Two people running a studio, doing their own marketing from whatever they could find on Google.
How Dance Movement Inc., a Salsa and Bachata studio run by its two directors, filled three to four trial classes a month instead of one, on video ads funded by the PSG grant.
Dance Movement teaches street Latin dances, mainly Salsa and Bachata.
In their own words
The video that ran as the campaign, and the two directors on what changed. Everything below this is corroboration.
Ice Cube Marketing review · Dance Movement Inc.
The client
A dance studio specialising in street Latin-based dances, specifically Salsa and Bachata.
The business has been operating for around eight years. It is a small business run solely by two studio directors, Ronnie and Ee Llian, who manage everything between them: teaching, scheduling, marketing and finances.
Before
The main issue was a lack of expertise in digital marketing. Handling every part of the business themselves left little time, and no skill, to market the classes effectively.
They had done marketing on their own: Facebook posts, printed brochures and EDMs. All of it without professional guidance, or, as they put it, “just doing what we can find on Google”. The campaigns produced low-quality leads and minimal conversions. Results were poor and inconsistent.
“Self-medication instead of going to the doctor.”
Trial class attendance was the visible symptom. Sign-ups sat at 13 to 17 per session, with some dropouts, and that was with the class offered free. Trial classes ran only once or twice a month. They wanted to maximise limited resources and get results that could actually grow the student base, and they had never hired an agency to help.
How it started
They were looking for a digital marketing partner who could maximise a small budget and limited resources effectively.
Ice Cube Marketing offered a video marketing package funded by the PSG grant, which made it both accessible and appealing to a business of two people.
What settled it was not the package. It was the professionalism and clarity during the onboarding process and the discussions around it, which gave them the confidence that the work would deliver the right results.
Worth being plain about what this means for a reader in the same position: the thing that won the engagement was a conversation before any money moved. That conversation is what the form at the bottom of this page books.
During the work
Two people who described themselves as newbies to digital marketing, walked through it by name, then filmed in the middle of a live class without the class noticing.
01
Both Ronnie and Ee Llian praised Joyce and Wenqi for guiding them through onboarding patiently, which mattered because they were, in their own words, newbies to digital marketing.
Wenqi was described as an organised, concise and confident project manager. That is the specific thing that makes meetings survivable for an owner who has a class to teach afterwards: they left them assured and informed.
02
They expected a simple shoot. What arrived was high-quality equipment, proper lighting and a full filming process, and the scale of it impressed them.
The videographer, Alastair, was non-intrusive and efficient, so the class proceeded smoothly around him. Their own students later complimented the videos for capturing the energy and community vibe of the studio.
03
The editing and storytelling reflected the brand as it actually is: fun, friendly and community-driven, rather than a generic fitness cut.
The finished videos then ran as ads across Facebook, Google, YouTube and Instagram, where they performed strongly on all four.
The aha moment: video content is far more powerful than text ads in today’s digital landscape.
How their view changed
Reported by the studio, in three stages, and the first stage is where most readers of this page are sitting right now.
At the start
Unsure and inexperienced
They admitted they did not understand most of the terminology. Not a lack of interest, a lack of vocabulary.
Through the work
Confident and trusting
Consistent communication, support and results, in that order. The confidence came from all three, not from a presentation.
Now
Strong appreciation and endorsement
They describe Ice Cube Marketing as organised, reliable and capable of delivering tangible results, and they say so to other small business owners.
Point by point
Every line on the left is something the studio stated about itself before the engagement. Every line on the right is what the source records it becoming.
Before
After
Low trial class attendance: 13 to 17 sign-ups, even when the class was free
20 to 25 people per trial class, about double, and the class no longer needs to be the thing that fills itself.
Why this one matters most: a trial class is where a dance studio converts. Everything else is upstream of it.
Trial classes running only once or twice a month
Three to four trial classes a month, because there were enough enquiries to justify putting them on.
Why this one matters: frequency, not just attendance, is what turns a good month into a routine.
Low-quality leads and minimal conversions from self-run campaigns
Leads that were high-quality and genuinely interested in learning, rather than casual browsers, and video ads that performed strongly across Facebook, Google, YouTube and Instagram.
Why this one matters: a lead figure with no relevance figure beside it tells you nothing.
Marketing done blindly, without strategy or any understanding of what worked
Facebook posts, brochures and EDMs replaced by a video marketing package with a plan behind it, funded through the PSG grant, and run by a project manager rather than by whoever had an hour spare.
Why this one matters: the previous effort was not lazy. It was unguided, which is a different problem with a different fix.
No expertise, no time, and no idea whether any of it was working
An onboarding process run at the pace of a beginner, an organised project manager through the meetings, and a set of numbers at the end of it that the directors could read: attendance, frequency and lead quality.
Why this one matters: ask any prospective agency who your project manager is, by name. The vague answers are the informative ones.
After
Figures as published, kept as ranges where the source gives ranges. Nothing here is annualised or projected.
Attendance per trial class
20–25
Up from 13 to 17 people, which the source records as about a 100% increase
Trial classes per month
3–4
Up from one or two a month, so the same improvement happened more often
Platforms the ads ran on
4
Facebook, Google, YouTube and Instagram, performing strongly across all of them
Agencies hired before this one
0
Eight years of running the marketing themselves, with no agency and no training
Volume was not the point on its own. Leads from the campaigns were high-quality and genuinely interested in learning, not casual browsers, which is the difference between a longer list and a fuller room. The videos captured the fun, the community spirit and the energy of the classes, and that is what attracted the more authentic engagement.
The increased lead flow and improved attendance helped the studio retain more new students, even with the natural dropouts a trial class always has. The directors also came out of it more aware of how much digital marketing matters to the growth of the business.
What did not happen, stated plainly. There is no new outlet and no expanded team. The source is explicit about it. What the campaign did was stabilise and strengthen the operation they already had, which for a two-person business is the outcome that keeps it going.
The next step
And see how you can apply the same idea to your business? Fill in the form to speak to our digital marketing specialist.
The Ice Cube Marketing team, Singapore.
PSG grant support. The Dance Movement video package was funded through the grant. We will tell you whether yours qualifies before you spend anything.
A named project manager. The Dance Movement engagement ran through one, and the directors named her when asked what worked.
Singapore and Malaysia. Offices in Singapore and Johor Bahru.
Topic: Avoid Price war and gain new customers
Date: 10 July 2024 Wednesday 3pm
Duration: 1hour
All information is kept private in accordance with our privacy policy
All information is kept private in accordance with our privacy policy
