How to Target Market for New Students in 2019

by John Graden | Aug 19, 2019 | Offline Marketing & Sales

The Stairway to New Students

When you are marketing your martial arts school, it’s important to understand that each person who visits your website or watches your videos will have a different level of awareness relating to your school.

The best way to understand these different levels of awareness is to think of them as a stairway to new students.

Unaware
At the bottom, you have people who are unaware of you or the benefits of your school.

Need/Desire Aware
They realize that they need the benefits of your school, but they have taken no action.

Solution Aware
They understand their need/desire and are aware there are several ways for them to satisfy that need.

Your Solution Aware
They have seen or heard about your school and how it compares to your competitors.

Ready to Join
These people are aware of your school and ready to join if you have a good new student system.

When you think about marketing as this staircase, it helps you calibrate your marketing to what stage of the staircase the prospect is on. The goal of your marketing is to move people up the staircase and increase their level of awareness of your school.

Take them on a journey from being unaware or your school to recognizing their need/desire of a martial arts school, to realizing that there are many schools available. Then realizing that your school is the best choice and finally joining your school.

At each level of the stairway, match your messaging to speak to the people at that level and help them transition up to the next level.

One of the best ways to deliver your message at every level of this stairway to new students is to use video.

3 Reasons to Host a Summer Camp

by John Graden | Mar 27, 2019 | Offline Marketing & Sales

3 Reasons to Host a Martial Arts Summer Camp

3 Reasons to Host a Summer Camp

While regular martial arts classes can dip in attendance over the summer with students going on vacations, there are still plenty of families that need a safe, structured place for their children to be for Monday – Friday.

Here are three strong reasons why to promote and host a summer camp.

1. Tuition Income
According to Care.com, the average rate for a sports camp ranges from $500 – $1,000 per week. On the lower end, a summer camp hosted by the local community recreation center can be a little as $50 per week.

Most martial arts schools range from $75 – $275 per week for an 8 – 10-week summer camp.

Here is what the income potential is for a $149 per week camp. This doesn’t include snacks, exam fees, uniforms, and sparring gear.

Weekly Students Total Weeks Total
$149 10 $1,490 10 $14,900
$149 15 $2,235 10 $22,350
$149 20 $2,980 10 $29,800
$149 25 $3,725 10 $37,250
$149 30 $4,470 10 $44,7000
$149 35 $5,215 10 $52,150
$149 40 $5,960 10 $59,600
$149 45 $6,705 10 $67,050
$149 50 $7,450 10 $74,500

2. Feed Your After-School Program.
One of the main reasons schools host summer camps is that a high percentage of the kids in the camp will transfer into your after-school program.

3. Massive Retention
If you host an exciting summer camp, you have a great chance of enrolling the kids into your after-school or regular evening classes. However, there is a big difference in retention.

Evening/standard classes struggle to keep kids for even 8 – 12 months. However, because an after-school program is structured to be part of the weekday routine, the kids stay with the program for years. It’s not uncommon for kids to stay with your after-school program for 5 – 8 years. They

just get used to it like going to school each day.