Finding new students to register in your martial arts school is challenging nowadays. If you want a steady flow of enrollees, it would be helpful for you to have the right marketing strategy. With that being said, aside from the traditional means of marketing your business, you have to be prepared to do it online.

Marketing your martial arts business is vital to growing and surviving as it helps you boost the number of enrollees. Many small-sized and start-up martial arts businesses worry about complicated campaigns and substantial marketing budgets, which might negatively affect their revenue. This statement is somewhat scary because, in some instances, it’s true, especially if you don’t have the right marketing strategy.

Here are some ideas that might be able to help you find leads for your martial arts school:

1. Decide on your branding

This should be the first step when you think of marketing your business online. Branding is who you are, and marketing is how you raise awareness of who you are. Marketing covers your tactical aims, whereas branding is your strategy. Your branding will set your customer’s expectations. It will make them think and anticipate what they will get, achieve, and feel when they use your products and services.

By having a clear definition of what your business is about, you can then utilize your branding to precede and underlie your marketing efforts. As a start-up, it is essential to clearly define who you are as a brand—before you devise your specific marketing methods, tools, strategies, and tactics.

Read related blog : 9 Steps to Developing a Brand Identity

2. Establish your social media presence

Of course, the first thing is to have an active social media account. If your business doesn’t have one yet, it’s no wonder why it isn’t attracting anyone. There are lots of social media platforms where you can join and advertise your business for free. But you have to take note that signing up for an account and establishing your social media presence are different things. While the first doesn’t take a real genius to do it, the latter requires the use of experts (if you’re not a social media marketing strategist yourself), that is, if you want fast and quality results.

Read related blog : 15 Tips to Building a Better Social Media Presence

3. Create a website

It’s undeniable that a business’s online presence, no matter what industry they belong in, can significantly impact their success. In the digital era, some companies still don’t accept that most clients will visit their website before you sign up for a service or make a purchase.

It would be best if you thought of your website as a lead-generating machine. In that sense, you have to ensure that your target audience is clearly defined, your services are clearly stated, and your website represents what your business is all about to avoid misconceptions. There are many free web hostings out there, but if you want to step up your game, you can hire professionals to do it for you.

💡 Without a website, people may question your legitimacy as a business. Having a website is an opportunity to make a great first impression and give people comfort that you’re a real business. Source : Google

4. Blog about your expertise

Since you already have a website, the next thing to do is to fill it with content. Using a blog, you will be communicating to existing students and prospective students. Use it to write about engaging topics that belong to your niche. With the right keywords and the appropriate combination of SEO techniques and you’ll be able to find yourself on the first page of every search engine you know.

Search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google scrape the web for the best answers to the items people input in search bars. When you post articles and write-ups related to your area of expertise, you establish a reputation with search engines. As you add more articles, your website will be one of the results shown to people in search engines who are searching for topics related to your niche. So you have to make sure that you publish fresh, original, and engaging content regularly.

💡 Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses blogging to get your business more online visibility. A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth. – Source : Hubspot

5. Set google my business

Google My Business is one of the must-haves for any business marketing strategy if you want to generate local leads that will translate into revenue. Whether you have a physical location or none, your Google My Business listing may be the first impression for individuals in your local community who are in search of local martial arts dojos. These listings usually combine map and search results. They often contain essential information like your phone number, business hours, busy hours, website, and most importantly, a star rating and reviews that people have written about your business.

Setting up Google My Business is free. The complicated part starts when you optimize your account to make it more attractive to your audience. But of course, you can find almost anything on the internet, so with a suitable video tutorial, I’m sure you’ll be able to optimize your account in no time.

💡 Your Google My Business listing shows searchers where and how to visit your business. A Google Business Profile also improves your local SEO. In particular, a listing for a local business is more likely to appear when people search for a nearby business using Google Maps. – Source : Hootsuite

6. Plan referral packages

Referrals are a good source of good lead conversions. Because referrals often turn into sales at a higher rate than other leads, they are essential to your martial arts marketing plan. Aim to create a culture of referrals in your school that results in an ongoing stream of new students. As a policy, offer an incentive—for example, a $50 gift card—to members who refer a new student to a six-month program (or another long-term contract).

Introduce your referral program with a marketing campaign that includes email, social media, and printed flyers. Continue to market the program periodically. Remember to always thank referrers with a sincere note and to deliver their prize promptly.

💡 Customer referrals are highly valuable because they don’t cost much — if anything — to acquire. The exact value of a referral varies across different businesses, but it’s roughly the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer, plus the cost of customer acquisition (CAC), which you can then use to acquire additional customers. – Source : Hubspot

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