Have you given this some thought??
Who should you want to “like” your martial arts business on Facebook?
What I mean is who should “like” your martial arts school’s business page.
And, it must be a Facebook business page.
If you’re school is set up as personal account PLEASE delete it because Facebook and the people on Facebook think you are an idiot. If your competition is set up like that make sure they keep doing what they’re doing. LOL!
In order – here’s who should like you and why…
1- Your students. DUH! You need them to be the “responsive” crowd you can interact with.
2- Friends of students, networking partners (meaning – other biz owners in your area). You need them to add that extra element of “your school is a big deal.” Interaction with non-students. Helping out your biz owner friends. It’s all good.
3- The people who you DON’T know. This group is so important because it is they who can push the time you spend on Facebook into the black.
So how do you find group #3?
They say money don’t buy friends. News Flash. On Facebook it does.
Facebook has an amazing ad platform.
You can find your ideal prospects.
If you’re smart about it – they just might turn into students. But, you have to know what you’re doing.
If you’re savvy about it you can grow your martial arts business with Facebook marketing.
Funny, the other day a school said he was using Facebook to “advertise his martial arts school.” I said… “Great, how are your Facebook Ads working?” He replied… “I’m not doing ads, I’m just using Facebook to advertise.”
Doing status updates on your page and engaging your “Likes” in conversation is NOT and SHOULD NOT be “Advertising.”
You’re gonna question my sanity…
The truth is “Bad Reviews” for your martial arts business are not that bad.
Why? Because they bring an element if truth to the online marketing game.
We live in a world of extreme skepticism. And believe it or not people become skeptical if all you have are “perfect” reviews.
Take one of my books for example. “Motion Before Motivation, The Success Secret That Never Fails”
It’s got 21 reviews total. 17 are “5 star” – 2 are “4 Star” and 2 are “1 star”
You can’t just leave the bad reviews hanging. The way to combat them is to blow them away with Good Reviews.
This is where most fall down.
You’ll discover a large percentage of your good reviews will have to come from you gently asking for them.
The truth is this is no different than asking for testimonials. But the key is you have to get them in writing and then they MUST be posted by the person giving the review.
So it is not as simple as grabbing a video testimonial or a written one and popping it up on your website.
But that is where it starts.
And that begs the question…
How to most efficiently get testimonials.
A couple of ways…
a- You transcribe the video
b- You use a little secret. Here’s the secret…
You should be effecting positive results. When you engineer your program properly a student (adult or child) can see some sort of results in about 2 or 3 weeks of training.
What you do is schedule an email that goes out (sample email below for members) around the 17 day mark.
The email is written in a way that makes it easy for them to give you a written testimonial.
Once you implement this system you’ll be amazed at how fast testimonials start flying your way.
Once you get them you have to take the next step. This step requires a little more persistence.
Here’s why…
Everyone has their “review service” of choice. Some like Yelp! Others, Google. Some are willing to do a Bing or Yahoo local review.
As tempting as it can be you want to avoid letting them give their review from your school’s computer. Too may reviews from the same IP address can raise a red flag.
Anyway– stay on them after you get a glowing testimonial in response to your email. A good percentage will turn into reviews you can take to the bank.
Members: Check your member only email for the sample.
Did you know most online activities are very “task” oriented? Meaning.
People go online to find a restaurant or book a trip or search for a martial arts school.
That’s why online lead generation works. Someone is looking for info. They find your martial arts business. You make them an offer and they say “sure.” Over and done with. You call them and they come in.
But there’s one place on the net that’s not “task oriented.”
In fact it is totally about wandering. About getting lost. About 5 minutes turning into 25 minutes.
You know where that is?
Facebook. Yes – I sometime get lost wandering around.
I’ve been doing a lot of Facebook ads recently for both myself and clients.
Here’s what I like about it.
Because I’m old school – believe it or not Facebook ads remind me of direct mail marketing.
Meaning: One way to do direct mail is to a “cold list.” That’s a list you purchase. Done correctly you can get phone calls and you can also “warm up” the list via multi steps.
You choose your cold list by demographics and geography.
But here’s what’s great about Facebook ads…
Yes you can choose a radius around your school (like you would with direct mail). You can choose “families with kids” (like you would with direct mail).
Where it gets better is you can dig deeper.
Say you knew that your best students were iPhone users. (Yes – you know know shit like that). Well, you can target them on Facebook.
I can’t go into all the details here but the message is you really should be exploring Facebook ads for your martial arts business. Remember your ad needs to interrupt them. And it’s OK, because they are wandering they are expecting to be interrupted.
Members! Today you were sent a couple of sample ads to go with the Facebook landing page sample and tutorial video so be sure you check it out.
Not a member?
Get your rear in gear right here…
Wanta know a really simple way to get leads for your martial arts business?
It’s simple because it takes the “data input” off of your plate and places it in the hands of the prospect.
Now, I’m gonna go back to something you have either heard about forever. Or, have been doing forever.
And that’s…
The plain old Martial Arts Birthday Party!
I’m just using this as an example but it can be applied to any event you do in your martial arts business.
Watch the video to get the scoop…
Martial Arts Business System Members! Remember this sample web page and follow up strategies are available to you upon request.
Not a Member?
Member Solutions Business Building Bootcamp coming up in Philly on March 31st and April 1st 2012 will include new interactive workshops, educational seminars and physical training sessions.
In the workshops, you’ll put into practice what is being taught right on the spot. Bring your laptop and smartphone and get ready for hands-on guidance and instant results!
The Dojo DNA – Daily Necessary Activities
Allie Alberigo, Founder of Taking It to the Next Level
Learn what it takes to run a school from top to bottom. Allie will cover what tasks are necessary for success and what it takes to get them done. You’ll walk away with a list of actionable techniques for effective time management, time slicing and goal setting.
The Secrets to Managing Your School’s Online Reputation
Michael Parrella, CEO of FC Online Marketing and iLoveKickboxing.com
Learn how to monitor and manage your business’ online reputation. Michael will reveal the secrets to helping you stand out from your competition and build consumer confidence. You’ll then put his tips and techniques into action through a hands-on guided tutorial!
Optimizing Your Student Upgrade Process
Master Tommy Lee, Founder of Step-by-Step Success
This session will cover the student upgrade process, how to improve systems, overcome objections and enhance retention for your schools. Tommy will also provide specific suggestions to enhance your own school’s program levels and upgrades so you walk away with actionable tips and advice.
BUSINESS SEMINARS
Surviving as a Traditional Martial Arts School Owner When Others Say You Can’t
Allie Alberigo, Founder of Taking It to the Next Level
Which 21st Century techniques should you embrace? Which are just fads, gimmicks or trends that will soon disappear? In this seminar, Allie will reveal the techniques and tools he’s used for the past two decades in running his successful, traditional Martial Arts school.
Grant Yourself Permission to Grow
John Bussard, CEO of Kicks Karate
Break the chains that are holding back your growth!
Are you making decisions that will allow your school to grow, or are you making choices that are preventing it? Join John Bussard as he discusses some of his mistakes, the tough lessons he’s learned, and victories that have helped him become one of the most successful school owners in the industry. John will challenge you to take a hard look at your school structure and business, and share some of his most successful strategies to help take your school to a higher level.
9 Easy-to-Use Internet Marketing Techniques
Michael Parrella, CEO of FC Online Marketing and iLoveKickboxing.com
Join Michael Parrella as he reveals 9 simple and effective ways to market your school online – the same techniques he’s used to help his clients generate over 60,000 paid online enrollments!
Marketing Mastery – Going from Zero to Hero!
Barry Van Over, President of Martial Arts Management Group
Join Barry Van Over as he reveals the marketing ideas and strategies that will drive new business to your studio. With the popularity of Internet marketing, and the fact from Google that 80% of all Internet leads are driven from off-line marketing tactics, great marketing systems are more important than ever for your business!
Retention 101
Dave Kovar, Founder and Chief Training Officer of Kovar’s Satori Academy of Martial Arts
Many Martial Arts professionals spend too much time trying to get new students and not enough time sincerely taking care of their existing ones. In this discussion, Dave Kovar will review “Retention 101” and give participants a clear game plan as to how they can dramatically improve their retention. Good retention is arguably the most important aspect of a successful school because happy students will refer others.
PHYSICAL TRAINING SESSIONS
Cutting Edge Classroom Concepts
Dave Kovar, Founder and Chief Training Officer of Kovar’s Satori Academy of Martial Arts
In this fast-moving class, Dave will take participants through a training session filled with functional and dynamic drills and skills.
Here’s a quick video on how to get your martial arts business to the top of a mobile Google search in about 5 minutes…Mobile Marketing CMS Members make sure you’re doing this. Not a Mobile Marketing CMS member?
Are you doing anything about this?
Obesity in the USA has inched up slightly over the past decade, mainly because of weight gain among men and boys, new government statistics show.
The average body mass index (BMI) of men rose to 28.7 in 2010 up from 27.7 in 2000.
For women the average BMI remained unchanged at about 28.5.
The percentage of obese men increased to 35.5% in 2010, up from 27.5% in 2000. About 35.8% of women were obese in 2010, not a significant change from 2000. Adults are considered obese if they are roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight.
About 16.9% of children and adolescents, ages 2 to 19, were obese in 2010, up 13.9% from 2000. This was mostly because of an increase in the percentage of boys who are obese.
Even though the bulge has “leveled off” isn’t this crazy?
The weight loss industry is huge. The funny thing is the whole key to staying fit is to eat less of the wrong foods and more of the right foods. And then, workout everyday!
Lack of discipline is what it is.
You have chance to position your martial arts school to help people get fit.
The overall challenge is we’ve done such a good job of “branding” martial arts as a mental fitness thing and therefor the physical fitness aspect has taken a back seat in the mind of consumers.
Here’s what to do…
Craft your martial arts marketing (whether on your website, printed materials, direct mail, Facebook, whatever) to address the pains of being out of shape. Then, offer your martial arts program as the solution to lasting fitness from the self-discipline learned. (and the fact that it is more fun!)
You should get on this.
If you’re a member of our martial arts business system program be sure you grab the email from last week and get the sample for the Facebook Fitness campaign.
Not a member?
Start here…
I’ve been doing a lot of work lately with Google Adwords, both for our internal projects and for some of our martial arts business clients.
If you’ve been living under an internet rock somewhere let me explain Google Adwords. It’s about buying traffic (clicks) on Google. You know the “sponsored” links that show up on the right of Google and sometimes on the top.
Anyway…
How we end up helping a client with their Pay Per Click usually begins with this question: “Mike, can you take a look at my Adwords account?”
Most of the time my reply is… “sure thing.”
Invariably when I jump in there is see one huge mistake. (among a few sometimes)
And that’s…
Only sending the clicks to your home page.
Here’s what I mean.
Too many “ignorant Adwords advertisers” will throw a campaign or two together. And what they’ll do is make the “destination URL” (that’s the page you want your clicks to go to) be their home page.
Here’s the problem.
Most of the time your prospects hate it and so does Google.
Let’s break it down. (“Hammer Time”)
The rookie wants to buy Google ranking for their MMA Program. So they add the keywords “MMA” and “Mixed Martial Arts” etc. But then they send the traffic to their home page. Where it says something like… “Welcome, we’ve got a ton of programs for all ages blah, blah blah.”
Bad Idea!
To make it simple.
The MMA Campaign needs to go to the MMA Page!
Then, you divide and conquer from there. (Moo Ha Ha!)
One more BIG Mistake? Sure thing!
They buy all kinds of keywords. Self-defense, kids martial arts, mma, etc in one campaign and then – guess where they send them? Right! Their home page!
OK– you’ve just been schooled a little. Maybe you “knew this already.” But are you doing it? Are you really kicking butt with Google?
Are you also doing Adwords mobile? That’s where you dominate the searches on “Mobile devices.”
Bottom line…
The internet and the mobile world are always changing. Sometimes it makes sense to get some help to navigate all the changes.
Let me share a little Facebook secret with you.
This little secret increased page likes by 409 in just one month and I’m hoping you can use it to increase likes for your martial arts business.
The back story – I have a few “brands” in my company.
One of them had a Facebook biz page that was sorta “limping along.”
I didn’t pay much attention to it aside from posting o
nce a day. It took about a year to get to 149 Likes.
The likes came from friends and a few recommendations they were so gracious enough to give me.
This “limping along” did not make me happy. I’d rather be running than limping.
But why else should you care about likes? I know, I agree “Likes are Not Leads” and they shouldn’t be treated like leads. But they are worth something. When anyone takes just the first little step toward your school – you just never know where it can lead.
Yes, you have to get active and post. You have to nurture your likes a little. I always tell people…
“If you have 10 Facebook Likes on your page, so what, pretend you have 10,000 – what would you do with 10,000?”
Anyway…
The strategy…
Basically you have to drive traffic to you page. DUH!
But it is not just about buying an ad on Facebook to encourage likes. No way.
What you do is a run an ad and drive them to a Facebook Landing page. That’s a page right on Facebook that sorta models a flier in print or a squeeze page online.
You have to target the landing page toward a certain demographic. If it is for your “Fitness Kickboxing” program you target it toward women who are interested in fitness.
The good news…
You get Likes and you can also get calls too!. Why?
Because your landing page makes a specific offer.
Make sense?
Yea – I know you’re over-whelmed always so much to do and think about.
Well, as Axl Rose said, “Welcome to the Jungle!”
I hope you’ll use this idea.
If you’re a member of ours keep an eye on your email box because I’m gonna send you a sample Facebook landing page and a quick video tutorial.
Not a member?
Go to the link below to active a trial and get the sample and the training sent to you this week.
Open your mind – I’ll put good stuff in – I promise!
Increase your awareness: self-defense success: MyFoxBOSTON.com
Members! Be sure you check out the media pitch sample area to get sample wording a bullet points to get your school some free publicity.Not a Member? Want Expert Publicity for Your School?
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