Success is not a Solo Project
Recently I have been working on developing a marketing and promotional campaign for a small but successful business called Sydney Dance Zone. Like a lot of businesses it is a multi-faceted business providing several varying services to differing markets. The first market is children interested in dance and parents who are willing to pay their children’s dance tuition.
Each school holidays SDZ holds school holiday dance workshops enlisting the best, freshest commercial dance talent (video clips, movies ect.) to bring up-to-date choreography to children who normally wouldn’t be exposed to such talent due to geographical location, availability and cost. Over the six years SDZ has been holding these workshops they have built a loyal fan base with many repeat customers. The kids love the choreography, the parents love the professional way in which the classes are taken and the teachers enjoy the regular pay and chance to teach kids hungry for what they have to offer.
These workshops work simultaneously in several locations all over Australia and New Zealand. SDZ advertise in all relevant dance magazines, dance schools and via their website. They have a long and loyal subscribers list and sell SDZ merchandise (cool trucker caps/posters the teachers sign/DVDs) as part of the workshop. So the first thing we had to do was build on that already loyal following maintaining and increasing current enrollments.
This was done by getting some editorial exposure in the relevant dance magazines SDZ has been advertising in for all these years. Each magazine was pitched a different angle pertaining to their circulation using a combination of geographical association and a rags to riches story about director Jennifer Craddock. The second was to hype up the web-sites editorial content, tightening up the wording and focusing on the real strengths of the business.
SDZ are also branching out into the corporate sector offering in-house dance-fitness classes. This is a completely different market than what SDZ have been in before yet it is a lucrative and untapped one. SDZ’s teaching faculty, experience and star-association are the perfect company to provide such a service, all that needs to be done is to let them know it exists. With any luck some of the parents of those loyal children may already be SDZ subscribers it’s just a matter of letting them know that a company they already entrust their most valuable possessions to (their children) are offering a service that is appropriate for them.
Firstly, a corporate page needs to be added to the website with appropriately targeted copywriting material. The second is to elicit editorial endorsements. What better way to get corporate business endorsement than to offer a corporate business such as a magazine publisher a free in-house dance-fitness lesson? There is a reason editors are inundated with freebies.
But these are only the first steps in reaching new heights for SDZ. These are very unobtrusive measures to get more and long lasting business. The cost is kept to a minimum but the exposure is pushed to the maximum reaching a very focused, target audience.
If you do decide to get outside help from someone in marketing make sure you ask what costs are covered for example, because I have worked as an author and freelance writer I already have established connections with many editors, so editorial placement becomes a little easier. Plus I am able to do the copywriting and press releases something many have to outsource, costing you more $$. Ask about press campaigns as well as advertising.
The key to working with an outside marketing expert is to work together. If you pool your resources you will have much greater effect. Don’t expect them to cover every angle when it’s you that is the expert in that field. Success is not a solo project, use your resources wisely.
Leave a Comment