Promoting
Promotional materials provided by ARTS Aug 8, 2017 (Click here!):
1) A list of "Reasons To Dance"
2) A copy of the "Dance Fact Sheet"
3) Suggestions for promotion of new classes, from the Sage Swingers
As an organization, we need to become better at marketing ourselves, creating better environments for new dancers, and making sure we do the right things to retain our current dancers. Often we have more questions than answers. Obviously we need to locally deliver classes and dances that meet the needs of our participants. And we can learn from what others have done to be more inviting.
Marketing
But, how about marketing? Should we be focused on marketing club by club? Or should we market at a higher level with the ability to drop down to the club level. For example if I google "zumba frankenmuth", the first two hits take me to zumba.com where I can search for Frankenmuth. I'm not immediately directed to a local resource.
Options for marketing might include:
marketing club by club- each club is an island onto itself
marketing squaredance-michigan.com and it's related email, phone with expectation of needed info being available and timely communicated to interested folks
partnering with a national resource - where's the dance? you2candance? other?
Mini-Squares
We also have opportunities to do some individual promotion through the use of mini-squares by inviting another couple to dance with us in our homes. At the 2015 state convention ceremonies we had a chance to try these and learned while they start slow and easy, they can be quite challenging as the speed and complexity increases. We had fun. We hope you choose to try these. If you do, please let the webmaster know how things went and we'll share your experiences with the Mini-Squares developers.
Details for obtaining and using Mini-Squares can be found at this link.
Facebook
Scot Byars write up on using facebook as a promotional tool.
MeetUp
Meetup is a group meeting place to find shared interests. A number of square dance clubs have posted their groups here.
Successes to Share
Happy Soles
,Judy Magnuson tells us Happy Soles has procured banners for display at events, yard signs, magnetic signs to affix to cars, business cards to promote a local contact number to get involved in square dancing. Since using the yard signs beginning in spring 2015, they've seen increased attendance at their Intro Dances. ref: http://squaredancemi.com/happysoles/
Country Twirlers
Pam German tells us... (this is now dated, but it was accurate in the past).
Country Twirlers has tried a variety of advertising ideas.
• Our most successful strategy was to incorporate a version of Dale Bennett's Nest Program into our weekly workshop. This program allowed us to accept new dancers at any of our workshops.
• We created a Google Voice Phone number to use on all of our advertising. This is a free number which you can set to ring on your personal phone. If you choose you can have the Google number ring multiple phones, such as all the club officers. It will ring all phones, the call will only go to the phone that answers first.
• Our club had both website at FACEBOOK presence.
is posted.
• We run a weekly ad in the area newspaper.
• We used wheresthedance.com to promote our dances and workshops.
All of the above are FREE methods of advertising!
• Our club held a FREE Ice Cream Social Fun Level Dance to recruit new dancers. We supplied the local newspaper with pictures and information about the activity and club. The local paper published a half page article with a large picture for FREE! The club bought the ice cream and members donated the toppings.
We have also used the following:
• Flyers
• Yard Signs
• Magnetic Bumper Stickers
• Rack Cards
We have not found one method that works better than another method. Most of our new dancers have come from other members, found us on the internet or in the newspaper. My advertising advice would be to make the print as large as possible and to saturate the area with a variety of methods. Again, the one thing that has helped the most in growing our club is to allow new dancers to join on any workshop day throughout the year!
Village Squares
Greg & Char Cook tell us...
ref: villagesquares.org
North Shore Squares
new club in Evanston, IL with a story of success - http://www.northshoresquares.com/index.html
Sources for Promotional Materials
(MI council is not recommending but rather just noting sources you might consider).