Originally Posted by
yutyeesam
Oso,
Have you tried referral programs? Things such as having a "bring your friend" day, where all your current students have to bring in at least one person on a designated, and you have a specific, really high energy class for them (and even putting your students in front to lead sometimes), and then give an incentive to your students to have their friends to join, such as, whoever has the most people sign up gets a 3-section staff, for example.
yep. I have a stepped program where they recieve weapons, sparring gear and even a permanent reduction in their tuition.
Most of the time, it seems that what is needed is to just get people to the door. If you have good content, and are a great instructor with a great personality, that tends to sell itself. Getting people to the door is the biggest challenge.
agreed...I won't blow my own horn in regards to how good a teacher I am or my personality (LOL). Till this spring my overall retention has been high. I just don't get that many walk ins.
As for getting your name out there, have you looked into the idea of doing a fundraiser? Like doing a Punch-A-Thon or a Kick-A-Thon, where each of your students take pledges from their friends, family, coworkers, etc., to sponsor them in an event to throw 1000 punches or 100 kicks. The money all goes to a charity, it's a special event that'll get students excited and on top of their game, and best of all, the media loves covering fundraising events, so it's free publicity. Some successful MMA do a Grapple-A-Thon, and some TKD schools do a Break-A-Thon.
well, I co-promoted the tournament that was a charity benefit but the ******* I teamed with stole all the media attention.
I just did and awareness/self defense program for a girl scout troop for free and will be working to start a program with all the troops.
You may want to solicit local publications and tell them that you're willing to write columns about martial arts. Anytime there's a story about where martial arts are involved, a lot of times, it's written by non-martial artists. Offer this service, and I think you'll be surprised.
that's something I haven't thought of. thanks.
Are you friends with other business owners in town? You may want to have a setup with them where they hand out your card/brocuhure to their customers, and for every person that joins, you can give them a percentage of your enrollment fee (like $50 or so). You can do this same method with other martial arts schools who are vastly different from yours, like say, a grappling or throwing school, or even TKD schools.
Marketing is tricky. Demos and flyers can only do so much. They tend to work better when you have other marketing methods (like what I mentioned above) in place simultaneously.
I have pretty much done everything marketing wise. We're getting ready to do another flyer push for a summer only program and will do another women's only class in the fall. dropped money in print ads w/ 0 return.
whenever I check with my students to see if they are having any succes with their friends they say they try and talk it up but nobody is really interested.
laziness is fairly rampant I think.
Are you the only Kung-Fu guy in town?
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