Martial Arts School Owners
Ninja Marketing Tactics
In this section you will find a host of different tips on marketing your martial arts school. Of course the goal is to actually put a few of the items spoken about into action each and every week. There are a few types of marketing approaches that are readily used in the martial arts industry and are referred to as Grass Roots, Direct Response, and Lead Generation.
Our Goal is to help you sift through the many ideas and put a few of the marketing systems in action. My goal as a consultant and active owner of a martial art school is
to help you break the cycle of analysis paralysis. This means that you are frozen in, indecision. There are so many great ideas out there which tell you all about the concept but it doesn't tell you the how too. So what this creates is in a three step process. 1) You have to figure out if you like the idea or not 2) If you do, then you figure out how you institute it - by putting together or inventing or designing ads, concepts, systems of tracking etc. 3) You then have to figure out whether this is the right time or not to put this marketing system into action. This one is probably what creates people's fear or lack of action. I am sure you can attest that at times you are frozen in taking the step forward. A great quote it "it is better to have a poorly planned marketing campaign then to wait until you have a really good one figure out."
Here is an exerpt taken out of my book "Martial Arts Business 101 - Hooyah Living the Dream." Available on Atouchofzen.com. Enjoy!
I see 10,000 ads per week? Is that possible? When I first heard this statistic, I thought, No way! Ten thousand is far more ads than I see in one week, especially since I don’t read the paper, watch the news, etc. But then I jumped in my car and drove my daughter to school. It was 8 a.m. and the drive was only about 10 minutes, but before I knew it, I’d probably seen about 200 ads. You may ask, “How did you do that?” I didn’t even have my radio turned on. The first ads I saw were on a series of cars and trucks, advertising everything from Mary Kay makeup to plumbers, construction companies, and cement services. I soon realized that I was singing a 1-800-Mattres ad, leaving off the last “S” for whatever they said I should. Then I noticed a sale poster in the front window of a golf store getting ready for spring, and boom - it hit me.
I was being bombarded with marketing. So it’s no wonder that when we tell our students in the school and their parents that we have a special activity going on, they seem to ignore us. It truly isn’t disrespect or negligence on their part, it is life. They are just doing what they do normally and filtering through the mounds of messages that are thrown at them. Sometimes information they really would like to know gets filtered out with the “trash.”
So what do we do to get through? What is it that will separate us from the rest? Well, this remains a huge problem with marketing today. I just recently read that marketers intend to get more personal helping people with their purchase decisions. For example, a person will walk into his or her favorite clothes store and a computer will recognize the customer and say, “Hi, Mrs. Smith, welcome back. Do you know there are specials on that blouse you bought last month?” Well, if this is how marketing will be done, where do we stand as Martial Arts schools?
Here is my opinion of our situation. I believe, and I have always believed, that the only way to expand your business is by personal contact. If we were selling products, we could be less personal and still market our wares. We could just do more direct mail to sell more “t-shirts,” and although you should be doing direct mail, to have a really strong impact on students, parents and prospects you need to connect with them. You need to ensure that you and your company are the most important thing on their minds when you are talking.
When was the last time that you gave someone a call and asked to have 10 minutes of the person’s undivided attention? If the person is busy and can’t talk then, ask if you can call back at a better time. Confirm the best time to call so that you can have his or her undivided attention. Another good strategy to get through the clutter is to set up review appointments with clients and with parents to go over their children’s progress. What you really want is some quiet time with them away from all the white noise of all the other marketing companies breathing down their necks. A bit of quiet time will enhance your relationship, and will give them a chance to think about what you are saying.
This is a time for you to sell upgrades, deal with student issues, make sure that the parents are on the same page as you are, and talk to them about special events. Sometimes it is not possible to get an appointment personally to sit with the student and the client, but you must make every effort to speak to them personally. In our school we have many systems in place that help us communicate.
1. Regular e-mail to all clients with an e-mail newsletter and positive stories.
2. Direct mail for all of our specialty programs: Black Belt Club; Team Leadership; Master Elite; special events; etc.
3. Flyers for seminars handed directly to the clients, to enhance word-of-mouth advertising.
4. A free yearly calendar either in paper form or on your website with notations for all of your events, school closings etc.
5. Scheduled telephone calls to students and clients at 2,4,6,8 and 10 week intervals.
6. Missed attendance calls and “we miss you” calls.
7. Sales calls, former student calls, missed trial class calls, etc.
8. Announcements in class.
These are just a few of the ways that we promote our programs and get the word out. Even with all of this information, there are still people who do not know about events that are going on, Holiday school closings, and so on. This is not their fault; our messages may be getting lost amidst the white noise of marketing. The most important tip that I have for you is to be in touch with your clients regularly and to try to get your clients to understand that your messages are much more relevant to them than all the white noise they are ignoring. They should want your communications with them to be picked up on their radar. They must know that you are deserving of their attention, along with their favorite places, things and people.
Our Goal is to help you sift through the many ideas and put a few of the marketing systems in action. My goal as a consultant and active owner of a martial art school is
to help you break the cycle of analysis paralysis. This means that you are frozen in, indecision. There are so many great ideas out there which tell you all about the concept but it doesn't tell you the how too. So what this creates is in a three step process. 1) You have to figure out if you like the idea or not 2) If you do, then you figure out how you institute it - by putting together or inventing or designing ads, concepts, systems of tracking etc. 3) You then have to figure out whether this is the right time or not to put this marketing system into action. This one is probably what creates people's fear or lack of action. I am sure you can attest that at times you are frozen in taking the step forward. A great quote it "it is better to have a poorly planned marketing campaign then to wait until you have a really good one figure out." Here is an exerpt taken out of my book "Martial Arts Business 101 - Hooyah Living the Dream." Available on Atouchofzen.com. Enjoy!
Marketing Through White Noise
I see 10,000 ads per week? Is that possible? When I first heard this statistic, I thought, No way! Ten thousand is far more ads than I see in one week, especially since I don’t read the paper, watch the news, etc. But then I jumped in my car and drove my daughter to school. It was 8 a.m. and the drive was only about 10 minutes, but before I knew it, I’d probably seen about 200 ads. You may ask, “How did you do that?” I didn’t even have my radio turned on. The first ads I saw were on a series of cars and trucks, advertising everything from Mary Kay makeup to plumbers, construction companies, and cement services. I soon realized that I was singing a 1-800-Mattres ad, leaving off the last “S” for whatever they said I should. Then I noticed a sale poster in the front window of a golf store getting ready for spring, and boom - it hit me.
I was being bombarded with marketing. So it’s no wonder that when we tell our students in the school and their parents that we have a special activity going on, they seem to ignore us. It truly isn’t disrespect or negligence on their part, it is life. They are just doing what they do normally and filtering through the mounds of messages that are thrown at them. Sometimes information they really would like to know gets filtered out with the “trash.”
So what do we do to get through? What is it that will separate us from the rest? Well, this remains a huge problem with marketing today. I just recently read that marketers intend to get more personal helping people with their purchase decisions. For example, a person will walk into his or her favorite clothes store and a computer will recognize the customer and say, “Hi, Mrs. Smith, welcome back. Do you know there are specials on that blouse you bought last month?” Well, if this is how marketing will be done, where do we stand as Martial Arts schools?
Here is my opinion of our situation. I believe, and I have always believed, that the only way to expand your business is by personal contact. If we were selling products, we could be less personal and still market our wares. We could just do more direct mail to sell more “t-shirts,” and although you should be doing direct mail, to have a really strong impact on students, parents and prospects you need to connect with them. You need to ensure that you and your company are the most important thing on their minds when you are talking.
When was the last time that you gave someone a call and asked to have 10 minutes of the person’s undivided attention? If the person is busy and can’t talk then, ask if you can call back at a better time. Confirm the best time to call so that you can have his or her undivided attention. Another good strategy to get through the clutter is to set up review appointments with clients and with parents to go over their children’s progress. What you really want is some quiet time with them away from all the white noise of all the other marketing companies breathing down their necks. A bit of quiet time will enhance your relationship, and will give them a chance to think about what you are saying.
This is a time for you to sell upgrades, deal with student issues, make sure that the parents are on the same page as you are, and talk to them about special events. Sometimes it is not possible to get an appointment personally to sit with the student and the client, but you must make every effort to speak to them personally. In our school we have many systems in place that help us communicate.
8 Ideas for Personalized “Marketing”
1. Regular e-mail to all clients with an e-mail newsletter and positive stories.
2. Direct mail for all of our specialty programs: Black Belt Club; Team Leadership; Master Elite; special events; etc.
3. Flyers for seminars handed directly to the clients, to enhance word-of-mouth advertising.
4. A free yearly calendar either in paper form or on your website with notations for all of your events, school closings etc.
5. Scheduled telephone calls to students and clients at 2,4,6,8 and 10 week intervals.
6. Missed attendance calls and “we miss you” calls.
7. Sales calls, former student calls, missed trial class calls, etc.
8. Announcements in class.
These are just a few of the ways that we promote our programs and get the word out. Even with all of this information, there are still people who do not know about events that are going on, Holiday school closings, and so on. This is not their fault; our messages may be getting lost amidst the white noise of marketing. The most important tip that I have for you is to be in touch with your clients regularly and to try to get your clients to understand that your messages are much more relevant to them than all the white noise they are ignoring. They should want your communications with them to be picked up on their radar. They must know that you are deserving of their attention, along with their favorite places, things and people.
