Any ideas on marketing suggestions?

Question

I take part in a martial arts business and I have found that the beginning of summer often comes with loss of enrollment (people go to camps, live with other parent, etc...). Does anyone have any relatively cheap ideas to help boost enrollment in the beginning of the summer?

Answer 1

Visit your local community member boards. Ask them if you could help out the community by putting on a display that educates young adults to protect themselves from bullies.

    Maybe even provide a coupon at the event that will give new students "free gear" or "discounted price", but make it so that it is only available for a certain time period. But be honest. If you are limiting it then you should really honor your word.

    Create a sense of urgency for people to sign up... The limited time slots is a great way to do it. But you could also tell them that if they don't join your martial arts class now, their kids could be a potential target for bullies..

    For example: When doing your presentation educate the parents and families of the rising bullying in school systems. Tell them about your system and how it could solve their problem...

Something like that. I'm condensing a lot of critical stuff here.

    Basically, find your target market. Research what exactly it is they want to benefit from your martial arts class. And then provide the solution.

    If you're truly serious about marketing your martial arts class. I'd recommend you purchase "Advertising Magic" on ebay.

    Why? It's simple. "Advertising Magic" is a crash course on how to market your business by making your words sell. Otherwise called copywriting.

    And copywriting is just salesmanship on print. If you have an ad on the yellow pages. You're probably not utilizing it to the fullest extent that it could get.

A good copy can literally increase your sales by 400%!

Answer 2

I would look for joint ventures with other related businesses. For example, you might want to look in your local area for shops which sell athletic gear and give free martial arts demonstrations. You should also look towards making a posting on craigslist, Yahoo! local, Google local, or even yelp.com - they are known as good sources to generate new business.