Promotion
My goal is 60 phone calls or walk-ins a month in my school, which should translate into 30 enrollments. To get 60 calls a month, I’m going to spend at least $50 per call, which means I’m investing $3000 in advertising at least 90-days before I expect the calls to come in.
Let’s review what I just wrote:
I want 60 inquiries; I expect 30 enrollments from my 60 inquiries; I’m going to spend –at least --$50 to get each inquiry; what I spend today will work for me 90 days from now.
Is this set in stone? No, of course not, however, from my experience it’s not a bad idea to use this as a general guideline. Anything is possible, so who am I to say what works for everyone –in every market! Nevertheless, if you use these general guidelines as a base, you can measure whether you are doing better –or worse –than me.
If you don’t have $3000 to spend on advertising, then you’re going to have to invest your labor (sweat-equity). Instead of paying someone to design, place, and distribute your advertising, you’re going to have to do it yourself. How? Yes, well…that’s the $3000 question, isn’t it. Honestly, it’s not always easy, but it’s do-able, so here are some ideas:
Distribute flyers; like hundreds a week; like thousands a week…and not just flyers (passes, door-hangers, etc…), but beautiful flyers featuring a great offer.
Reach the media –and I mean all of it; tv, newspapers, radio, the internet –and here we separate those who can from those who cannot. How? Learn how to turn everything into media-food –or DO things that are newsworthy. A good spot in your local newspaper is worth, depending on your town, from $500 to $5000 dollars worth of advertising. A radio spot might be worth from $250 to $500, a good TV spot could be valued from $250 to $2500 or more.
Inspire your students to spread the word –and bring in their friends. This, of course, has to be done tactfully and intelligently, but it’s one powerful form of marketing. The catch? You have to reach your students so deeply, so powerfully, that they WANT to bring in their friends. Do that and the idea works wonderfully.
Go on a speaking tour. You can speak at all sorts of places –but you have to have something important to speak about –something relevant to your work and important to your community. You have to have a powerful and touching presentation (the subjects are virtually unlimited), and you have to give your presentation in an intelligent and compelling fashion. If you can craft this, your community will open its doors to you: schools, businesses, service clubs, etc…
What should/could you talk about? Self-defense –and anything that relates to it (mental, physical, spiritual, social, financial, etc…).
Partner with a local business (or businesses) to join forces as ad partners –pool your money and design ad campaigns that work for both of you. Warning: You have to be pretty smart to do this.
What do I think, after these five suggestions?
I think you have to spend at least two-hours a day, five days a week working all aspects of your ad and promo campaign.
I think you have to network with other schools to see what’s working for them. How often? At least once a month.
I think you have to adjust your efforts based on the results you get at the end of each week. Not enough results, change/increase your efforts.
I think you have to realize that your efforts --now --may not pay off for 90-days --or longer.
I think you don’t have the privilege of getting tired or discouraged, as your survival depends on your ability to generate business. The smartest and/or strongest will survive.
I think you’re probably not doing half as much as you should (promotion).
I think the UBBT and The 100 are ALL ABOUT finding something to promote that makes people take notice (and guess what, it’s a strategy that’s good for you too! Bonus!).
I think you have to do your promotion, day-in and day-out, like you were training for the promotional Olympics. When everyone else fades out, you are just getting started.
I think you need to ask for “the sale” dozens of times –in dozen’s of creative and tactful ways –and that you make it your habit of never taking “no” for an answer.
NOTE: This material is COPYLEFTed
Tom Callos abides by a CopyLeft principle of distribution. All contentwritten here by Tom Callos is freely available to all for all time.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
Some Future-Thinking for Martial Arts Teachers
“The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.” I don’t remember where or when I first heard the saying, but it stuck with me -and I know I’ve said it a thousand times to a thousand students since.
The martial arts community, or the “martial arts industry,” certainly has room for improvement in its methods and practices. I spend most of my work-time thinking of ways we can improve the results we get as teachers, as leaders, as business-people, and as honest-to-goodness contributors to a better and more peaceful world. The following list of ideas are some that I think have value for martial arts teachers; some of them are already in-process, while others are things I believe will happen in the near future.
Thirty to 40% of Testing Curriculum will Take Place Outside of the School
In the future, a percentage of a student’s curriculum, as much as 40% of it, will not take place on the mat, but involve “things” the student has done outside of the school.
Those “things” will be manifestations of the ideas and philosophy the school promotes. Essentially, they will be the ideas that are practiced on the mat, but practically applied to things that have nothing to do with punching, kicking, or grappling. The phrase I’ve coined to express this idea is, “Outside of the dojo and into the world.”
A School’s Testing Curriculum will be all of the Advertising a School Needs
Most schools have a testing curriculum that has little or nothing to do with community service, activism, OR promotion of the school itself. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but for the most part, what the students do as a part of their test has little to do with the schools image, public relations, or promotion and advertising campaigns.
In the future, many of the things that students do to achieve their belt ranks will also perfectly demonstrate what the school is “about” –and those requirements will bring the school all the publicity, promotion opportunities, and new students it can use.
Students Will “Build” Their Own Belt Tests
In the future, testing curriculum will follow a linear path from one belt to the next, as it does now, but the difference will be that students will have a large variety of “elective” test requirements that they can add to their test as suits their needs, goals and ambitions. The electives will include tasks or challenges, and include any number of interesting concepts that help students bring their personal ambitions into their martial arts training. Music, family time, art, community activism, diet, meditation, outdoor recreation, and even recycling will become elective requirements.
Music Training will become a Part of Every Children’s Marital Arts Program
As Ernie Reyes, Sr. has been doing for years, as Capoeira practitioners have always done, teachers will bring live music into their classrooms and integrate it into their curriculum.
Belt testing Will no Longer Last a Day or a Weekend, but Will Go On for Months
The Ultimate Black Belt Test (www.ultimateblackbelttesting.com) is proof of the effectiveness of long-term belt testing. Why not? There’s everything to gain –and nothing to lose.
Two and Three Year Black Belts Will Become a Thing of the Past
High-speed advancement in the martial arts creates a kind of student that does not have the experience, the weathering, the knowledge, and the poise to represent what it is to be a black belt. Many schools are already lengthening their time between tests and their overall requirements –gross profits be damned. If we don’t make a black belt mean something again, if we don’t require our students to be patient enough about their training to reach authentic “black belt” levels of performance, then we dilute the meaning of the rank and the value of studying the martial arts in general.
My opinion: If a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or an amateur boxer with 6-months of experience can easily defeat a black belt of similar size –of any style under nearly any reasonable circumstances, then that black belt received his or her belt without adequate training.
Peace Education, Including Anger Management and Non-Violent Conflict Resolution Will be a Standard Part of Every Martial Arts Teachers Education
You are, I am guessing, aware that there are NO industry-wide standard or requirements for martial arts teachers? If the public knew how little was required (if anything) for a person to be a martial arts “teacher,” our entire community would be embarrassed.
In the future there will be, at the very least, an on-line educational program for martial arts teachers that provides the A, B, C’s of peace education and other self-defense related topics. Courses for instructor certification will last months, if not years.
In the martial arts community, there is little or no balance between education pertaining to violence –and education pertaining to peace. Most teachers could easily drum up 50 ways to disarm an aggressor using force, but could not name half as many ways to deal with conflict with non-force or peace.
Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT) Will Become a Dojo-hold Phrase
PBLT, in a nutshell, is the idea that students do community-based projects, of their own choosing, as requirements for their advancement in the martial arts. Every school will maintain a “project portfolio” that documents the work that students and teachers do in their community –work that perfectly reflects the philosophy the teacher espouses.
If a school owner or teacher wants to tell a prospective member or the media about his or her school, all they have to is point them to the school’s project portfolio. What the school DOES will speak louder than anything the school says about itself.
“Sustainable Business Practices” will Replace the Greed and Student Harvesting of the 80’s and 90’s.
“Get them in and get as much money as you can, up front –because they won’t be sticking around for long.” I actually heard a martial arts business consultant say that about signing up students! Many business practices in the martial arts community reflect this idea, but it is wrong, it is unsound and unsustainable. In the future, our business practices will sustain a healthy and long-term relationship with students. Even students who, for whatever reasons, cannot continue taking lessons, will leave the school without having been convinced to paying for hundreds of lessons they will never take advantage of.
About the Author
Tom Callos is the designer for the Ultimate Black Belt Test (www.ultmateblackbelttest.com). Applications for Team 5 are now being accepted. Tom is also the founder of The 100 (www.theonehundred.org). He resides in Placerville, California. His e-mail is tomcallos@gmail.com, phone: 530-903-0286.
The martial arts community, or the “martial arts industry,” certainly has room for improvement in its methods and practices. I spend most of my work-time thinking of ways we can improve the results we get as teachers, as leaders, as business-people, and as honest-to-goodness contributors to a better and more peaceful world. The following list of ideas are some that I think have value for martial arts teachers; some of them are already in-process, while others are things I believe will happen in the near future.
Thirty to 40% of Testing Curriculum will Take Place Outside of the School
In the future, a percentage of a student’s curriculum, as much as 40% of it, will not take place on the mat, but involve “things” the student has done outside of the school.
Those “things” will be manifestations of the ideas and philosophy the school promotes. Essentially, they will be the ideas that are practiced on the mat, but practically applied to things that have nothing to do with punching, kicking, or grappling. The phrase I’ve coined to express this idea is, “Outside of the dojo and into the world.”
A School’s Testing Curriculum will be all of the Advertising a School Needs
Most schools have a testing curriculum that has little or nothing to do with community service, activism, OR promotion of the school itself. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but for the most part, what the students do as a part of their test has little to do with the schools image, public relations, or promotion and advertising campaigns.
In the future, many of the things that students do to achieve their belt ranks will also perfectly demonstrate what the school is “about” –and those requirements will bring the school all the publicity, promotion opportunities, and new students it can use.
Students Will “Build” Their Own Belt Tests
In the future, testing curriculum will follow a linear path from one belt to the next, as it does now, but the difference will be that students will have a large variety of “elective” test requirements that they can add to their test as suits their needs, goals and ambitions. The electives will include tasks or challenges, and include any number of interesting concepts that help students bring their personal ambitions into their martial arts training. Music, family time, art, community activism, diet, meditation, outdoor recreation, and even recycling will become elective requirements.
Music Training will become a Part of Every Children’s Marital Arts Program
As Ernie Reyes, Sr. has been doing for years, as Capoeira practitioners have always done, teachers will bring live music into their classrooms and integrate it into their curriculum.
Belt testing Will no Longer Last a Day or a Weekend, but Will Go On for Months
The Ultimate Black Belt Test (www.ultimateblackbelttesting.com) is proof of the effectiveness of long-term belt testing. Why not? There’s everything to gain –and nothing to lose.
Two and Three Year Black Belts Will Become a Thing of the Past
High-speed advancement in the martial arts creates a kind of student that does not have the experience, the weathering, the knowledge, and the poise to represent what it is to be a black belt. Many schools are already lengthening their time between tests and their overall requirements –gross profits be damned. If we don’t make a black belt mean something again, if we don’t require our students to be patient enough about their training to reach authentic “black belt” levels of performance, then we dilute the meaning of the rank and the value of studying the martial arts in general.
My opinion: If a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or an amateur boxer with 6-months of experience can easily defeat a black belt of similar size –of any style under nearly any reasonable circumstances, then that black belt received his or her belt without adequate training.
Peace Education, Including Anger Management and Non-Violent Conflict Resolution Will be a Standard Part of Every Martial Arts Teachers Education
You are, I am guessing, aware that there are NO industry-wide standard or requirements for martial arts teachers? If the public knew how little was required (if anything) for a person to be a martial arts “teacher,” our entire community would be embarrassed.
In the future there will be, at the very least, an on-line educational program for martial arts teachers that provides the A, B, C’s of peace education and other self-defense related topics. Courses for instructor certification will last months, if not years.
In the martial arts community, there is little or no balance between education pertaining to violence –and education pertaining to peace. Most teachers could easily drum up 50 ways to disarm an aggressor using force, but could not name half as many ways to deal with conflict with non-force or peace.
Project Based Leadership Training (PBLT) Will Become a Dojo-hold Phrase
PBLT, in a nutshell, is the idea that students do community-based projects, of their own choosing, as requirements for their advancement in the martial arts. Every school will maintain a “project portfolio” that documents the work that students and teachers do in their community –work that perfectly reflects the philosophy the teacher espouses.
If a school owner or teacher wants to tell a prospective member or the media about his or her school, all they have to is point them to the school’s project portfolio. What the school DOES will speak louder than anything the school says about itself.
“Sustainable Business Practices” will Replace the Greed and Student Harvesting of the 80’s and 90’s.
“Get them in and get as much money as you can, up front –because they won’t be sticking around for long.” I actually heard a martial arts business consultant say that about signing up students! Many business practices in the martial arts community reflect this idea, but it is wrong, it is unsound and unsustainable. In the future, our business practices will sustain a healthy and long-term relationship with students. Even students who, for whatever reasons, cannot continue taking lessons, will leave the school without having been convinced to paying for hundreds of lessons they will never take advantage of.
About the Author
Tom Callos is the designer for the Ultimate Black Belt Test (www.ultmateblackbelttest.com). Applications for Team 5 are now being accepted. Tom is also the founder of The 100 (www.theonehundred.org). He resides in Placerville, California. His e-mail is tomcallos@gmail.com, phone: 530-903-0286.
Friday, March 02, 2007
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