Posts Tagged ‘Google’

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 »

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 »

As part of the MASAI 30 Students in 30 Days Challenge, I’ll be posting some special martial arts marketing articles specifically geared toward the quickest ways I know to get students and grow your school.

Today’s article is geared specifically on how to get to the top of the local search listings… FAST!

MASAI 30 Students in 30 Days Coaching Article #1: How to Get to the Top of Google Fast

Getting to the top of the Google listings is powerful, powerful stuff. And, this is the fastest way I know to get to the top of the Google search engine results, for free.

(Of course, Google Adwords will get your site seen quickly, but it takes a bit more search engine marketing technical know-how, and it costs money. Do both if you have the budget, but start with this method, first.)

It’s not hard, it just takes some work… but you can easily knock this out in an afternoon.

Here’s what you need to do:

Read the rest of this entry »

Three Trends School Owners Need to Be Aware of When Marketing Online in 2010-2011

Google is changing the face of search... again. Are you prepared for what's coming?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should be aware that online marketing is of the utmost importance to your business in the coming decade.

As I’ve mentioned and discussed many times in recent years, the landscape of marketing small businesses locally has changed drastically since 2005.

Print is dead. Yellow pages are useless. Newspapers are the dinosaurs of our media. Better than 90% of the population turns to online media to research buying decisions. We’ve been through all this before on this site and my martial arts business blog.

But the marketing landscape changes at a breakneck pace in the new information age, and it seems to change ever faster as technology progresses. I spend a considerable amount of my time studying these trends and analyzing what they mean to small business owners, so I can advise my clients on how to best leverage new marketing technologies and opportunities.

If you follow the trends and know how to take advantage, there has never been a better time to market your business. But, you have to know the trends to take advantage of them. Here are three trends that you need to know about for marketing your business online in 2010 and 2011.

Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

Current Month’s Marketing Plan

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

It's back-to-school time... do you know where your kids are?

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 »

Multiple Marketing Methods Spell Lead Generation Success For Smart School Owners

A good marketing plan includes numerous sources for generating new leads and business.

I always talk about multiple source lead generation, and I often say I don’t care where a lead comes from. I felt I needed to provide some clarification on this, so I don’t give the impression that you don’t have to track your lead sources.

What I mean is that I’ll take a lead from ANY source – the lead doesn’t know where it came from. (I’m about to get off on a tangent, but bear with me here because this will be highly instructive.)

Why You Need To Cultivate Multiple Lead Sources

Here’s the deal – relying too much on one lead source is a serious mistake.

Here’s why: Read the rest of this entry »

As a martial arts school owner, you have a million things on your mind. Student recruitment, testing, curriculum, overhead – the list goes on and on. The last thing you’re probably worried about is your website. However, more and more consumers are going online every day to research products and services before they buy. And, many of these consumers are doing their buying research after hours, when you aren’t open. For such consumers the internet is the primary way they research their buying decisions. Consider the fact that over 200 million searches are done Read the rest of this entry »