s way back to the ’small screen’ for yet another season.

Whether you like the show or not is irrelevant because there are TONS of people who do. Tons of people who live in your area, in fact!

If you’re a ballroom dance studio you should be capitalizing on it’s popularity. 

How to best do that?

Run ads in Google, Yahoo, & MSN that reference the TV show. You can’t use it’s logo or make yourself seem affiliated with them in any way but what you CAN do is let people know that they can get a piece of the action “just miles from their house.”

Think about it, when you’re marketing your studio, the toughest part of a piece is to convince people to read you ad and then pick up the phone or visit your web site for more information. You have to create all that desire from one little ad. 

Now, consider how many people watch the show and how it affects them emotionally. Then, you’ll start to see a capital idea.

I call it ‘turn the corner’ advertising. They weren’t looking for your type of service when they hit the web but you caught their attention and them made them “turn the corner” to your studio.

What I do with my clients is watch for show times in our area, see which times people are on the web searching for the information on the show, and then run ads where people are searching. A lot of them hadn’t really considered that they could actually be trying ballroom dance lessons themselves. You show an ad, make them comfortable, get them into the studio and ‘bam!’, you’re good to go.

Of course, there are more in-depth steps to this process but I wanted to give you the formula. You can also use offline ads with this technique as well. “Turn the corner” advertising works when you use it correctly.

Use it while it’s hot!

How cool is it to be around a bunch of teachers who love what they do and want to get better at it?! It’s really awesome to all those who are participating this year (and years past).

I’m looking forward to getting out there and talking with teachers to figure out what their biggest marketing problems are?

If you care to weigh in, I’m very, very happy to hear it. Post a comment below.

If I had to complain, I wish the judges would be as honest as Mia & Dan. They both shine.

So the question is: waht can you do to bring either of those 2 things into your studio (or you next event, or your next private lesson)?

How can you bring a little drama at the beginning to get some one (or many) hooked into what you’re doing or what you’re promoting. I’m not talking about manipulating anyone or anything but maybe you can tweak the way your present something. Sometimes changing the order in which you present things can have a dramatic increase in response.

How you you be so honest and transparent with anyone you work with or your students? It might mean you admit something you don’t want to about yourself or about how your run things. But….even if that’s uncomfortable for you, how would it change the way they look at you. I know whenever someone admits something to me that’s incredibly honest about themselves, I look at them a little different. With a a little more respect or integrity.

This year, I was surprised more than once by how the judges just ripped into a contestant or two like the icy north wind on a frozen lake. Yeah, they’re paid to be sharp and honest & I respect that. But do they respect the people who are trying their hardest up there?! A couple of times I wasn’t convinced…

It was also a little bit weird because in one scene the judges were just having a rousing good time & then next it was all serious again. That’s cool but it seemed like the editing was trying to hard for hills & valleys of emotions or something? Mia seemed to have the most heart of the panel & I’ve come to expect that from her. She’s bomb! I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the producers of the show were feeding them alcohol or something to get them to be more reactionary or bombastic or something? I think Mia even mentioned that once and it didn’t surprise me.

You drink a little, you lose a little control, you say shocking things = what a TV producer wants for his/her ratings. It’s a little suspect if you ask me…. I hope this show keeps it’s integrity this season. I’m not judging it yet but it’s a little shaky so far. Just my 2 cents.

Any comments?

Maybe we can learn from the show and take that into the studio and mix it up a bit? For example, it seems what happens on the show is that they see a bunch of bad dancers come out and audition. Then, they cut to a brilliant dancer that seems to light up the room & helps everyone fall in love with dance again. Think about what it’s like for a new student and what you’re doing with them? Are you just getting them into a lesson right away? Yeah, maybe you can’t show them your studio’s best dancer(s) right before each new student lesson, but wouldn’t it help to show the new student an awesome dancer at some point when they’re still new? 

It can’t hurt.

What about using a technique like this for increasing student retention? When a student is in the inevitable trough of their studies, perk their life up with a command performance or two.

I don’t know about you but when I get to feeling a little burned out or un-inspired, I got get inspired. I know enough to do that for myself. But, can you assume your new student does? Dance is your life…not theirs.