How to Develop a Compelling Dance Studio Newsletter

• What Is a Dance Studio Newsletter?
• Why Do Studios Need Dance Newsletters?
• What Should You Include in Your Dance Studio Newsletter?
• How to Develop a Dance Studio Newsletter: 8 Steps

What Is a Dance Studio Newsletter?

A dance studio newsletter is a form of email or direct mail communication that empowers studio owners to share important information, updates, and announcements with parents, students, and staff members. Depending on your goals, you may include various types of content in your newsletters that keep your community updated on what’s happening at your studio.

Why Do Studios Need Dance Newsletters?

If you’ve been operating without a newsletter until now, you may wonder if creating one is worth the time and energy. However, developing a dance studio newsletter unlocks several benefits, allowing your studio to:

• Improve communication. First and foremost, newsletters provide a means of regular communication with your dance community. This consistency allows you to share timely updates and announcements, answer common questions, and keep your studio top of mind.
• Promote your studio’s offerings. Your dance studio newsletter can act as a marketing tool. To get students more involved, spread the word about new classes, upcoming workshops, events, and summer camps. You may also promote opportunities to expand your audience, such as “Bring a Friend” weeks or referral programs that offer discounts for new and current dance families.
• Celebrate achievements and milestones. Share student achievements, such as competition awards, college dance program acceptances, or convention scholarships, to celebrate their accomplishments. You should also include studio milestones your community can recognize, such as significant business anniversaries, studio-wide competition awards, or small business shoutouts from local publications.
• Provide educational value. Consider adding value to your dance newsletter by offering relevant tips and tricks. For example, you may have a different instructor give a tidbit of advice for each newsletter edition to inspire students. You may also share articles about injury prevention, proper nutrition, and dance world news.
• Increase retention. By offering a regular touchpoint with dance families, your newsletter can further engage them and increase retention. You may also use your newsletter to share reminders about upcoming registration periods or payments to ensure students stay enrolled.
• Build relationships with students and families. Ultimately, a dance studio newsletter fosters a sense of belonging and community for dance students and families. Including personalized content like birthday shout-outs can further your newsletter as a relationship-building tool.

These benefits all stem from the fact that communication is key. When you regularly communicate with parents, students, and staff, you can more proactively address questions and concerns and provide updates that keep everyone satisfied and in the know.

What Should You Include in Your Dance Studio Newsletter?

While your newsletter’s content may vary among different editions, these are the main elements you should consider incorporating into your dance newsletter:

• Studio updates and announcements. Grab your community’s attention and keep them informed by including important studio updates and announcements in your newsletter. These may be anything from new classes added to your schedule to studio renovations or expansions to plans for upcoming inclement weather.
• Student spotlights and achievements. Celebrate student accomplishments to build community with your newsletter. Consider interviewing students about their recent title wins, competition awards, or convention experiences. Include a direct interview quote with a photo of the dancer. You may also run a “Student of the Month” program that allows you to highlight students who have recently joined the studio, are graduating soon, or have been outstanding members of your dance community.
• Upcoming deadlines. Remind parents of deadlines for class registration, tuition payments, competition fees, recital ticket purchases, and more. Give families enough notice, and add links so they can easily complete the necessary actions right from your newsletter.
• Important dates. Ensure your community knows all important dates, including events, holidays, competitions, conventions, recitals, other performances, and parent visitation opportunities. You may also give subscribers a more in-depth overview of the coming week or month so they know what to expect.
• Educational content. Leave space for instructors to reinforce concepts they’ve been teaching during class or offer general advice to all dancers. Provide links to relevant articles that will further engage parents and students. For example, before your upcoming recital, you may link to articles about how to support your children as they prepare for a performance and how dancers can ease performance jitters.
• Event or initiative recaps. Highlight recent events, performances, and fundraising campaigns by sharing photos and stories from these initiatives. Recap what happened to entice more people to join next time, and thank all those who participated to show your appreciation.
• Promotions or special offers. Whether you’re selling new branded dance gear, offering an early-bird registration rate, or incentivizing referrals, let dance families know how they can participate. Try to anticipate potential questions and answer as many as possible within your newsletter. For example, if you’re promoting an early-bird registration rate, state the rate, the deadline for receiving the rate, and how parents can sign up.

You may also add seasonal content depending on the time of year. This may look like a note about your excitement to start the new dance season, a message of gratitude for the week of Thanksgiving, or a recap of your studio’s annual achievements for New Year’s.

How to Develop a Dance Studio Newsletter: 8 Steps

Start creating your ideal dance studio newsletter by following these steps:

1. Determine your goals.

• Welcome new students to your studio
• Promote upcoming events
• Share important updates
• Educate parents and students about dance-related topics
• Re-engage alumni in your studio’s community

While you may mix and match different goals, the areas you choose to focus on will help you narrow down your target audience and tailor your content to those recipients. For example, you may create different versions of your newsletter for students and parents, with the student version taking a lighter tone and the parent version focusing more heavily on upcoming deadlines and actions they must take.

2. Choose a format and platform.

Considering that 88% of people check their email accounts daily, email is an efficient and popular newsletter medium. Students, parents, and staff can easily engage with your email newsletter from any device.

However, some studios may opt for a physical newsletter that acts as a keepsake for community members. Since printing a physical version will typically be more costly, physical newsletters work best for smaller studios or those that produce newsletters infrequently.

Depending on the dance studio newsletter format you choose, you must select the appropriate platform for creating it. Studios developing email newsletters should look for an email marketing platform or use the email tools embedded in their dance studio management software to keep all communications in one place. Studios working on physical newsletters may use standard graphic design tools and printing services.

3. Create a content calendar.

• Weekly
• Bi-weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly

Then, schedule your newsletter for specific dates throughout the year. That way, you can keep your team on track for compiling the newsletter and ensure you send communications in time for important occasions like recitals, competitions, and holidays.

4. Gather content from various sources.

• Calling upon older students to help. Older students may be excited about giving back to your studio by helping with the newsletter. To free up your team’s time, you may have students lead interviews with different students and instructors, find relevant articles to link to, and summarize studio events they attended.
• Starting a hashtag. Social media can house a variety of engaging images and photos from your studio’s community, but it can be time-consuming to sift through it all. Create a studio-specific hashtag for students, parents, and instructors to tag content they’d be willing to feature in the newsletter. For instance, your hashtag may be something like #DanceFactoryNewsletter2025. Then, you can easily browse the hashtag and link to social media content in your newsletter.
• Accepting user-generated content (UGC) via your studio app. For UGC that people haven’t posted online, request that students, parents, and instructors share it using your dance studio app. That way, you can compile a library of relevant content your community has created and use it in your newsletter as needed.

Before publicly sharing any photos or videos of students, obtain parent or guardian permission. Use a photo and video release form to inform parents how you intend to use the photos and videos, how long you intend to use them, and how they can withdraw consent if they change their minds.

5. Design your newsletter.

• Leverage a simple, clean layout. Sometimes, less is more. Find a template to make your work easier and leave plenty of whitespace between content elements. That way, you’ll ensure your newsletter is easy to read and digest.
• Incorporate your branding. It should be clear that your dance studio newsletter belongs to your organization. Feature your logo prominently at the top of the page and use your brand colors and fonts throughout.
• Use images, videos, and graphics. Break up the text with visuals you’ve collected from your community. You may also add dance-related graphics to make your newsletter more visually appealing.

When spacing out your content, keep mobile users in mind. Use an email marketing tool that automatically resizes content to users’ devices, or create a separate mobile version of your newsletter. Additionally, make the width of your newsletter design between 600 and 800 pixels so users can easily read content on desktop and mobile devices.

6. Write the copy.

• Write an attention-grabbing subject line. Your subject line is the first element of your newsletter that recipients will see and can make the difference between them reading and ignoring your content. Grab their attention by personalizing it, posing a question, using emojis, implementing playful language, or combining these strategies. For example, your subject line may be “Sara, TAP through this month’s newsletter!” or “Recap the week faster than you can say 5,6,7,8! 🩰”
• Match your studio’s tone. While dance newsletters aren’t typically very serious, your tone should match your studio’s typical branding and audience. For instance, a studio focusing on pre-professional programs may not be as playful as an after-school dance academy for children aged three and up.
• Keep it short and sweet. Convey need-to-know information as concisely as possible. If you have more to say, consider linking to a relevant page on your website, like a full blog post recap about your recital or your complete tuition payment policy.

Throughout your copy, weave in clear calls to action (CTAs) that drive readers to actively participate in your studio. For example, you may remind parents to register their students for the upcoming competition season and add a “Register Now!” button and links to your competition team registration page or form.

7. Test your newsletter.

Before sending your newsletter to your entire dance community, give it a test run. Send a test email to a few staff members so they can review it and provide feedback. Have them check for proper formatting, readability, and functionality, such as working links and videos.

You should also preview your newsletter on different devices to ensure all text and tap targets (such as buttons, form fields, and links) are appropriately sized.

8. Track results.

It’s time to send your finalized dance studio newsletter to your community! While you may be overwhelmed with excitement about getting your newsletter out into the world, don’t forget to assess its effectiveness.

Use an email analytics tool to track metrics like open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate to gauge engagement. Consider surveying recipients about your newsletter to gather their feedback and identify room for improvement.

Send Your Community an Engaging Dance Studio Newsletter with Studio Pro

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• Dance Studio Marketing: 12 Ideas to Attract New Students. Your dance studio newsletter is a great marketing tool, but there are other ways to promote your offerings, too. Check out these techniques to build your marketing strategy.
• Tips for Dance Studio Owners: 9 Best Practices for Success. Dive into additional helpful tips for dance studio owners, including how to invest in strategic marketing efforts, position your studio against competitors, and tailor offerings to specific audiences.