The economy is said to be challenging, but more and more people come out to dance. Some even pay to attend these dance classes. This is interesting because in our clime, paying to dance is like paying for a luxury good. You suppose don chop belleful before you go reason paying for dancing. Yet people do this, and the businesses or dance studios benefiting from this don’t do ads as one would think. They run free social dance events at upscale lounges and bars.

Social dancing in session in Lekki, Lagos. Photo by Osioke Itseuwa.

This works to help them pull in customers. As you join, enjoy yourself, and meet beautiful people, the community mechanics or psychology starts to kick in. You want to get better at dancing, you want to be as good as your peers. Who would you pay to teach you to learn? Who would you buy from?

Of course, the free social dance teachers! They are now top of mind for anyone enjoying the dance events. The social dance events and free dance classes make people experience how unique dancing is, making them more willing to spend on it. It gets them aware, activates and converts them, and the studios organising these free dance events do not spend as much money on these as they would for traditional marketing. Community marketing wins again!

To see this at play, check out The BodyLanguage Company. They are an award-winning dance studio based in Lagos, Nigeria. They hold free dance classes almost every day of the week at different lounges and bars.

BLC’s free salsa and swim event post on their Instagram page

BLC’s free Kizomba, Slasa and Bachata event post on their Instagram page — BLC’s free Kizomba, Salsa and Bachata event post on their Instagram page

And from these classes, they get customers who sign up to learn with them. I am one of those customers 😉.

An Instagram post showing a class at their studio in session

So how are you growing your market share for your business? Be like an award-winning dance studio and leverage your community.

If you’d like help building your community or have community questions that need answers, email communitystaples[@]gmail[dot]com, and we will help you.

Community Staples

How dance studios are growing their market…