How many times have I heard that from martial art school owners? Let me just say, I’m not busting anyone’s chops in particular.
But, I hear this from school owners so often, I feel I need to make an important point about giving up easy in business.
Let’s think back to the first time you learned how to do a certain combination in sparring… maybe a set-up for a strike or submission. You learned it in class, drilled it, memorized the movements, and then you tried it out in sparring for the first time. How did it go?
That’s right, it failed… or, rather, YOU failed to execute it effectively. Let’s be honest – you’d seen your instructor and the senior students in the school pull it off a million times. Yet, it didn’t work for you the first time out.
So what did you do? Of course, you kept at it.
Then one day, BINGO! It clicked and you were able to pull it off. You scored, it felt good, and so you kept trying it. Maybe you didn’t score every time, but pretty soon you were succeeding more than failing, and you may have even developed a strategy around that technique… heck, it may even be one of your “go-to” techniques now.
So, knowing what you know now, how silly would it have been for you to have tried that move or technique once, and then said, “Well, it didn’t work for me, so I quit doing it.”
Yet, those are the exact words I hear from instructors, all the darned time. Typically, it’s with regards to some marketing method or another, but it could also be in relation to any number of common practices that successful schools use.
And the fact is, you’d never let a student give up like that. Ever.
So, why do we do it? And I do say “we” purposely, because I did the same thing many times when I was starting out, and to this day I still have to resist the initial urge to give up when I fail at something new.
I’ll tell you why – because, when you become an instructor, you get used to being “right” all the time. And, when you do something “wrong”, it busts your ego up something terrible.
I know. I’ve felt the sting of getting my ego bruised too. Yet, the winners’ circle only admits the persistent. It’s true in martial arts, it’s true in all manner of sports, it’s true in business, and it’s true in life.
Now, if you’re reading this and going, “Cripes, Mike is right. But how do I keep trying something when it’s not working?” The answer is so obvious, it’s painful. You don’t.
Because, if you do something that works for someone else and it doesn’t work for you, that means you did it wrong. So, instead of taking an ineffective action over and over again, you need to observe how the people who are getting results do that thing. Compare their methods with yours, eliminate the differences in execution, and then try again.
That’s what you did when you first learned martial arts… you watched the best people in your school, and copied them, repetition after repetition. Over time, you got good, maybe even better than the people you modeled your own practice after.
And that’s how you’re going to succeed in running your school as well.
Is it difficult? Obviously, but let me tell you – it’s a lot easier than figuring things out through sheer independent trial and error.
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.
Time To Update Your Website? Let’s Do It Properly…
Effective web marketing caters to the right audience and resonates with the buyer. Your martial arts website's purpose is to get leads, so focus it exclusively on that goal.
There is simply no excuse for having a lackluster website in the information age.
Almost everyone uses the internet these days to research purchases before they buy. That’s why it’s imperative that you keep your site updated and fresh, much like rotating the inventory in your school store.
With it being the New Year, right now is the best time to update your website with new information on your business, especially to announce new hours, specials, and programs. So, rather than doing it halfway, look at your entire site and overhaul your content to maximize your martial arts website’s effectiveness.
And I’m going to tell you how…
Catering To Two Types Of Site Visitors
There are two types of people who will visit your site:
People that want to find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible (for simplicity, we’ll call them “surfers”) -
And people who want as much information as possible so they can make an informed decision (we’ll call them “researchers”) -
Remember, there’s a reason people research goods and services on the internet before they make a purchase (actually, two reasons).
They are generally time-strapped and need information fast,
And they want to get the most up-to-date information possible.
Your job is to provide them with exactly what they are looking for – no more, no less. So, you need to have something for both…
How To Make Sure They Contact You
For the site surfers, your contact info needs to be front and center at the top of your site. Also, you must have a lead capture form on every page possible, as well as an easily located “Contact Us” page.
Be aware that this type of website visitor will skim your information. So, use section headlines to summarize your most important information, and bullet points to provide short, concise benefits for your “surfing” prospects.
Your site also needs to load fast, so cut back on the flash and graphics and keep your site files down as much as possible.
Hint: Multiple videos embedded on the same page can cause a page to load slowly. So, at most embed one or two videos to a page. But by all means – DO have video on your site! YouTube has made it easy for anyone to use video as an online marketing tool, and any school owner would be foolish not to take full advantage of it.
For people who are “researchers”, you should have plenty of information on each of your programs. And, it should be written in such a manner that it caters to the target audience.
And, no matter what the type of site visitor, you must have a call to action on every single page of your site.
Don’t over-complicate this – just tell them what to do and give them a darn good reason to do it. “Call today for more information on classes and to take advantage of our FREE registration special!”
You Need To Have A Clear And Unified Marketing Message
Finally, your website content needs to have a unified tone and theme. Tone is the attitude of the writer conveyed by their choice of vocabulary and sentence structure. Your tone can be light, friendly, serious, upbeat… but above all it must resonate with your target audience!
The mistake most school owners make in writing the content for their martial arts websites is too much variation in tone across the site. When you write one section of your site content in one tone or theme, and another on the opposite end of the spectrum, it can create confusion or skepticism in your prospect’s mind.
Your marketing message is the second half of this equation. This relates to the tone of your site, but it has more to do with what you’re saying than with how you’re saying it. Your overall marketing message should be summed up in 17 words or less, and it should convey your U.S.P. (unique selling proposition).
Once you can do this, your entire site’s content should revolve around your marketing message.
Why is this important? For starters, sending mixed signals to your prospects will create confusion, and a confused mind does not buy.
Second, it’s easiest to sell what you believe in. So, your marketing message should be in complete harmony with your own personality and values.
Wrapping Up Today’s Article On Martial Arts Websites
Look, I know this sounds like a lot to think about, but all you really have to remember are a few key points:
Update your site regularly. If your site doesn’t currently allow you to do this, get a new site that allows you to edit and update it at will.
Make it easy for people to contact you, and give them a good reason to do so.
Provide enough information to satisfy the researchers, and put your most important information in section headings and bullets for surfers.
Be consistent in your tone and marketing message across your entire site.
Make sure your marketing message is in line with your core values.
That’s it! All that’s left is to take action on what you’ve learned from this article. Doing so will leverage your martial art school website as a valuable tool to grow your school.
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Need help with your web marketing? I’ve helped dozens of martial arts school owners to improve their Google rankings and to get more leads from their web marketing. If you’d like to find out more about how your school can get more leads and enrollments through better web marketing, click here to contact me.
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