Over the last three years I’ve worked with hundreds of martial arts business owners and hundreds of business owners across diverse industries.
One thing I’ve noticed many struggle with is words.
I’m not talking about “talking”! most have the “gift of gab.”
The words they struggle with are the words on the screen or on the page that must communicate benefits to the market place.
This is called “copywriting.” And if you’re in the martial arts business you have to wear the hat of marketing copywriter from time to time.
Even if you use a “hired gun” (like me) to help you formulate the words for your martial arts marketing website you still have to wear the hat.
Why? Because that’s how you’ll be able to tell if the copy is any good. You’ll know what to look for.
Being “Authentic”
It’s fine to use an ad or some sample web page copy as a baseline for your own material. But you can’t be lazy. You have to adapt it and convert it to your own voice.
You have to read it through.
His name will go un-mentioned but a former client once sent me back “approved copy for his website.” When I opened it – a spot that said (phone # here) was still there! Stuff like that does not look good on a website!
Here are a few ideas to end up with truly authentic words.
Start with your base, (Sometimes referred to as a swipe file), but sit it aside until you complete the next step…
Block out all distractions. Turn the phone off. Focus.
Think about the programs you are marketing. Then, answer the following questions and imagine a prospect was right in front of you.
“What this program is…”
“What it does for you…”
“Our unique system for producing results…”
“How the program will improve your life or solve your problem”
“What action you want them to take”
After you bang these out you have two options…
If you’re working with our team you would send this info along so we can customize a message for you.
Or…
Once complete you then whip out your base of material and start to stitch things together.
This should get you going if you have the time.
Tone of voice and ability to fluctuate it.
How animated you are (depending on your students of course).
The right combination of stern and loving.
Structure of the class.
Planning.
Dealing with the un-expected.
The ability to bring them back into focus when they drift.
Increasing their energy so it increases yours.
How you use assistant instructors and helpers.
I could really go on here. Of course how you teach effects every aspect of your martial arts business success.
I am sure you can add a few and have your own opinion about the make up of a good class.
And just like so many variables make up a great martial arts class for your students – a ton of variables make up an effective online marketing strategy for your school.
If you want to generate leads for your martial arts school using internet marketing – the right ingredients are key.
Miss one or slack a little on any one ingredient and your martial arts business will lose students.
Just one example. Your site may “look great” but no one gets their because your “web guy” was not aware of the ton of changes that have effected local search marketing in the last year.
Or, the site does come up and people do find it. But the design and layout are so poor they quickly click off.
Anyway – just be aware of the “ingredients” and you can’t help but cook up some success.
How important are your school’s windows?
For the 10 years I operated my schools I was crazy about clean windows.
When first starting off and not having any employees or assistant instructors I was out there everyday with the squeegee.
I mastered the “Art of The Squeegee” for sure.
I’d let the pro window cleaners get at them once a week or so to make the sparkle!
Why? Well beyond the whole “clean, Disney Dojo” thing my goal was to attract on-lookers.
We wanted people watching our classes.
We wanted to give them a glimpse into our world.
A lot of the time the watching and the glimpse would turn into a walk-in inquire. That walk-in would turn into an intro. And then intro would turn into a student.
I bet you feel the same way about your school’s windows, heh?
But – there’s the problem.
There’s one HUGE window you’re covering up. You’ve got the blinds shut. It’s so dirty no one can see in.
So they don’t bother – they keep on walking.
Where’ the window?
It’s on the web.
In particular it’s called – your school’s blog.
Your school’s blog can be your online window that results in walk-ins, intros and enrollments.
But chances are you’re not doing it right.
A few ideas…
Your blog must look like the rest of your site, including…
All links on the navigation.
Offers on the side-bar to get started.
It must have…
The latest and greatest local SEO “plug-ins” installed. (most don’t have these)
All social media and share buttons.
Facebook Comments turned on.
It must not be…
“For Students Only” This is one huge mistake many schools are making right now.
OK, that’s it for now.
To find out not just where your blog stands – but how your ENTIRE online Marketing Identity Stacks Up Visit:
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.
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?
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.
Here’s an example of how to structure your martial arts internet marketing lead generation program…
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This private email came in yesterday
Subject: You won’t believe this.
“The mobile site went live yesterday and already I received a lead from it. I did’t believe it until I saw it in the lead notification subject line.”
Senior Master Michael Boyce
Boyce’s Martial Arts
Winchester, VA 22602
And here’s the reason he got this lead and will get many others.
Please, don’t email every time you get a lead from you mobilesite – LOL!
A quick mobile marketing tip for your martial arts business…
Here’s a screen shot of Mike’s mobile website inside our Mobile Marketing CMS builder…
He’s got a lot of programs. And those are listed on his regular site.
But for his mobile site we just list the most popular 3.
Then, most importantly…
We include a special offer tab… (see image below)
When the mobile browser clicks it they can easily view the offer and opt-in.
1 in 7 searches are now performed on smartphones. This number will only increase.
If you don’t have a mobile website working for you right now you are at risk of losing new students.
Don’t miss out on good leads for your school.
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This post covers two over-looked martial arts business internet marketing concepts..
Numero Uno…
The Structure of an Offer
It dawned on me to remind you about this as I working on re-designing a new client’s website.
Often times when we begin working on a website 99% of the time it is lacking the most important element a martial arts school site needs to be effective and collect leads…
The Offer & Call to Action.
This needs to be extremely clear.
There are few ways to do this but today we’ll just touch on one. And that’s “the trial offer.”
I like to help our clients break down their trial offers into two categories…
The home page offer is for those visitors who are “hot to trot.” The specific program offers are for prospects who take the time to view the specific program of their choice.
It’s also a good idea to sift and sort these leads into different lists.
Today I sent our Martial Arts Business System Gold Members some “cut & paste” offer structures.
Next…
Content is Still King
The easiest way to get in to the game of content is to blog regularly.
Just be sure your blog is optimized with the latest SEO and Social Plug-ins.
From time to time I will get our members some content that, with a little tweaking, can be made into your own unique blog post.
This week I’ll send our members two articles. One you can use a blog post for kids, and the other for adults.
Get some more detailed help and resources for building your school, right here…
The internet's most cost-effective autoblogging samurai.
Here’s a cool way to never miss a walk in even when your martial arts business is closed.
Call it: Martial Arts Mobile Marketing on your front door 
Visit “Mobile Marketing CMS” for our Mobile Web Page and QR Code Generator
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