Day 60 Choosing your dance school name

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10 Tips to Make Your Dance Studio Website More Effective


By Mark Mahoney


Simply having a website is not good enough anymore. Your website can be the most cost effective way to communicate to existing and perspective customers. Your website can serve as a powerful round-the-clock marketing tool for your studio. I know there are many owners who still view a website as a necessary evil, but if you look at the typical "buyer profile of young children's activities" - these parents, mostly moms, spend a large amount of time "buying" on the web and want information NOW.



It is important to have these types of strategies in place:

Drive perspective & existing customers to your website

Guide perspective customers through the "buying process" in "baby" steps

Have a simple "call to action" like "schedule your a free trial", "schedule a free tour"

Allow existing customers to get to information quickly, they know what they want, let them find it easily



Tip #1 - Drive Traffic to Your Website



Your website address should be on everything:

Brochures, flyers & posters

Refrigerator magnets & window decals

Yellow Page ad, letters, email signatures

Voice mail greeting (be sure to visit our website for the latest information)

Google Search Engine - http://www.Google.com

Google Local Search Engine - local.Google.com

"See website for details"

"See website for current class calendar & schedule"



Tip #2 - Using Pictures / Graphics to Enhance Your Message


Put pictures of kids having fun on every page

Pictures/Graphics are to enhance text (not visa versa)

Use real photos from your studioo Do NOT use stock photography

Send the message: Dancing is SAFE

Send the message: Dancing is FUN

Send the message: Dancing is for kids of all ages

Send the message: Dancing is for kids of all shapes and sizes

Make sure the pictures are low resolution (around 72 dpi) so that they do not slow down the website

Be sure to use a variety of ages and equipment

Make sure you have a "photo release" paragraph on your registration form



Tip #3 - Make "Contact Us" & Directions page super easy to find

Mention nearby restaurants/stores (so parents can run errands / go shopping / eat a meal)

Mention other benefits of your location

Do not put individual's email addresses on the website like: susan@dancestudio.info - instead use: office@dancestudio.info

Make sure you have all the contact & map information on one page because many times a visitor will print this page and throw it in the car. So when the visitor cannot find your facility, they can call you.



Sample "Contact Us" Page



The Best Dance Studio



Phone: 123-123-1234



123 Main Street Google Map LinkCity, ST, Zip



Directions from I-75:



Step 1



Step 2



Directions from Downtown:



Step 1



Step 2



Local restaurants, shops & attractions



Tip #4 - Make it easy on the Search Engines


Use text on your web pages, not pictures/images of text

Search engines, like Google, when "crawling" your site cannot see images or pictures of text. It is very important on the home page to put common search criteria in text in the upper portion of the page

Typical search text examples include: "Dance Studio in Charlotte", "Learn to Dance in Charlotte", "Charlotte Dance Studio"

Ask your visitors or non-dance parents what phrases they would use to search for your facility

Don't let a web designer talk you into using "Flash" or cool graphics/imageso Submit your website to Google - it is FREE - http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps

Google's local search capability is gaining huge momentum



Tip #5 - Class Descriptions / Schedules

Class descriptions are very important when a perspective customer is trying to understand your offerings. It is important for each description contains: activities, benefits and age range.

Websites tend to focus too much on the activities and not the benefits - remember you are typically competing against non-dance alternatives and the non-dance parent usually will not automatically understand the benefits from this great art/sport.

Use Pictures on this page to enhance your descriptions, especially ones that pertain to the exact classo Use Videos - I believe this is an area that websites do NOT take advantage of. Videos can be a huge selling tool - it can help close a sale without a visit or at least convince someone they should come to visit the facility in person.

Call to Action - Make this really simple and a small step - a couple of examples include: "call or email to schedule your a free trial", "call or email to schedule a free tour", or "call or email to schedule a free evaluation".

Tip #6 - FAQ Page
Take all the typical questions your front desk receives and put them on this page

Maybe group it into two sections "New/Perspective Customers" and "Existing Customers"

This page can save you a lot of precious phone time and help eliminate your customers' frustration



Tip #7 - NO Flash introduction
Many web designers want to do a "Cool Flash" introduction to your site - Don't do it!

I personally think this is a waste of time and money and can cause frustration to your frequent visitors by always having to click on "Skip Intro"

There is a good reason why all the popular sites (e-bay, Amazon, Google, MSN) do NOT have introductions

A "Flash Introduction" looks something like a commercial with lots of motion and graphics



Tip #8 - Testimonials

Keep a digital camera in the studioo Anytime a customer sings a praise about your business, ask if you can take their picture and put their quote on the website

Put their quote & picture on the website and use only their first name (do NOT put their full name)

Testimonials are powerful just like pictures - have these all over your website

The testimonials page is one of the few pages that can be long - it is amazing how many website visitors will scroll down a long testimonial page and read each of the quotes


Tip #9 - Top Navigation Bar

An older style of navigation was to have the website "Navigation Bar" (Table of Contents) on the left. The drawback to this left navigation style is that is takes up precious space on each web page.

Now that websites are growing with more and more information, Top Navigation is better because it can stay the same on all your pages and does not take up as much space.

If you have a lot of information on your website, it maybe a good idea to have "Pull Down" menus from some of the navigation items

Navigation design is critical to making it easy for your website visitors to easily find the information they are looking for

Website Visitors have a very short attention span and your navigation needs to be clear and well thought out

Below is a sample of a "Top Navigation Bar"
Tip #10 - Ask for the Visitor's email

Always have a "Subscribe to Newsletter" item on the home page

Even if you do not currently publish an e-newsletter, always be gathering emails for announcements

Odds are you will eventually have an e-newsletter and it is so easy to put this item on the home page and begin gathering perspective customers email addresses

http://www.constantcontact.com/ is an e-newsletter provider we use and recommend for small businesses



Mark Mahoney - Confounder of Jackrabbit Technologies - http://www.jackrabbitdance.com/



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