Five Tips and Tactics for Thriving in a Tough Economy

What do people typically call the present status of the economy? A recession?  A downturn?  Whatever you call it, the rate of income growth across US businesses has slowed to a crawl, and that is scaring the pants off of a lot of people. Your own business may not be affected in any way, but the fact is that many people are worried about their future… very worried.

Bad news?  Obviously, in some ways, it really is! Those worried folks only spend less money these days and don’t buy anymore on impulse, making each and every transaction, making each sale a little bit harder.

But for those of us with the right approach, there’s hope. A sure hope and opportunity. You will ask, “Why?” The fact remains to be simple and true and that is while everyone else is capitalizing with less vigor and determination, you can do the exact opposite. As what Paul Lemberg puts it that while timid business owners are pulling in their horns and “conserving cash” you can outmarket them. As the unemployment rate creeps up, you can acquire their staff more easily.  And good businesses are for sale and can be bought on the cheap. How about that?

Here are a few martial arts business tips and tactics that will definitely help when things get rough.  These tips apply whenever your School needs a boost.  You can think of them as turnaround tactics.

1. Market Harder

Make sure to advertise your business harder!  Hey – either they will enroll in your school, or not.  And if they don’t, there are plenty of other clients and prospects, so who cares. But when students and prospects are feeling the pinch they become circumspect about how they spend their money, and it takes more persuasion to get them to enroll.  Research shows that it takes as many as seven – even ten – “touches” to get someone to take action.  And sales data shows that most people stop closing after the first try, and even professional folks usually quit after the third time.   Advertise harder.  Ask more often.  Use stronger arguments. Go back to your people repeatedly and make them see the need!

2. Narrow Your Focus and Broaden Your Lines

This may seem like a paradox – narrow and broaden at the same time.  It isn’t.  You’ve got to free yourself from all distractions.  Prune outlying ventures and offshoots that aren’t really part of your core business.  Narrow your focus and spend all your energy on strengthening the core materials and services that contribute most to your income.  Next, make it easier for your good students/clients to spend more money with you.  Figure out what related promo or services they want and need and make the strategy to offer it to them.

3. Spend More Money On Marketing

Most business owners “budget” for marketing, which only makes sense if you think of it as a cost.  Instead, if you see marketing as a income generator, you should be willing to be spend some defined fraction of that income to acquire yet more income!  That fraction should be a function of your average customers lifetime value.  If you follow tip 2 above, you will quickly increase your average lifetime value, and therefore be willing and able to spend more.  Test first. Make sure your programs work before you roll out big.  One more thing; in tough times, you may also want to think about increasing that fraction itself.  If you normally consider spending 10% of lifetime value to acquire a student, you may want to increase it to 12% or 15%.

4. Establish Your Referral Systems

Teach your Martial Arts Buisness to market itself. How do you do that? Well, it start’s with being REMARKABLE! What is your Buisness Story? This is a great place to start. Create your School’s story, why your passionate about teaching martial arts and how it came to be. Create a great looking sheet to give to prospects, Have a mural painted in your school of the story. This will train your students to TELL your buisness story to others. Also, use social media (video works best) to feature students. You will find when you put up a “student of the week” video on your blog or fan page that your students will be sending them to your page to check it out. Buddy Days, Contests and all other referral tactics only CONSITENTLY produce results when you have made every part of your martial arts business UNIQUE! Think of the last time you had a GREAT experience dining, you wanted to TELL everyone you know to go there. When you run Tactics such as a buddy day WITHOUT being REMARKABLE your students have no impetus to bring your referrals. SPECIAL NOTE - We have a great new Video Training on our REFERRAL FLOOD SYSTEM, watch your inbox for detals.

5. Clarify Your Value Proposition

Remember: even if there really is a ‘recession,’ people are always going to spend money.  Perhaps not as easily or as much, but we all still have needs and wants, and we are going to try to satisfy those.  That means that while people aren’t rushing to pull out their wallets for every offer that comes along, they will still spend on things perceived as valuable.  What does that mean?  Before you may have gotten away with a lot of fast talk.  Now you have to prove it to them.  Spell it out; show them exactly how they will benefit – in financial terms like how martial arts can prevent them from hospitalization bills and other aspects of their lives.  Use case studies, testimonials, examples, demonstrations.

BONUS TIP – Sweeten Your Offer

Get OUTRAGEOUS! create a offer that your prospects can’t refuse and then sweeten it more. Check out your compettitors offers and make yours 10x better. I suggest using FREE trial offers with a touch of “Velvet Rope -Take away” in the process. Offer them a 2 week Trail and at the end of the 2 weeks we will BOTH see if it;s a good fit. Offer them a bonus gift right after the 2 weeks are up and give them little bonuses throughout the 2 week trail. This will make you UNIQUE and don’t forget to INVITE them into your membership or GRADUATE them into your club at the end of the 2 weeks. Once they have been ACCEPTED it makes it easy to ask them for the names of 3 friends, nieghboors or co workers. I like to do this on the 4 week Check Up call!

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What was your biggest “Takeaway” from this post. Please Share your comments with us below.

Click the PLAY button to get this quick IDEA!

Captain John Rade, a legendary fisherman from Montauk, NY, is known for his amazing ability to out-fish every commercial fisherman in his area.

His secret contains a profound lesson for school owners.

Grasp this… Captain John’s secret… and there’s no doubt you’ll mutiply the number of new Students coming into your school every month.

Captain John is a commercial fisherman. He’s also known as a Pin Hooker, the rarest of all fisherman.

While other commercial fisherman are using big nets to bring in their daily catches, Captain John is out there with nothing more than a rod and reel.

He doesn’t use any of the tools the other commercial fisherman use.

No nets. No giant trollers. No crews of five or six fisherman.

He simply goes out on a little motorboat with a rod and reel… and out-catches every other fisherman by multiples.

In fact, on any given day, on the same exact body of water, Captain John will regularly catch more striped bass than 10 commercial fisherman COMBINED!

So, how does he do it you’re wondering?

Well, when asked exactly that by a local news reporter, he said something profound.

He said, “When most fisherman go out on the water they think like a fisherman. When I go out I think like a fish.”

WOW!

The implication of that answer for School Owners is HUUUUUUGE.

Let me break it down for you:

When it comes to marketing and trying to attract prospective Students, most school owners think and market from a SCHOOL OWNERS’s perspective.

Most design their marketing materials from the perspective of a school owner and NOT from the perspective of a potential martial arts student.

In other words, most school owners are thinking about themselves and their practice when they advertise. They’re NOT thinking about what prospective students are looking for, want, need, and desire.

You see, martial arts marketing  is very similar to fishing.

You have to know your target and know what they’re looking for so you can use the correct bait to attract them.

When fishing, it’s not about what you want to use as bait. It’s completely about what your target fish is looking for. And then using THAT as bait.

This is why the most effective martial arts marketing materials are totally focused on solving the prospective students’s problem or need, and NOT… NOT… about the school itself.

In essence, the most effective martial arts school marketing materials are not even marketing the school at all. They’re marketing the solution to a prospective students’s problem. Period.

Why?

Because that’s what most prospective student’s are looking for and want.

here’s what adult’s want…

*They want to know how to choose the right martial arts school.
* They want their pain eliminated.
* They want their energy boosted.
* They want to feel confident.
* They want to feel their best.
* They want to know that their child has an advantage to succeed.
*They want to feel challenged again
*They want to have fun
*They want to feel toatally engaged in something to free their mind from stress.

Here’s what Parents want…

*They want to know How to choose a martial arts school
*They want their child to have an advantage over others.
*They want to feel proud of their child
*They want feel that heir child will not be a victim.
* They want know that their child will make right choices in life
* They want their child to have a positive outlet for energy so that they sleep well and parents can have some “ME” time when they go to bed.

An overwhelming majority of prospective students are NOT looking for a school. They’re looking for a solution to their problem.

If you try to advertise and market your school, you’re trying to attract them with the wrong bait.

Instead, market the solution to their problem.

Market confidence.
Market the result of being in shape
Market stress relief
Market giving a child strong advantages in life
Market Life lessons that help children make good choices
Market How to find the martial arts school and avoid the hassle of doing the home work.

And the best way to do this is with free information… like a free online video… that educates them on why martial arts training is the best solution to their specific need.

(This is what we do for school owners with the Martial Arts Dashboard. Check it out here: http://www.schoolownersecrets.com/dashboard/

The reason why this approach to martial arts marketing works so well is threefold:

1. It allows you to use marketing materials that are totally and completely focused on the prospective student. Remember, the average prospective student is solely interested in finding and getting the best and most effective solution to their problem. They’re not interested in you or your school. At least not righ now. And, so you need to make sure your marketing focuses on them, exactly what THEY WANT, and answers the question of “What’s In It For Me”.

2. When you offer free educational videos tailored to the specific problem prospective students want solved, you’re able to identify exactly who the interested prospective students are, so you can do targeted, benefit-focused follow-up with them. Remember, when it comes to martial arts marketing; the fortune is in the follow-up. (This is automated with the Martial Arts Dashboard. Check it out here:http://www.schoolownersecrets.com/dashboard/ )

3. With free videos tailored to specific problems & Solutions, you’re able to deliver a much more targeted message that highlights the specific benefits prospective students want. In other words, if you have a video dedicated to educating people interested in Choosing The Right Martial Arts school, you can hit on the exact benefits those people want.

Here is the take away:

The more you can get into the mind of the different groups of prospective students, and better understand their needs and wants, the better you can tailor the bait to attract them into your school.

The effectiveness and power of your martial arts marketing totally comes down to YOU offering the most sought-after bait prospective students are hungry for.

As Captain John Rade would probably say… It’s all about thinking like a prospective student.

I just got this email from Google and sometimes I take for granted that I already learned something and that you might have learned it too.

This is what the email said:

Improve your local marketing with Google:
Add location extensions to your ads. Get your business listed, free.

There’s now a better way to promote your business location locally with AdWords. With the new location extensions feature, you can make any ad more local by including your business address and a link to your website. You can directly improve the performance of ads promoting your business locations, as compared to ads without location extensions. Here are the two things you should do to get started:

Learn how to connect your Local Business Center account with AdWords to start using location extensions.

Add or claim a listing, free. If you haven’t done so already, use Local Business Center to add your free business listing to Google and Google Maps, and to claim listings that already exist. You’ll also get free insights on how people are finding your business.

Go to http://www.google.com/lbc for more info.

I hope you haven’t bought-into or convinced yourself of any of these little devious martial arts marketing white-lies.

Because, one of the two biggest reasons for school failure is lack of martial arts marketing systems, these small lies you tell yourself can add up to BIG trouble for your martial arts school.

So, as I cover these insidious lies, be honest with yourself and ask if you’ve been telling yourself any of these:

Martial Ats Marketing LIE #1: “My budget’s way to small.”

This is a mindset many school owners mistakenly possess… that’s built on the idea that your martial arts marketing is an expense.

Really… your martial arts marketing is NOT an expense. It’s an investment, when done right, that will bring you back more money.

Your school lighting… that’s an expense.

Your air conditioning… that’s an expense.

Your martial arts marketing… that’s an investment.

And, when you see your marketing as an investment… one that brings you a positive ROI (if you’re doing it correctly)… you should realize that the goal is to invest as much as possible. In other words, if every time you invest $1, you make back $2, you should be doing that everyday, all day.

If your marketing is NOT bringing you back a positive return on your investment, that’s a sign that you’re simply not using the correct direct response marketing principles in your marketing and advertising efforts. Which leads me to the next Martial Arts Marketing Lie…

Martial Arts Marketing LIE #2: “Marketing doesn’t work for me.”

Of course marketing works. That’s why it’s a billion-dollar industry.

The key, though, is that whenever you do advertise or market your school, that you’re using time-tested, proven direct response marketing principles, and not just following the herd of what other martial arts school owners are doing.

In fact, let me be completely frank for a second…

Following what the average martial arts school owner is doing to try and build their school, will only get you what the average school owner is currently getting. And, right now, I have to believe that’s NOT what you want. If you do what the average does, you’ll continue to get what the average gets. And, again, right now that’s very little.

According to Earl Nightingale, anytime you’re in an industry where there aren’t many successful examples, you should do the OPPOSITE of what everybody else in the marketplace is doing.

For many school owners, using proper direct response marketing principles in their martial arts marketing efforts is quite a stretch and gets them out of their comfort zone. But, most of the time, remaining in your comfort zone is the exact thing that holds you back. Often, it’s the things you’re most uncomfortable with that are the exact things you should be doing to grow your school.

Listen:

Not all martial arts marketing works. In fact, most marital arts marketing doesn’t work. That’s because it’s not persuasive, not attention-getting, and doesn’t convey any benefits of what sets the typical school apart.

BUT… properly done martial arts marketing that does convey all of those things, will create a steady, consistent stream of new students and cash flow to you. It will.

Martial Arts Marketing LIE #3: “There’s no time for marketing.”

Marketing your martial arts school is the lifeblood of your school. It’s THE thing that will get you new students and keep your current students coming back for months and months and years.

The marketing of your school should be viewed similar to the way you view eating for health and wellness. In order for your body to thrive it needs good nutrition and to be fed on a regular basis. You would say, “I don’t have time to eat” or “Eating isn’t important to my body”. We certainly know the outcome of that type of thinking.

Fact of the matter is, the school owners who give their marketing the proper amount of time and attention, combined with the proper direct response marketing principles, are the ones experiencing the greatest school growth and increase in cash flow.

Your takeaway: you absolutely, positively MUST… MUST… give your martial arts school marketing the time and attention it deserves and needs.

And, so… there you have it… 3 of the tiny white-lies many martial arts school owners tell themselves that hold them back from every experiencing the big consistent growth they long for. Don’t make that same mistake.

I just discovered something HUGE for School Owners that is going to SAVE YOU MONEY… BIG TIME!!

It shows the exact time of year you should *NOT* be investing your marketing dollars on advertising for your school.

I think you’ll be pretty blown-away by this clear cut trend…

Watch this short 5 minute video:

Now don’t get me wrong…I am not saying don’t market!

What I am saying is be very accurate where you put your marketing dollars. This is a great time for back to school marketing, but look for low cost tactics if you can first. That’s why email and event marketing our great ways to leverage your ROI and should be primary strategies at this time of year.

Try to use your resources when you know that people are actually searching for you. (you will actually land more qualified prospects during this upward trends!).

Here are some ways when to ask for referrals without destroying the Student / Instructor relationship.

Clients praised your product or service: When your students  tell you what a great experience they have with your school. End the conversation with “If i can ever help you or anyone you know please let me know”. You have gained their trust and you are welcoming new students in.

Referred Student: If you have a new referred student and they are happy with your school, ask them if they have anyone that they know that would benefit from training at your school. Referrals always begat other referrals.

Give the Extra Mile for a student: Make your students feel that you are going the extra mile the call duty for them. Then they will obviously notice the special effort you have made and then when the time is right ask them to introduce you to some of their friends and family.

These are just some of the best times to ask for a referral.

Of course you should have referral systems in place that automatically generate referrals.

Finally, one of the best ways to keep a steady flow of referrals coming into your school is to reward any effort a student makes to introduce you to a friend or family member and you will see how 80% of the time it produces more referrals for your school.

Lets start a discussion of the BEST referral systems that you have used and Duane and I will chime in with some of our favorites.

This is a sample of what’s inside of SOS insiders club. Business Wisdom Briefs is a distilled action plan from the top business books so that YOU don’t have to read them. You only get the actionable items from these book summaries.

	Identify every point of contact, and every purpose for contact between your customers and your company.
	Schedule a weekly ‘contact improvement meeting’ to continually brainstorm and discuss ways to improve each and every contact.
	Adopt this job description for your customer service team: “Make the customers happy. Make the prospects happy. Make each other happy.”
	Prepare a list of questions and statements for customer service reps to use that include questions about the customer’s situation and needs, statements about your company and your products, and ways of asking for the sale.
	Give things you already do special names — e.g. if you want your customer service reps to get to know your clients, you’re going to want to have them ask questions, right? Well, if you’re in the B2B space for example, why not call it the “5 Minute Business Breakthrough Assessment”. Then your customer service rep can say, “It sounds to me like you could benefit from our ‘5 Minute Business Breakthrough Assessment’ that my boss prepared… do you have 5 minutes to learn how we can make or save you thousands of dollars?”.
	Schedule a meeting to brainstorm all the products and services you can deliver QUICKLY, SIMPLY AND EASILY by extending, separating, or leveraging your current products and knowledge.
	Identify your new customer’s honeymoon period, and find a way to activate the referral during that specific period in time. Make it irresistable.
	Automate the request for testimonials… and when you get one, give the client a call to say thank-you and to introduce them to your referral program.
	Initiate awareness of the need to refer even before a person becomes a customer.
	Consider allowing customers and partners to EXTEND your product offering with 3rd-party content or services.
	Develop a product for potential partners to give away — something that makes THEM money.
	Schedule a brainstorming meeting identify a special experience you can give to your new customers. Pick ONE cool idea and implement it EXCEPTIONALLY well.

]]> http://www.schoolownersecrets.com/duct-tape-marketing/feed 0 http://www.schoolownersecrets.com/using-network-marketing-to-gain-more-students http://www.schoolownersecrets.com/using-network-marketing-to-gain-more-students#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:54:25 +0000 admin http://www.schoolownersecrets.com/?p=293

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EVENT: Q & A for Income Generator Ideas
DATE & TIME: Saturday, March 28th at 1:00pm Central

FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

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Let me ask you, what do you picture when you think about a velvet rope? Oscars. Right, when we say velvet rope, we visualize red carpet, looking at Hollywood stars, guards, and waiting in line. Wouldn’t it be great to create this kind of feeling about your martial arts business? Where all your clients are lining up to train in your school.. We say, this is possible. It really is.

Here are 5 simple marketing that get students to be hungry to train with you.

1. Create a blog with good copy.

This will bring more people in your website when you create blog not just to give information that YOU think is interesting but give information that your customer wants. As more people join and read your blogs, they will post comments and makes you the expert.

2. Market yourself in the community in the means of TV, newspaper, magazines and etc.

Marketing yourself is the easiest way to create the velvet rope. People think that media people are considered as the experts. When you use this, potential prospects will be thinking why else the media chose you if you weren’t the best? Start building relationships with the media by contacting them through email and send press releases. As we know, that they are busy and you want to make their life easier for them build a bargain for them. Like offering them free training, or create 5 story ideas for them to use, and build content that is easy for the media to use. My favorite is to attain a column and write regular articles on parenting, fitness and personal protection.

3. Have lots of testimonials

Aggressively pursue testimonials from your loyal clients. Use them to inspire other new prospects to join. Collect as many testimonials as possible, if you have enough arrange them for reaching out to a variety of people who have the same goals as them. One of our favorite tactics is to have a members appreciation day at which time you have someone walking around asking your students questions like ” What was your best day at training?” What positive impact on your life has happened as a result of training at ________?”.

4.  Find your niche

Finding a niche will help you become more exclusive with the people you work with. If you have a potential client who doesn’t fit your standards, then in polite way explain that you are focusing on whatever type of student and would love to refer her/him to another school who would be suited for their needs. The person, who you just have turned down, will tell to their friends what happen, eventually it will increase your velvet rope feel around your business.

5.  Create good newsletter to send to your lists.

90% of your newsletter must be content base providing them the information that they are seeking. You could add some personal touch in the newsletter.

When using newsletter to promote your service, indicate and make them clear that you don’t accept every person. Use phrases with application process or trial period, state the expectations that you have for each client and if those expectation are not met then you have the right to stop working with them. Do not beg or plead a potential client to train with you. This will help you boost up your number of clients because of how you set standards with each and every client and with good customer service. It creates credibility within yourself as well as your martial arts business.

Those are 5 ways to get clients waiting in line to get you to work with them. We can personally tell you that this works and recommend you to GO OUT AND DO THE SAME.