Making Enrolment "Stupid-Easy" For Your Dance Studio In 2026

Hello, friends. I'm Amanda Barr. And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principles United, the podcast. Together, we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio. Join us as we talk everything from marketing systems, studio culture, motherhood, life, and everything in between. This is the Dance Principles United podcast. Hi, friends, and welcome to another episode of the Dance Principles United Podcast. Nathan, I are here in your ears today. I am so excited to kind of get into 2026. What do you reckon?

Absolutely. So excited for us and I'm sure lots of people listening. We've finally got our kids back to school. Look, only yesterday at time of recording this podcast. So we are full blown into work mode, actually being able to get stuff done rather than chop and change and entertain and feel like you're only getting work done in little 10 minute, 10 minute lots, right?

Absolutely. Like, probably like so many other parents listening, like, love school holidays, but it was time for them to go back to school. It's hard to juggle being a business owner and school holidays and having your kids at home. And I know for so many of our studio owners that are listening, right, it means that they're back in the studio doing what they love and having that studio filled with incredible children that they get to share their passion and love of dance with.

Yeah, absolutely. We know that obviously January is a super important time. It's something that we're a big believer in. It's not a time to kick back and relax. It's a time to jump in and be really pushing and trying to get those enrollments in. But it can be a little bit lonely in those big old studios. So it is always nice to have the studios back and full of the amazing energy that, that our students bring. And at the end of the day, like we said, getting back to be able to do what we love in our businesses. Right?

Yes. So good. Now, you mentioned a lot of our listeners are probably week two, week one, week three, something like that, back in the studio for 2026. Now, you know, back in the day, we kind of would get to this point and it would be like enrollments are done for the year. And look, we are not a big believer in that. We are very much, you know, big believers that you can grow your studio anytime. However, we know that we're going to get a lot of new interest into our classes in that, like January, February time for students that are thinking about trying dance for the first time or starting a new after school activity. You know, this is really the key time because there's a lot of parents kind of like, what am I going to do with my kids after school? So I thought today that we would chat about some ways to do some, like, last minute enrollment pushes.

Yeah, without a doubt. I think like you said, Manda, we are huge believers and always teach with whoever we work with that we need to be constantly enrolling throughout the year. But the reality is we always need also need to use the momentum when it's there.

Yeah.

And at this time of year, there's a big run of momentum behind us from parents looking to get into those activities, like you're saying. So when we're given these opportunities, we need to take a hold and run with them.

Absolutely. All right, can you give us a couple of tips? Let's start with your top tip number one for this last minute enrollment push, you know, once you're back in the studio to get some more bodies and more students into your classes.

Absolutely. And the top one that I always go to, that I think is so often overlooked, is reaching back out to our database. So we always talk about cold and warm leads, and these are people that aren't enrolled in class right now.

Y.

And there's a little bit of a differentiation between the two.

Yeah.

Warm leads may have been chatting to us in the last sort of few weeks. Maybe it was the end of last year, they were reaching out. And then there's those cold leads that we haven't heard from in a while. They might have reached out once six months ago, 12 months ago, 24, like two years ago. And we collected their details, but we just could never get them over the line.

Yeah.

Maybe they're a student that danced 12 months ago.

Yeah. Or even like five years ago.

Right. Five years ago. And whilst you might not get that student. Student, that exact student back from five years ago, they might have siblings, they might have cousins, they might have their next door neighbor that they just happen to be talking to that, that afternoon when you've sent the email and they're like, oh, that was great. She loved dancing there.

Yeah.

So, like, it's always important to never discount these databases that we spend a lot of time, effort, energy and money building up over the years. They're an absolute pot of gold for us. So it's super important that we use utilize them and especially now, reaching out to them consistently.

Yeah, look, you know, you mentioned, like, ex students and I know a lot of people, you know, are worried about sending too much info to ex students because they're like, oh, they didn't like my classes, they're not here anymore.

Or.

Well, that child was enrolled eight years ago, but now they're going to be 19. They're no longer dancing with me. You know, what do you have to say about that? Because I think people just kind of get in the heads a little bit about it, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I think at the end of the day, if you're sending emails out quite often, the platform you're sending it through, like if you're really worried about, about it, people can just click unsubscribe. Yeah, that's okay as well. But like I said, it's all about utilizing the network that we've got. Yes, of course. Like I said earlier, that 19 year old might not enroll.

Yeah, but, but the mom might know someone else, right?

Yeah. Does the mum have a, do they have a younger sibling? All those types of things that they. We're still just making sure that we have those, those touch points and stay front of mind with as many people in our communities as possible. So that they're always thinking that the place to dance in your community is your studio.

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So we have this huge big long email list of people that used to dance that don't anymore. Inquiries that ghosted us years ago. People that, you know, maybe even inquired only three weeks ago. What are we sending to them?

So I think it's important at this time of year to realize a few key things. Number one, parents are busy.

Yeah.

Okay. That is the most important one. And number two, thinking about like what are the thought processes that are going through these busy parents mind at the moment. So we don't want to be probably sending big long emails. I think gone are the days where we go into those programs and we make beautiful, you know, images here, there and everywhere. We make it look really flowery and pretty and we write big long emails that people have to sift through to get the information that we want. So I think the key is, like I said, that key thing, everybody's time poor. You know what you're like listening to this. Your inbox is crazy. Is crazy.

Yeah.

It's a grab for attention as much as your social media feed is at the moment. Right. So what we want to be doing is having headlines that hook people in and then we want to be getting our point and our information across quickly and then giving them a call to action relatively quickly also. So an example of that might be, I think a lot of people, a lot of parents are worried that they're too late to enroll.

Yeah.

So something in Your subject would be not too late to enroll at dance sensations for 2020.

Yes.

So then they're immediately thinking, oh great, I haven't missed out. So they click into the email. So you've got that first. You sort of won that first little battle.

Yeah. Okay.

And then really quickly getting across your point, use our friend Chat GPT to help you.

Yeah.

That classes are still enrolling. If you've even like to go next level. If you've gone through and seen like a few classes or styles that might be struggling for enrollments a little bit, push them to the front as well.

But then have you ever thought about tap? Tap is an incredible style for our kids that, you know, really into rhythm and making noise, you know, whatever that is.

Right, absolutely. And then give them a really simple friction free way. Gosh, I nearly tripped over that one. To be able to enroll in those classes or to trial those classes. Would you like to have a trial? Just reply yes to this email. Yeah, something super simple like that.

Absolutely.

Don't. Because then what we're doing with these, and that's what I think a lot of people miss the point of is that we're playing a numbers game and these database. Like we used to have a database with our studio of five or six thousand people.

Yeah.

Okay. So of course when we tap into that database, we're not going to get 2,000 people replying.

Absolutely not.

Right. We'd be lucky to get maybe with a database that size. We're hoping to get 20 or 30 on the hook.

Yeah.

Right. So that's a very small percentage. If you're only sending 200, you might only get three or four people respond. But that's fantastic.

Absolutely. And you know, one of our members mentioned that yesterday that they were doing that quite regularly and said, you know, based on those cold leads emails, they had kind of been on track every term of last year to kind of enroll three or four kids from it. And you know what, it's free. It should only take 10 minutes. Don't overthink it. Right. It shouldn't be a huge job to send out these emails. You know, if you can enroll a couple of kids every term from that consistently from that free marketing channel.

Great.

So worth it.

Absolutely. And like we said, it's not just getting them there and then as well.

Yeah.

It's keeping you front of mind. And if you're front of mind, then they're more likely to click on your Facebook ad to also interact with your social media posts.

It might not be replying to that email, it might be through a different way because yeah, I do the same. Right. Like I might read an email and not do anything about it, but then I see the ad the next day on socials and I click on it or you know, just the real or whatever that is. Or I think, oh, I was going to call that paper, those people and I pick up the phone and call. Right. There's so many different ways to reach out. So how often do you think we should be reaching out to these lists? Is that a hard question or what is like, ideal?

Look, it is a hard question because we do, we don't want to be pestering, but I think at this time of year, for the next month, when we're trying to really take control and use that momentum. Yeah, I think it's okay to try once a week if we can.

Yeah.

And like we said, don't overthink it. Spend.

Anything's better than nothing though, right?

Yeah. And don't expect. It's that same thing with our social media posts. I think we get worried, don't expect that everybody's going to see every email because they won't.

You don't read every email because we know that they generally end up in the updates or the promo or the spam tab or whatever that is depending on what email survey you use. And like I don't open every single email that I get. Absolutely not. But sometimes, sometimes if I'm in the mood, they hit and I open them.

Yep, absolutely. So that is tip one. Utilize that database and get some emails going. What is that your top tip?

Oh, okay. My top tip is, oh, now I've got my post its and I'm like, which one am I going to use first? To me, I think it's the keep following up. You know, so often we get so in our heads about parents that have inquired or people that have inquired for our classes. You know, they sent us a message in early January, we sent them all the information and then they ghosted us. So what generally happens is we see a lot of studio owners go, oh, you know, I sent them that info and they didn't get back to me, so they were obviously not interested. Or I sent them that email and then I followed up the following week once, once. And they didn't get back to me. They're obviously not interested.

I don't want to annoy them.

Absolutely. And look, I get that you don't want to be annoying for sure, but you need to give every opportunity, like every lead, the best opportunity. And to Me, you know, my question to that, you know, or my answer to that is, okay, so that person that inquired early January, what if they then went on an overseas holiday?

Yep.

Since then, and they've been busy. And then, let's be honest, they came back. They had, you know, let's think about this parent. They had mountains of washing. They have three kids that had to enroll in sports. They had to get new school uniforms and school shoes. Like, you know, there's all these other things. It wasn't that they're not interested in dance. It was just not a really high priority. However, if you jump back into their inbox, if you pick up the phone and call them and try them again, maybe, just maybe the day that you call is the day that, like, oh, I've got some white space. Yeah, today's the day I'm gonna actually get my shit together and do this. So, you know, you've really gotta make sure you keep following up those inquiries. And I'm a big believer that you've basically gotta keep following up until they say no. Right. Like, you know, some people go, what's the perfect number? And I don't think there is a perfect number. But my tips would be trying them in different ways. If you'd been emailing them, don't just keep emailing them. If you've got a phone number, try phon them, try texting them, Try something else to reach them on a different platform, number one. But also kind of keep going. Like, I'd be going like, you know, I think until they say no, but if not, at least like five or six times. And, you know, I really like when I even get texts. You know, I was looking at a, like an online platform the other day, and they'd probably sent me, I don't know, maybe eight or 10 messages, emails, etc. And then I got one text message saying, hey, this is gonna be the last text message we send you for a while. Are you sure we can't chat to you about xyz? And, like, I love that. I think that's kind of like a good stopping point. Maybe that's something you could implement in your studio.

Yeah, without a doubt. And it's. This is something that we've seen our Studio Growth Club members, especially over the month of January in particular, have great success with. I know Brit, for example, was telling us that she just sat down one day, picked up the phone and just started calling because that's something we've been preaching within Studio Growth Club and was, like, pleasantly surprised and Had I forget what it was, like maybe like 10 or 15 people. They book in.

Yeah.

Just within like one day of call.

Get it, Brit.

And I know Katja. Katja is lucky enough to have a new admin person has started. And so it wasn't Katya herself making the calls, but it was just that admin person in there with a hit list just picking up the phone, sending sms, sending personal emails.

Anyone that's inquired.

Yep. Sometimes it's just a little bit of grunt work on these things. And of course, you know, sometimes it is handy to prioritize them.

Yes.

And have. Hey, I think I'm going to list these people in order of, like, who I think's more likely to come.

Absolutely.

Start with the people that are more likely.

Yeah.

But sometimes at the end of the day, like, we've just got to get in there. Yeah, get in there and do it is the most efficient and effective way.

Absolutely. I love that. And I think, you know, I guess that kind of goes with the cold leads list as well. Like if you don't have that or you're not sure, like what you've got, like, you know, spend an afternoon or a night, you're all in the studios in the afternoons. Not an afternoon, spend a night on the couch and go through old Instagram messages, old Facebook messages, old text messages, you know, or old emails, whatever that is, of people that have inquired and like, reach back out to them. Hey, thought I'd reach out again. We've just started the new dance here and thought I'd see if Susie was interested in coming along for a trial next week. Like, that's all it has to be, right?

Absolutely. Simple is better.

Yeah, sounds good. All right. You got more tips for us?

I do. So another tip that we are all guilty of. So there is absolutely no judgment in the tip.

Say that we've done as well.

Absolutely. All small businesses do it.

Yeah.

But it can be a game changer, is to go on and do things like, check that out, Instagram links work. Check that on our website that we don't go on there now. And it's 2024 timetable.

Oh, my God. And that's the worst.

So just like those couple of little things. And look, it's so easy when I talk about the website links to the timetables. It's so easy to go down a rabbit hole and then you get distracted.

By, oh, I need to update this and that. And yeah, we all do.

On our website, we can see lots of. We can all see lots of things that we need on our website. But just think of the key things at the moment. People are wanting to see timetables, they're wanting an easy way to contact us. So double check that those couple of things on our website are up to date and then also checking on our Instagram profiles, at our links in our bios. All those things are updated up to date with the correct information.

Yeah, absolutely. It's so easy and doesn't have random on there. That doesn't need to be there anymore. Concert tickets from last year, like whatever that is, get rid of that. Yes. Hey, do you want to jump into your next tip? Because I can see that on a post it and I reckon it follows on well. Right?

Yeah, absolutely. We've got a really, really high tech system.

Yeah. The posters are here, the post, it's here, everywhere.

Yeah. But like Amanda said, it does follow along for that last one and it's about making it easy for these potential clients to get in contact with us to get in the studio regard. Like if you do free trials, paid trials, whatever it is. We know the biggest thing for having a new person enrolled is we just need them in the door.

Yeah.

So we need to make it as easy as possible for those people that are struggling a little bit last minute to get in the door, get their kid into class. What does that look like for the people that were enrolled last year that we just haven't heard back from and just haven't come yet.

Yeah.

It's a text message. Hey, classes have started. If she wanted to do the same as last year, we'd love her to turn up at 4:30 on Wednesday.

Yeah. Telling her rather than sending her the timetable link, sending her the portal link, whatever that is. Right. Because that mom who hasn't got their shit together to enroll yet look is probably a bit lazy, let's be honest. And they need a bit of a push.

Yeah. Or dance just isn't their priority. And that's something that I know is often hard for. For us to get our head around as people eat, eat and breathe, dance all the time, Live, live, eat. Like I just think about eating all the time, obviously. But you know what I live, breathe and eat. Sleep, sleep.

I don't know, I'm not sure what that saying is.

But dance is always in their mind.

Yeah.

So making sure we're making it easy for those that are re enrolling, those that were like we talked about, those warm leads, like what could it be like? It can probably be pretty similar for them.

Yeah. Okay.

Hey, our classes have started for this Week. I know it's a crazy time of year. Just sending you through this link to the timetable again, if there's any classes you'd love to come along to, feel free to turn up and just have a quick chat at reception and we can get her in for a trial.

Yeah. Or reply to this email with details. You know, I spoke at. I had a great time on the weekend. Got to ditch you on Sunday, and spoke at the Cicchetti New South Wales Teachers Conference. And we were talking about, you know, that sometimes parents just need an easy thing. They don't need a form to fill out online. Like, if you've already got a lot of their details, like if you've already got their name, their phone number, their email address, can you just get them to do the rest of it then from the trial rather than send them a portal link? Because sometimes that's just hard. Yeah. And it's that thing that the parents go, oh, I'll do that later, I'll do that later. I'll do that later. And just keep putting off.

Right, Absolutely. I think with a lot of those things, like asking yourself, why? So why are we making them do this form? And look, sometimes there is. We know that there is. Like you might have had an update to your payment terms and conditions or something.

Yeah, but do they need that for the trial?

100%.

Yeah.

So, like, always just think about why. And if it's something that can be pushed till, like, after they get in the door or after they end up coming to that trial, then that's the most effective thing to do. Because once they're in the door for that trial, we know their chances of enrolling have already skyrocketed.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right, so we need to make it super easy.

Absolutely. What else do you have on your little top tips on your. Post it.

On my post itself today, my last two kind of tips about using our community. Because I think so often we forget to kind of use our community. And look, my two post its kind of can combine into one post it. Because so often, you know, we go, oh, I posted on the local Facebook community group. Yeah, that's awesome. But what else? Right? What else could you do? You know, there's so many ways to reach your local community. And I think one of the big things is not underestimating, like posting on your personal socials. So many people, like, try to separate, like, their dance and their personal socials. But let's be honest, these days, mainly Instagram, Facebook, that's just one big advertisement it's no longer what it used to be. And it's okay to be sharing, you know, work stuff on your personal, like all of those things, you know, those Facebook community groups are awesome for sure. But you know, what else could you use? Could you use the school groups? You know, are there local mums groups? What else could you be doing? And like, let's not just talk about socials, let's talk about other ways to reach them as well. Could you be involved in your local school community? Could you go and visit the local preschool and, you know, have a chat to them and put some flyers out there? Could you like have some sort of like, you know, I'll help you out with this if you could help me out with this kind of situation going on. There's so many ways. Yeah.

Could you join the board of your local soccer club?

Yes.

Would you like to tell. Tell our audience what you accidentally did?

Do not recommend. Oh, it's that thing. Right. Like, you know, obviously I have joined the board of our local soccer club and look, it was an interesting choice that I did one night a couple of wines on the couch. But I do think it's a great way. Absolutely. Regardless. And it's a great way to give back to your community and also like expose yourself in the community and, you know, become, you know, the go to person in your community. You know, it's really interesting. I was chatting to Trish Scary from Static Dance. She was telling me that her two sons go to a local primary school that's quite close to their studio, Right. And she wears. Her and Matt, her husband, both wear their studio uniform to every single morning and afternoon school drop off and pick up. I'm like, cool. She's like, can I tell you something else? I wear it on days I'm not going to the studio. I put on the jacket just to walk into the school.

Yep.

And she's like, the amount of inquiries we've had from that, the amount of things, because people know us as the parents that own Static. Obviously she's a parent and that makes it a little bit easier to connect with other people who are going to be their clients. But, you know, how great is that? By putting yourself out in the community and going, hey, I'm the person to come to if you want to know about dance, whether that's being on the board of the football club, being, you know, Beck, for example, is like on the like local chamber of commerce board, you know, and works with that. Whether it's at school, pickup, no matter where it is. It's just like, like embracing your community.

Look, I know I made a bit of a tongue in cheek joke about you joining but you know, it is something that is super important giving back to your community and it is something that, you know, mend is helping with the, the uniforms and all of those kinds of things which obviously a skill set of getting thousands of dance costumes a year ready transfers over to. But even, you know, I've been part of the Climber Cricket Club for forever and you would think that.

Absolutely forever.

You would think that, you know, a cricket club is there really a crossover with the dance studio? But when we still had the studio within our local community, there was so much crossover with that and so many positive things, so many relationships that you build that you would not even realize just by being out in that community.

Not just telling people what you do for a living. And you would always have people that you didn't know very well, but you're told that brought their children in to dance. They're like, oh yeah, he owns that, that'd be cool, we should do that. Like, you know, really interesting stuff. And I guess that kind of goes on to my next one. By using your community is actually asking your clients for referrals.

Yes.

So often we're so scared to do that and there's so many great ways you could do it. Whether that's like, you know, running like competitions of sharing or giving them something in exchange for it. But sometimes just ask, sometimes just asking is enough. And I think generally in the world people want to help, right?

Yes.

I think all of us as human beings, we want to help other human beings. But I think at the moment in the way our society is, look, I'm getting really deep here. People don't know how to help and so they don't do anything for fear of offending or because they're just kind of wrapped up in their own life maybe and you know, just busy and forget. Right. So you know, to me I think one of the biggest things, for example you have a small class, you know, you've got a preschool class, it's on a Wednesday morning and it's quite small. To me, the most effective way to get new students in that class would be to go out to those mums and having, have a really great conversation with those, let's say you've got five kids enrolled in it, having a one on one personal conversation. Not a group email, not a group text, like not them seeing it on socials, but going to every one of those parents in the waiting room and saying something like, oh my gosh, I'm loving having little Susie in this class. It is so great. Like I absolutely love teaching dance. It'd be a sh. It's a bit of a shame that we don't have more kids in this class. The vibe would just be so much higher and I know Susie gets so much out of it. Hey, does Susie have any little friends she'd love to come along? Because I would love to offer them a trial. It would mean the world to me. If you want to share this class with anybody, you know, if there's anyone you want to send my number to, please do so because we'd love to build it or I'm just getting started, I'd love some help building the studio, whatever that is. Most parents would sit there and go, oh actually yeah, actually Susie's friend from daycare, I've never told her mum that I bring her on a Wednesday. She might actually be interested. I should just. I'll flicker a text now that's like most people's first thought but you've got to be genuine, you've got to be brave and you've got to put yourself out there to have those conversations.

Yeah, without a doubt. And those like you said, those personal one on one ones are super valuable and super important and highly recommend those. But you can even go down, you know the path of things like asking for Google reviews. Yeah, absolutely is, can be super frictionless. You can have a QR code linking to your Google reviews depending on how highly you value them and I think you should value them. You can do things like, you know, put, put all of your uniform up 10 and then offer a 5% discount on your uniform for anybody that scans the code and leaves a Google review.

Yeah.

So like it can be as simple as that. A lot of our members offer a tent like as part of their onboarding program offer like a ten dollar credit for a Google review that they leave after they've been dancing about four or five weeks and so little incentives like that can get those reviews which often turn into quite lovely testimonials like 95 plus percent of the time and they're things that we can then share the things that help in all different aspects of our business as well.

I love that. I love that. Awesome. Well I hope you listening today have got a couple of new tips on ways you can keep pushing your enrollments because if we, no matter what week you're in of term when you're listening to this it is the perfect time to do a bit of an enrollment push. So sit down, you know, choose whatever your top thing was that you listened to this podcast today, spend an hour or two hours and like really commit to getting it done right and seeing those numbers come in. And we want all of you to be able to grow the studio of your dreams. So hopefully some of these things help.

Absolutely. Keep that momentum. Like keep grab hold of that momentum and keep running with it whilst we have it. And yeah, like Manda said, we can't wait. If you do take on any of these tips, we would love to hear in the comments. Let us know what the top two or three things you are going to try is and we would love to have a chat about them.

Absolutely. Thanks so much, friends.

Sam.