In this article, we’ll discuss our best swim school marketing strategies for increasing enrollment. We’ll also provide actionable tips you can implement right away and how using the right swim school software can help optimize your marketing.
We’ll explore the following marketing ideas for your swim school:
About the author: I’m Olivier, co-founder of Activity Messenger, a modern swim school management platform. In addition to my role here, I run a multi-location business focused on non-competitive sports for young athletes aged 2-9. Over the past decade, I’ve invested more than $200,000 in digital advertising through platforms like Facebook and Google, and sent countless email marketing initiatives. My hands-on experience is rooted in actively researching numerous marketing strategies specifically designed to increase enrollment.
You might be surprised for what seems like a simple tool, but this email marketing is the #1 underutilized strategy for swim schools.
At Activity Messenger, we see many swim schools using email campaigns to encourage former or returning students to sign up for the next session.
Which is a great start.
However, many of these campaigns only target past participants.
More critically, many swim schools don’t use email lists and opt-ins to allow potential new customers to subscribe to their newsletter.
In our operations, when we introduced a newsletter signup option, we were amazed by the number of potential customers who dropped their email to sign up to get our newsletter.
Here’s why:
When it comes to digital marketing, it can be annoying to get an email promoting the swim class you’ve just signed up for – especially when it happens right after you sign up.
That’s exactly what we experienced.
✅ The unsubscribe rate went down significantly
✅ The open rate went up
✅ The registrations went up
Now, families receive emails that are relevant to how they’ve engaged with us.
Engage with new subscribers to your newsletter by sending them a welcome email that gives them a taste of what they can expect to receive:
With this approach, you can turn a simple “thank you” into the start of a meaningful relationship with prospective swim school families.
📌 Pro Tip: Many parents discover our site through paid advertising or search. Often their children are too young or the family is not available for the current season. These parents are interested but can’t sign up yet; so keeping in touch with them could turn them into future customers.
One of the most effective marketing strategies that drove our revenue to seven-figure revenue was surprisingly simple.
We start taking registrations as early as possible.
We’re well ahead of our competitors.
We also offer early-bird discounts to incentivize early registration. This helps increase our cash flow and simplifies staffing. This gives us better insight to fine-tune our advertising spend, add more camp options if needed, or even vary what we offer to maximize revenue.
📌 Pro Tip: We’ve used this marketing strategy for years, typically reaching 25%-30% enrollment before most of our competition has begun. And because I know which summer programs need more exposure, I can target my digital, social, and email marketing campaigns where we have more openings.
Swimming school marketing strategies should always include the use of testimonials and online reviews. You can greatly increase your swim school’s visibility by encouraging students and their parents to share their positive experiences on your website and social media platforms.
Online platforms such as Yelp, Facebook and Google are important places where prospective students and their families do research for reputable swim schools. It’s important that your school is well represented with positive reviews.
Ask for reviews: Proactively request reviews from students and their parents online. A simple request can drastically increase the amount of feedback your swim school receives. More reviews can provide more credibility to prospective families.
Turn positive reviews into testimonials on your website or marketing materials to increase your swim school’s reputation.
SMS marketing for swim schools can be a powerful tool for nurturing customer relationships and improving operational efficiency.
Advantages of SMS for Swim Schools
Text messaging is a quick and effective channel for sending class reminders or event notifications directly to customers’ phones. You can set up targeted campaigns that will get families excited about what’s coming up next at your swim school.
SMS templates are incredibly useful for communicating other important updates, such as canceled classes or rescheduled lessons.
Sending regular SMS updates keeps your customers engaged so they don’t miss a beat! Since texts are typically read within minutes and have a 98% open rate, it is one of the best ways to improve your bottom line.
Improvements to your swim school’s online registration process can have a significant impact on the customer experience. Families now expect a seamless and customer-centric registration journey.
How to Improve Your Registration Process
📌 Pro Tip: An unfriendly registration form can deter potential clients. By prioritizing a smooth user experience, you can facilitate a quicker transition from interest to enrollment.
Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into your swim school digital marketing strategies can help you increase efficiency, personalization and engagement.
You can gain valuable insight into your programs and identify areas for improvement by conducting an end-of-session survey for your swim school.
Activity Messenger allows you to set up an automated email sent 2-3 days before the last swim lesson of the session.
If you’re looking to improve your customer service, asking for feedback on a regular basis can help you identify areas that need attention.
📌 Pro Tip: As an operator, collecting feedback used to be a tedious task that we often neglected. Now, with Activity Messenger, we’ve streamlined the process with automated messages sent as sessions end.
The trust and credibility associated with personal referrals makes them an extremely effective swim school business marketing strategy.
Just as a friend’s recommendation for a great restaurant carries weight, people trust swim school recommendations from friends and family.
📌 Pro Tip: Most people do two things before choosing a swim school for their kids: They ask for recommendations and they check online/offline reviews. To increase enrollment, you need a local swim community talking about how great your classes are and an online presence on review sites so people can find you without interacting directly with your students.
The use of search engine optimization (SEO) is an important strategy for increasing your swim school’s online visibility. You can improve your search engine rankings by optimizing your website and creating engaging content.
📌 Pro Tip: Focus on long-tail keywords and local search terms to quickly improve your ranking before your site builds more authority on Google.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a method where you pay each time a user clicks on one of your online ads. This helps increase your swim school’s visibility in Google search results for targeted phrases such as “kids swim lessons” or “swim schools near me.
PPC advertising offers immediate visibility, which is crucial for newer swim schools or those located in a competitive market.
Activity Messenger can do much more than help you market your Swim School. It’s an all-in-one tool that can help you replace tools like Jackrabbit, IClassPro or any other swim school management software. Activity Messenger can also help you replace a bunch of other tools such as JotForm, SurveyMonkey, SmartWaiver and Mailchimp.
Digital Waivers for Swim Lessons
Attendance tracking for Swim Lessons
Swim Instructor Application Form
Start of session reminder
If you would like to meet an Activity Messenger Expert to learn more, click here to book a demo.
3- Social Media Marketing
Don’t underestimate the power of social media marketing, especially when filling spots in your swim programs.
Advertising on Facebook and Instagram is a fantastic way to get the word out about your classes.
Even spending a small daily budget can result in significant increased traffic to your website.
I usually create one set of ads per session. This is less time consuming than trying to manage social media all the time, and tends to yield better results and wider reach.
It’s easy to set up: design an image or video ad with Canva, target it within a couple of miles/kilometers of your pool, set a small daily budget, and go.
With each additional swimmer contributing directly to your bottom line, this small investment can quickly fill empty seats in your classes and significantly increase your profit margins.
Promoting Your Swim School on Social Media:
📌 Pro Tip: Over a 7 day period, I typically see $7 to $10 spent per sign-up using Facebook Ads, which is very effective. But the real value is more than that. Even after the initial 7-day window, many people sign up without directly clicking on the ad. We also see opportunities for ongoing engagement as a significant percentage of people sign up for our newsletter.