Email marketing can be a highly effective tool for increasing enrollment in a swim school.
Here are some tips on how to utilize email marketing for this purpose:
1. Build an email list
Start by building an email list of people who are interested in enrolling their children in a swim school. You can do this by collecting email addresses from your website, social media, or in-person events. We recommend to our clients have a clear “call to action” on their website such as “register for a trial lesson”. The goal here is to capture a lead and make them visible. This can be integrated with your email marketing platform or your swim school software. Many swim schools do not properly capture the contact information of leads and it robs them of the opportunity to follow up and stay in front of the prospect.
2. Create a compelling offer
Develop a special offer or promotion for your swim school that will encourage parents to enroll their children. This could be a discount on the first lesson, a free trial lesson, or a special package deal. It can also be as simple as emailing past customers and prospects that a new term is starting and you only have a few spots available remaining.
(NOTE – This approach leverages the psychological trigger of scarcity and can trigger people to take action from fear of missing out).
3. Use segmentation and personalization
Use your email marketing platform or swim management software to segment your email list and personalize your messages. For example, you could send different emails to parents with younger children and those with older children, highlighting the benefits of swim lessons for each age group. In our software program First Class, we have a tagging feature that allows you to tag students and customers with a specific label. This can be powerful for segments and using targeted communication. We also recommend that you segment by time. Eg. You may email all PAST customers who canceled within the last 12 months and send them a re-engagement email.
4. Follow up
Many swim schools forget about past customers and leads. If you take the advice above and keep an email list you can follow up with those who have done lessons with you previously. A great simple technique to re-ignite old leads and customers is with a short email phrased in the form of a question. For example, Hi John, we have only a few swimming lessons spots left for our upcoming term, would you be interested in re-enrolling?
5. Include clear calls to action
Make it easy for parents to enroll their children by including clear calls to action in your emails. This could be a link to your online registration form or a phone number they can call to schedule a lesson. It’s typically best to have one call to action to have the best conversion rate.
6. Monitor and measure results
Track your email marketing campaigns to see which messages are resonating with your audience and driving enrollment. Look at the open rates and click-through rates of your campaigns. Use this data to refine your approach and improve future campaigns. Things like using the parent’s name or their child’s name in the subject line will likely increase open rates and engagement – For example, Amy’s swimming lessons would be a compelling email subject line that would likely have a high open rate.
By following these tips, you can utilize email marketing to increase enrollment in your swim school and help more children learn to swim.
The right software can be a great tool for implementing the strategies above – Check out First Class Software if you need to improve your swimming lessons software situation.