(Additional information audio on YouTube)
It is funny how you use a marketing technique that works for years and then all of a sudden you stop using it. I don’t know why this happens. I was looking through a back issue of a MAIA magazine when I came across an example of an ad they suggested schools should use. The ad was titled “Back to School Success Workshop”. This reminded me of a marketing campaign that I used to use but for some reason quit doing so.
If it was possible for you to know when someone in your community was interested in the martial arts it would be a great time to send them an ad or some other form of contact. This would give you a pretty good chance of getting them into your school. Unfortunately we don’t know when someone wants our product or not. That is why a lot of companies with money will send out constant advertising and constant marketing so they can be in the person’s face at the right time. For this reason, this back-to-school marketing is a great idea.
We may not know when someone in our community may want our product but we do know that parents are very interested in their child having a successful school year. So it will be extremely beneficial if you can come up with a reason to get in front of these parents at a time that you know they want information about how their child can be more productive at school. This will give you a great chance of your marketing connecting to the right people. At the beginning of the school year many parents are thinking about how they can get their child to be more successful. So putting out marketing that will reflect this issue has a great chance of being reviewed.
We used a two-week introductory course that was heavily based with life skills. We would have discussions each class about goal setting, self-discipline, honor, respect all those type of things. We would create handouts that the children would take home reflecting that particular life skills that we talked about during class. Another good idea is to give the children homework. This homework would be something real simple where they would go home and discuss with their parent a particular question that we gave them. This was very beneficial because the child would go home and have a discussion with the parents showing the parents what kind of great life skills that their child is learning in this course. We also, at the end of the class, would have the whole class repeat an oath of success. The end of class has the most parents present. This is a good time to present to the parents. This oath reaffirmed the positive attributes that parents are looking for and they leave with a good feeling.
This is just an introductory course for the children. You have to make sure that this course is a hundred percent super exciting for the children. If this class is exciting and fun the children will beg their parents to sign up at your school. So if the child is begging to join and the parents sees that you teach success you have a really good shot at getting new students.
This is a rare time of the year where you know what the community is looking for. All the parents are very excited wanting their child to have a great school year and you can benefit from this. This is a very beneficial program to run and it’s an easy way to get new students. As always good luck to your school.