If your club is trying to attract new dancers, you don’t have to start from scratch. ARTS-Dance is the official national resource dedicated to increasing awareness, promoting the activity, and helping clubs attract more dancers. Its website offers promotional videos, sample ads, a marketing manual, a recruiting plan, and other resources.

Erin Byars, ARTS Chairman, says she has worked to make ARTS a place where clubs can find better advertising and promotion ideas. As she explained the problem bluntly in the Square Dance Revival! podcast: “Most clubs...they never had or almost never had anyone with any real life experience” in advertising and design.

The result, she says, is often a flyer packed with information that makes perfect sense to dancers—but doesn't necessarily connect with someone who has never tried dancing.

ARTS has responded by creating simple, eye-catching advertisements that focus on one benefit at a time, with versions specifically designed for social media, email and print. Erin explained that the goal is to give clubs something they can actually use rather than expecting every club to have its own marketing expert. erin-jerry-jerry-1

ARTS also has a growing collection of promotional videos, including videos featuring a physician discussing the health, emotional and social benefits of dancing.

But perhaps the most important message from Erin is this:

So what does ARTS actually provide?

ARTS creates and distributes free promotional materials that clubs can use to advertise classes and attract new dancers. These include ready-to-use print and digital ads, promotional videos, health and dance information, a recruiting plan, a Facebook primer, the CALLERLAB/ARTS Square Dance Marketing Manual and other resources.

Jerry Reed, ARTS Executive Director, describes the bigger purpose simply:

ARTS brings together major organizations across the dance community with one overarching goal: increase the number of dancers. Its current members include CALLERLAB, ROUNDALAB, CONTRALAB, USDA, USA West, IAGSDC, All Join Hands Foundation, the National Square Dance Campers Association, the National Executive Committee and ICBDA

Before your club creates its next flyer, video, or recruiting campaign, check out what ARTS already has available. You may find exactly what you need—or inspiration for something better.

Is Your Club Ready for the Future?

Good leadership isn't about keeping things exactly as they are. It's about knowing what should stay, what needs to change, and how to bring people along.

Square Dance Revival!'s Leadership Revival training begins with a simple challenge: What should we preserve—and what may need to evolve?

The traditions that make square and round dancing special—friendship, fun, community, and the joy of dancing—are worth protecting. But the ways we attract, welcome, and involve people may need to change as the world around us changes.

Today's potential dancers may want to try before they commit. They may be looking for an experience and a community before they think about becoming a “member.” And they may expect flexibility, a welcoming atmosphere, and opportunities to feel successful quickly.

That doesn't mean we throw out everything we know. It means we become curious.

Instead of asking, “How do we get newcomers to appreciate our traditions?” the training suggests asking:

“What can newcomers teach us about creating the future?”

Try this with your club. Ask members individually:

• What are our greatest strengths?
• What is preventing our club from growing?
• What traditions are essential to preserve?
• What practices should we be willing to rethink?
• If our club were thriving three years from now, what would it look like?
• What one experiment could we try in the next 90 days? Leadership Training Workbook Ch…

The goal isn't to find everything that's wrong. It's to identify what you value most—and then make sure the way you operate doesn't prevent those things from surviving.

The future won't be built by one leader with all the answers. It will be built by clubs willing to listen, experiment, learn, and move forward together.

While our official training started this week, we'll share tips you can use to get your club ready to grow! Want to poll your club to see what they think about growth? We've developed a club assessment so you can get the conversation going...

Would YOU Stop Scrolling? Is Your Marketing Stuck in the Past?

National Social Media Campaign Update!

“Busting myths. Welcoming dancers. Reviving the joy of dancing together.”

Based on Mike Hogan's advice about the importance of multiple social media exposures, we switched the campaign to run five ads on Instagram and five on Facebook. Of the 5 ads on each platform, 3 are for square dancing, and 2 are for round dancing.

Facebook may not get as many lesson searchers, but it exposes many more people to the joy of dancing and the friendship of the square and round dance community.

Here are the results over the last TWELVE weeks:

You may want to add your lesson campaign to Instagram, especially if you are in an urban area.

While it gets more clicks, Facebook reaches far more people, and the repeated exposure to square and round dancing on Facebook grows interest more than Instagram can.

"When you're marketing, you have to put the right message

in front of the right people often enough...

Have some faith and never give up…

It takes time; it takes continued effort to make it work."

— Mike Hogan

Your donation directly increases how many non-dancers we reach through this campaign.

Special Thanks to our newest donor: Lucy Brandon

A donation of $5 per month from each club would make an astounding difference

in how many people we can reach and how quickly we can achieve a Square Dance Revival!

100% of your donation goes to META advertising fees.

Round Dancer Interview Videos: Free for Your Round Dance Promotions!

Don't know how to attach an end card? We've got you covered!

Click the button below to access the videos - free for you to use in your promotions- along with instructions on attaching your own promotional end card in the free version of Canva.