Posted by Mike Massie on March 5, 2010
Facing Down Hard Times In Your School?
If you're facing hard times in your martial art school, you're not alone. Here are some tips to help you make it through until things improve.
Facing down hard times? You’re not alone. I’ve heard from more than a few school owners who are feeling the crunch during this recession.
Here are some tips for those of you who may be struggling to keep your school open in the down economy.
The Mental Side – Survival Strategies
First off, focus on the positives – it’s the only way you’ll get through. Just keep doing that – your attitude is what will bring people into your school.
People are attracted to upbeat personalities. If you’re happy and energetic, it will really make you stand out and people will be drawn to it. Remember, your energy drives your school.
The Financial Side – Making It Through
First off, cut back on everything EXCEPT your marketing budget. Anything you don’t need to operate or survive should be cut from your budget.
However, it is imperative that you step-up your marketing activities, rather than slow them down. Those school owners that I coach who are growing in this economy are not doing so because they are lucky, located in “good” areas, or because they are martial arts superstars…
They are growing because they spend 80% of their work hours outside of class on their marketing – and they do this consistently, every single month.
Even so, you still need to make sure you’re spending your marketing dollars wisely. So, go through your marketing expenditures with a fine-tooth comb. If any marketing method is costing you more than it’s bringing in, cancel it and shift those funds to something that is actually giving you a good return on your investment.
A good rule of thumb here is that every dollar you spend on marketing should return $1 in revenue during the same marketing cycle (in out industry, 30 days).
However, I like to get $2 back on every dollar I spend within a 30-day time frame. You need those fast profits and high rates of return on your marketing dollars, because a martial arts school relies on cash flow for survival. So, your every marketing promotion should bring back a return of 200% within 30 days of running it.
Focus your efforts and resources only on those promotions that meet that criteria. And if you’re broke, focus on low-cost and high-return marketing activities like online marketing and door-to-door flier distribution. They take more time to implement, but they’re cheap and effective when done properly.
Keep Your Head In The Game
Finally, be present! If you check out on your school and students because things are not going so well, guess what? They’ll sense it and you’ll only be making the situation worse.
Remain fully invested in your students, regardless of what happens. Loyalty breeds loyalty, and you’ll be surprised at how many of them will be cheering for you and will stick with you, even if things don’t work out…
The Longview – What If Things Don’t Work Out?
“A mistake is a future benefit, the full value of which is yet to be realized.”
- Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera
First off, it’s not the end of the world if you have to go back to teaching part-time. So, don’t be ashamed of finding a part-time teaching location, ending your lease, and moving your classes somewhere without all the overhead and high rent.
Also, know when to call it quits on having a full-time location. Is it worth it to force yourself into major debt or bankruptcy, just so you don’t feel like a failure?
Well, guess what? All entrepreneurs fail at some point in their careers as business owners. It’s part and parcel for the game. Don’t feel bad if things don’t work out this time around. Just roll with it, regroup, and the next time around you’ll be wiser for your experience.
Remember, there’s ALWAYS another opportunity waiting just around the corner. The past is just a memory, and come tomorrow today will be the past.
You will recover and you will be able to start over again. So, stay positive and just keep looking for those opportunities as you move forward.
Posted by Mike Massie on February 17, 2010
If You Don’t Know… Find It Fast
A strong primary motivation will see you through to the finish...
Seems like a harmless question.
Simple to answer, at least at first…
But then, when you really start to think about it – you realize it’s a lot more complicated than you first thought.
There’s your students; I mean, you certainly care about them.
And then, there’s your family. You want to provide for and support them.
And also, there’s your style and your love for the martial arts. You teach because you enjoy sharing something you love.
But the fact remains…
None of that may be THE reason. Your primary motivation. The one that keeps you up late at night. The one that has you awake in the early hours of the morning, writing down ideas and planning ahead.
But, that’s the motivating factor that WILL see you through the tough times. The times when you just want to give up. The times when you are ready to throw in the towel.
It’s the factor that makes you go another day, when you feel like you’ll never realize it.
You need a primary motivation that is that strong. And if you don’t have one, well…
You’d better find one fast. Because being in business is rough. Oh sure, it has its rewards. But getting there is often a long and difficult road.
Call it a “burning desire”, your “inner fire”, your passion, your raison d’etre… whatever.
Just know that it’s important to find it, to kindle it, and to keep it strong.
Because it’s probably the one thing that will keep you going until you reach your goals.
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 January 6, 2010
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.
Posted by Mike Massie on December 9, 2009
A Fall Enrollment Season Like No Other?
If the recession has gotten you to tighten your belt, perhaps you should consider sticking to those habits once things improve
It looks like consumer confidence may be picking up, based on what I’ve been hearing from school owners around the country.
After a relatively flat October, enrollments increased sharply in November and the upswing is continuing into December… all factors that point to this being a highly unusual fall season for many schools around the nation.
However, it also could indicate that consumers are feeling more confident about the economy and are becoming more willing to spend money on luxury services again, in spite of the holiday season.
And, although the consumer confidence index has only seen a slight uptick since September (although it has increased dramatically after it hit near record lows earlier this year), it bears mentioning that at least in our industry there are plenty of schools that are going great guns despite the recession.
(Note: My take on this is that people are looking for something to take their minds off everything going on in the world, and activities like martial arts and fitness classes are a great way for them to do so. So, make sure your ads are focused on how fun and enjoyable your programs are – many people are more than willing to pay for escapism during difficult times. – MM)
If You’ve Tightened Your Belt A Notch Or Two, Don’t Start Loosening It Yet…
What this all means to those who have survived this recession is that you’ve developed some really good business habits in order to keep your martial arts businesses going.
That means you’ve been…
- Creating and following a marketing plan each month that includes multiple marketing methods, instead of cutting back on marketing to save money (this is so backwards, I can’t believe it when people tell me they’re planning to cut back on marketing to save money – that’s like saying you’re going to quit your job to cut back on your fuel bill)…
- Doing online marketing on a daily basis (blogging, articles, press releases, etc.)…
- Keeping your overhead costs as low as possible without sacrificing customer service or comfort…
- And, working your hardest to keep the students you have through showing them that they are valued members of your school!
Good Business Practices Should Be Adhered To In Every Economy
The fact is, the economy goes through regular cycles of highs and lows. Remember when the dot-com bubble burst back in 2000? How about the unusually harsh recession in the early eighties?
Knowing this, it only makes sense to stick to sound financial practices in your school during both strong financial times and lean.
So once this recession blows over, don’t do what most school owners will do and start to coast… or worse yet, to bog your business down with excess spending and overhead bloat. Instead, stick to those good habits so they become second nature… and then sock that extra money you make during the “good times” away so you are ready for the next low period.
By doing so, you’ll be protecting your business against any future economic dips… and at the same time you’ll be maximizing your profits while decreasing your liabilities.
Sounds like the smart way to go to me.
Until next time,
