What To Spend On Advertising For A Martial Art School

Posted by Mike Massie on February 10, 2010

Setting A Marketing Budget When You’re Just Starting Out…

You probably don't have a lot of money to throw at your marketing... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't set a reasonable marketing budget.

Early on (when I taught part-time), I spent all my profit on advertising. ALL of it.

I just figured if I wanted to be a full-time school owner, I had to act like one.

So, if I profited $500 or $800 in a month, I spent it on ads (and later, on equipment and saving to move into a full-time location).

Once I hit the point where I was getting enough students and leads, and I knew what it took to get those leads each month, I budgeted that amount.

No Hard And Fast Rule On What To Spend On Your Marketing Budget

There’s no hard and fast rule for what to allot to your marketing budget. The 10% figure I give in Small Dojo Big Profits is just a guideline. And, I actually had someone from another industry giving me a hard time about that figure at one point.

My response was that if you don’t set a guideline, you’ll either overspend or underspend. Then again, 10% is a good figure once you’re up and running, but 10% of nothing, or 10% of a few hundred bucks is not enough to get your business off the ground and make it grow.

Just Make Sure You Spend It On What Works

Just remember, a lot of what you spend on advertising early on will be to find out what works and what doesn’t in your area. To save you some money, things that are working well for instructors right now are:

- Internet/SEO
- signage (permanent/building, snipe signs, banners, vehicles)
- door-to-door fliers and door hangers
- direct mail (postcards are cheapest – but this takes a sharp marketer to do right)
- social media marketing

And remember, getting press coverage is free. Hire someone to write your press releases if writing isn’t your forte, or trade service for service.