Magic Marketing Beans…

Since I released “Small Dojo, Big Profits”, I’ve often been asked for advice and assistance on martial arts school marketing. In fact, I’d say if you got 100 martial arts school owners together and asked them all what their biggest concern was, they’d all say, “How to get more students.”

The Desire For A “Simple” Marketing Solution

It’s a universal issue… yet when I’m asked by school owners for assistance on this topic, I often get the feeling from some inexperienced school owners (and those who are ignorant of good marketing practices) that they’re expecting a “simple” solution.

Sort of like they are expecting me to pull out a bag of magic marketing beans and dump them in their hand (you know, a “just add water and get students” solution).

Unfortunately, there aren’t any “magic marketing beans” that allow you to grow new leads and students like Chia pets.

But the good news is that there are new marketing methods that come close. Let me explain…

Online Marketing Provides A Huge Payoff For The Innovators And Early Adopters…

Ever since the demise of the yellow pages ad and the local news ad, martial arts school owners have been scrambling to find a new marketing method to replace those old standbys.

Savvy school owners realized that the internet was where it was going to happen in the future. These folks didn’t listen to the nay-sayers who said it was a “flash in the pan,” and instead started marketing their schools online at the advent of the internet boom (I started in 1997 after I saw how one of my clients and his partners sold a website to Yahoo for several hundreds of thousands of dollars).

Those who got in early ended up owning established, valuable internet presences for their schools (these days, having a strong internet presence is like owning a prime real estate location in your town).  And, those school owners who took the risk early on are still currently reaping the benefits of making an early entry into online marketing.

Yep, It’s Like Magic Marketing Beans… If Can To Learn How To Be A Gardener – Or If You Can Afford To Hire One

So, where does that leave the school owners who are new, or who are unsure of where to start in creating an online marketing campaign?

Well, even if you missed the bus early on, it doesn’t change the fact that the internet is where consumers are making buying decisions.

Did you know?

• 97% of people with online access will research products and services online before they purchase -
• 35% of all searches are done with an intent to buy -
• 55% of all local searches are done with an intent to buy -
• Of all local searches, 8 out of 10 call or visit a store and 60% of those result in a purchase of some kind -

Even so, I know it’s confusing as heck when you’re coming in late to the game – especially if you’re  a non-techie. And up until this point, martial arts school owners only had three choices when it came to getting their schools online:

1. Go the cheap route with one of those “free” website services. Well, there ain’t nothing in life that’s free, and in business free usually cost you more than you save… and in the case of free marketing websites, the cost is typically paid in all the students you don’t enroll because your site is set up wrong.
2. Go the DIY route. This can work if you have the time, patience, and inclination to spend 50-100 hours learning all the various intricacies of online marketing. First, you have to learn how to build a site using a programming language (hard), a website editor (still a learning curve), or a website builder (easiest, but generally will look like cow dookie). Then, there’s the uphill ice-skating race of getting your site ranked high in Google – but you can always go the paid route and just pay for clicks. But then again, that’s an art and a science unto itself… and it takes time to learn to do all this stuff. It’s frustrating, often as costly as hiring someone to do it for you (mistakes are money), and while you’re figuring it out you still aren’t getting any students.
3. Hire an expert to handle it for you. We all know what keeps most school owners from doing this – MONEY! It’s expensive to hire a good web designer, copywriter, or search engine marketing specialist. I know, because I am one of the rare few who can do ALL of the above. And, it was only after spending 10 years learning this stuff that I felt confident enough in my abilities to offer them to the public. But, most school owners aren’t willing to spend $2,000 hiring me to build a site for them. I’m not going to preach to you on how “you can’t NOT afford it!” because I know what it’s like running a school. You may have the money, but you feel like it’s a lot to gamble… what if it doesn’t work? Believe me, I know and I’ve been there.

Well, time rolls on and technology improves… often at a breakneck pace. And, thankfully there are some very well-financed technology companies who have thrown a lot of time, expertise, and money at the above problems in an effort to solve them for small business owners like you.

Recent Innovations = A Simple, Inexpensive, Effective Alternative

And, although there still aren’t any magic marketing beans, there are simpler online marketing solutions available these days. The best part is, they allow us to reach the local market – local online marketing being the holy grail of internet marketing for small business owners.

Recent innovations in online marketing have brought us a simple, all-in-one online marketing solution for small businesses… one that combines all the various aspects of local online marketing into a single package that is extremely affordable (much less than the last yellow pages ad I ran - and that was over a decade ago).

I know that you folks would like to find out about such a service, so I’ve arranged for a special webinar for you this Thursday with one of the founders of the new technology company that developed it.

During the webinar, we’ll be discussing why local online marketing is so important to you as a school owner, how the service works, what kind of results small business owners are getting with the service, and what you need to do to become one of the first in your area to take advantage of the service.

Learn How To Reach Your Local Market Online – Effectively and Inexpensively

Here are the details on the webinar, including the link where you can register to reserve a seat:

Webinar Time: Thursday, Jul 16, 2009 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM CDT
Registration Link: Click here to register and reserve your seat

Please be aware that we expect this webinar to fill up quickly, as this service is brand new and many school owners are going to want to be the first in their areas to take advantage of it.

Note: This is only available in the U.S. right now… but I’ll let you know as soon as it becomes available in other countries. – MM

Now, I know a lot of you are going to ask if it will be recorded. The answer is, “Probably, but you should try to make it so you learn about this before your competitors do.”

In an information society, the faster you can adopt new ideas and innovations, the greater your market advantage over your competitors. That’s why you should at least give yourself the opportunity to evaluate this service before your competition has the opportunity to take advantage of it.

So, make sure you register right away, and also be sure to login to the online conference room ten minutes early to ensure you get into the conference.

See you at the webinar on Thursday!

Sincerely,

Michael D. Massie
Blog: http://martialartsbusinessdaily.com/
Social Network: http://www.masainetwork.com/
Business Manual: http://www.small-dojo-big-profits.com/
Resources: http://www.starting-a-martial-arts-school.com/