It is back to school season. You need to be ready because this is the time of the year that parents choose to put their kids in something new. You want to make sure that they know you exist and that you are the best option for their children. I know a lot of you do not have a large marketing and advertising budget, but if you do have some money use it now, it’s a great time to do so.
Something that is working very well is Facebook marketing. I would look into making a good Facebook page for your business. Put up pictures and write about what these kids can really get out of martial arts besides just exercise. Make sure to tweak your page to make it very clear how effective your program is for kids. Show pictures of promotions or pictures of what these students are achieving. It is worth using marketing money on Facebook.
This would also be a great time to consider what has worked for you in the past in terms of advertising and apply it at this time. Track exactly how much money is being spent on advertising and whether or not that money made students sign and how many actually come in through the door.
A low cost method is to have volunteers from your school help pass out flyers in local neighborhoods. It’s a great and low-cost way to get your name out in the community. Afterword you could at the end of the day throw a small party for your volunteers to thank them for their help.
If you are not already connected to elementary schools, it is so important to make sure that you get connected. You can you network with these schools by volunteering to do things like anti-bullying seminars. You can meet with the PTA at the school and tell them you are a community service based school and that you can help volunteer for them, like putting on demonstrations for fundraisers for instance or whatever else they need. One of the things we do at our martial arts schools is we helped local elementary schools by volunteering on the first day to guide parents and assist in the parking area. Due to our help, the elementary schools in our area love us and give us the ability to gain new students from their school. This has helped us become very successful and it is key to gaining more students.
It is also a great time of the year to run a “Bring a Friend” (Referral) program. The timing is great because parents are looking for programs for their kids so this would be a great point to have your students tell their friends about it. If you want to learn how to run a successful bring a friend program you can refer to a previous article in “Ask the Experts” column (see below).
This definitely the time a year to get out there and make things happen. Good Luck to your school.