Kandykane Danceblog: Promoting your own dance studio (part 1- gauging ideas)

Kandykane Dancing

I was reading some of the advertising tips for Dance Studio Owners, and was in wonder if some of them are workable in my place. In an era that most people are addicted to social apps, it is quite unusual not to implement social network and/or social media like Facebook and/or Youtube into your marketing strategies. However, dance studios in Hong Kong tend not to use video as to woo potential customers. Then what do they use?

I dropped notes onto my dashboard as what and how to advertise before launching my dance classes, here is the list:

offer free stuff like free classes, free T-shirt/shoe bag with my logo;
making use of the social media like build a decent website, decent Facebook Page, send invites and start the invitation with your family and closest friends,
shoot some videos of your students dancing and Youtube it, the idea is to let parents share with their friends and colleagues so you can expand your potential reach.
run campaigns and small functions so your get chances to show your name everywhere,
develop referral scheme so you can get new students without paying the advertising fee in advance, because even both the referee and the referral get 50% off it only means you don't have to pay extra to grab a chance to charm the new student.
The very traditional but a must one is flyers, attractive flyers with discount coupon attached is a nice idea.

All make sense, but the first you need to do is to have a research to see how the others hit their market. Here is what I did:

I searched for the listed dance studios from the Hong Kong Ballroom Council, which is an authority in providing teacher's training course as well as holding the ISTD exams,
I also checked for the IDTA ones.
Then as I was thinking to offer quite a wide range of dances, apart from the Ballroom Studio, I also checked about Studios offering American Smooth and Rhythm, also the Night Club Dances like Salsa, Mambo, Bachata. I keyword searched in Meetup for these dances that I want to and am eligible to teach.
I went through the online local business directory like YP, 88DB, Livpage for dancing and exclude all Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Street Dance and Belly Dance.
I search through Youtube, Instagram and Facebook to see if they posted videos and photos.
I clicked into ALL websites and blogs to check details for their promotional details, and went to some studios which are closer to me.