The BEST fource of dojo marketing you have read?

kenpo4life · Blue Belt

Or the most effective method for you all. I am STRESSED and the world is kinda kicking my butt right now. Could use all of your help! Thank you
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bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

I read a book titled Black Belt Management by John Graden some time ago. I'm not sure if it's the best, but it might be worth a look.
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kenpo4life · Blue Belt

I am reading one of his books now, dojo marketing essentials. Thank you, I will look that book up.
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DWx · Black Belt

Who are you marketing to as that will dictate when, where and how you market.

Are you targetting for adult students? Child students? Are you a sports school? self defense?

Once you have that clear that will tell you where you need to be. In general get all the basics covered, Facebook page, website, Google page then you can branch out from there. Post photos from your classes, people having fun, learning stuff. Post your instructors teaching so people can get a feel for the class before attending.

There are some marketing books aimed at Martial Arts instructors but actually any general marketing books will be useful. I listen to a lot of marketing podcasts too as books for digital marketing tend to go out of date pretty quickly.
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sensei8 · KF Sensei

The best marketing tool is YOU!!

Believe in oneself is Marketing 101. There's no soundproof marketing tool because the targets change as often as wind direction. Books and the like have flooded our industry as frequent as a thought that comes and goes.

Please don't misunderstand me. there are several solid marketing how-to books and tools. Those tools don't answer every question and/or concern that a MA school owner/CI faces on a daily basis.

Yet, those books and/or tools do one thing or another...work or they don't work, but what they might do consistently is birth an idea/thought, and at that moment, that which one's searching for arrives in the form of the core basis of one's MA school.

Trial and error are the corner stone of any business, and yes, your MA school IS a business. Any business must be cared for daily with the same drive and energy that the CI puts forward whenever he/she is on the floor.

The only bad idea is the one not tried!!

My primary marketing tool was always me. Of course, I had the knowledge and experience of Shindokan as well as how to teach, but how to run a MA school from A to Z was another thing. I had a minimum of an idea about how to run a business, and that was ok, but not enough.

The hard knock life of running a business requires some of the most difficult lessons that I ever learned, and I did learn, but at an expense. The whole adage of Location, Location, Location are very true words, but so is Rent, Utilities, and Waste Management.

I was fortunate enough to learn from my Soke and Dai-Soke, other than Shindokan, was that any school of the MA IS a business first, and foremost. Yes, my school of the MA is operated inside of a dojo, but the building isn't the dojo because it's a business. If I've an overhead, than my dojo is the crucial part of my business.

Advertising is hit and miss, as well as it can be quite expensive to all get out. My two primary tools of marketing for over 40 years have always been word of mouth and flyers; and my P&L will show my business very viable. Either can make you or break you in a blink of an eye. Bad word of mouth will hit you where you live, and a bad flyer will find some trash can or floor faster than a speeding bullet.

Trial and error...over and over and over until the proper formula of success is ever found. Discouraging in running a business?? Absolutely!! Japanese proverb, Nana korobi ya oki...7 times down, 8 times up...or something more familiar...If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

If the answer to marketing is found in a book, then go with that book. If the answer to marketing is found in trial and error, then go with that. If the answer to marketing is found by taking advice from whomever, then go for it. Wherever the answer to marketing comes from, the embrace it.

One last thing, CHANGE IS INEVITABLE exclusively in business and marketing. What works today, doesn't mean that it'll work tomorrow. Excellent customer service is key to attracting and keeping customers, and your students ARE customers, because the CI's job is to get prospective customers to come to the door, and many times, customer service piques their interest.

Hang in there!!

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