MA Business Success 10: Low-Cost Martial Arts Marketing

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/martial-arts-business-success-10-low-cost-martial-arts-marketing

Alex: Graham McDonnell and Phil Britten are here from TIMA, the Institute of Martial Arts, and this time, some advice on martial arts marketing on a low budget. So, Graham, dispel the myth. We don't actually have to spend thousands on marketing ourselves, do we? Graham: Not at all, it's being effective with the money that you do have. You know, for years and years and years, I've looked at marketing and they say, "Look, you know, you should be investing 10% of the income that you make into marketing your business." Within reason, that's sometimes it's not always as effective. You know, you think, "Okay, all I have is $500, how can I utilize this for the next five weeks?" Or it could be three months, whatever it may be. But one of the easy ones is referrals. Having a referral campaign or a referral generating system in your business already. Because there's nothing better than actually having a client of yours, already, go out and tell a friend or tell multiple friends. Alex: Marketing for you. Graham: Yes. Basically, word of mouth is by far the best way to get your brand out there without it being a major cost. Now... Alex: Do you have a system whereby if somebody comes in and brings a friend, there's a gain for them? Graham: Most definitely. And we've trialed many, many different versions of this. For us, we've been fortunate enough to have a system that works well, where if the individual brings in a friend and they happen to stay and join. We will give not only the friend, they'll get a little bit of a pat on the back and some sort of, you know, praise there, but the person who actually did the referring, dragged their friends in, we'll give them a $50 gift voucher for the first person. For the second person, within a timeframe...so, what we like to do is, we have like, what we call a "cash out" period, if you call it that, after a month. So within that one calendar month, if someone has brought in two friends, they get a $100 voucher. If they've bought in three, they get a $200 voucher. If they've brought in four, they get a $400 voucher. And as you can imagine, when they bring in five friends, $800 gift voucher to whatever store it may be. So, it's a pretty big motivator and... Alex: That's pretty good. Graham: ... a thank you. And you can imagine, if you get an $800 voucher, especially leading up to Christmas or something like that, it's going to make a major impact. Now the one big thing, and I'm sure Phil will sorta answer on this one, is for business owners, it's very, very important for them to understand investment versus cost. You may be thinking, "Jeez, $800. Wow, that's, you know, I'm on a low budget." But if you look at how much you're going to gain by having five new members in your school, the, I guess, the dollar amount they're going to bring to you is... Alex: And they'll invite other people, and they'll bring in another 25. Graham: Exactly. And that $800 you may have spent on a print ad may bring you nothing. So, there the thing is... Alex: Investing in the people that you've got through the door already. Graham: Yep. Phil: Yeah, look, we've trialed many things, as Graham's said. And, you know, the reward at the end has changed from a bicycle to an Xbox to a travel voucher, you know? But what we've found is if we just keep it open, so like for a Westfield voucher, you've got so many hundreds of shops they can choose, whether it's a gift for them or someone else and it's just a real easy way to do that. And that's a reward in itself for the person to bring a friend in. But there's also other ways that we can sort of help guide, or push, current members to share the gift of martial arts. And it's exactly that, it's making sure that they understand the gift of martial arts. So, our current students understand that they are learning things that are changing their lives and that we're sharing the gift of martial arts to them. And it would be silly of them not to share that on to their friends. So when you put a little bit more emotional twist on it, it's like their duty. It's their duty, because you know, would you agree that...how bad would you feel if one of your friends got attacked? How bad would you feel if, you know, they were depressed and stressed at work, and you could have made a difference? So we really try and push...and it's not a trick at all. It's actually letting them know the difference it has made in their life and how good would it feel if you could change their life as well? So, you know, yes, the reward at the end is a gift voucher. But really, the reward is having friends and family members learn and gain the same gifts that you've received. Alex: Okay, so that emotional engagement. Phil: Absolutely. Alex: Yeah, okay. Graham: I've seen many businesses, especially in this industry, martial arts, have referral campaigns but set and forget. You know, they think, "Oh well, we have one," but they don't actively promote it like Phil was talking about. So, we teach our staff the right way to engage with the students, with the audience. So that is pre-framing, framing that emotional tie, so therefore when we give them a gift voucher or something to go and hand on to somebody else, they're motivated to do so. Rather than just, say, receive a gift voucher, "Yeah, okay, cool, I'll give to someone eventually." And then they may forget about it. So, it's important to have that powerful impact on your students so that they also transfer that same emotion to their friends or whoever else is their...the person who is going to receive the voucher. So, it's important to frame it, explain it, empower the staff to be able to communicate effectively and therefore, the students are gonna do exactly that as well. Alex: So, referrals are probably your number one. Graham: Number one for us. Phil: We've traveled the world and, you know, regardless of how big your school is, generally speaking, I would say 95% of most schools, their highest way of bringing members in is through referrals. So, you've gotta make sure you're capitalizing on that and not just sort of hope and wish that people are going to talk about it. You actually have to guide them. Alex: Yeah, absolutely. But if the first impact, like when I walked into one of your...unwittingly, into one of your schools recently, the first impact is, or the first sensation is, "Wow! It's a great place to be in." It feels very open. It feels like you're being treated as a person and not as just another number and, "I hope they come in and pay their fees." It's all about getting to know the students. So, that goes hand-in-glove, doesn't it with... Phil: Absolutely. Alex: ...how that's going to be referred on? Phil: The underlying thing is that we are in the business of changing people's lives, and that's our thing. We're gonna create confidence for life, we're gonna change people's lives. And it doesn't matter if you became a member at our school or somewhere else, we are genuinely interested in helping the community. And I think that has to come out first. And when you do that, you know, and we are open to people who come through our doors and if they don't like the price that it costs to do martial arts with us or anything else, please go experience something else. And if you're not getting what you want, then come back and see us. It's not an issue. Graham: I think, Alex, you sorta touched on, and Phil has too, is that it's very very important, and it's probably a whole other topic again, is to make sure that once you have spent the money or invested the time in marketing and bringing people to your door, you better make sure that what you're providing is engaging and it encompasses that whole experience. Because, you know, again, people are thinking, "Well, I'll just market or bring people in, of course they're gonna stay." Sometimes, that's not always the case. Yes, you bring people to your door, they have a bad experience and unfortunately, go and tell 10 people about that bad experience. Alex: Yes, absolutely. They're more likely to, aren't they? Graham: Oh yes. So, it's very important there to make sure that you've got that stuff locked down as well. Alex: Yes, absolutely. So, referrals, what else are we doing marketing-wise? Phil: Well, you know, something that we work on consistently and I do this with, not just with our martial arts business but my other businesses as well, is your email list. You know, really, if you don't have an email list, then you need to get one. Part of getting your identity out there, people calling you, you know, you should be always looking for their name. A phone number's good, but email is just as great as well. Because you're gonna really have three types of lists, I believe. You're gonna have a list of people who have inquired but didn't join. So for some reason, maybe it was too expensive, not what they're after, whatever it may be. You're gonna have a list that are current members. And then, you're gonna have another list who were members who have canceled or quit for some reason. And we're going to offer certain things at certain times to all three of those lists. So, it might be the people who inquired but didn't join, it might...no means, "No right now." So, we might offer them a specific offer about, "Hey, you didn't find what you were after the first time around. How about this special offer of XYZ?" And it could be enough to get them in the door. For the people who were members and maybe left for us, well, we might send out an email like, "Do you remember the feeling you got after a martial arts class? Well, why not come down and do this particular deal?" So we're always working on our lists. It actually costs really nothing to email people different offers and opportunities to come back to training. And it's something that also on that referral thing, we can then also then email our current members of different ways that they can get their friends and family involved as well. So, utilizing your email lists, I think, is probably one of the lowest of lows. Because, you know, you've already had some sort of contact with them. All that it takes is them to give you their email address and then you can offer them different ways of getting involved in your business. Graham: Most definitely. Yeah, I agree completely. Alex: Okay, so we've got emails, we've got referrals. What else are we looking at? Graham: Okay, so this one is, I guess, the big cost is more time and making connection with your community, so business to business. Now, to explain, we have lots of people that come to our martial arts schools that themselves are business owners. And you've also got to look at your local community and think, "Okay, how can we work together to co-promote or get a desired result?" So, myself and Phil have often created, you know, lovely gift vouchers. So, let's just say, for example, we make five awesome gift vouchers offering one month free, two months free, whatever the value you decide that you do. But, instead of just doing a printed piece of paper on a laminated sheet, you actually take a little bit of extra time and get it looking really good, really valuable type gift voucher. And what you do then, is you go to the businesses of choice that you made connections with around your area and offer them these five gift vouchers to give to their top clients. And what that does, it means that, on behalf of that particular business, and let's just say it's a dry-cleaning shop, for example. We give them the five gift vouchers, they will then pass it on to five of their top clients, and equally, what we'll do in our business, the martial arts school, is we will refer people up to that dry cleaners and say, "Hey, if you guys want your suits done, your uniforms, you've got a grading coming up, for example, and you want to make sure you look crisp. Go and get it dry cleaned up there." So, it's that co-promotion amongst yourself, where it costs you no more than a couple of dollars getting good vouchers, a little bit of time and connection, and it makes relationships that will last time. You know, and that's really what you want. And you think, "Jeez, I've got five vouchers for one business. If I then target 10 businesses,15, 20 that are in your local area, what impact are you going to have?" Which is exciting. Alex: Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, so those are the main three? Or have we got any more up our sleeves? Graham: We've got a couple more up our sleeves. Alex: Yeah? Phil: Certainly, we'll just rattle off before we finish off. They sorta go hand-in-hand. Community events, it's just getting out there in your community. Alex: That makes a big impact. I think, particularly if you're after wanting to attract kids to your schools. I mean, I see you guys in all sorts of venues. And it is, it's brilliant, immediately you're drawn in and the kids want to know. And it does make a big impact. I think that's a great one. Graham: Definitely. And I guess the final one is utilizing social media. When you do these community events, and you take a short video, of this, or that, or the other, and you're posting it on your social media, whatever channels or forums that you use, it's a great way for people to actually almost look through the window of your business to see what it is that you do. Phil: Make sure you don't sell too much on social media. I think social media has to be used for engagement, and just give, give, give, give, give, give, give more information, come see us. Social media is a way to show the community, the people who are probably closest to you, who you are, what you're about. And hopefully, they'll share that on and the, you know, people are going to see you pop up and then go, "These guys are everywhere, look at the cool stuff that they're doing. I'm interested." So, it's really a soft sell when on social media. For us, it's about building community and trust and awareness and they'll end up coming through the door. Alex: And it's also about targeting the audience that you're trying to attract. Phil: Exactly. Graham: Absolutely. Alex: You can't just blanket. It needs to be directed. Graham: Know your niche, know what you're looking for, and then work towards those areas. Alex: So, no need to blow budgets. So, marketing can be really very simple, effective, and low-budget, can't it? Phil: The last thing I would add to it is consistent. Don't just do it and quit because it's not working. Keep at it, non-stop. You know, like, what's the quote? "People who fail in life are the people who are that close to success and then stop short of it." So, just keep pushing, even if you feel like you fail keep pushing through. You'll know when it's not working, but just go that little extra bit and you'll probably find that's where the results are going to come. Alex: Brilliant, great advice. Thank you, boys, very much indeed. Graham: Thank you. Phil: Thank you. Man: You've been listening to the Martial Arts Business Success podcast. For more information, please visit our website at tima.com.au.

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