A Huge, Largely Untapped Marketing Opportunity

You might think that marketing online is as simple as putting up a website with your business information and a contact page, and then business will just roll right in…

Unfortunately, it’s a lot more complicated than that these days. Back in the early days of the internet a website was enough – but today, social media marketing has taken over the ‘net!

And, if you don’t know how to use these powerful sites to market your business online, you’ll be dead in the water going up against competition who does know how to use it…

So, why start with Facebook?

Let’s see…

• Over 500 MILLION users worldwide -
• More page views generated than Google -
• Fastest growing website on the internet -
• And (for the moment)… IT’S FREE!

That makes it the perfect place to market your business online. Whether you run a small local business with a storefront, an e-commerce site, or you run a business from home… FACEBOOK is THE PLACE to get the word out about what you do.

What NOT to Do on Facebook

Read the rest of this entry »

Once You Fill Your School, You Have to Work to Keep It Full

As I’ve said many times, when you’re starting a new martial art school (or any business) your first priority is building revenue. Cash flow is what runs a business and what keeps it running. Without cash flow your business simply will not grow.

Now, building cash flow is a function of marketing and sales. We market to attract new prospective clients, and then use effective sales tactics to enroll them in our programs. Simple, right?

However, one thing many school owners overlook is retention systems. Retention systems allow you to keep the cash flow that you have, so you aren’t spinning your wheels by taking one step forward and two steps back in growing your school.

I’ve seen this happen many times with new school owners as well as with experienced but under-performing school owners who begin implementing my recommended marketing practices in their business. If they don’t have quality-control and retention systems in place to handle the sudden influx of students, they’ll have a very hard time keeping those students they worked so very hard to get, and that’s a crying shame. Read the rest of this entry »

The Prize is for The Person Who Does Things All the Way

In previous articles I discussed the importance of taking the “marketing base” approach to executing your monthly marketing plan. If we apply Pareto’s principle (the so-called “80/20 Rule”) to our marketing, we can assume that 80% of our results will come from 20% of our effort and activities.

Now, all we have to figure out is where to invest that first 20% of our time, money, and effort.

Fortunately for you, I’ve already done all the trial and error for you. So, you don’t need to waste months on end and thousands of dollars to figure out which marketing methods work best. For the present-day business environment, your highest-ROI (return on investment) marketing activities are: Read the rest of this entry »

A Heartfelt Approach to Bringing Back Inactive Students

Every month you are going to lose between 3% and 5% of your students. It’s just a fact of life. Some will drop out because they have moved away, or they took up another recreational activity, or they had a child…

However, many of those students who drop out do so because they simply didn’t feel appreciated. In the book Appreciation Marketing, authors Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey cite a recent study that indicates 68% of clients who leave do so because of perceived indifference*.

In other words, most clients leave because they think you don’t care. And, I’d say that’s doubly true in our industry, due to the unique relationships we develop with our students. Think about it – teaching martial arts is a very personal business.

Yet, all it really takes sometimes is a little show of appreciation to get those inactive students back and training at your school. And, it takes very little on your part to do so.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to do just exactly that. Read the rest of this entry »

When You Start a Martial Art School There Are Things You Should Know…

Most instructors start a martial arts school knowing they are going to need 100 students or more to support themselves at a living wage while paying the overhead on their facility. However, there are some other things you should know when you start a school that no one likes to talk about…

For example, your two greatest enemies – space and time.

Now, I’m not talking about space and time in the sense that say, a quantum physicist might refer to them… and not in the Rod Serling sense either (if you don’t know who he is, it’s before your time). No, I’m talking about it in the “square footage and hours in the day” sense. Read the rest of this entry »

Attack Of The Killer Guest Pass Ideas, Part 2

Just in case last month’s gargantuan list of guest pass referral ideas wasn’t enough, you’ll find the second half of my big list of 99 ways to use guest passes to get more students at the end of this article.

But first, let’s review a few key points from last month’s article on using guest passes…

Basic Concepts For Using Guest Passes Effectively

A few key points about using guest passes that will greatly enhance their effectiveness as a marketing method for your school…

• Guest passes are most effective when you convey and retain a high perceived value for the guest passes.
• So, make sure you PRINT THE ACTUAL VALUE ON THE GUEST PASS. For example, “Valued at $100.00″.
• You may find it helpful to only allow staff and students to hand out free guest passes. While this will limit the number of ways you can use guest passes, you will find it creates a very high perceived value in the eyes of the recipient. I always tell my staff and students, “Only staff and students are allowed to give these out, and they’re worth over $100 each. So, be sure you tell whoever you gift them to how much that little card is worth!”
• One way to get around that issue of limiting distribution is to have two different guest passes; a one month guest pass that only staff and students may give away ($100+ value), and a “FREE WEEK!” guest pass that you use in all other guest pass promotions ($25+ value).

Although a guest pass is basically a business card with value, if you treat it nonchalantly you’ll blunt the effectiveness of this marketing method. So, work hard to retain the value of your guest passes! To get a solid introduction to using guest passes in your school, you should read the following articles FIRST before starting to implement the ideas listed later in this article:

Using Referral Programs to Get New Students
Using Holiday Guest Passes To Get New Students

My BIG List Of Guest Pass Referral Program Ideas…

Now without further ado, here’s the second half of my BIG list of guest pass marketing ideas:

Read the rest of this entry »

A Good Graduation Ceremony Both Attracts And Keeps Students

Graduation night is a concept I picked up from observing successful school owners from around the country. When I started my first school, I tried to network with and visit as many successful school owners as I could, both to exchange ideas and to observe their “best practices” in action.

One thing I observed was that, in many of the most successful schools, they used belt promotions as a means of both increasing their retention and to promote their programs. For retention purposes, nothing beats getting the family members of your students involved and giving them an opportunity to see their loved one in action.

In addition, this is also a powerful incentive for your students to perform well and stay committed to their training, because they want to be able to “show” their family how they are progressing in their martial arts training.

Likewise when it comes to attracting new students, there are few things more powerful than third-party endorsements. And, the best third-party endorsements are those people can witness with their own eyes. As they say, “Seeing is believing”. Well, when friends of your students see them getting recognition for their hard work, and enjoying doing their martial art, it is a powerful recruiting tool for your school.

Holding regular scheduled graduation celebration events where students are ENCOURAGED to invite their friends is a great way to achieve both of the above objectives. Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »

After Marketing Comes Selling – Where The Real Fun Begins…

Many would-be school owners and aspiring full-time instructors have convinced themselves that they don’t need to know how to sell to be successful. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Accept this now – you have to be a good salesman (or “sales person” if you prefer) in order to run a successful school. However, this doesn’t mean you have to use sneaky tactics or adopt a hard sell approach to enrollments.

On the contrary, these tactics will work against you as you grow your school. Tricking or manipulating potential students into signing up often creates problems down the road, especially if your programs and customer service are substandard.

Instead, learning to be a good salesman as a martial art school owner requires learning how to treat people right, and selling by demonstrating the value of your programs. Remember – telling informs, but showing convinces. And, only the truly convinced will invest both their money and their time into becoming a long-term member of your school.

Treat ‘Em Right, And They’ll Stay – But First, You Have to Get Them To Try It Out

The thing is, demonstrating value requires that you actually get the prospective student (hereafter referred to as a “prospect”) to try your school out. The introductory course is where the real convincing occurs (this is sometimes called a “trial course” – language you should avoid, since it suggest a lack of commitment on the student’s part). But in most cases, a bit of selling is required to convince a complete stranger to try your school.

So, how do you do it? It’s simple really, if you follow a few basic principles. And while I can’t really go over the complete sales process in a short article, I will go over the basic principles here to get you started. Read the rest of this entry »

Speed Kills…

In the past six months, out of the hundreds of site members we have, I’ve had just three site members contact me to tell me they were either closing their schools or scaling back on their operations…

Although this is an extremely low percentage of failure – especially during an extended recession – I believe that it will be instructive to examine reasons why these schools didn’t make it, in order that we can all avoid making the same mistakes.

In each case, these folks were new school owners or instructors who were in the early stages of launching a school. In two of the three cases, the instructors were teaching in part-time locations, yet they both cited a lack of cash-flow as the reason for their having to “close” their schools. (Note: In the third case, the instructor lost his lease and couldn’t find another suitable location within his budget – a reason totally beyond his control.)

What went wrong here? Upon further probing, the reason in each case was made plain. In their impatience with starting a new business, they just moved ahead too fast and it killed their schools – a very common mistake. This is something I’ve had experience with in the past myself, and which led to my developing the Small Dojo Big Profits method of starting a martial arts school.

Now, before I go on here let me state that there’s no shame in making mistakes when you’re starting a business. Believe me, every successful business owner can rattle off a least two or three major mistakes they made when they were first starting out. The only shame is in not learning from your own mistakes or from those of someone else, which is why you should read this article carefully to avoid these very common mistakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Current Month’s Marketing Plan

A Few General Notes on Effective Online and Offline Marketing For Martial Arts Schools

For those of you who weren’t members last month, read the article on Becoming an Expert Marketer so you understand the concepts behind this marketing plan. Pay particular attention to the “Marketing Base” concept, and keep it in mind as you implement this marketing plan.

As a standard goal for your monthly marketing activities, you should be generating at least 25-30 leads a month. If not, you need to first EXPAND your marketing by implementing the marketing plans provided to you on this site each month. And, not just some of it… do all of it. That’s the first step in achieving effective marketing for your school.

Expected Results And Trouble-Shooting Your Marketing… Read the rest of this entry »

Summer Intensive Kids Camps

It seems that school owners in some areas are experiencing difficulties in filling their summer camps this year. Whether this is due to the current economic conditions in those areas, or due to waiting too long to start advertising their camps (I suspect the latter), there’s always a way to salvage these situations to make the best of things.

Back in 2006 at around this time of the year, I was facing a major crisis in my school. Sky-high fuel costs were causing a major budget crunch for most families in my area, and as it turns out our community was one of the first to show signs of the mortgage fallout. Bottom line was, only about half of my after-school karate kids were staying through the summer, and I was facing a major budget crisis of my own if I didn’t make up that income fast.

So, I borrowed an idea from another instructor and decided to hold “Summer Intensive Training Camps” in my school. I posted a description of how this works in the forums last week. Here’s how you do it: Read the rest of this entry »

How To Avoid Wasting Time Digging For Gold In Diamond Country…

Choosing your primary niche market can be tough when you’re first starting out. This decision cannot and should not be made lightly. Certainly, you should strongly consider going after multiple markets in your area in order to grow your school and stabilize your income.

However, you should carefully research the local market in order to determine which market will be your primary focus in your school. The primary market you go after is the one in which there is the most opportunity at the time you launch your school. This takes work and research to determine, but it’s well worth your time and trouble.

A quick note for those of you with established schools; going through this process can be of great benefit to you as well. Many times, we become complacent and overlook glaring market opportunities or impending threats to our market position. If it’s been a while since you’ve done anything remotely resembling market research, I strongly suggest you spend a Saturday afternoon following this process – it will be time well spent.

Whether you are just starting out or you’re an established school owner, here’s how you go about choosing your primary market focus for your school… Read the rest of this entry »

Efficiency, Sanity, And Profitability Go Hand In Hand

Running a martial arts school can easily become a high-stress nightmare for new instructors. At first when you just have a few students, it’s a piece of cake. However, once you start growing beyond a few dozen students the enormity of managing a school can sneak up on you, until one day you wake up and realize, “I have no life outside my school!”

Well, running a high-stress school is a quick path to instructor/owner burnout, and a good way to ruin your business. Stress and fatigue leads to burnout, burnout leads to complacency, and complacency will soon lead to an empty floor.

I’d like to help you avoid all that. Here’s how to avoid burnout by setting your school up to be low maintenance from the very beginning. Read the rest of this entry »

Martial Arts Business Success Step #1 – Get Your Marketing And Lead Generation Down Pat

Until a student walks in the door and you collect a check, you aren’t in business.

You can get business cards printed up, tell everyone you’re starting a martial art school, and even sign a lease on a building, but not one of those things really mark the transition from “wannabe” to bona fide school owner.

The only thing that does is getting paid – that’s it. And, you cannot and will not get paid without marketing your school and services effectively. Period.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve counseled struggling school owners who gave little if any consideration to marketing when launching their school. And by the same token, I’ve also counseled school owners who wasted considerable time, effort, and resources on highly ineffective and grossly inefficient marketing methods.

If you want to launch and run a successful school, start with becoming an expert marketer. This article will teach you the fundamentals of marketing and lead generation, which marketing and advertising methods are best suited to small businesses, and how to best implement those methods for the greatest effect. Read the rest of this entry »

“Are You Nuts? You Want Me To Give Away Free Classes?”

In the recent survey I posted on my blog and in the member forums, guest passes (sometimes called VIP passes) came in at number two as the most effective form of advertisement and marketing for martial art school owners. This doesn’t surprise me a bit, as I’ve been using guest passes as an effective form of marketing since I was first introduced to them in the late 90′s.

Of course, my first reaction to using them was probably similar to that of most instructors. “What? You want me to give away free classes? Are you nuts?” The thing is, I was networking with some very successful instructors at the time, and I was able to verify the effectiveness of guest pass programs firsthand by observing their results. And, soon after I learned how to effectively implement them in my own school, we found they were in fact a great way to get new students.

Basic Concepts For Using Guest Passes Effectively

A few key points about using guest passes that will greatly enhance their effectiveness as a marketing method for your school… Read the rest of this entry »