Luck of the Irish: Pot of Gold Referral Contest

Hi there,

Robby Beard here with the first in a series of marketing newsletters we are going to be sending out giving all martial arts school owners some great ideas to generate new students.

First of all we want to thank everyone that ordered Dojo’s Valentine’s ad cards;  this year we received more orders than ever, which is a testament to how great of a promotion this is to advertise our schools.  If you have ever attended one of my seminars you might have heard me mention that at all times I have 7 promotions running at my school simultaneously, and this is very important in my opinion, because as great as any one singular promotion can be, it is very unlikely that it alone can keep your schools doors open.  By running multiple promotions at the same time common sense will tell us that we are increasing our odds for positive conversion of our promotions into leads and sign-ups.  One thing I always stress with my consulting clients is to to never judge the results of our marketing efforts by a single promotion. It is very common for example at my USA Karate schools to receive calls from our halloween promotions months after, and that really goes for all our promotions, but what IS important is that at all times we are working on promoting our schools and generating more monthly signups then cancellations.  We are always pleased when we have these big successful promotions, but we are also aware that most martial arts schools are not aware that really every month has potential for marketing, and today I want to share with you a promotion that has been very effective for me in the past which we are calling:

Luck of the Irish:  Lucky Pot of Gold Referral Contest

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday usually associated with green beer and street parties, but did you know it can be a great opportunity to signup new students?  I have created a referral contest that is very easy to execute, and is also a ton of fun for our students. I run a referral contest a month, I really find it one of the most effective ways to get new members is by making my existing ones advertise my schools, and rewarding their efforts with prizes and bonuses.  The result is a healthy competition between my students over who can refer the most students, which is a priceless form of advertising.

What you will need:

1. Shamrock Paper Cut Outs
2. Printing Dojo “Luck of the Irish Tear-Off Cards”
3. A poster to post in your school advertising the contest
4. A substantial prize for the winner of the contest, and some smaller ones for each referral returned from the Tear Off Card
5. A wall

Printing Dojo’s Tear off cards for those of you who haven’t used them in the past, are basically 8.5” x 3.5” rack cards with a perforation to rip off a 3.5”x2” business card: One part is a 2 sided advertisement for your Martial Arts program with a special offer,  while the business card size tear off has fields on the back to fill out your prospects information. Here is the graphic we are using this year, it is fully customizable for your needs:
  

For the Luck of the Irish contest, what I do is give each one of my students 30 tearoffs;  They take them to school, church, to their friends and family, and when they have a friend interested in potentially joining our martial arts school, they fill out the prospect’s name, contact information on the back of the business card; tear it off, give their friend the flyer with the special offer, and bring us back to the school the business card with the prospect’s information.

For each lead they bring in, my student gets to write his/her name on a shamrock paper cut out, and tape it on a space on one of our mirrors i have reserved for the contest.   Whoever has the most Shamrock clovers with their name on it at the end of the contest is the winner!  I find my students especially the younger ones love to see their names on the wall.

I also do some additional bonus prizes:

-I post some Shamrock Clovers with a $ sign written on the front;  Behind it I will write out a prize such as:  “Free T- Shirt from Pro Shop”, or “10% off any item from Pro Shop”;  Every time one of the leads generated actually joins, my student gets to pick off a prize Shamrock from the wall.

-I also put a couple of Shamrocks with 3 dollar signs on them, and these have really good prizes on them behind them, such as $50 Gift Certificate to Best Buy.  The student gets to pick this off the wall when 3 of his friends join my school.

For my contest winner prize, I usually try to giveaway something substantial enough that my students will want to really work hard and bring back as many leads as possible.  For this contest we are giving away a Nintendo Wii U, but of course what you giveaway is up to you and what your budget allows.  A Nintendo Wii U is $299.  This prize will pay itself back after 2 months of a new signup, to me that is perfectly reasonable and my students literally flip out at the prospect of winning it!

Materials:

-You can get the Shamrock Cut Outs at your local Dollar Store or Party Outlet;

-The Tear Off Cards are available at http://www.printingdojo.com/products/tear-off-referral-cards/

-When you order the tear off cards a digital poster file will be provided to you

St Patrick’s Day is Tuesday March 17, we are announcing our winners Friday March 20.  The Tear off cards take 7 days to produce, and you want to make sure you have a couple of weeks to get them out so don’t hesitate and get everything ordered and lined up asap to get the most out of this great promotion!

IF YOU SHARE THIS POST ON FACEBOOK, YOU WILL GET A $15 DISCOUNT APPLIED TO YOUR INVOICE!!!
1)  LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/printingdojo
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3) When you place your order let us know you shared this post and we will apply discount to invoice, and Like YOUR page!

Feel free to write us back and ask any questions or share with me the results of your promotion, and happy marketing!  If you have any questions on any of the topics discussed, or if you are ready to take your own school to the next level, drop me an email to robbybeard@dojoconsulting.com

Interview with Robby Beard www.dojoindustries.com

Robby, tell us a little bit about your progression from Martial Artist to School Owner.

I opened up USA Karate in 1996.  Prior to that I was a martial artist since the 80’s and trained at a school with an instructor that became my mentor.  I progressed from a student to an instructor position, and ran his school for 5 years prior to opening up my own school.  I was lucky that my instructor was not only a great martial artist, but was also very business savvy so I learned a lot during the time I was running his dojo.  I began attending seminars and worked with different people that were more ahead of the game then I was as far as running a business and marketing a martial arts school, and that also contributed to my confidence level to push me to open my own martial arts school.

When I opened my school I thought I knew everything there was to know because I had been running a school for 5 years.  So when I opened USA Karate, I just sat back and did what I always did in the past.  I quickly learned that getting a brand new school off the ground was an entirely different beast.  For starters, when you start a school from zero, you have absolutely no momentum.  One of the things about having a big established school, one that has 200-300 students is that you can have momentum.  Even currently with my current situation having 6 locations, my main location always outperforms all the rest of them, and we are all doing the same marketing, because the main one has momentum.

Anyway I opened up my school in 1996 and I suffered, and im drowning and nothing is happening.   We built the school up to about a 100 students, but at the time with my rent, utilities and all the other bills that go along with it I was really seeing no profit.  At the time I was training a lot of police officers and they convinced me to become a police officer.  I started that about a year and half after I opened my school , I went to the Police Academy and became a full time police officer.  I was trying to be a full time police officer and running a karate school at the same time, and I was overworked and miserable, and I was  not making money doing either.  I had to make a decision and quit one of the two.  Having been in the martial arts industry for as long as I had been, I was constantly confronted with people telling me “I can t believe you quit the business”, “ I can t believe your school wasn’t successful”.   This was a chapter of my life I was not ready to close yet, so I decided to give it one last shot and fully dedicate myself to the Karate school . So i decided to give it another shot under the guidance of a Consultant.

What was your experience like working with a Coach?

This time I made a decision that ended up being fundamental to my success:  I decided to work with a mentor, a coach / consultant, and to completely follow his instructions.

no matter how stupid it sounded, or different from the way I was used to doing things.  So that’s what I did, got a consultant, got a coach. And off we went.

Within 12 months things were already progressing along ina  positive way  I had quit the police department, bought a new car.  A year later my school grew from a 130 students to 180, eventually to 200, to 250, and grew all the way to 600 members, and that’s when I started to expand and go into multiple locations.

Anyway what I learned is  1) that what marketing worked then no longer works now.  2) You have to have a coach.  Everybody, I dotn care if you are Michael Jordan or tiger woods, the best MMA fighter in the world , everybody has and needs a coach.  So we take this concept of new marketing ideas and new strategies making sure that our team of consultants and coaches and everyone who is involved is moving in the same direction.

Any words of advice to school owners thinking of expandign to multiple locations?

Now when having multiple locations , the key to that after you get your marketing and your sales strategies down, is definitely staff development, learning how to hire the right staff, how to pay your staff, how to motivate your staff. There is so much that goes along with the ability to have a great a staff.  With our industry most people that open martial arts schools most of them that do that, they get their black belt and think “Hey I want to share my knowledge” and then they open up a school and have a hard time switching From martial arts instructor to OWNER.  Once I learned to switch from an instructor to an owner, that’s when I really saw big progress.  What is the job of an OWNER, its to hire staff, is to plan and make sure that the business is moving in the right direction financially and any other goals you set forth. And that’s kind of what happened, we opened up another location, opened up another 2. Really the only reason I open up any locations to this day is to give my staff somewhere to grow. That is the only reason I recommend anyone opening a second location is for staff development. If you don’t have someone that is trained up and ready to run it, do NOT open a second location.  Don’t get into a situation where you have 2-3 schools and now you have to personally run 2-3 locations.

Most people get in a situation where they say “hey I have one school , im making $5000 a month.  If I open another school, ill make $10,000!”. That is just NOT how it works.  Somebody will get sick, you are sick, something happens, the quality is not there… it just does not work.  There are other factors like where are you opening in conjunction with your present location.  Most people think “im going to cover the city” and they open a location on the North, West, South side of the city and they think “I have the city covered” thinking that’s the way to do it.  Well its really part of your marketing plan and how its setup.  Each location “feeds” the other location and depending on where you are but you want your locations to be no more then 5-10 miles away from your other locations and demographics.  If your locations are spread out and you need to take one ad out, then it means you need to take an ad city wide which can get really expensive, and you really would need to have school all over the city.  Using my method, an ad will overlap into your second school area so you can cover two areas for the price of one if you do it right.

How do you advertise your schools?

-At any point I have an average of 10 different promotions going on.  Your marketing has to be a 360 operation. You have your ad cards, your VIP contests, your doorhangers, your flyers.  You need to have 10 things going on!  Lead boxes, referrals.  The methods you use are something youll discuss with your consultant but its important you have a heavy print marketing campaign in place.

And is that how you found Printing Dojo ?

It’s interesting, that is exacty how I got  involved with Printing Dojo.  Nowadays seems like there is a printing company on every corner, but back then there were very few places to get printing for martial arts, and in order to be able to get the materials you had to be a part of that association.  So unless you were a member of a particular association, you had no access to the materials, which to be perfectly honest were always of very inferior quality.  I was in need to order a marketing piece I had seen on a website and was told I could not get it due to the fact that it was reserved to that associations members.  I had two options:  give up on the marketing piece altogether, or find a graphic designer with enough skills to produce the design.  Then I’d have to find somewhere to print it , I called my local Kinkos and the price of design and printing just seemed like maybe the whole thing was not worth the hassle.  After all, I had a martial arts school to run, I couldn’t spend my week researching graphic designers.

The timing really rather incredible, but I received within 24 hours of this a postcard in the mail advertising pricing that was literally half of the printed piece I was told I could not buy.  And the graphic design quality of this card, well compared to the marketing materials I had been using, looked like it came from the future.  Within minutes of getting receiving the card, I was on the phone calling this company to find out if they could create this promo piece for me.  I explained that I needed a flyer for a martial arts company, and started chatting with guy that answered the phone.  He told me his name was Indro, and I learned that he had been in the design and printing business since the mid 90’s, but the part that really seemed unreal was that he told me he was creating a website for printing products specifically targeted at martial arts schools. Turns out I was not the only martial arts school looking for work he produced, and he was developing a website to be able to direct his martial arts clients to directly.

Within a few months, we had tweaked his concepts to reflect my marketing strategies, I invited him to come exhibit at the Maia Supershow and we developed Printing Dojo to truly be the FIRST of ITS KIND Martial arts specific printing company.  But to me the cool part of this story is that Printing Dojo came out of a necessity , not just an idea for a business.  Indro was trying to streamline his design production realizing that martial artists are not marketing guys and needed direction for their promotional materials, and me, well I needed flyers, lots of them!

Nowadays, we are seeing a couple of other printers popping up seeing the potential to make money on an ever growing industry, and it seems we have “inspired” a few companies with Printing Dojo to slap some designs online with very (very!) similar design concepts and ordering forms.  But what to this day sets us apart, is that our products are TESTED in our own schools at USA Karate.  By the time a promotional item hits our website, we have already used it for a few months in our own school and the reason we can brag about the product’s value, is because we know first hand.

So the products on Printing Dojo and the website system are exactly what you use to promote it USA Karate?

I am a school owner, and the fact I use these products is because I KNOW they work.  The reason we do websites with Website Dojo, is not because we are bored of Printing;  Its because my website is a huge source of leads and students for me! And before we ever marketed any websites, we already had a tested product that we knew was revolutionary.  This is what I think really sets us apart.

So to recap, in order to fully make your school grow, you need to do lots of careful planning, and make sure that all aspects of your marketing are in place.  You probably want to avoid designing your own materials, or learning how to design websites, and spend more time on the mat, in your Dojo doing what needs to be done to run your school.  Your school MUST project an image of successs, so its very important that all your marketing materials and online presence are of superior quality.

If you have any questions on any of the topics discussed, or if you are ready to take your own school to the next level, drop me an email to robbybeard@dojoconsulting.com

Martial Arts Printing & Back To School Marketing

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Seasonal Mailers are Key to Surviving Down Periods

Direct mail marketing should always be a part of your overall marketing plan for your Martial Arts school. Even when business is good and every class is full, sending out seasonal mailers through snail mail will give you an edge when the slow season does hit.

During your Martial Art schools down periods, generating business is a must. Without business, well, chances are that you won’t survive financially. Fortunately, seasonal mailers have been shown time and time again to generate traffic and provide business even when times are tough.

Below are a few of the most important reasons why all owners of Martial Arts schools need to invest in seasonal mailers along with a discussion on how you can use this unique marketing tool to its fullest effect.

Why You Need to Engage in Direct Mail Marketing for Your Martial Arts School

Every Martial Arts school can benefit from a well-planned and dynamic direct mail marketing campaign. Sending seasonal mailers detailing your services or special rates is a surefire way to grab the attention of potential customers.

Investing in high-quality seasonal mailers, like those offered by printingdojo.com, the original source of marketing materials for Martials Arts schools, allows your business to:

• Talk directly to customers/students about your Martial Arts school and services.
• Experiment with new customer markets, test new services/classes, and collect customer information that can be analyzed for future marketing campaigns.
• Save money, as direct mailers are one of the most cost-effective forms of print marketing.
• Build personal connections and relationships with new/current students and produce faster sales.
• Receive direct feedback, both from customers themselves and from your mailer’s results, that will help you improve your current and future marketing strategies.

Direct mailers work well particularly because they are so upfront and personal. When a potential customer opens their mailbox, there is a direct mailer from your Martial Arts school staring them right in the face.

Being able to handle a piece of mail from your business in their hands puts your school in the forefront of their mind. An eye-catching and professionally-designed mailer from The Printing Dojo further increases the odds that you will hear from the people you send your mailers to.

Tips for Sending an Effective Seasonal Mailer

Like all else in marketing, it pays off big time not to go about sending a seasonal mailer in a slapdash fashion. You want a well thought out direct mail marketing campaign if you hope to get the best results possible.

A few of the top tips that will help you make your seasonal mailer a success include:

• Form a List – The key to marketing success is knowing who your audience is. If you have been in the business for a while, there is a good chance you have several current and past students you can send your mailers to. Tailoring your list to the people that are actually interested in Martial Arts will greatly improve the success of your campaign.
• Add Value – Sending an informational mailer about your Martial Arts school can be effective but you will find much better results if you add value as well. The key to creating action in your audience is offering a sale, special offer, discount, or bonus for lessons at your school. Direct mailers are meant to make your customer base act now – so give them a reason to seek out Martial Arts lessons during your slow season.
• Look Great – If your mailer looks like junk, it is going to be treated as junk. Minimize the risk of having your mailer thrown out by ensuring that it has a great design. The Printing Dojo has long been the leader in creating stunning professional marketing materials for Martial Arts schools. The credibility and professional quality of their designs will set your mailer apart from other promotional materials arriving in your customer’s mailboxes.
• Include Effective Copy – You need the copy, meaning the actual text, on your mailer to encourage your audience to act. In addition to promoting a special offer, your seasonal mailer needs to say what is so great about your Martial Arts school. Why should a person interested in learning Martial Arts choose it instead of another? Fortunately, The Printing Dojo offers several customizable templates that make writing effective copy easy. While each can be customized, they all do a great job at promoting special seasonal offers themselves.
• Step Into the Customer’s Shoes – Before you follow through with a direct mail marketing campaign, you need to take a step back and look at your mailer. Is it eye-catching? Is the offer strong enough to incite you to act? Does it look credible? If your mailer doesn’t make you want to join your own Martial Arts school, why would it make anyone else want to do so?
• Follow Up – If you really want to hit a home run with your direct mailer for your Martial Arts school, follow up with an additional mailer. Sure, it might cost a little extra money, but sending two different mailers can show a potential customer that you care and that you really want them to consider your school. If you really want to go above and beyond, you can even send a personalized sales letter as a follow up. Or if your campaign is targeting previous students, you might even consider giving them a phone call as long as it is appropriate.

Seasonal Mailers for Your Martial Arts School
Let’s face it: there is no getting around slow periods. Certain times of the year are just a lot slower for Martial Arts schools than others.
While slow periods vary from school to school, especially depending on location, there are a few times of the year that are great to send mailers during. A few of these include before school starts for another year, when school is let out for the summer, around the winter holidays, at Halloween, at Valentine’s Day, and for spring. Customizing your mailer for each season (printingdojo.com offers a number of seasonal templates) will greatly increase your chances of success.

When times are slow, a seasonal mailer might have you covered. They are one of the most effective forms of print marketing for Martial Arts schools. Need business? Check them out!

How to Successfully Run a Back to School Campaign for Your Martial Arts Dojo

The back to school season is one of the best times of the year to run a specifically targeted marketing campaign for your dojo.
As a new school year looms ever closer and the summer comes to a close, many kids, of all ages and grades levels, are looking for extracurricular activities to keep themselves busy. In recent years, there has been an explosion in interest in the area of Martial Arts. People of all ages have shown a strong desire to learn them and with this has come an increase in the number of Martial Arts dojos offering lessons.

With that said, it is essential you set your school apart from the rest by running a successful marketing campaign. By showing off your best side to potential students, you greatly increase the likelihood that they will choose you for their lessons rather than someone else.

While anytime of the year is great to run a marketing campaign, the back to school season is especially important because it can lead well into Halloween, the winter holidays, and the New Year. Generally, students that start to attend Martial Arts schools at the beginning of their academic school years tend to continue their lessons throughout the entirety of the year (and often on into summer).

Below is a discussion on how to best run a back to school campaign for your Martial Arts dojo. Do a great job and you’ll no doubt have a successful year. Slack off and there is a good chance a large portion of your potential business will find somewhere else for their Martial Arts training.

Running a Successful Back to School Marketing Campaign
The back to school season is a particularly hot time for businesses of all types to start running special deals and offering new promotions. Even though your Martial Arts business does not directly relate to school supplies, you’ll find that the same customer spirit of investing in new products will correlate to investing in new activities.

Around the start of a new school year, parents are that much more likely to invest money in activities for their children. At the same time, children generally show more interest in getting involved with new hobbies and in continuing ones they have already started to pursue.

These are just a few of the reasons why the back to school season is so hot for Martial Arts dojos. Here are a few tips on how you can run the best back to school marketing campaign possible:

• Start Planning Early – Too many people wait until the last minute to begin planning seasonal marketing campaigns. It is essential that you start planning early if you want the best results possible for your Martial Arts dojo. Better yet, launch your campaign early. Mid-July should be the latest date that you start advertising your new offers. This will allow you to gain valuable momentum as the summer progresses.
• Provide Value – Advertising for the back to school season will do little to improve business at your dojo if you don’t add value to your offers. This means that you need to include a limited time deal or price reduction for lessons at your Martial Arts school. Reduced rates and deals will capture your audience’s attention, bringing them into your business and hopefully transforming them into long-term customers.
• Keep Things Simple – A simple marketing campaign is the most effective one. Rather than trying to reach every market, invest in a few primary promotional products. For instance, send a “back to school discount” direct mailer to potential customers, update your website, and print new flyers out to post around town.
• Focus on the Long Term – Back to school marketing is all about the long term. Of course, you want to get new students into your dojo as soon as possible, but you also want to make sure they stick with you throughout the entire year. Take the data you receive from your back to school marketing efforts and apply it through the year. Back to school is a great time to learn what your customers are looking for before beginning your holiday season advertising.

Additional Marketing Tips for the Back to School Season

Running a back to school marketing campaign – or any marketing campaign for that matter – is all about connecting with old students as well as bringing in new students.

Simply put, finding new students is much more difficult than encouraging former students to return. And it costs a heck of a lot more money. This is why it is so important to focus on reconnecting with old students in addition to reaching out to potential new students.

A great first step is talking with parents of your current students. Mention that you are looking for new students for the upcoming school year. Parents are great at getting leads on other kids that might be interested in learning Martial Arts from you.

Better yet, establish a referral system. Every time a current student/parent refers a new student, they are rewarded. If you implement such a system (and you definitely should), there is little doubt you will find it to be one of your best sources of income-generating advertising.

Another marketing tip for the back to school season is to call each of your former students on the phone where appropriate. Mention that you are offering a special promotion for all old students. Provide a small discount coupon (alternatively, you can mail this to them) and you are sure to find a few old faces back in your dojo in no time.

Select printingdojo.com for Your Back to School Promotional Needs

Even the best thought out marketing campaign will fall short if you do not invest in high-quality promotional materials.
Fortunately, printingdojo.com has you covered. The Printing Dojo is always the obvious choice for anything regarding Martial Arts printing. We have been creating top-of-the-line marketing and promotional materials for Martial Arts schools for years. In fact, we were the first company to specialize in marketing specifically for Martial Arts dojos. And everyone knows the original is always best.

By investing in the highest-quality promotional materials possible and using the marketing tips discussed above, there is little doubt that your back to school campaign for your Martial Arts dojo will be a success.