How to fill your classes (without living on your phone)
Before paying for ads, plug the leaks: repeat purchases, a waiting list that sells by itself, gift vouchers, company groups and reviews asked for at the right time.
Equipo Aforo
From the trade ·
In short
The six levers in order, before you spend on advertising.
Most studios don’t have a problem attracting people; they have leaks, and plugging them costs less than advertising. There are six levers, in order.
The people who have already come are your first campaign. The class pass is offered as the first class ends.
Former students hear about a new course before anyone else, and collecting a piece comes with an invitation to the next one.
The waiting list is measured demand, and the offer of a place that frees up should go out by itself.
Gift vouchers sell all year round, not only in December. Companies and groups fill in one go what takes weeks to fill a place at a time, and they get a formal quote in reply.
The website has one job, to show real places and take payment for them. Reviews are requested at the happy moment. A permanent discount doesn’t fill classes.
“I need more students” is almost never entirely true. Most studios don’t have a problem attracting people: they have leaks.
Places lost to friction, people who came once and never came back, waiting lists that live in someone’s head. Before you spend a euro on advertising, plug the leaks. This is the order that works.
1. The people who already came are your first campaign
Getting someone new through the door is the expensive part; getting someone who already came to come back is the cheap part. There are three levers for that.
Offer the class pass right as the first class ends (it’s the moment of peak enthusiasm). Tell your former students when you open a new course, before anyone else.
And when someone collects their piece, the happiest moment in the cycle, give them the invitation to the next one along with it.
2. The waiting list is a selling machine
A full course is measured demand. Write down everyone who misses out, with a system and not from memory, and you’ll have half the next course sold before you announce it.
When a place frees up, the offer should go out to the list by itself; if it depends on you remembering, the place goes cold and is lost.
3. Gift vouchers work for you
A pottery or watercolour class is a perfect present: original, local and with something physical to remember it by.
Have the voucher available to buy online all year round, not only in December, and let it say who it’s from.
Every voucher is a new student who arrives with the excitement of a present, not the doubts of a purchase.
4. Companies and groups: the whole studio in one go
A hen or stag do, a birthday or a company team fills in one go what takes weeks to fill a place at a time. Have a page or a message ready with what’s included and the starting price.
Reply with a formal quote, because in a group the decision is taken by several people and a proper document beats a WhatsApp voice note.
5. Your website has one job
To make sure whoever arrives sees the real places and can book them by paying there and then. Every extra step (“message us to check availability”) loses people along the way.
Your Instagram account attracts; your website converts. If your “website” is a link to your DMs, every visit outside the hours when you answer messages goes cold.
6. Reviews are requested at the happy moment
A Google listing with recent reviews is the shop window most studios neglect.
No campaign needed: ask for the review when the student collects their piece or finishes the course, with the direct link in the same message.
One request at the right moment is worth more than ten “leave us 5 stars” signs.
What doesn’t work
A permanent discount doesn’t fill classes: it teaches your customers not to pay the price.
Cutting prices “until it takes off” attracts bargain hunters who leave with the bargain. If you need to get a new group going, a one-off open class with a date beats a permanently low price.
And all of the above works twice as well when it doesn’t depend on your memory.
That means the class pass at the right time, the list that notifies people by itself, the voucher people can buy and the website with real places. That’s why we built Aforo.
Frequently asked questions
How do you get more students for a studio or academy?
In this order, and the order is half the advice. First, repeat purchases from people who have already come: the class pass offered as the first class ends, while the person still has the piece in their hands.
Second, a waiting list run by the system and not by your memory, because every slot left empty while people are waiting is money thrown away.
Third, gift vouchers people can buy online all year round, not only in December.
Fourth, groups and companies with a formal quote, which is the most profitable sale per hour of work.
Fifth, a website that shows real places and lets people book and pay there and then. And sixth, Google reviews requested at the happy moment.
Paid advertising comes after plugging all those leaks, never before: paying to bring people to a place that loses students along the way is paying twice.
Do discounts work for filling classes?
A permanent discount doesn’t work, and it does harm too. It attracts people who come for the price and leave with the next offer.
Along the way it teaches your regular customers that your real price is something else, so they stop buying when there’s no sale on.
After a few months you’ve sold the same places with less margin. What does work to get a new group going is a one-off action with a date.
It might be an open class on a particular Thursday or an open day at the start of the course.
A lower price for the first places of a workshop you’ve never run also works.
An action like that has a beginning and an end and doesn’t drag your rates down.
It also lets you see who comes for the subject and who only for the discount, which is useful information for deciding whether to repeat it.
When should you ask students for Google reviews?
At the happy moment in the cycle, which in a studio is very clear: when someone collects their finished piece and sees it glazed for the first time, or when they finish a course they enjoyed.
That moment doesn’t last long and you have to make the most of it, not leave it for an email the following week.
The request has to include the direct link to the review in the same message, because asking someone to look up your business on Google loses people along the way.
And asking a specific person works much better than putting up a sign: one request at the right time is worth more than ten “leave us five stars” signs on the counter.
If the pick-up message goes out automatically from your system, the review request can go in that same message and you no longer depend on remembering.
Want to see it with your own classes in it?
A 20-minute demo with your real catalogue, no commitment and no minimum term.
Write to us and we'll reply within one working day. Please note that Aforo works in Spanish: the dashboard, your booking page and the emails your students receive.