How This School Accelerated Its Growth
Table of Contents
This is the story of how a Bay Area dance school’s partnership with Hearst Bay Area and the effectiveness of a blend of the right marketing tactics helped spur growth.
Background
(Ad) The Tutu School of Burlingame, a franchised-owned ballet and dance school for children 18 months to 8 years old, has been providing dance and ballet classes to children since 2017. When owner Whitney Welch took over ownership in 2020, she had other ambitious goals.
Not only did she intend to grow her Burlingame location, but she wanted to expand her reach by opening the Tutu School of San Bruno in August 2021.
Like any small business owner with a different full-time job, Whitney noticed a lack of brand awareness of her Tutu Schools, especially the San Bruno location. The challenge of offering dance classes in a competitive area and being in a new locale meant that she needed to find a solution to expand her reach to help grow her business.
As a result of these challenges, Whitney turned to Hearst Bay Area for guidance. Within the first month of partnering with Hearst Bay Area, the Tutu Schools implemented a whole new marketing strategy that included a mix of digital and print ads, reputation management, and Google My Business Lead Optimizer.
This is the story of how the Tutu Schools of San Bruno and Burlingame increased brand awareness and ultimately received multiple new clients.
Source: Tutu School of Burlingame & San Bruno
Business Challenges
The challenge of expanding a business while continuing to grow an initial location can be exhausting, among other hurdles such as recruiting talent during a pandemic.
In addition, Whitney faced the difficult task of building trust within a community of parents whose children’s well-being is of the utmost importance. She needed a way to make the right, localized first impressions and retain a reputation as a business owner who cares about her clients and business.
With these challenges in mind, Whitney didn’t have the time or the resources to market her business independently. She knew that she wanted to spend her marketing budget to generate brand awareness, optimize her local business listings online, and engage the community by diligently monitoring her business’s online reputation.
She reached out to Hearst Bay Area for help growing her business.
Strategy
To attract the interest of parents and their children with class sign-ups, Hearst Bay Area Multimedia Consultant Nick Mazza created a tailored media plan to reach her target audience.
In March 2022, Hearst Bay Area implemented a campaign that included print and digital ads and a keyword ranking strategy to optimize both business listings on Google for proximity and relevance. At the same time, Hearst Bay Area established a system to monitor her business reputation online in San Bruno, Burlingame, and their surrounding communities.
Solutions
Targeted Digital Display Ads
In careful collaboration, Hearst Bay Area built digital ads with copy and creativity, reflecting the business’s need to increase awareness and drive new sign-ups. This strategy also included attention-grabbing layouts and a call-to-action message to invite prospective customers to navigate Tutu’s websites to learn more about programs.
With ongoing communication to meet changing seasonal needs, Nick Mazza has worked with Whitney to adjust these ads over time, incorporating information on special summer camps and hiring notices during a tight labor market.
Print Ads
Similar to the digital display ads strategy, the 8th-page monthly print ad changes monthly depending on current challenges. Nick states, “I work with her monthly to put together a print ad in the SF Chronicle depending on what’s happening at her business. Using best practices, we made sure to enhance her newspaper ad by including a QR code linking to her website.”
Reputation Management
The internet has changed how the community evaluates businesses, and business owners across various industries understand the value of thoughtful customer feedback.
Hearst Bay Area’s reputation management system alerts Whitney of positive and negative reviews from widely frequented websites like Yelp and Google to help her respond constructively and build trust within the community.
Google My Business Lead Optimizer
Hearst Bay Area’s Google My Business product enables Tutu Schools to rank higher in “near me” search results for keywords reflecting their services, making Whitney’s business more visible on Google Maps.
The service optimizes different aspects of the Google My Business listing under Google’s ever-changing algorithm. These include a 9-point optimization of the listing, the creation of 40+ citations around the web, two monthly blog posts, and the implementation of an included Google My Business webpage.
Experience
Hearst Bay Area and the Tutu School continue to be in sync with its current campaign and ongoing initiatives.
Upon the initial kick-off call between Whitney and Nick’s team at Hearst Bay Area, everyone understood the challenges presented with the ultimate goal of driving brand awareness, increasing conversions, and ultimately growing her brand.
Overall, Whitney states what she has enjoyed about working with Hearst Bay Area so far. “The personal connection. I don’t feel like just another customer. I feel as if they understand my needs and wants. And have stayed in touch with me, constantly viewing what works and what doesn’t, and making sure I receive good and constant feedback.”
Results
By the end of March 2022, both Tutu Schools received multiple new clients from the first iteration of display and print ads and the increased localization efforts on Google.
Since the beginning of the campaign, click-through rates (CTR) on the 60,000 impressions served per month have increased over prior months and will continue to build traction the longer they run.
The Google My Business listing for the San Bruno location saw an increase of 3,330% in discover searches and search views and a 4,000% increase in website visits compared to the previous month.
The Burlingame listing on Google saw a 54% increase in mobile phone calls and direct searches and a 29% increase in discover searches.
When asked if she had any lasting thoughts, “They made every step easy. As a busy business owner with a full-time job, they took the headache away from figuring out how to advertise.”
Reflecting upon the first month’s results, Nick attributes the success to “the increased visibility on Google, in conjunction with the brand awareness gained from the digital and newspaper ads.”
Hearst Bay Area is grateful to partner with proactive and community-oriented businesses like Tutu School Burlingame & San Bruno.
We look forward to building upon recent successes and continue to strategize different ways to make an impact on this growing company.
Thank you, Tutu School Burlingame & San Bruno!