How to Use the My Studio Manager Communication Planner
The My Studio Manager Communication Planner is designed to help studio owners, managers, and teams create clear, consistent, and proactive communication across the year. Whether you're running a dance school, yoga studio, music academy, or art workshop, this planner ensures your community always feels informed, valued, and engaged.
This comprehensive guide will walk you through every feature of the planner, helping you transform your studio's communication from reactive to strategic. You'll learn how to use the calendar tracker, plan month-by-month activities, analyse performance data, and adapt your approach to the unique rhythms of Australian studio life. With practical steps, cultural insights, and proven best practices, you'll build communication habits that strengthen your community and grow your studio.
Getting Started: Your Communication Calendar
The Communication Calendar is your master tracker for all communication touchpoints throughout the year. This powerful tool transforms scattered ideas into a cohesive strategy, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks and your team always knows what's coming next.
Review Pre-Filled Suggestions
Start by examining the weekly, monthly, and termly communication templates already built into your calendar. These provide a proven framework for consistent touchpoints.
Customise for Your Schedule
Adjust dates and frequency to match your studio's term schedule, whether you're aligned with NSW, VIC, QLD, or WA school terms.
Add Your Activities
Include workshops, performances, open days, enrolment drives, and any special events unique to your studio's offerings.
Assign Team Members
Designate a responsible person for each communication item to ensure accountability and clear ownership.
Track Progress
Update the Status column from Planned to In Progress to Completed as you execute your communication strategy.
Record Results
Capture engagement metrics including opens, clicks, attendance, or enrolments to understand what's working.
Top Tip: Use colour coding to visually manage your workload. Try green for completed tasks, orange for work in progress, and red for pending items that need immediate attention.
Month-by-Month Planning & Performance Tracking
Month-by-Month Planner
This sheet provides a bird's-eye view of your entire year, helping you maintain strategic visibility and plan ahead effectively.
How to maximise this tool:
- Fill in your Key Focus or Campaigns for each month, such as "Term 1 Enrolments", "Mid-Year Showcase", or "Holiday Workshops"
- Under each week, note what you'll communicate including promotions, reminders, class updates, or internal team messages
- Use the Notes column to capture inspiration or community events like Harmony Week, NAIDOC Week, or local festivals
- Update this sheet at the start of each month so your entire team knows what's approaching
Regular monthly reviews keep everyone aligned and prevent last-minute scrambles when important dates arrive.
Dashboard Analytics
The Dashboard sheet transforms your data into actionable insights, helping you understand what's working and what needs refinement.
Key features to leverage:
- Review automatic formulas showing completion rate and communication count
- Enter engagement metrics manually including social media reach and email open rates
- Create simple pivot tables or charts to visualise trends over time
- Use this data for monthly or termly reviews with your team
Look for patterns in your data: Which message types get the best response? Are internal updates happening consistently? Is engagement stronger before or after term breaks? These insights drive smarter decisions.
Review Cycles & Best Practices for Australian Studios
Australian studios typically operate on four terms per year, aligned with the school calendar. This rhythm creates natural checkpoints for reviewing and refining your communication strategy. At the end of each term, schedule a short communication review meeting to assess what worked, identify opportunities, and plan improvements for the next term.
Align with Local Calendars
Use state-specific term dates and mark key public holidays including Australia Day, ANZAC Day, Labour Day, Easter, End of Financial Year promotions, and Christmas shutdowns.
Local Tone & Cultural Awareness
Write in a friendly, down-to-earth tone that reflects Australian authenticity. Acknowledge First Nations events and use inclusive language that resonates with your community.
Consistency Over Perfection
Schedule core communications first, then add extras when capacity allows. Use templates and repeating formats to save time whilst maintaining regular touchpoints.
Encourage Team Involvement
Don't shoulder all communication responsibilities yourself. Assign roles in the planner, hold brief weekly catch-ups, and celebrate wins together. When everyone contributes, your communication feels alive and authentic.
Use Data to Refine Strategy
Track what's working through your Dashboard. High open rates indicate great subject lines. Low attendance after promotions suggests timing or messaging issues. Every metric tells a story that helps you evolve.
During your termly review, identify which messages resonated most with your community. Check whether your timing worked effectively. Adjust your planner for the next term by adding, removing, or tweaking touchpoints. Refresh visuals, update photos, and reword recurring posts to keep content fresh and engaging. Keep it simple, consistent, and community-focused.
Tailoring Communication for Your Studio Type
Different studio types have unique communication needs, priorities, and audience behaviours. Understanding these distinctions helps you focus your energy where it matters most and choose the right channels for maximum impact. Your audience's preferences should drive your communication strategy, ensuring every message reaches people in the way they prefer to engage.
Use your audience behaviour to decide your communication priority. The most effective channel isn't the newest or trendiest — it's the one your community actually uses and checks regularly.
Pay attention to response patterns across different channels. If your dance families engage more on Instagram but miss emails, shift your priority accordingly. If your yoga clients prefer detailed newsletters over quick social posts, invest time in email content. Let data and observation guide your channel strategy rather than assumptions about what should work.
Watch Out For These Common Pitfalls
Over-Posting
Avoid flooding your audience's feed with too many messages. Quality always trumps quantity — aim for meaningful, valuable communications rather than constant noise.
Timing Clashes
Never send emails or SMS during public holidays or school breaks when families are disconnected and engagement plummets. Mark these dates clearly in your planner.
Mixed Messaging
Ensure your tone, visuals, and calls-to-action align consistently across all channels. Contradictory messages confuse your community and erode trust.
Neglected Internal Updates
Don't forget to communicate with your team regularly. Internal clarity fuels external success — when staff are informed, they become confident ambassadors.
Outdated Data
Refresh your templates and contact lists each term to maintain strong engagement. Old information leads to bounced emails and frustrated community members.
The goal isn't just to communicate more
It's to communicate better — with purpose, consistency, and heart.
The Communication Planner isn't just a schedule — it's a studio culture tool that encourages structure, creativity, and community alignment. When used consistently, it becomes your studio's heartbeat, guiding how you speak, share, and grow. This planner helps you move from reactive communication that happens when you remember, to strategic communication that builds trust, engagement, and loyalty over time.
By following these guidelines, reviewing your approach each term, and staying attuned to your community's needs, you'll create communication that feels personal, timely, and valuable. Your studio will become known not just for great classes, but for being a place where people feel genuinely connected and informed. That's the true power of purposeful communication.