We all know the feeling we get from being a part of something great. It can be as simple as participating in a club or working together with a group of people for a common cause. This leads me into the next marketing strategy that Curves Founder and CEO, Gary Heavin shared with me, Utilizing Community. Community is very important when it comes to marketing and although it is not seen as direct marketing, it will spread the word about the all the good things happening at your studio. The student will share his/her experience with others and from my experience word of mouth will cause a parent/student to sign up on the spot. By engaging your studio with your community you are going to open the door to a lot of referrals and as we all know referrals tend to be one of the best ways to gain new students.
In our studio we’ve decided to connect with our community through the use of social networking. We created an online community to keep the community connected with our studio. The general online community for anyone wishing to join who may or may not be a student at our studio, but we also created an online community specifically for the students and parents taking lessons at our studio. Not only did we want our students to feel connected to others within our studio, but we also want to give potential students in our community the opportunity to connect with our studio. In our online community we are able to list our events, engage the community in dialog about the arts, and direct them to great online resources and a whole lot more!
Another great way to connect with your community is for your studio to participate in local fundraisers and events. Not only are you participating in a worthwhile cause, but you are also raising awareness about your studio within your community. You may even gain publicity through your local media outlets. At all of our recitals and summer concerts we collect canned goods for a local family in need or our community Harvest Food Bank. This is a great learning experience for our students and a great way for us to connect with our community. It is always a plus when an article gets published in the newspaper highlighting our students efforts.
Community is an asset to service businesses such as ours and we make it our effort to make that connection! So instead of solely focusing on traditional marketing strategies, make that connection too!
Online Community Websites:
Mark
meetup is a great resource. You can start your own online group using their tools. I belong locally to groups on digital photography, hiking and fishing. Never thought of using it for a “studio interest group,” that has great potential to build the sense of community. Thanks for the idea!
Carlota Dacanay
Every day I am more amazed with on-line marketing because of seeing the way the the current generations operate with their friends with computers. My 13 year old daughter just showed me a portal they had launched to keep track of areas of interest for their classmates. They needed to know the way to setup online marketing on the page to create revenue. I must tell you I am so very happy.
learn guitar online
i agre the kids are light years ahead of the oldies like me, cant wait till my daughter gets older to show me a few tricks