With your seasonal dance recital coming up, you’re probably facing a lot of costs from venue rental, lighting, backgrounds, props and more. What if we told you that there’s a way you can get back some of that money and potentially make a profit from your recital? Many studio owners have found that dance recital program ads are an easy and effective way to earn extra money for their businesses. While it takes diligent planning to pull together a great program packed with advertisers, it might be a huge boost for your studio. Here are a few ways you can sell program ads more effectively.
Determine Reasonable Prices
If you’re going to become a selling machine, you have to make sure that your prices are just right. After all, you’ll end up pulling teeth if your cost per ad is too high, and if it’s too low, you won’t make any money. So don’t just pull a number out of the air! Do your research to determine what’s a fair yet lucrative price for your program ads.
The biggest factor in determining how much to charge for ad space is what you’re going to pay to have the programs printed. For this reason, you should get quotes from your printing vendor before you start selling ads. One studio owner on Dance.net explained that she takes the per-page price from the printer and doubles it for a full-page ad. For example, if it’s going to cost you $50 per page to print the programs, you may want to sell full-page ads for $100, half pages for $60 and quarter-pages for $40. This strategy will ensure that you make your money back and then some.
However, you may need to adjust your prices if you find that businesses are balking at the cost. Be sure to look at the big picture – with higher prices, you might sell two full-page ads at $100, but if you lowered that price to $80, you may very well sell five and make $400.
How to Target and Approach Advertisers
Many studios incentivize their students to sell ads. This strategy works for some, but while 5-year-olds are cute, they’re probably not the best salespeople. That said, if you go this route, there are ways that you can help your dancers target the right businesses and advertisers to optimize on your returns.
If you are going to ask students to sell ads, give your students guidance before setting them loose in the community. For example, the North Cambridge Family Opera Company recommended that you pitch to businesses whose target market will be attending your recital. Companies that cater to children, parents and families will likely see the value in your ad space. Similarly, if your students are selling, instruct them to try businesses where they are regular customers and ask self-employed individuals if they want to purchase ad space.
When it comes to sales tactics, it’s usually beneficial to create a fact sheet and some talking points to help close the deal. Give your sellers information on how many people attend the recital, what the general demographics are and how the money will benefit the children who attend the studio. Some businesses may not necessarily need the advertisement, but if they are community-oriented, they may be interested in supporting the local arts program. Don’t be afraid to take a unique angle while selling!
Offer Ads for In-Kind Services
You may want to consider pitching a deal to some of the local vendors that your studio frequently works with. You can offer them free ad space for in-kind services. For example, if an artist helps with your set design each year, offer him or her an advertisement in return for a discount on next season’s design. Not only will this give the entrepreneur a bit of marketing, but it will create an agreement that you’ll work with him or her in the future.
When you’re bartering for in-kind services, keep your ad valuation in mind. If you’re asking for a discount, it should roughly equate to the same value of the ad you’re giving the vendor.
An Essential Checklist of Materials from Advertisers
Once you’ve sold several pages worth of ad space, you’ll need to collect the advertisements from the businesses. If you’re not organized when it comes to this step, you may end up contacting the advertisers multiple times to get all the needed materials. It’s better to put together a comprehensive list of things you need for each ad to streamline the process. Use this checklist to guide your ad collection:
- The company name
- The best point of contact
- Multiple contact methods, such as email, phone and fax
- The ad in an easily accessible digital form, like .jpg or .png
- Permission to crop or resize the image as needed.
Be clear about the deadline for these materials so you’re not scrambling to get the program together last minute.
And finally, don’t be afraid to think outside the box – check out this article from More than Just Great Dancing’s Misty Lown for some creative and profitable ideas for keepsake programs and your recital as a whole.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on 4/20/15 to include additional information.
