Twenty Tips to Finding New Students
The concept of finding students is just like that of a person panning for gold, back in the days of the gold rush. A person would scout a location and then pan for hours on end until they found enough gold to call it a day. Unfortunately many business owners leave right before the big find is just about to happen, basically giving up way to soon. There are students all around you it is just a matter of getting the word out and finding them. So the next time you have some time to kill or you feel like you are done for the day, ask yourself have you really done everything you could to find new students you want in your school.
1) Interview all of your parents and find out their affiliation to the local PTA, Chamber of Commerce, Little League teams, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Research which parents and students may be a strong asset to you in finding new students.
2) Ask for referrals and put your referral system in place. Don't let this slip by you. This is your best source of new students. I can't stress enough how important this is. No matter what I do to market or advertise my school the referral program is always the top income generating source of advertising. Get my referral program by joining next level as a premium member.
3) Start hosting Martial Arts Birthday Parties. Birthday Parties are a viable source of income for you, as well as a great source of lead generation. If you are already doing them, but don't have a packed schedule, then offer them for free. We do this and have many different options. Inevitably we end up bumping the free parties up to the next level and make money anyway. We then give out free month passes to all the party-goers. ( All members can download a copy of our flyer in our downloadable business library)
4) Start a flyer and door hanger campaign. Make it a regular part of your weekly activities. Deliver flyers door to door and in local stores. Of course you must make absolutely sure that you follow all the local laws and codes of your town.
5) Call and mail a discount coupon to all of your old students and missed trial classes three to four times per year. This will help you bring in a few old faces back into the school.
6) Do a regular scheduled buddy day. In our organization we have one every month in fact we do a buddy week. This encourages people to bring their friends down and try to get them to sign up without the stress of setting up a special class.
7) In fact start a student drive contest. One of my clients have turned this into a real motivational tool for retention while also getting referrals. They have involved instructors as captains as well as dividing the schools into two teams and pitting them against each other. The theory of healthy competition. They have acquired 15 new members in 6 weeks, just off of the contest.
8) Encourage your students to carry V.I.P passes with them everywhere. It is up to them to help the school grow and to help you keep new faces on the floor. Remind them that the best way to flatter you is to tell a friend. (don’t forget we have amazing deals on printing these passes just email us on the contact link on the side bar)
9) Do a parents show. This is a great way to highlight the students and put on a fun filled day of martial arts seminars, and special promotions. Invite everyone down including neighbors, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Offer everyone a free week of classes just for showing up.
10) Do a anniversary gathering. One of my Elite Coaching clients has turned this into an extravaganza, with Casino Wheels, raffles, demo's and a pot luck lunch. Their goal is to gain community awareness at the same time. Asking all students to bring one non training member of the community. This is just a win/win all the way. Don't forget to get the free press.
11) Do specialty seminars for the community and send a press release to all the local papers on the topic you are teaching. Get as much press as you can. Maybe even donate some money to charity. At the same time teach seminars on Stranger Danger, bully-proofing, women's self defense. Turn those people into students.
12)Get students to give you a list of all the activities they are involved with other than the martial arts. After you see the list, go back and ask them for phone numbers that they can share with you for their special activities, coaches, scout leaders, club members, etc. Then approach these people and offer them a free trial class or membership.
13)Start a Business directory within your school. Ask you of your clients if any of them are self employed. If they are ask them if they would like to become part of your school business directory. This can be used for sharing with your existing clients but also for you to network. Once you have the names, offer them free passes for all of their employee’s.
14) Business appreciation with the other business' in your community. Go around to each and every business and ask them if they would be interested in giving passes to all their employee’s and sharing in a marketing exchange. You give their flyers our in your welcome to the family packet and they put your V.I.P. card and flyers on their counters in their store.
As I always like to do is promise you one thing and then over provide and give you more. This is another 200 Guerrilla Marketing techniques, you can use within your school. Enjoy.
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MINI-MEDIA 1. Marketing Plan 2. Marketing Calendar 3. Identity 4. Business Cards 5. Stationary 6. Personal Letters 7. Telephone Marketing 8. Toll- Free Number 9. Vanity Phone Number 10. Yellow Pages 11. Postcards 12. Post Card Deck 13. Classified Ads 14. Per Order/ Inquiry Advertising 15. Free Ads in Shoppers 16. Circulars 17. Community Bulletin Boards 18. Movie Ads 19. Outside Signs 20. Street Banners 21. Window Display 22. Inside Signs 23. Posters 24. Canvassing 25. Door Hangers 26. Elevator Pitch 27. Value Story 28. Backends 29. Letters of Recommendation 30. Attendance at Trade Shows MAXI- MEDIA 31. Advertising 32. Direct Mail 33. Newspaper Ads 34. Radio Spots 35. Magazine Ads 36. Billboards 37. Television Commercials E- MEDIA 38. Computer 39. Printer/ Fax Machine 40. Chat Rooms 41. Forums Boards 42. Internet Bulletin Boards 43. List-building 44. Personalized Email 45. Email Signature Mktg. 46. Canned Email 47. Bulk Email 48. Audio/Video postcards 49. Domain Name 50. Website 51. Landing Page 52. Merchant Account 53. Shopping cart 54. Auto-Responders 55. Search Engine Ranking 56. Electronic Brochures 57. RSS Feeds 58. Blogs 59. Podcasting 60. Publish own E-zine 61. Ads in other E-zines 62. Write Ebooks 63. Provide Content- Other Sites 64. Produce Webinars 65. Joint ventures |
69. Click Analyzers 70. Pay Per Click Ads 71. Search Engine Keywords 72. Google Adwords 73. Sponsored Links 74. Reciprocal Link Exchange 75. Banner Exchanges 76. Web Conversion Rate INFO- MEDIA 77. Knowledge of your Market 78. Research Studies 79. Specific Customer Data 80. Case Studies 81. Sharing 82. Brochures 83. Catalog 84. Business Directory 85. Public Service Announcements 86. Newsletter 87. A Speech 88. Free Consultations 89. Free Demonstrations 90. Free Seminars 91. Publish Article 92. Publish Column 93. Author a Book 94. Publishing-on-Demand 95. Speaker at Clubs 96. Teleseminars 97. Infomercials 98. Constant Learning HUMAN- MEDIA 99. Marketing Insight 100. Yourself 101. Your Employees and Reps 102. Designated Guerrilla 103. Employee Attire 104. Social Demeanor 105. Target Audiences 106. Your Own Circle of Influence 107. Contact Time with Customers 108. How you say Hello and Goodbye 109. Teaching Ability 110. Stories 111. Sales Training 112. Use of Downtime 113. Networking 114. Professional Title 115. Affiliate Marketing 116. Media Contacts 117. “A” List Customers 118. Core Story- Solution to Problem 119. Create a Sense of Urgency 120. Offer Limited Items/ Time 121. Call to Action 122. Satisfied Customers NON- MEDIA 123. Benefits List 124. Competitive Advantages 125. Gifts 126. Service 127. Public Relations 128. Fusion Marketing 129. Barter 130. Word-of-Mouth 131. Buzz 132. Community Involvement 133. Club and Assn Memberships |
134. Free Directory Listings 135. Trade Show Booth 136. Special Events 137. Name Tags at Events 138. Luxury Box at Events 139. Gift Certificates 140. Audio-Visual Aids 141. Flipcharts 142. Reprints and Blowups 143. Coupons 144. Free Trial Offer 145. Guarantee 146. Contests and Sweepstakes 147. Baking/ Craft Ability 148. Lead Buying 149. Follow-Up 150. Tracking Plan 151. Marketing-on-Hold 152. Branded Entertainment 153. Product Placement 154. Radio Talk Show Guest 155. TV Talk Show Guest 156. Subliminal Marketing COMPANY ATTRIBUTES 157. Proper View of Marketing 158. Brand Name Awareness 159. Positioning 160. Name 161. Meme 162. Theme Line 163. Writing Ability 164. Copywriting Ability 165. Headline Copy 166. Location 167. Hours of Operation 168. Days of Operation 169. Credit Cards Accepted 170. Financing Available 171. Credibility 172. Reputation 173. Efficiency 174. Quality 175. Service 176. Selection 177. Price 178. Opportunities to Upgrade 179. Referral Program 180. Spying 181. Testimonials 182. Extra Value 183. Adopt Noble Cause COMPANY ATTITUDES 184. Easy To Do Business With 185. Honest Interest in People 186. Telephone Demeanor 187. Passion & Enthusiasm 188. Sensitivity 189. Patience 190. Flexibility 191. Generosity 192. Self Confidence 193. Neatness 194. Aggressiveness 195. Competitiveness 196. High Energy 197. Speed 198. Maintains Focus 199. Attention to Details |
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“Run your events like they were
a Motion
Picture”
Mr. and Mrs. Smith pull up with their 8 year old son Trevor,
Mr. Smith Driving shuts the car off and turns looking into the back seat.
“Okay kiddo, tonight’s your first night at the Parent’s night out at
your martial art school, you excited”
Trevor
“Yeah I can’t wait dad, this is gonna be cool, Sensei has been talking about it all week.”
All three get out of the car as they approach the school.
The door opens up and there is Sensei’s head student - he greets the
students as they
walk in the door with a high five.
The Smiths enter and the music is going as Sensei greets them.
Sensei
(The Sensei bows as
Trevor and Mr. and Mrs. Smith approach. )
“It’s great that you made it, I am so
excited, you are going to have a blast just like we promised. Take your shoes off, put them in the cubbies
and have a seat their in seiza (sitting position) along with all the other kids
we start in 10 minutes. You can talk,
just remember the rules of the school.”
Little Trevor does exactly as he is told as he walks over and joins his friends. Sensei hands a Little letter to the parents called a Ransom note. This was designed to get the parents to fill out explaining what they will be doing for the next three hours. This is nothing more then a written testimonial to be used on future flyers for other special events………..
Every special event, promotion, belt advancement or first class can be thought about just as if you filming a movie. Think about it, a movie just isn’t an idea on film it is a combination of many carefully thought out events. We as business owners are the directors who orchestrate our very own little world which we call the customer service experience. From the very first stage we come up with a concept, the event (movie) which we want to make reality. We then start casting for the people to be in the film – your staff, as well as all the others who play the most integral role – your students, who participate in the film. Once this is done, we distribute our script, the story board of everything that goes on from the beginning to the end. This basically is your agenda for the day or night and the actors and extra’s are your staff and student’s.
Once you have worked out all the fine details, and designed a professional flyer, you then promote, making sure you fill the room with students (actors). The night of the event is carefully put together by the owner or staff so there is nothing left to chance. Just like a script writer puts the vision on paper with every detail from camera angles, to the mood, to the back ground setting of each shot. We are not looking to control everything to the point it becomes stale and rigid, but it is essential not to leave things to chance.
We as business owners control every thing from the smell, visual and over all customer experience our clients receive. The more we put into the details the better we are at having a positive outcome. Our goal as business owners is to look at all facets of our business in this way, creating the environment – the vision and end result we want. Very often our customer service experience isn’t thought about this way. Simply putting together a script for our staff to memorize is all we need to do, from how a person is treated when the enter the school for the first time, to the school tour. With some careful thought you create your overall vision of everything you do in your business if you think about it as if it were a movie. Just like James Cameron did when he created his movie “Avatar,” you too can create you own little world filled with positive and memorable experiences that last a life time. Good luck.
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.
