Posted by Mike Massie on April 14, 2010
If You Don’t Think Honesty Is The Best Policy In Customer Service… Your Days Are Numbered
"What do you mean you want to cancel your membership?!?!?"
I am simply amazed that certain less-than-ethical practices still persist in the martial arts industry… especially in light of the fact that now, more than ever, we exist in “the age of the consumer.”
What do I mean by this?
Well, observe the very website you are reading this article on… you’re reading a blog, also known as a “web-log.”
Blogs were one of the first “web 2.0″ applications that allowed the general public to quickly and easily share information on a mass-scale. Other web 2.0 applications include:
- Social networking sites
- Micro-blogging (Twitter)
- Social video sites
- Social bookmarking sites
- Review sites
- Local business listing and “maps” sites
Every single one of the above allows the consumer a near-instant and virtually unlimited ability to influence the public for or against your business.
Review Sites Spell Doom For Unethical Martial Art Schools?
Think about it; everyone knows how important it is for local marketing purposes to have your business listed in Google Maps and Yahoo Local. But have you given serious thought to the review function of these sites?
Anyone can login to their Yahoo or Google account and post a review of your business – one that will remain online for an indefinite period of time, and that you have almost zero chance of getting rid of once it is published online.
Moreover, those reviews often get copied and aggregated by other “knock-off” sites… meaning the negative review may very well show up all over the internet.
And with the advent of Facebook and Twitter, with a few keystrokes a single consumer can almost instantly spread their discontent about a business to thousands of other consumers. It also deserves mentioning that Twitter and Facebook content is increasingly being used by Google to serve up information in their search results pages.
With nearly 100% of consumers searching online when shopping locally, it’s no small leap of logic to assume that too many negative reviews and opinions posted online about a martial arts school can have a very negative effect on business.
The Positive Side Of Consumer Influence
Of course, this can be a very positive thing… if you’re an ethical business owner who treats your customers the way you’d want to be treated were you in their place.
However, as my blog readers and newsletter subscribers are all too aware – unethical and “grey area” business practices seem to be the accepted norm in many martial arts schools in America.
However, I don’t totally hold the individual school owner to blame for the vast proliferation of shady business policies in martial arts schools. That’s because you’ve been fed a lot of really bad ideas about how to run a business over the last two decades – ideas that originated with the martial arts billing companies.
You see, these companies have a vested interest in seeing to it that their clients (martial art schools) stuck it to their students, since they are paid a flat percentage of the gross income they collect.
So, it works to their advantage to influence school owners by telling them that they should:
- Sign new students up on the longest possible contract -
- Hold students accountable for paying their contracts, even if they move, or have to drop out of classes due to a legitimate health issue, or lose their job -
- Use a collection agency to chase delinquent accounts to the four corners of the earth -
- Use a billing company to handle their accounts in the first place (a service that technology has made obsolete in recent years, as I recently pointed out in this article) -
The fact remains, however, that the above policies represent a really crummy way to treat your customers. Maybe shady martial arts schools could get away with this stuff in the past, but those days are numbered (well, at least we can hope… but you know how cockroaches always seem to keep coming back).
The Potential For Abuse Of Social Media
Yes, there also remains the possibility of abuse of this new technology. In the past, we (the honest school owners) had to put up with petty little underhanded business tactics being used against us by our less-than-ethical competitors.
This may have amounted to little more than having our brochures or lead boxes stolen (this actually has happened to me on numerous occasions), or having competitors openly trying to “steal” your students and prospects through promises of rapid rank advancement or by other means (again, I’ve had to put up with these tactics as well).
But in this day and age we have to be aware that our competitors can easily create false profiles on social networking sites and other web 2.0 properties, and create fraudulent negative reviews of our schools. You may think this couldn’t happen to you, but believe me, it’s already happening right now.
(A little side note… when I released Small Dojo Big Profits 6 years ago, I almost immediately faced a slanderous smear campaign that was run against my book on the martial arts internet forums – the social networking sites of the day. My guess is that certain interests in the industry didn’t like what I had to say about the state of the industry, so they put their cronies up to it. Well, it’s six years later, I’m still here, and now there’s no way any one single entity can control the information that is disseminated in our industry…)
So, What Steps Should An Honest School Owner Take?
Here’s my advice to ALL school owners regarding the effects of social media on our industry:
- Treat ‘em right - First off, STOP TREATING PEOPLE LIKE A PAYCHECK! What I mean is that you need to start acting as an advocate for your client, from the moment they contact you to the moment they move on from your school. Always, always, always act in the interest of the client, period. You can’t go wrong by doing right by people – make that your motto.
- Make sure you’re spreading the right “idea virus” - Second, realize that you need to have public perception and opinion on your side. And, the best way to do that is to refer to item #1 above. Social media is viral, ideas are viral, everything moves at the speed of bits and bytes these days… so start an idea virus about your business that says you treat people right and offer the best possible instruction to your students. Once it spreads, the effect it will have on your business is immeasurable.
- Encourage your students to tell others - Remind your students that you’d appreciate it if they reviewed your school on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Yelp, and so forth. Remember, first you have to be listed on those sites!
- Be aware of what’s being said about you online – Don’t obsess about this, because there are always going to be a few dissatisfied customers in the crowd. However, you should occasionally monitor review sites for signs that false negative reviews are being posted about your business. If you feel that’s the case, it’s your right to take it up with the site administrators, and to ask them to take any such reviews down. Be persistent; it may take numerous requests and lots of correspondence before you get results.
Final Thoughts
In the long run, I think social media will be instrumental in forcing businesses to adopt business practices that level the playing field for consumers… and the martial arts industry is no exception.
However, the bottom line is that you need to treat your customers right. It’s always a better policy to treat people fairly and deal with them in an honest fashion.
And, by doing so you may very well be cementing a positive public opinion regarding your school that will reap positive benefits for your business for years to come.
Posted by Mike Massie on January 23, 2010
Why It Pays To Hire A Professional SEO
All this stuff may be confusing to you, but you still need to get a high search ranking in Google for your business.
So, Gary is one of our Fighting Fit and Self Defense program instructors who is starting a school right now. He’s hired me to do some additional online marketing for him, first to create a custom blog, and now most recently he took me up on the SEO offer I sent out yesterday…
So, yesterday afternoon I went to work on his SEO campaign.
As of this morning, he has 4 of the top ten listings in Google for two of his most important keyword phrases in Google. Not only that, but the main site we’re driving traffic to went up about 2 – 3 spots in the rankings for those keywords as well.
Of course, there’s a lot more work to do… I won’t be satisfied until he has three of the top five spots for his keywords.
The Importance of Having A High Search Ranking In Google
Why is this so important?
Because, here’s the breakdown of the average clickthrough rates for the top ten listings for any search engine results page in Google:
Spot #1: 42.3% of clicks…
Spot #2: 11.92% of clicks…
Spot #3: 8.44% of clicks…
Spot #4: 6.03% of clicks…
Spot #5: 4.86% of clicks…
Spot #6: 3.99% of clicks…
Spot #7: 3.37% of clicks…
Spot #8: 2.98% of clicks…
Spot #9: 2.83% of clicks…
Spot #10: 2.97% of clicks (not a typo)
Obviously, it pays to have the higher search ranking spots in Google for the most important keywords in your local market.
And, the results schools get when they do bear this out. In a mid-size market (a town of about 100,000 in the Midwest) one school owner I know of gets 60 leads a month from his website…
And wouldn’t you know it, he has the number one spot in Google for “(his town) martial arts”. I know this because one of his close friends is thinking of hiring me to do the same thing for him in his own town.
So, imagine what it could do for your business to dominate the top five spots in Google for “(your city) martial arts” in a large metropolitan area?
Or, even in a smaller town – even ten leads a month (actually, I was getting 5 – 10 leads a week in a town of 10,000) could make a huge difference in your bottom line.
If You Want To Dominate The Search Engines In Your Area…
I still have one spot left for a school who wants to achieve multiple top ten rankings for their school in the next 90 days. Call me at 512-535-6858 if you’d like to get started (leave a message on my voice mail if it’s over the weekend). Remember, I guarantee my work – packages start at $399 per month, and if you don’t get results in 90 days I keep working for free until you do.
- Mike Massie
P.S. - No lie, that’s a deep discount off my “real” rates because I know the martial arts market so well. It makes it easier for me because there’s less research involved. So I can charge martial arts school owners less for the same results. But the downside is, I have to limit how many packages I sell at that rate. Sorry, but I can only take so many clients at that deep of a discount.
P.S.S. – If you want to know more about my internet marketing firm, check out http://moderndigitalmarketing.com.
Posted by Mike Massie on December 2, 2009
Investing in effective small business internet marketing just makes good sense.
A short while back a client forwarded an article to me that said SEO was a waste of money. (Note: In case you don’t know, SEO stands for “search engine optimization” – basically, fixing your website so it ranks well in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing)
I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair – besides the fact that the article was a crock, I had a very good reason for doing so. Immediately prior to receiving the email I just finished a meeting with a very successful local entrepreneur… and in that meeting we discussed (at length) the importance of SEO in the ongoing success of her business.
She informed me that she has spent something close to $25,000 on search engine optimization services over the last two years – which she credits (along with her social media marketing efforts) for her position as the dominant market leader in a very competitive field.
In fact, while approximately 20% of her competition bowed out last year (due to the recession) her business actually grew. She credits it all to her savvy use of online marketing technologies, which have allowed her to stay well ahead of her competition.
Now, I know most of you don’t have the cash to spend $12,000 a year on your online marketing. However, when small business owners overlook and ignore the importance of online marketing, I can only shake my head at the sheer ignorance of their decision.
So, if you’re still with me to this point, and you think you could use some help in this area, I’m going to provide you with some guidelines as to where you should be spending your online advertising and marketing dollars, and in what order of priority.
Pay close attention, because this is going to actually be the most cost-effective method of marketing your school in 2010. Feel free to print out this article for future reference and ignore me at your own peril…
Priority #1: Your Lead-Capture Website
(Cost: Anywhere from $500 to $2,500)
This is the first thing you should invest in when you start spending money for marketing online. Your lead generation website will work for you 24/7/365 to capture leads, whether you’re at work, answering the phones, or at home asleep or on the training floor.
Yes, you can DIY this one – but it probably won’t rank well because it won’t be optimized for Google and Yahoo, and you’ll just end up having it redone in the end anyway. Skip a few display ads and drop some money up front on this – you’ll only pay for it once, and it’ll keep paying for itself over and over for years to come.
Note: If you’re on a tight budget, you can combine this into your blog. I’ve been doing it for a lot of my clients recently, and they are still getting great results.
Priority #2: Search Engine Optimization and Website Promotion
(Cost: Anywhere from $500 to $3,000, depending on your market and competition)
Although I always include this service for all my web design clients, you’ll typically have to pay a separate fee for it when you’re dealing with other web design and SEO companies.
But, it’s worth it – because a website no one visits is like a billboard in the desert… absolutely worthless.
And, you get site visitors from getting a high search engine ranking (top five spots) in the local Google and Yahoo results for targeted, relevant, popular search terms.
Once again, this can be done DIY – but SEO is a lot more sophisticated than just optimizing your meta tags. You have to think about on-page factors and off-page factors, and know how each will affect your site’s trust and ranking with Google.
Messing up any of this stuff can have a negative result as minor as not getting a desirable ranking, or as serious as getting your site blackballed by Google (and good luck getting back in again).
Trust me, hire a pro – someone you can trust that has references – to do this for you.
Priority #3: A Custom Blog
(Cost: Anywhere from $500 to $5,000)
Once again, this is something I include with all my web design packages for my clients. However, other firms will charge you a separate fee for creating a custom blog theme to match your site, to install it and set it up, and to optimize the blog so your articles get indexed in Google and rank high in the search engine results.
Blogs are easy to DIY – in fact, a lot of businesses will try to use a free blog for their business website. However, this can be a big mistake… and here’s why.
Free isn’t necessarily cheap. The big issues with free blogs are that they are not very customizable, and you run the risk of the blog host losing all your data and posts.
In addition, a free blog is not going to be set up to effectively leverage the blogging technologies available to you right now. Blogs have come a long way in the last few years, and a properly optimized blog will basically promote itself in the search engines – all you have to do is add content on a regular basis.
Quick Shameless Plug: Quick sidebar here – I can do all of the above for any school owner who reads my blog for about $1,500, definitely on the low end of the cost scale. Despite the low cost, the results you’ll get will be worth many times your investment. And yes, I’ll allow you to make payments on your website. Feel free to contact me to order.
Final Thought – Any Small Business Internet Marketing Activity Is Better Than None!
It’s true… anything is better than nothing. So, if you have to start with a free blog, do it. And if you have to DIY your own website at first, that’s much better than having no website at all.
The bottom line is, internet marketing for small businesses is something sort of like gardening – it takes time and energy to start seeing results, and nothing happens until you start planting seeds. So, take action now so you can start seeing results from your internet marketing efforts and investment in 2010 and beyond.
Until next time,
Michael D. Massie
Blog: http://martialartsbusinessdaily.com/
Adult Curriculum: http://selfdefenseblackbelt.com/
Social Network for Martial Arts Instructors: http://www.masainetwork.com/
Business Manual: http://www.small-dojo-big-profits.com/
Resources: http://www.starting-a-martial-arts-school.com/
Summer Camp Manual: http://startingasummerdaycamp.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MartialArtsBusinessDaily
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mabizdaily
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Filed Under: News
Posted by Mike Massie on September 9, 2009
He Who Procrastinates, Will Ruminate When It’s Too Late…
You can just make those calls tomorrow, right? WRONG!
“I’ll get to it tomorrow.”
“I have plenty of time.”
“So-and-so will take care of it.”
“I’ll get around to it.”
Ever catch yourself saying these things?
Or better yet…
Ever catch yourself doing these things?
Don’t expect any sympathy from me… because I’ve heard all the excuses:
- “I work all day and then run my school at night.” You and about 20,000 other school owners. Get over it.
- “I didn’t know how.” Ever hear of a book, a website, an audio, or a phone? We live in the information age, my friend. Self-education is as easy as doing a Google search…
- “I had a million things on my mind.” Welcome to running a business.
- “I was too tired to do it.” Really? You were too tired to make money? Here’s some advice then – sell your school and go get a government job. That way, you can sit around and do nothing all day while you waste someone else’s money.
Harsh? Not in the least.
You see, procrastination is a lot more insidious than we typically think. The reason is that it becomes a habit, a pattern, a way to cop out when we’re faced with things we don’t want to do.
Not only that… it’s self-destructive as well.
Your Procrastination Gives Your Competition More Time To Hose You
Guess what? When you procrastinate, you’re playing defense for the other team…
That’s right – you’re keeping yourself from reaching your goals and making headway against the competition…
And in some cases, clearing the field so the other team can score…
All by being a big, fat, lazy procrastinator.
Yeah, you heard me…
L-A-Z-Y… lazy!
Because if you think about it, procrastination is nothing more than when we allow ourselves to justify our own laziness.
So… Do It Now!
One of my all-time favorite success sayings is from Brian Tracy, and it’s dead-simple:
“Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!”
Anytime I want to put off something until tomorrow, I can hear Brian’s words in my head.
And then, my internal drill instructor kicks in, I kick my butt in gear, and I get the task at hand done.
Why is this so important?
Because, you have NO idea what the competition is planning!
One instance of hesitation, and BAM! They get the jump on you.
In times past, I’ve known very talented martial artists who have gotten their tails kicked in business by less-talented martial arts school owners… all because they were too darned lazy to do things when they should have.
Now, you could argue that the more talented martial artist “deserves” to be successful more than the other school owner. I mean, being as he or she is a better martial artist, has more experience, their students do well in competition… I could go on and on.
But from a business perspective, many times it’s the guy who runs the belt factory down the street who deserves it more…
Why? Because he’s doing the work required to get new students!
The Universal Law Governing Work And Reward
It’s the way the universe works… and it’s a universal law that’s repeated over and over again in Scripture. “You reap what you sow.” “Observe the ant…” “…the work of a man’s hand comes back to him.” I could go on and on.
Of course, everyone wants to blame someone else, right?
But the thing is (and this is what I tell my friends and clients) the buck stops with you!
It’s YOUR SCHOOL, YOUR TAIL on the LINE, and YOUR SUCCESS or FAILURE at STAKE!
If you do the work at the opportune time, you get the reward for doing so.
Simple.
Procrastination = Lost Opportunities
The same thing goes for implementing new ideas…
Some folks are going to look at the SDBBP and go, “Yeah, that looks cool – but I’m going to wait and let someone else take the risk of trying it first…”
Well, let me tell you something -
By the time you do that, your competitor down the street may have already locked in your town…
And by then it will be too late.
Until next time,
Michael Massie, National Director of Operations
The Self Defense Black Belt Program™
http://selfdefenseblackbelt.com/
