Waiting to begin a pop-up class at a dance theatre studio

Giving in a Win-Win Way

by Dana Auriemma

I’m stingy about sales. I’ll hardly every run a traditional discount or promotion in my studios (for reasons you can read about in this past Pilates Intel article). But that’s not to say I don’t believe in special offers or sharing my services for free. In fact, I’ve taught over 50 free classes in my Philadelphia community during the past 3 months. And it’s been one of the best business moves I’ve ever made, which I’ll share with you in this article. But first, please know that I’m not saying this is something that every business can or should replicate exactly as I did. But I’ll tell you WHY I did this and why I know it worked well for me (based on my marketing background) so you might be able to apply a similar strategy to your business in a way that suits you, and enjoy the benefits it brings!

My story:

I’m launching a new fitness studio in my Center City Philadelphia neighborhood. And before I even secured a lease, I was obsessed with generating strong awareness for the studio right away so I would have a clientele waiting for me when I opened. I considered all of the standard marketing tactics and advertising vehicles, many of which I have used in the past. But I knew I needed to do something else to accomplish a few specific objectives:

1. I wanted to prompt immediate action when people heard about my upcoming studio, so they wouldn’t forget about me while waiting for my business to open (causing my marketing efforts to be in vain).
2. I wanted to use publicity to reach a wider audience of followers than I could get on my own, to create buzz in the community to build excitement and goodwill for my studio.
3. I wanted to collect contact information of prospective clients, so I would have a guaranteed audience to announce my launch to!

So I decided to create a robust schedule of “pop-up classes” that I would offer in a variety of locations around the neighborhood in the months before my studio opened. The classes would all be free, with two types of workouts offered throughout the week at various times, and a slightly shorter class length (45 minutes). And registration would be required.

These decisions were all made very carefully to accomplish my objectives.

• Objective 1 – Offering free classes gave people in my community something to do right away when they heard about my studio opening.
• Objective 2 – Offering so many free classes was such a unique and generous thing that it earned me a free feature article with Be Well Philly, a notable Philadelphia health and wellness website with a huge social media and email fan base. And every time I was mentioned in subsequent articles, my free classes were referenced again and again. Also, with each passing week, word-of-mouth spread about my classes and my pop-up class students were increasingly appreciative of how much work I was doing to give them these classes.
• Objective 3 – Requiring registration through MINDBODYOnline gave me contact information for all of my pop-up class students so I had a database of prospective clients to email updates about my launch.

The result? I’m still 5 weeks away from opening and I have over 500 clients registered in MINDBODYOnline that are interested in my studio, I’ve gotten free publicity and have created a reputation for being generous. I have also started building a reputation for the quality of teaching my studio will be providing, been able to connect with hundreds of students, and answered tons of excited questions about my studio after each pop-up class.

Of course, many people came to the classes only because they were free and can’t afford to become paying clients. But I’m okay with that, because I had a lot of objectives that were still met! So how can you decide when it would or wouldn’t be beneficial to give away your services in a similar manner? Here are some guiding principles I used from my experience in marketing.

1. Give to build goodwill. Even though we know that we give a LOT of ourselves to our clients already (personally, professionally and financially), our clients and community can’t always see it. They feel we are always asking to receive. That we are always asking for THEM to give or pay. So giving away some services for free is a strong gesture of appreciation that builds goodwill.

2. Give to get. You can set up your generosity to benefit you in addition to your community. For example, you can give to get publicity or create buzz. Or you can give for a chance to reach new people and get contact information.

3. Give without needing it to turn into a guaranteed sale. People will take freebies without the ability to pay. That shouldn’t be a deterrent because there are other benefits to giving (as mentioned above) and people who can’t afford to stay as paying clients can still tell their friends about you, and those friends can often afford to stay.

4. Have a reason for giving so people don’t expect random freebies from you all the time. Usually it’s a celebration for something or a form of appreciation. Whatever the reason, just have a reason and share that with your community.

5. Have limitations to what you’re giving. When you offer your services for free, it shouldn’t be exactly the same as your paid services because that can start to blur the lines of what is worth paying for. The limitations can be related to the type of workout, the length of the workout, the environment or location, etc. In my case, I offered 45-minute classes without the full use of my studio equipment and props, in locations that inherently weren’t as upscale as my studio will be (i.e. an Athleta store, a small dance studio, etc.). This makes it more logical and appropriate for those services to be free vs. having students pay for a more well-rounded and enjoyable workout experience when my studio opens.

As teachers and studio owners, we can give generously in a way that benefits our studio business when we plan it out strategically to align with our objectives. It’s not about offering generic discounts and promotions to spike short-term sales; it’s about occasionally offering up our services for benefits other than immediate payment. It can be a win for our community and a win for our studio!

Dana Auriemma has been studying and practicing marketing for 12 years. With a marketing degree from Penn State University, she launched a successful career in marketing and sales working for Fortune 500 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Merck, and TimeWarner. But wanting to use her business expertise for something she was more passionate about, Dana left the corporate world to become a Pilates instructor and open her own studio.
Dana’s professional business background was a tremendous asset in building her studio over the years. She loved teaching Pilates and running a business, but saw many other owners and teachers were not as comfortable with the business-side of their studios. So upon moving out-of-state and selling her studio many years later, Dana decided to help teach studio owners the marketing and business skills they need to reach their greatest potential.
Dana now works with studio owners all over the world, helping them optimize their studio operations, analyze their profitability, improve staff relationships, build better marketing programs, and more. Dana offers custom consulting and online business courses, and writes articles that have been published by Balanced Body, MindBodyOnline, PilatesStyle Magazine, Pilates Intel, Pilates-Pro, PilatesTree Magazine, Pilates Pal, and Yogi Times.