Attracting clients for your online dance business is a lot like dating...

By Erin Pride

I was on an Instagram Live the other day, (I like to hang out a lot on Instagram, on stories, and I try to go live once a week, depending on what's going on in my life.)

While answering questions, this one came up. “What is an attraction strategy in your business?” 

I realized that many people don't know the three stages of business, and they don't know how to maximize those stages so that they can get the most out of it in order to really grow their audience, take care of their audience, and really prepare their audience to buy from them. 

I want to start off by shifting the mindset of, "Oh my gosh, I'm selling to people," to, "I'm really providing a service that will help people, and I'm also doing the work that I need to do to be the best at it." 

It's not a bad thing that you prepare your audience to buy from you. Whether you’re a studio owner or run an online dance business, in order to make a profit and continue running your business you have to sell, right? 

And in order to do this, you must nurture your audience and take them through the necessary steps in order for them to get to know and trust you. It doesn’t go from them following you one day, then buying from you the next day (at least not typically)

A great comparison to help understand this better is dating. You go on a date with someone, get to know them, show up for them, and invest time in each other before moving in together or getting married. These steps take time but can lead to a really wonderful relationship.

With this in mind, today I want to dive into the 3 stages of selling that happen to overlap in the dating world, and how knowing which stage you are in with your online dance business can help you attract your dream clients. 

So what are The 3 stages of selling?

Attraction

Nurturing

Selling

First, let's talk break down each step of the selling process. 

I like to explain it to my clients like this:

Attraction:

Imagine you meet someone. There is a magnetic pulse that runs through each of you, or maybe you have known someone for some time and you start feeling that magnetic pulse over the course of weeks, months, years. This is an attraction baby! It's the same with your online dance business. Creating content and connections allows people to notice you, then when it’s right, they follow you, and stalk you a bit. 

Nurture:

So you are now attracted to each other, and one of you gets the courage to ask the other on a date or a virtual date in this current climate. This is where the attraction is nurtured. In business, this is where your client opts-in for a freebie, joins your newsletter list, attends a training, etc. in this stage you are nurturing your ideal client with content to help them move into the selling stage. 

Selling: 

This is when you make it official. Nurturing can last 1 date, 2 dates, or 4 months before you are in a committed relationship. That is the beauty of it. Each person moves through these stages at their own pace. When looking at this from a business lens, you may have someone who follows you and consumes your content for sometime before they buy, and you may have someone buy immediately after they attend your free dance workshop. The point is to make sure you are feeding all stages so your ideal client can move through at their desired pace.

Now, let's tackle the BIG question of the day: How do We Get People Attracted to Us? 

Stick to one platform and become all-knowing about that platform; how to attract, nurture, and sell on that platform. This means really put your focus on IG, Facebook, YouTube, etc… This does NOT mean you are not posting to other platforms, this just means your intention is placed on ONE platform, and where we put our attention grows. 

For today, I am going to use Instagram as an example.

You want more people to come to your Instagram page. You want to bring in more people that are your ideal client or as I like to call them your “Jane”.  So how do you do that? Well, you create an attraction strategy! 

An attraction strategy is anything that pulls people to you, and it should really be based on what you enjoy doing. Some people use hashtags as an attraction strategy, following certain hashtags, engaging on certain hashtags, using hashtags in their posts. I don't like it. I've tried it. I have nothing against it...It’s just not fun for me at the moment.  So right now I focus on what I love and that’s talking. I do video collabs and podcast swaps. Always driving traffic back to IG because that is my main growth platform at the moment. 

What are some other attraction strategies?

Here is a list of examples:

• Guest coaching
• Guest teaching
• Guest workshops
• IG takeovers/swaps
• Facebook/Instagram Lives
• Pitch to be on podcasts or start your own
• Write blogs for others or start your own

It doesn’t matter what you choose! Choose what you enjoy and will stay consistent with. 

That is a front end element of your attraction strategy, but what about the back end? How do you set up an attraction strategy from a backend perspective? 

Well, I like to use Trello and what I do is super simple. In Trello, I just start to brain dump a list of people that I would love to collaborate with.

I would then suggest that you open up a Trello board or open up a Google Doc, and put who you want to reach out to now and who's a dream for you to reach out to. And as you start to build that confidence of getting people saying, "Yes, we'd like you to guest teach, coach, do an IG Swap, a Facebook," whatever, then you can start to move into your dream people. Sometimes you just need to have that confidence to move forward in attracting your dream people!

In a Trello Board, I create columns, the list of people I want to reach out to, and then the second column is first to reach out, the second reach out, third reach out, and then the last column is what the outcome was. I reach out to people about three times before I call it quits.

You can do this through social media as well. Whichever feels most authentic to you and in your own voice.

These are just a few ideas to get started on the process of having your attraction streamlined, and backed up in order to keep track and move forward in your strategy.

Starting your attracting strategy is just about setting your intention on what you want to focus your business on, and really shifting your content creation to align with that and that is your marketing. 

Everybody talks about marketing strategies, and which is the best strategy. But now that you know what it is, you need to ask yourself WHERE are you in your marketing strategy? 

Are you attracting? Are you nurturing? Are you selling? 

And that should align with your content strategy, how to reach out and connect with others, nurturing those people, and then selling when the time is right.

I hope you enjoyed this post and take with you what you need to start attracting your dream clients to your dance business!

Xo

Erin

Did you grab your spot in the Dance Boss Growth Free Coaching Hub? What are you waiting for?! Each month I am coming to you with a high-value FREE workshop to help you build a kick a** online dance business! CLICK HERE TO GRAB YOUR SPOT → http://bit.ly/dancebossgrowth 

Erin teaches dancers how to make money using their gifts, embrace entrepreneurship, and build a sustainable online business. She is also the host of the Dance Boss Podcast. Erin is a Jersey girl all the way, graduated from Montclair State University with a B.F.A. in Dance and received her Masters in Dance Education from New York University. She began her coaching journey as a dance education coach, providing resources and training to help dance educators run more successful classrooms. Now, Erin helps dancers niche down, build an online business, and bring in additional revenue for them and their families. To learn more about Erin visit erindpride.com, and you can hang out with Erin on Instagram and Facebook.