Comments on: Guerrilla Marketing Ideas For Martial Art Schools

By: Scranton MMA

Scranton MMA — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:55:31 +0000

I think I am going to try the ‘demo in the park’ idea. We tried something similar last year but the ‘audience’ was not quite right.

There are some good parks around our location that might work real well though.

thanks

By: Mike Massie

Mike Massie — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:09:27 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions, Bill!

By: Bill Krapek

Bill Krapek — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:35:37 +0000

I am a firm believer in “Guerrilla Marketing”. It works very well for schools if they take it seriously. We have implemented many ideas for school owners. One that worked well… Guerrilla Demos, Put your demo team and your boom box in the van (after you have rehersed your 5 min to 10 minute demo) and drive around town to populated areas i.e. parks, movies getting out, sporting event parking lots, anywhere many people are. Jump out of the van, turn on the box, execute your demo, pass out VIP cards, and move on to the next location. This is great for team building, moral, retention, and best of all new enrollment. Social media is another great way to guerrilla market. Sky is the limit with social media. I hope this was helpful. Respectfully, Bill Krapek

By: DojoScore

DojoScore — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:55:10 +0000

One local school used to stand outside the movie theater when a kung fu movie was just finishing, and hand out flyers to the audience.

By: Mike Massie

Mike Massie — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:37:09 +0000

Keith,

Hah! What a cool idea.

No one thinks about kids reading books any more.

By: Keith Goode

Keith Goode — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 02:15:13 +0000

Hey Mike,
I just put out 52 vip and buddy pass cards on library community boards and in the martial arts book section in both the kids section and adult section. these I modified off your sdbp cd rom. Yes people do still go to the Library…despite the internet!!!!

By: Mike Massie

Mike Massie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:40:46 +0000

Nice idea, Louis.

Getting out in public – always good.

And, it’s a great excuse to send out a press release as well.

By: Louis Charron

Louis Charron — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:39:13 +0000

Hi Mike,

I’ve got an event planned for Saturday that a has yielded some great results from some friend’s schools in FL. We’re holding Krav In The Park (it could just as well be Karate in the Park), where we hold our regular classes in a local park where there are sports going on. All of the students show up wearing school shirts and we have fun, game style drills for the kids and the adults. Since I teach a reality based system, we save the gun and the knife ACTION for the last half hour of the class. That draws a crowd!

Hope someone can use this.

By: Mike Massie

Mike Massie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:21:03 +0000

Chris,

Great idea! I used Ning to set up a social network for my newsletter readers:

http://www.masainetwork.com/

Works great – it’s a great little bit of software they wrote to run their sites.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:29:35 +0000

Sir,
this one’s completely free. It’s fun to do, takes a little effort.
Set up a Ning account! Go to http://www.ning.com and set up a school account. Then invite all your students to join. Post videos, internal (events in the school) promotions, links to your website and Twitter and Blog if you have them and much more.

Your students can also set up Ning accounts that their friends can see and they in turn see how great the school looks and all the really cool stuff that goes on there. Those guys will then be more receptive when their student friend invites them along to a ‘try out class’ or whatever referal program you are running.

Works great here in the UK, sure it’s just as cool there. One point! When you invite people to join you get sent an approval request so the process is VERY controllable. Way better than Facebook for showing your school in its best light. Hope that’s useful.