The best marketing strategies for a martial arts school

Martial arts school owners have gotten lazy with their marketing, and it is hurting their ability to get new members.

Back in the “old days” the way we gained new students was totally opposite of the way we get them now, and the new ways that worked just a year ago are now dying or falling flat. And this is hurting martial arts schools. Some have even had to close.

The best martial arts schools that I work with all have multiple ways to get prospects, they never rely on just one method.

Not all methods work every single month, some methods that worked last month, or even last year just stop working as well as they once did.

If your goal is to enroll 10 or 15 new members every month, and your marketing method slows down the flow of new prospects this month, you are instantly in trouble. Enrollment numbers start slipping. Goals are not met. Profits start becoming smaller.

The best way to market your martial arts school is to pick three to eight different methods each month. This way, if one or even two of your marketing methods slow down or stop working, you have several more working for you.

Have you experienced this? You do a booth at the local mall, and you get more leads than you can handle, a supreme success of a day. You get excited about doing the next one, but weather is bad, not as many people are there, leads fall flat. It happens, this is the nature of life.

However, if your goal is to grow, and impact as many students as you can, you take extreme ownership, even if leads are low you will find a way to make up for it in other ways.

One of my friends loved Facebook ads, and for a few years, all she had to do was spend money, get new students. It was much easier to spend money, than to do all of the work necessary for other marketing channels. She stopped doing demos, stopped doing school talks, stopped doing community events. She did not need to, paid advertising was giving her more than enough new students.

Then something happened. FB changed the algo. Leads slowed down. Then all of her competitors started running ads too, cutting down how many she was used to, and ad costs sometimes doubled. Black Friday used to be a big day for new enrollments, but the big brands started taking up all ad space pushing her ads down.

If you want to be the best known martial arts school in your area, you have to be in front. Everywhere your potential students hang out.

You must do Digital Marketing, if you are not spending $1000+ each month, you will fall behind eventually. However, you also need to add in four to six other avenues for gaining leads. It is time to get back to demos at the local mall, getting back in the school system, booths at city fairs, parent’s night out guest events, referral contests, buddy days, inviting people you meet in daily life to give martial arts a try.

Most digital marketing is not very targeted. yes, you can select the type of audience you want to deliver your ads to, but just because they fit your demographic while they are scrolling on TikTok, does not mean any one of those people actually want to do martial arts.

I looked at Digital Marketing like icing on the cake, but we as martial arts school owners have mistaken the icing for the entire meal, and wondered how come our business was getting sick.

If you really want to grow, you will need to have multiple ways to gain prospects that turn into appointments, that turn into long term students.

Some of these strategies will turn out to be extra effort, tons of planning and will cost money. It may take some time to become proficient at these other avenues. It may not work the first or tenth time we attempt them. Building a business in today’s economy is different, we have to think long term success, and greatest impact.

When I go to the local grocery store I am often greeted by a kid that is not a student who recognizes me when I went to their classroom in school to do a lesson on “How to become great” to them and their 30 other classmates. I will run into parents who said they saw me at the local mall doing a demo. I often have adults come in that saw us at their corporate retreat, loved our lesson and knew we were great teachers. I have had kids enroll that came with their best friends to multiple parent’s night out events we have hosted. Sometimes, these people saw us at multiple places.

If you want to impact the community, you have to be in the community. They need to see you, hear about you, experience your programs. By seeing you in different places, they start to recognize you, then they start to remember your name, then they start to think about how you can help them. If they have seen you do a demo, or participated, they already know how great your program is. They can not get that from an ad they saw.

Imagine, that everywhere someone goes, you are there. You become the one that they know and recognize. You are top of mind, and when the timing is right for them to do martial arts, you are who they think of.

It is time to gradually add back in the other methods of marketing your school.

Call to action: Time to pick one other method than what you are doing now, commit to doing it for the next three months, build your skills, become world-class at it, improve each time.

What new marketing method will you implement? Sound off below. I may even have a free guide I can send you to give you a head start.