How do you attract more students to your school so you can make a living by doing what you love?
Identify your target audience
In order to attract more martial arts students, it is important to first identify who your ideal students are. This might include factors such as age, gender, skill level, and goals. By understanding the specific characteristics of your target audience, you can tailor your marketing and outreach efforts to appeal to them.
Develop a strong value proposition
What makes your martial arts school unique? What benefits do your students receive by joining your school over others? By highlighting the specific features and benefits of your school, you can differentiate yourself from the competition and convince potential students to choose you over other options.
Utilize a variety of marketing channels
There are many different ways to reach potential students, including social media, email marketing, referral programs, and traditional advertising. Experiment with different channels to find out which ones are most effective for your school, and focus your efforts on the ones that yield the best results.
Offer a trial class or introductory offer
Many potential students may be hesitant to commit to a full membership without first trying out your school and classes. By offering a free trial class or a discounted introductory offer, you can give potential students the opportunity to experience your school and see the value for themselves.
Provide excellent customer service
Once a potential student becomes a member of your school, it is important to provide them with exceptional customer service to ensure they are happy and satisfied with their experience.
This might include answering their questions, providing support and guidance, and listening to their feedback and suggestions. By prioritizing customer satisfaction, you can build trust and loyalty, and increase the likelihood of students continuing their membership and referring others to your school.
By following these tips, martial arts schools can effectively attract more students and grow their businesses.
By identifying and targeting the right audience, highlighting the unique value of your school, and providing excellent customer service, schools can increase their visibility and appeal, and ultimately attract more students to their classes.
Advice from successful school owners:
From my experience I would say the following;
Research, research, research
If you’re going to offer monthly subscriptions look at what other groups/gyms charge and use that as a basis. No point charging £50 a month if everyone else is around the £30 mark. You can always find ways to increase subscriptions later on.
When we set up the new dojo we partnered with a fitness group who wanted a studio 24/7 but couldn’t afford to rent space on their own, so we made a deal and built them an exclusive studio which means we both get the space we want.
Do you really need changing rooms, kitchen space? It all sounds great on paper, but in our new dojo we’ve made the individual toilets big enough to double as changing rooms and we’ll provide some coffee making facilities but the whole place is dedicated to training.
We didn’t go straight to our own dojo, we built up the clubs hiring schools/sport centres etc until we were confident we could support our own dojo.
It’s also worth considering how you set yourself up. We decided very early on to become a limited company. There are pros & cons, in the UK limited companies can’t get access to sports grants but during the covid pandemic we could access the business support grants to keep the dojo afloat.
And delegate, for me it’s been the hardest thing to do but I’m slowly getting used to it. Martialytics makes this easy, instructors can access the dashboard to administer their own clubs, we have people who progress leads. We can push information out using study, and we use the waiver system to get parents and students to acknowledge our child protection policies.
And we absolutely live by the quote ‘The most dangerous phrase in the language is we’ve always done it this way.’ Don’t be scared to take a long hard look at what you’re doing and if it isn’t working change it, making the hard choices is how a good business thrives.
Last year we celebrated our 20th anniversary as a club, something we are incredibly proud of, especially when we think back to where we started. One of the key elements to our success is that we allowed the club to grow organically. Like many martial arts clubs we started with a few classes in local church halls. We allowed these classes to grow our community, which wasn't always easy and often meant lugging around mats and gear to our various venues. But it meant that by the time we took on our full time centre we had a substantial student base and knew that we could afford to make the leap. Something we are very proud of is the fact that we have never taken out a loan or been in debt, so we have always grown the club within our means.
When building your club it's important to consider what your values are, as this will shape your offering within your community and determine the members you will attract. For us we wanted our club to be a space where everyone is welcome and anyone can come and train. Our diverse community of members is something we take pride in and is something we really focus on. Our classes are accessible for all ages and backgrounds, people with disabilities, refugees and asylum seekers, everyone is welcome. We are even the UK's first and only Martial Arts Club of Sanctuary for our work with refugees and asylum seekers. Many of our students and families are on lower incomes which is something we specifically provide for, we want to make martial arts attainable for everyone. This year plans are in motion to become a registered charity so we can start looking at funding opportunities to support the work we already do in our local community.
As with any business it's important to start with what you can realistically manage and if you're fortunate like we are to have your members actively involved as directors and decision makers it means you can build your community with the support of your club members. Members who are your biggest champions when it comes to promoting your organisation and who see training not just as a great way to keep fit physically but also as an opportunity to be part of a great community of people from all walks of life. After what we've all lived through with Covid community is more important than ever if we want to build ourselves back up again. Our success is not only down to our wonderful instructors but our amazing members who see Nam Yang as their family.
One of the best business moves we recently made was joining Martialytics. We were keen to stay away from the usual large scale corporate platforms where you're just a number and Martialytics ticks all the boxes for us. They're a friendly and responsive team and are always happy to help. I love how user friendly it is and most importantly I love how Martialytics frees me up to focus on other aspects of the business. It's been a total game changer for us!
If you are an existing school owner and you have some advice for the next generation, please send it through to support@martialytics.com and we'll be happy to feature it here!
Best of luck with starting your new adventure in Martial Arts, you won't regret it!
