by Matt Ryan
There’s no doubt about it, July is the slowest month of the year for school events.
Teachers and even most administrators are off for the entire month, away from their school buildings and rarely checking e-mail, if at all.
However, in a mere 30 days, back-to-school season will be in full swing, with schedule-pickups, freshman orientation lock-ins, and Fall sports booster functions.
Introduce Your Services Through Orientation Events
Back-to-school events are some of my favorite to perform because they are:
- Usually held on a weeknight.
- Short – sometimes only an hour.
- Well-attended – you’ve got a captive audience and the students are excited about the coming year.
- A great way to introduce the school to your company, in hopes of booking big dances during the year.
Your Marketing Objective
Your marketing objective is to create the need for your services, so here are a few tips for summer marketing to schools:
- Forget snail mail! No one is at the school over the summer. By the time your materials are read, the time will have come and gone.
- Be patient with e-mail responses. Some teachers check their email once a week or less during the summer. Even if you’ve engaged in an exchange with an organizer, don’t get impatient for answers.
- Be lenient with contract deadlines. Organizers can’t always get the appropriate signatures over the summer. I usually just offer to bring a contract the evening of the event if they are comfortable with that.
May your back-to-school events lead you into another successful year working with schools!
Matt Ryan – School Dance Pro
Matt Ryan is a multi-op DJ business owner, radio personality, developer of School Dance Pros and educator.
He has been entertaining at school and many other types of functions since 1996. Matt Ryan Mobile DJ Entertainment performs at approximately 250 events per year, nearly half of which are school and teen dances and proms.
Matt is a well-known on-air personality at WNCI 97.9, a Top 40 radio station in Columbus, OH. He is also a middle school teacher and coach.
Matt is able to provide unprecedented insight to other DJs about how school dances are organized.
His “School Dance DJ Marketing Toolkit” is available at SchoolDancePros.com. To contact Matt, email [email protected].
