Dance Studio Gets Wings for Lift-Off
| Organisation: | Dynamic Moves Dance Studio |
| Client: | Belinda Kawalek, manager and lead teacher |
| Wingz’ role: | Website support; social media mentoring; signage; marketing mentorship |
When Dynamic Moves manager Belinda Kawalek first met Joan Martin, a mum with a four-year-old ready for her first ballet class, Belinda had no idea the meeting would be so fortuitous.
Dynamic Moves Dance Studio
Bringing ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, national folk, and other forms of dance classes to women and girls, for over 20 years, the Dynamic Moves Dance Studio, in Dapto, provides high calibre dance classes in a friendly and fun environment.
The studio’s curriculum-based activities are linked with innovative programs of physical fitness under the guidance and supervision of a highly trained teaching faculty. Students can participate and enjoy the rewards of annual examinations with registered bodies like The Australian Teachers of Dancing.
Marketing? Cost-cutting and up-skilling in one
Before meeting Joan, Belinda says her marketing cost her a fortune. Thanks to Joan’s knowledge, Belinda has saved hundreds of dollars a year in advertising, while learning marketing skills that have meant her business is both organised and better noticed in the competitive marketplace.
Joan’s ability to explain marketing ideas and tactics to Belinda simply and clearly meant Belinda (who both manages and teaches) now also runs her own well-oiled mini-marketing machine.
“Joan saved me, she really did save me,” Belinda says.
Belinda says that before getting a hand from Wingz, the world of marketing seemed too daunting to deal with…
“Joan’s turned my attitude around when it comes to marketing and technology, especially social media.”
Letting go of the old
The original website Belinda had was limiting her business. It was not available on mobile phones nor devices other than a desktop. Enter Wingz Marketing and its associates and all that changed.
The New Responsive Website
The current Wingz and partners designed Dynamic Moves website is now fully responsive; working on devices including mobile, IPad, tablet, desktop and more. Now the text works properly with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which is helping the business in climb Google rankings.
New website features include an online enrolment system which Belinda says has revolutionised her world. Before this, to enrol, the dance studio staged labour-intensive enrolment days.
“The new technology is easier, faster, makes enrolling more flexible for the student, and has attracted more clients”, Belinda says.
It also shows people that Dynamic Moves is up to date, and now with new policies and procedures in place, also offers another level of professionalism to the business.
“The new enrolment process is awesome. Having online enrolments is much easier.”
“People are just logging on and enrolling online, instead of us having a whole enrolment day and doing it manually.”
There is also a calendar of events on the website, which Belinda learned with Joan’s support, and now manages herself.
Making the most of content + personal voice
Joan was able to make the most of the content Belinda had built up over her 20 years in business, including the use of Belinda’s own photographs, that she’s used as central to the design.
“Belinda’s wonderful images of students in their Tootoo’s or tap shoes, in various stages of learning or performing, give a great sense of personality to the site,” says Joan.
Joan says she made sure to keep the text in Belinda’s unique voice, supporting her through her writing process with keyword and other marketing tools.
Making marketing easy
Belinda is grateful that Joan made marketing fun and accessible to her in a way it hadn’t been before.
“Joan’s approach feels relaxing: meeting up with her is more like having a break than hard work, which I appreciate. It’s easy as, working with Joan. I like that she talks and explains it all at the level I understand. What makes the difference with Joan is that she doesn’t speak marketing lingo that you can’t understand.”
Belinda even began studying a marketing course simply to learn more and apply it to the business due to Joan’s influence.
“Joan makes marketing interesting, she’s why I’m studying it now.”
“I’ve learned an awful lot about marketing from Joan, especially that you can use it to target your audience.”
“I was targeting anyone and anything. I now focus on the areas I specialise in, rather than spending hundreds of dollars on [undirected] advertising, I am now focusing on specific age groups, people in my area, schools.”
“Joan has helped me create new signage for the whole studio as well, in fact, she has helped with so much more than just basic marketing.”
Social Media Mentoring
In her role as a social media mentor, Joan focussed on helping Belinda develop her love of doing things herself. Belinda enjoys the mentoring role Joan offers:
“No matter where she is if you have a question, she’s always there.”
Today, with Joan’s support, Belinda is running her own targeted marketing campaigns and daily activities on social media, with FaceBook her priority platform. Before meeting Joan, she was wary of using social media for business at all.
“I simply didn’t trust it before. I only had a personal page on FaceBook. Once Joan showed me, and explained what you can do using it I saw the potential…”
Following Joan’s advice, Belinda now has a private Facebook group for the dance studio, giving her member students a space to communicate that isn’t open to the public.
“We can keep up to date on a weekly basis, it’s been really good,” she says.
Belinda also manages her own targeted Facebook ad campaigns.
Results
Belinda is happy with the results she’s had since beginning the consultancy with Joan. She has been getting “heaps more leads – getting heaps more on Google.”
She also now knows how to find out and monitor how many people are finding her through Google search, or looking at her website.
“I never knew about any of that before!”
