Posts Tagged ‘People’

Using Testimonials in Your Martial Arts Marketing

There are many ways to market your school, and providing potential clients and customers with testimonials is one of the best ways to super-charge your martial arts marketing.

The power of testimonials should never be underestimated. In this day and age, consumers will only purchase products or pay for services they trust; typically, this means that product or service has been referred to them by people they know.

Since this is something that the small business owner has no control over, he has to do the next best thing… which is to get testimonials from his past clients.

Benefits of Using Testimonials

There are many benefits to collecting and using testimonials in your marketing:
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Simple Honesty And Convenience Can Really Make A Difference In Your Bottom Line

So, think you have some powerful “sales kung fu”?

If so, you likely are aware that your customers see the enrollment process as a buying process. They are shopping you along with your competitors, and will likely make their buying decision based on how good you are at convincing them to join your school.

Now, having said that, you should know that I am not a fan AT ALL of sneaky tricks and hard sell tactics.

So, before we go on let me present you with the number one rule I want you to live and die by in your sales process:

Massie-ism #674:

“When you have the truth, you don’t need tricks. Always tell the truth to your customers.”

No matter what you’ve been told, and no matter who told you – slick tricks work against you and not for you when you are building your enrollment.

Growing a school over the long-term is about building trust and a reputation for honesty in your community. Being known as the local used car salesman of martial arts instructors is not the best way to achieve that goal.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few key areas where you can use honesty and common sense courtesy to your best advantage to increase your sales and conversions.
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Not Following The Monthly Marketing System To The “T”? Reading The Following May Change Your Mind…

Recently I coached one of our members on setting up a marketing system. Check out this video to see the results of him implementing the system:

Just the other day, Tony posted his final results for the MASAI 30-Day Challenge in the forums:

Well, I hit it and a few over. I’m sitting on 34 this month. This is the crazys month ever. I have got around 36 infos this month. I have had some busy months before but I don’t think any like this. Thanks for your help!

Hmmm… from 3 or 4 enrollments a month to 34 in one month. There must be some amazing secret, right? I bet you’re wondering, what was this mysterious system we implemented?
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Simple Steps To Increase Retention While Making Your Job More Rewarding

You may not realize this, but retention is a whole lot easier when you invest time in letting your students know that you care about them, both personally and as martial arts students.

Sure, you care about your students… but do they know it?

Let me be the first to admit that martial arts instructors tend to not be the most sensitive people in the world.

Admit it – you probably don’t often express your feelings toward others, and usually just expect that your feelings are “understood.”

Well, unless you’re teaching jedi knights and X-men (mind-readers, in case you’re not a sci-fi junkie like me), chances are good that no one in your school is quite sure whether or not you really care about them – personally, or otherwise.

And, even if you don’t find it difficult to express that you care about other people, you may not even be communicating it in a way they can understand. Often, people have different ways of showing and interpreting appreciation (as any married couple can attest).

So, finding ways to make certain you get the message across to your students is a prerequisite to having good relationships with your students.

Don’t Sweat It – It’s Easier Than You May Think

Communicating that you care about your students really isn’t all that difficult or complex. All it takes is a little awareness and a few extra minutes invested each day in communicating with your students.

Here are a few simple action steps you can take to make sure your students (and parents) know that you are personally invested in their well-being: Read the rest of this entry »

Chances Are It’s What You’re Not Doing That’s Hurting Your Business…

Let me start this article by stating up front – the following may sound like one big long pitch for my stuff, but hear me out. I’ve advised hundreds of martial arts instructors over the last seven years, and indirectly helped thousands more via my newsletter, websites, blogs, and instructional materials. In that time, I’ve come to identify certain traits successful martial art school owners seem to all share, as well as traits that unsuccessful instructors share (or lack) as well. Read the rest of this entry »

How to Create a Lead Generating Machine In Under 90 Days… (Almost) For Free!

Most everyone asks me about martial arts marketing; or more specifically, how to get more students into their school. This seems to be a universal problem for school owners across the country.

For the majority of school owners, the main challenge with regards to getting more students is getting your programs in front of enough people (in other words, lead generation).

This is typically due to one of two issues:

1. A lack of or inadequate amount of marketing -
2. Ineffective marketing -

More often than not, with new school owners they aren’t marketing enough due to lack of funds with which to do so. Ten years ago, I’d have told any such school owner to get out and do some flyering and door hangers, an extremely time-intensive (but usually very effective) task.

Thankfully, we now live in an internet age where everyone has a world of potential customers at their fingertips. The question is, how do you reach them?

Well, that’s what this article is going to explain. Read the rest of this entry »

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So, What’s Next?

For new school owners, this may not seem like it’s even worth worrying about yet… but I’m here to tell you it’s something you need to consider if you’re past your first year in business.

You might think it’s only important to have a strong program up to black belt, because that’s what most of your students are after, but that’s a dangerous misconception that can hurt your school’s long-term growth.

Now, some martial arts systems already have tons of curriculum in place for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree black belts (Note: Just having a new form to teach them isn’t going to cut it).

And in other systems (like BJJ, for example), the road to black belt is so long, the main challenge you face is keeping students until black belt. However, if you fall into either of these categories, you still should read this article because there are still pitfalls to keeping students long-term you may not be aware of.

So, sit tight and take notes while I tell what works in keeping students through black belt and beyond.

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Keeping Them After They First Step In The Door…

I do the same intro course process that I learned from Jim Mather 15 years ago. I’ve tried many other ways to do intros, and I always go back to this one because it has never failed me… Plus, we enroll 90% of the people who show up for their first lesson with this process. Here’s the skinny on what it entails – it’s pretty basic, but I’d rather do something simple that works than something complicated that doesn’t:

• 1Week for $19.95, including a free uniform, a 20 minute private or semi-private classes (I’ll schedule up to 3 at a time) and two group classes.

The private lesson is done either right before their first group class or the day before. Office staff catches the parents Read the rest of this entry »

Scholarships

If you’re like me, you started teaching in order to help people, not to become the Donald Trump or Bill Gates of the martial arts industry. Because of this, even after I got some common sense on the realities of what I needed to charge to feed my family and keep my school open, I still wanted to be able to reach under-privileged kids and lower-income adults with my services. Read the rest of this entry »

As a martial arts school owner, it is important that you understand the “why’s” and “how’s” of hiring and training staff. I don’t want you to make the mistake that many school owners make and hire people that you don’t need.

For some reason, the martial arts industry has gotten the notion that a martial arts studio has to have a lot of employees with fancy-sounding titles in order to be successful. This is simply not true, for a variety of reasons… Read the rest of this entry »