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How to Make Art Classes for Kids Appealing to Parents
Marketing kids’ art classes—or any classes targeted to children—is a delicate balance. Although you’re offering art classes for kids, or summer camps, or theater workshops, or any other youth classes, it’s usually the parents who are researching options and making the decision to register. As a result, your organization needs to advertise, promote, and share classes in a way that appeals to parents while making it clear that the class will be enjoyable for kids.
Getting this right means answering all the questions a parent may have about the class while keeping a sense of playfulness and fun. We’ll show you how to strike this balance, plus give you some insight into what exactly parents are looking for when choosing art classes for kids.
Marketing art classes for kids requires the same basic resources as marketing any other kind of class. You’ll need course titles and descriptions for your course catalog, social media posts and advertising to attract people to the course, and a registration process that makes enrollment simple and easy. Here’s how to get the marketing right every step of the way.
Write Class Titles and Descriptions With Parents in Mind
We start with course titles and descriptions. When you’re marketing a class for adults, the student and the customer are the same person. An adult will see a class, decide to take it, and register themselves. If you’re lucky, they might ask a friend or family member to join them.
With kids’ art classes, the customer and the student are two different people. Your course description should reflect that.
When you’re promoting kids’ art classes, the customer and the student are two different people. That means you have to adjust your language to speak to the parent about their child. This can mean making some subtle changes, like switching out the word “you” for “your child.” It can also require a broader adjustment to mention benefits and outcomes likely to appeal to parents.
Let’s look at an example of one course description that got it right:
This course description speaks to the needs of both the parent and the child who will actually be taking this course. In addition to covering what the course is about, it manages to include:
- An age range or grade level
- How many sessions the class has
- An intro to the teacher
- Details about outcomes
- Life-skills and added benefits beyond the core subject
- A sense of fun!
Answer Questions Parents Are Likely to Have
You can write quality course descriptions like the one above by thinking about the questions parents are most likely to have. Questions like:
- Who will supervise and instruct my child?
- How long is the class?
- Is this class the right fit for my child?
- Will my child have fun?
- What will my child learn in this class?
That last question is a really important one. When you answer the question “What will my child learn?” think beyond the basic subject matter. Consider life skills, academic skills, and health and wellness outcomes too.
Lean into the Broader Value of Art Classes for Kids
Studies by the National Endowment for the Arts have found that arts involvement is associated with higher science and writing test scores. Students who engage with art may even earn a higher overall GPA.
Studies have shown that arts education can support kids’ mental health and wellbeing and is linked to higher test scores.
In addition to these benefits of arts classes, students can also learn vital life skills like how to:
- Think creatively
- Take constructive feedback
- Visualize and work toward a goal
- Express themselves
At a time when mental health among young people gets worse every year, it’s important to note that studies have also shown that the arts can support mental health and wellbeing. Consider whether it makes sense to highlight any of these benefits when marketing your kids’ art classes to parents.
Attract Parents to Your Art Classes for Kids
Parents may learn about your art classes through social media, web search, or advertising. As you promote your classes across these different platforms, remember that parents are the audience even though the class is for kids.
Optimize Your Website for ‘Near Me’ Searches
Although online classes are still popular across many topic areas, most parents are looking for in-person art classes for kids. They want a place they can bring their children either after school or as a summer activity. When you optimize your website for “near me” searches, you make it more likely that your program will pop up if parents search for a common term like “art classes for kids near me.”
Since Google takes the searcher’s location into account, your program may be more likely to show up in results even if the parent doesn’t include the “near me” language and just searches for “art classes for kids.” Targeting a local audience is one of the 4 secrets that can help sell more arts education classes.
3 Ways to Make Registration Simple for All Classes
Parents are juggling a lot of responsibilities. If you make it easy for them to register their child for art classes, they’re a lot more likely to follow through. Make sure parents can complete registration online. Let them fill out registration forms, make payments, and manage their family’s enrollment entirely from their smartphone.
Here are 3 more ways you can make registration easy for parents:
- Give them a cart. Parents may be planning their whole summer or seeking multiple learning opportunities for a child. Give them a cart so they can buy all the classes they need with a single transaction.
- Offer group registration. A parent may have multiple children who want to take the same class. Make this easy on them with group registrations so they can manage the entire family under one account.
- Send email reminders. Enrollment warnings, abandoned cart reminders, and other email nudges can help make sure busy parents don’t miss registration deadlines.
In short, make enrollment simple, remember that parents are the audience, and highlight the value and benefits of your classes. If you do those 3 things, your marketing is likely to be a lot more effective. CourseStorm can help by simplifying your registration process. We offer built-in email marketing, group registration, and cart-based checkout. Make class registration impossibly simple for parents (and everyone else too) with CourseStorm.
Greg Shula
Greg has spent a decade analyzing business and marketing performance metrics of the companies he has worked with. He uses his analytical mind and investigative skills to find trends and simple answers from complicated data sets. Greg is also an amateur photographer who loves to capture nature from new perspectives.