Overview
Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy had a steady stream of visitors and no way to turn them into students. Over three months I built a simple path from first visit to first class, built around one idea: let parents try DWDA for free. No ad spend, no sales team. It brought in 199 leads and 21 new students.
The client
I’ve worked with Debra White-Hunt since 2022, when I rebuilt the website for her studio. She is DWDA’s co-founder and artistic director: a Kresge Artist Fellow, a Milken National Educator, a Michiganian of the Year, and an inductee of the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. The studio teaches more than 100 students.
Audience
DWDA offers adult classes, but its heart is young dancers. The people deciding are parents of toddlers and teens who want their kids to get moving, learn a real skill, and perform on a stage.
The problem
The site had traffic but gave it nowhere to go. There was no incentive for a first-time visitor to act, no way for a parent to experience the studio before committing, and no form to capture their details. The only way to sign up was creating an account on Dance Studio Pro, a step most parents weren’t willing to take cold. There was no sales or marketing team to follow up either.
Before — August 2023
576
Visitors / month
0
Leads / month
0
New students / month
Insight
A parent had no way to experience DWDA before committing to it.
Strategy
A free-class offer so a parent could experience the studio before committing. No other Detroit dance studio I found was offering one.
A low-commitment form in place of account creation, so asking a question cost a parent nothing.
Personal phone follow-up so every inquiry reached a real person and got qualified.
What I made
An offer of two free classes for new students, placed where parents were already reading. A Squarespace form asking only for a name, email, and phone number. Every submission landed straight in Debra’s inbox, and she called each family herself. The studio’s founder became its sales team, with a process simple enough to run between classes.
Results — September to November 2023
1.7K
Unique visitors
199
New leads
21
New students
Traffic held roughly where it was, about 570 visitors a month. What changed was what those visitors did: roughly one in nine became a lead, and about one in ten leads enrolled.
Credits
Strategy & execution
Young Park
Client
Debra White-Hunt, Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy
Timeline
September – November 2023
Where it landed
The offer worked. It turned anonymous visitors into leads and leads into enrolled students, which most small businesses never manage. Debra has since stopped offering free classes: DWDA runs like an academy, with programs that follow a schedule from the start, so drop-in trials don’t fit.
Most new students joined on the studio’s $50-a-month subscription, which kept revenue modest next to the demand the offer created. The lesson I carry forward: an offer has to fit how the business actually runs, and pricing has to be able to carry the demand you create.