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The Way Successful Businesses Handle Client Contracts
I’d imagine by this time most of you have received tons of these sorts of requests:
- “We’re going out of town on vacation and we’d like to freeze our membership…”
- “I can’t make it the next two weeks because my job is sending me out of town – can you extend my membership for two weeks to make it up?”
- “Johnny is going to be at his dad’s all summer, so we’re going to drop out and come back in the fall…”
And so on. These sorts of requests from clients are quite common, as you know.
But, have you ever asked yourself why that is? Read the rest of this entry »
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How to Train and Hire Staff for Your Martial Arts Studio
Hiring and training staff for your martial art studio is a vital component of my overall martial arts business success system.
For one, you need to have people on your staff who can take over to help you get more done.
Also, as your school grows it becomes essential to have staff in place to help you handle that growth.
But, where do you find these people, and how do you train them? Also, what positions should they fill in your martial art school?
In this article I’m going to answer those questions for you, and help you understand why and how you hire and train staff. Read the rest of this entry »
A Primer On Martial Arts Marketing In The Digital Age
New to online marketing? Don't worry, I've got you covered in this article.
Martial arts marketing has changed dramatically over the last several years – a fact I’ve pointed out over and over again on this site and my blog.
Without knowing how you need to market in these changing times, you’re sunk. No matter how much you long for the days when the yellow pages were king, those days are long gone.
So, what’s an old-school marketer to do?
Not to worry – I’ve got you covered. All you need to know is where to put those skills to use in today’s digital marketing age.
This article should serve as a primer to help those of you who are “old-school” to catch up with the young guns who grew up with a keyboard in their crib. Read on and see just how you can market your school using old-school techniques in the age of the internet… Read the rest of this entry »
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First, if you haven’t read the manual yet, then read the following article before you start implementing this marketing plan.
“Marketing Basics for Martial Arts School Owners”
What follows is a marketing plan I wrote for July, but it will give you a good idea of how to write your own 5 x 15 plans throughout the year.
Once you read it, it should be painfully obvious that you don’t need a billing or consulting company to do this for you. You can easily come up with a workable, effective marketing plan that is customized to your needs, just by setting aside 30 minutes once a month to do so.
5 x 15 Marketing Plan: July, 20__: Read the rest of this entry »
The Top Things Successful School Owners Do To Achieve Financial Success
When you think about successful school owners, do you ever wonder how they get to where they are? You see, everyone wants to enjoy success, but the reason so few do is because so few people are willing to do the work to get there. Every successful school owner understands this. As millions of people have learned from Stephen Covey’s books, successful people tend to follow the same success habits in their daily lives to achieve and maintain that success. And, starting and running a martial art school is no different. There are things every successful school owner does on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in order to achieve success. And if you want to be a successful school owner, you need to do those things. Here’s my list of the success habits that successful school owners follow. I suggest you make each one of these habits part of your daily routine for the next month, until they become a habit for you as well.
Success Habit #1: Showing Up
Successful school owners show up to work each day. And, that doesn’t mean showing up 5 minutes before class – it means they invest long hours outside of teaching classes into their business. For every hour you spend on the floor, you should be spending two productive hours working on your business. This includes time you spend doing strategic planning, on marketing, on staff development, on planning events, on public relations, on curriculum, and yes, even on personal and professional development.
Success Habit #2: Being Present
Successful school owners are present with their students, staff, Read the rest of this entry »
How To Use Trade Shows and Fairs To Get Students
Trade shows, festivals, and local fairs are a great way to get in front of your target audience.
With warm weather arriving and spring in full swing, chances are good that the local community events calendar in your city is filling up with trade shows and festivals.
In fact, you may have even been invited to do a demonstration or have a table at one of these events.
And that’s a good thing. Even though you may dread doing these events (I know I do), lead generation from trade shows, local community events, health fairs, and school festivals remains one of the best ways to increase your community profile and to generate lots of leads quickly.
However, if you fail to do this lead generation method properly, you’ll just be wasting your time and missing out on a ton of great leads. So, follow my tips for successfully leveraging trade show and fair appearances to the greatest result in marketing your martial art school. Read the rest of this entry »
A Quick Guide To Using Review Sites To Market Your Studio
Online review site have become all the rage over the last few years, and should be an integral part of your overall online marketing profile for your martial art school.
However, using these sites can be tricky, if you follow some of the sleazier advice being tossed around online about how to “game” these sites.
Using strategies such as posting multiple fake reviews to boost your own ratings can end up backfiring on you, potentially getting you black-listed from some online review communities.
But used properly, review sites can be a great source of online traffic, phone leads, and new potential students for your studio. So for those of you who aren’t up to speed on this yet, here’s my quick guide to using review sites for martial arts marketing.
A List of Review Sites – Where To Post Your Business Info
Here’s a list of all the major online review sites and business directories you can advertise your business on: Read the rest of this entry »
Prepping For Summer….
You can download this summer kids martial arts ad in multiples sizes and formats in the member's download area.
When summer rolls around, some school owners rejoice while other wait in grim preparation for what is often their worst months of the year.
So what makes the difference? For the most part, it’s planning ahead and adapting to the circumstances.
And, this involves nothing more than making sure you have some extra income generators running over the summer months, and also having some killer summer specials going to attract new students all summer long.
Summer Income Generators
By far, the best summer income generators are summer camps. That’s the good news.
The bad news? They are a ton of work! Even so, without them you may find yourself in dire straits come the end of summer. That’s why I suggest school owners knuckle under and learn to enjoy running summer camps each year.
The key to running successful summer camps is having a proven plan to follow. Planning and organization are key, and will make the difference between making tons of extra cash over the summer or working your fingers to the bone for little extra gain.
If you have no idea how to run a summer camp, I suggest you get my summer camp system and read it through. Then, follow that simple system to success this summer and add several thousand dollars to your bottom line each month to boot. Read the rest of this entry »
The First 30 Make All The Difference
The first 30 students are always the toughest ones to get, but yet that first 30 will be the foundation that your remaining enrollment is built on.
So, it’s crucial that you have a solid marketing strategy for attracting your first 30 students when you open your doors.
For many instructors who are just starting out, getting 30 students may seem like a monumental task. However, just like any other undertaking, if you break it down you’ll find it’s much easier to accomplish.
So, here’s my “quick-start” marketing plan for getting your first 30 students: Read the rest of this entry »
“Work” – The Dirty Word in Martial Arts Marketing
Work.
It’s that dirty little four-letter word associated with martial arts marketing in all its varied forms. There’s no avoiding it, and no denying it.
Marketing your studio takes work.
Yet, without marketing you’re dead in the water. Just as a fisherman can’t catch fish without casting a net or line, you can’t expect to get leads and clients without doing any marketing.
And, just because it takes time and effort to market your school, that doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore or avoid it. In fact, if anything it should be the first thing you knock out every day, since it’s often the most time-intensive activity each day.
Why I Look Forward To Doing My Marketing
Yes, I actually look forward to doing the marketing for my martial arts business. Why? Because I’ve invested enough time and effort into it that I’m good at it, and because of that I know there’s a reward at the end of every successful campaign I invest my time and effort into.
Notice, I didn’t say, “Invest money into.” That’s because with today’s technology, it actually costs very little to market a small business… if you know what you’re doing.
Yet, I have coaching clients who are anything but marketing geniuses who are successfully using technologies like blogging, social media, and email to market their schools and studios – and to great effect.
In fact, if you check out the MASAI site updates that appear later in this article, you’ll find out how to market your school for around $60 a month. Seriously. Read the rest of this entry »
Selling The Intangible Benefits of Martial Arts Training
This month's martial arts marketing materials can be downloaded from the member's download area.
When marketing martial arts classes for children, you should be aware of what motivates parents to spend money on extracurricular activities for their children.
If you believe parents are motivated by the same motivating factors that get children interested in martial arts, you’re way off base.
In fact, parents motivations for enrolling their children in martial arts are often the exact opposite of that of their children.
Let’s examine these motivations in brief to help you better understand how to market your children’s programs to the greatest effect. Read the rest of this entry »
When you're slaying giants, attitude is everything.
…And It’s When You’re On Top Of Your Martial Arts School Marketing!
It’s a fact: in martial arts business, competition doesn’t matter if you’re marketing-savvy.
I have clients who have schools right across the street from them, or down the block, etc. Many times these styles and schools are very similar in what they teach.
However, if style mattered, then it would also follow that all the businesses in other industries that sell exactly the same thing would be putting each other out of business.
Think about it – when you have a McDonald’s on one corner, a Burger King on another, and a Jack in the Box on the third, why don’t they all fail?
It’s because competition can actually be a good thing. When the big chain school down the street advertises all over town, they are raising the awareness of your product in the community. And if you can ride on that wave, it can help you tremendously. Read the rest of this entry »
Understanding Lead Capture and Autoresponders for Online Marketing of Your Martial Art School
Martial arts marketing using autoresponders, email, and lead capture is easy when you understand how to use technology to get the most from your marketing. But what exactly is an autoresponder? And what is lead capture? For those of you who are new to online marketing for local businesses, “lead capture” refers to using an online form that provides an incentive for site visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or email list. And, an autoresponder is an automated service that uses a web-based software program to automatically send out follow-up messages to your captured leads (your email list). In addition to capturing leads and following up automatically, most paid email autoresponder services allow you to efficiently manage your contact lists and send out newsletters (called “broadcasts”) to your list with just a few clicks of the mouse. This is a useful and valuable feature that by itself makes paying $20 0r $30 a month for an autoresponder worthwhile.
Why Use Paid Services Instead of “Free” Solutions?
As I’ve often said, “free” isn’t free if it Read the rest of this entry »
Marketing Martial Arts to Adults
This month's member ads can be found in the member's download area.
Most martial art school owners do a horrible job of marketing to adults… even the ones who offer programs geared toward the adult market.
The fact is, children’s martial arts has dominated the industry for so long, most of the industry has forgotten what it’s like to have a floor full of adults.
This, in turn, has led to instructors being out of touch with what the adult market wants. Further, even those school owners who focus on adult martial arts programs often get it wrong.
That’s because they are also out of touch with what the market wants, but for different reasons. These instructors are often so focused on what their needs and desires are, they forget or completely miss what the vast majority of people are looking for in a martial arts program.
So, the purpose of this month’s marketing tip is to review the basics of marketing martial arts to adults… read on and you might very well find you’ve been missing the mark in your own marketing efforts.
The Basics of Marketing Martial Arts to Adults
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"Small Dojo Big Profits" way!
