 When you have a small Studio everyone knows you, so word of mouth and your personal attention to everything is enough to keep your business going. But the minute you want to grow beyond your immediate community, you need to reach people who might not even know you exist and convince them to become your Students. Once you have those Students you need to keep them happy. You need a Marketing Strategy! Many business owners post Facebook ads or a blog posts occasionally and hope to get customers. But that is like playing the slot machine, you will eventually get lucky, but you need to spend a lot of time and money before that happens.
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| Once you identified your Ideal Student and Parent, create an “Avatar” for each. For example, for a 4-6-year-old class, your Ideal Student can be a 5-year-old shy girl, an only child, who goes to public school and wants to have more friends at school. So, the benefits of taking your classes are: be with other kids outside school (she is an only child), express herself through art and build confidence (she is shy), which leads to making more friends at school. Give her a name: Sue. |  |
Next, create an Avatar for her Parent. Let’s say she is a working mom, married, millennial, and worries about her child, Sue, being lonely at home and school. She wants her to come out of her shell. You can charge her a higher price (it is a 2-income household), they need classes after school or weekend (Sue is at school during the day) and you can reach her on Instagram (she is younger). Give her a name: Jennifer. This exercise will give you a clear vision in your head when you think of that class and Student/Parent. In the next steps, I will show you why defining your Ideal Student and Parent for each class is so crucial.
Step 2: Write an Offer with an Incentive
Choose the class you want to fill, and what your Ideal Student/Parent is looking to achieve -- the benefits they are looking for. As I mentioned above, the benefits go beyond learning your medium. It is to express their creativity, get off their video games, be more confident or better at school, to name a few.
Step 2: Write an Offer with an Incentive
Choose the class you want to fill, and what your Ideal Student/Parent is looking to achieve -- the benefits they are looking for. As I mentioned above, the benefits go beyond learning your medium. It is to express their creativity, get off their video games, be more confident or better at school, to name a few.
They will feel like you are talking directly to them! | With the Ideal Student/Parent in mind for the class, you can write your marketing copy -- your Offer -- with the benefits they are looking for. So, when they see it, they will feel like you are talking directly to them and will put your Studio on the top of their list. |
| Your offer will need a strong headline that catches attention: Headline Examples:
| Once you have your offer, add an incentive to make your Ideal Customer take action and to collect their contact information for future marketing. Tip: always add an expiration date. Incentive Examples:
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Step 3: Deliver your Offer and Incentive
There are 2 ways to get the word out: Organic, like a blog post, social media, website, and e-mail list , or Paid, like Facebook and Instagram ads.
Depending on your distribution, the headline and benefits for each class will be the same, but the message structure can be different. You can use the same or different incentives for different classes.
It is very important to collect contact information from those interested in your incentive, so you can follow up with them and market to them in the future. You can do it through social media, e-mail or call. You can also create an opt-in page with your marketing service provider will (ex. Constant Contact or Mailchimp.) Ask for Student’s name, age, Parent’s name, e-mail, and optional phone #.
I know this is a lot to take on, especially if you have never done a Marketing Strategy.
You can start with these action steps:
You can start with these action steps:
| Choose 3 classes you need to fill and create Ideal Customers for each, then come up with specific benefits and the same incentive for all. They could be: Preschool: drawing 6-8 year-olds: homeschooling art class Adults: Virtual paint party |  |
| For Student
| For Parent:
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No idea what benefits your Ideal Customer is looking for? A few suggestions how to find out:
- Send a questionnaire to your existing and past Students/Parents, and ask the benefits they got from your classes?
- Have a Facebook poll and see what classes people want and why?
- Read comments on the internet for similar classes: it was relaxing to draw, learned to focus, found a community, etc.