How to Grow Your Swim School With Flywheel Effect

In a world filled with Facebook ads, YouTube ads, and experts promising 100 new students in 3 months, it might not sound appealing to hear that steady and consistent growth is the key to success for your swimming school.

However, if you're reading this, I hope you're one of the few swim school owners who understand the importance of steady, long-term growth, rather than seeking a quick fix to gain 30 students in 30 days.

With the rise of AI and rapid changes in the industry, swim school owners often feel confused and overwhelmed. Everywhere you look, there's someone offering a shortcut to boost your swim school, with ads promising 100 students in 90 days or your money back.

The surprising truth is that sometimes these tactics do work, but they rarely lead to lasting success. For the swim schools where these tactics do work, the success is usually short-lived. That's why many swim school owners find themselves hopping from agency to agency, experiencing ups and downs without achieving lasting success.

Many swim school owners hope someone else holds the secret to solving all their problems, but these are usually temporary fixes that won’t last in the long run.

The truth is enduring success rarely comes from outside sources. Sustainable growth and success require a combination of hard work and the right strategy.

It's time to take control of your swim school's marketing and take responsibility for growing your swim school management software. Only then can you truly achieve lasting success, allowing you to step away from your business for weeks or even months without worrying about attracting new students.

The most effective approach I know to achieve this is by harnessing the flywheel effect. But be warned, this approach isn't easy, requires hard work, and demands patience for the results to materialize.

What Exactly Constitutes the Flywheel Effect?

While I'm not here to discuss automotive engine mechanics, the concept of a flywheel, which accumulates and stabilizes energy, is equally applicable when fostering the growth of your swim school.

How does this apply?

In Jim Collins' "Good to Great," he explains how small businesses can use the flywheel to build momentum over time, leading to significant growth.

Without delving into the entire book, the essence can be distilled into these three principles:

Attract: Entice prospective clients to your swim school by disseminating easily accessible, beneficial content via SEO, social media, targeted advertisements, and events.

Engage: When potential students show interest in your swimming lessons, offer trial sessions so they can experience the benefits of your swim school firsthand. Provide clear information about your programs on your website to make it easy for them to sign up and become part of your community.

Delight: Create a premier swim school that offers a seamless and enjoyable experience for your students. Provide well-structured lessons led by knowledgeable instructors who create a supportive and motivating environment.

While these principles may seem simple, the challenge lies in executing them meticulously and adapting them to improve your swimming class scheduling software.

Before implementing the flywheel strategy to grow your scheduling software, I assume you already have a swim school and some experience managing it. If you're new to this field, I recommend reading this article instead.

There are many strategies to develop successful swimming school scheduling software. However, the method I'm about to explain is one we believe will lead to lasting success and steady growth.

Step 1: Design a High-Converting Website

There's ongoing debate about whether a website is essential for a swim school and its financial implications. While I believe a website might not be necessary when you're just starting out and don't yet have a student base, most people today search online for solutions. Therefore, your swim school's website often creates the first impression for potential students, making it crucial for student acquisition.

An outdated, uninspiring, or ineffective website can drive potential students away, causing them to look for alternatives even before they interact with you.

So, what makes an exceptional swim school website?

Several factors contribute to a website that effectively attracts and converts students. Key points include:

An efficient and functional website (this is extremely important).
Responsive design for seamless display on both desktop and mobile devices.
Effective lead-capturing mechanisms to attract potential students.
SEO optimization to improve visibility on search engines, especially Google.
Fast loading speeds (slow websites drive visitors to competitors).
Clear communication of your swim school's brand and values to leave a positive impression.

These attributes focus on functionality and effectiveness over aesthetics, aiming to create a website that boosts conversion rates, improves Google ranking, and increases student enrollment.

Step 2: Prioritize SEO Investment

While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims to improve your website's ranking on search engines, the primary focus is on Google, which handles 91.62% of all searches. Other search engines like Yahoo and Bing only account for 4.39%.

Two main reasons to prioritize SEO:

High Quality Leads: Google, Bing, and Yahoo provide the best online leads. People searching for "swimming lessons near me" are ready to join a swim school. Even if they don't choose your school right away, they're likely to enroll somewhere soon. Ignoring search engine traffic means losing potential students to competitors. Leads from search engines, especially Google, usually engage longer than those from Facebook or Instagram ads, leading to more revenue.
Social Media Advertising: While it can be profitable, stopping your ads usually stops new student enrollments. Long-term ad campaigns can increase costs and become less effective due to ad fatigue. In contrast, SEO builds a strong Google ranking over time, making it hard for competitors to overtake you. Once you're at the top of Google rankings, you'll consistently get new leads and students, even in smaller communities.

Studios that rely on Facebook ads for a long time often see a diminishing return on investment (ROI), leading to fewer leads once they stop ads. Also, students acquired through Facebook ads often don't stay long.

That's why I strongly recommend investing in SEO. The downside is that SEO is less scalable than ad campaigns. However, prospective students will search on Google regardless of your SEO efforts. They'll either find your business or your competitors'. I'd prefer they find my business instead of a competitor's.

Step 3: Create Contents

To clarify, this isn't about following Gary Vee's strategy of constantly posting on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok for business growth. While I respect Gary Vee, his advice is more suited for aspiring influencers. His "post 10 times a day" approach has two major flaws.

Firstly, not all content is equally valuable. You likely don't engage with every post or video you see on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. You interact with content that resonates with you. So, posting indiscriminately every day might be pointless.

Secondly, even if you build a large following with this method, it might not lead to the results you want. You could have hundreds of thousands of followers, but only a small fraction might live near your swimming school and potentially enroll. This strategy is inefficient and could take years to yield results.

Instead, I recommend creating content that establishes your swim school management software as the top brand in your local area. Focus on three types of content:

Educational (Most Effective):

Tips of the day
Tutorial videos
Strategies for specific programs
Q&A sessions addressing common questions

The easiest and most effective approach is to capture videos of your coaching methods with students and share them. Educational content is universally relevant and doesn't require elaborate ideas. It's even better if you can make it entertaining and informative.

Inspirational (Secondary):

Member transformation stories
Motivational quotes
Uplifting stories featuring your heroes

Inspirational content is great for brand recognition and reinforcing your brand identity, but it's not as effective in attracting new leads as educational content.

Entertaining (Valuable but Challenging):

Behind-the-scenes glimpses
Humorous vignettes
Satirical takes on industry norms
Dramatic content

Entertaining content can significantly impact your reach, but it's challenging to create. If done well, it can expand your audience. However, be careful to create content that enhances your brand rather than just simple comedic videos.

Step 4: Boost Content Visibility with Paid Ads

Creating content is not enough; distribution is key to ensuring it gets seen. Here are three ways to distribute your content:

Share with your existing social media audience.
SEO: Content boosts SEO, increasing visibility for both your content and your swimming school software.
Paid ads: Allocate a small budget for ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Facebook and Instagram are typically the easiest to use.

Here's the strategy: Boost 5-10 different content pieces each month at $1 to $2 per day to increase your brand presence locally. While this might not immediately generate leads, over time you'll become the most recognized swimming school software in your area.

This approach helps:

Increase local recognition, so prospects familiar with your content will choose or recommend your software.
Improve SEO due to increased searches for your swimming school management software.
Build a premium retargetable audience for future campaigns, all for a minimal daily cost.

For a step-by-step guide on boosting content on Facebook, check out the video walkthrough I've provided.

Step 5: Run Periodic Lead Conversion Ads

All the steps up to this point help strengthen your flywheel, which takes patience and time, typically 3-6 months or more to see tangible results.

However, sometimes you need faster outcomes. This is where paid ads come in.

When done right, paid ads can deliver impressive results. By nurturing a retargeting audience, you can target "warm" prospects who are already familiar with and trust your swimming school scheduling software.

This approach generates higher-quality leads, reduces acquisition efforts, maximizes enrollments, and improves retention.

Note: There isn't one right way to run paid ads, but it ultimately comes down to two key elements: the creative and the offer.

Step 6: Prioritize Retention

Acquiring a new customer is often much more expensive than retaining an existing one. The success of the flywheel effect depends on customer retention.

Investing heavily in a high-conversion website, SEO, content creation, and advertising is wasted if you lose new students.

Relying solely on discounts or promotional gimmicks to retain students is rarely sustainable. Retention isn't just about having a retention strategy or tactics like attendance reminders.

While strategies and tactics can help, they are secondary. The primary factors that determine long-term commitment versus fleeting interest are intention, expectation, and experience.

Intention: Did the students enroll because they genuinely want to learn swimming, or were they drawn in by promotional incentives?
Expectation: Does your class meet their expectations? Unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment and dropout.
Experience: Was their swimming class experience satisfying?

Retention tactics, such as monthly progress evaluations, class reminders, or reward programs—like the ones we use at Monstro—can enhance retention and encourage referrals.

Better retention strengthens the flywheel strategy.

Step 7: Formulate a Referral Strategy

Word of mouth is still the best marketing tool, but getting referrals for your swimming school software can be a challenge.

Here are three things you need for more referrals:

A big client base: You need lots of happy clients to spread the word about your software.
Great classes and programs: Your students need to love what you offer.
A smart referral strategy: You want referrals to feel natural and easy.

Here are some tactics to make referrals easier:

Buddy Pass: We use a Buddy Pass at Monstro. Current members get gift cards they can give to potential new members.
Achievement & Rewards: Give rewards to members who attend classes and progress. This, combined with the Buddy Pass, encourages referrals.
Share Success Stories: Make it easy for members to share their success stories on social media. When friends see someone doing well with your software, they'll be curious.

These are just a few ways to get more referrals. Check out our article for more ideas on generating referrals for your swimming classes.

What's Next

Harnessing the flywheel effect for your swim school requires effort and patience. However, in my opinion, it represents one of the most effective approaches to cultivate a profitable and stable swim school without being overly reliant on your business.

At Monstro, our vision revolves around utilizing technology and AI automation to enable the seamless application of the flywheel effect.

If you're interested in how Monstro can support the growth of your swimming school software through the implementation of the flywheel effect, schedule a demo, and we'll explain the process to you.