When you have your own martial arts club, you also need to have an online martial arts club. If you don’t have a presence online with martial arts, then you are already falling behind with your competition. Every serious business these days needs an online presence and that is one of the most powerful and effective ways to promote your martial arts club. This article describes some online resources you can use to promote your dojo.
Local online directories – Today the Internet Service Providers have become much more efficient at returning searches that matter to your customers. For example, when your local customers search for ‘martial arts schools,’ the first results are going to be local. If you advertise with local online directories, then you will more first page rankings and that is one of the keys to success.
People are no longer looking through the Yellow Pages to find local businesses. They are going online and using Google or Bing or Yahoo or any of the other search engines. That means that if you are not an online martial arts school, then you are not getting the exposure that you need.
Online fighting arts directories – Just as there are online directories for any local business, there are also online directories specifically for self-defense and fighting arts. When you list with these, you are going to increase your exposure even more. These operate much the same way that other local directories do, but you will likely be compared to some of your competition. Depending on the directory, you may have options that can get you listed above the others and display positive reviews to elevate your club above the others.
Google AdWords – Also know as Pay-Per-Click marketing, Google AdWords allows you to advertise through the major search engine. Your business and website will be posted at the top of the search page based on keywords that you want, and whenever someone clicks on the link to your website you will have to pay Google an agreed fee. When you combine this with other marketing efforts and you fine-tune your search criteria, you will see a lot of traffic start coming to your site.
Use competitions and giveaways to promote your school – These don’t have to be strictly online for martial arts, but it helps when you focus on the online status of your business. Offering a free iPad to the person who brings in the most referrals to your martial arts school in a month is just one idea. You could also offer to enter new students to your school into a drawing for a free giveaway. Offering a free class to new students is one risk-free way for them to test whether they like your club, and allows for good word-of-mouth referrals.
Social media – Of course, Facebook and Twitter are the two largest social media franchises and they are also a great way to promote online. Dojos interest many different people from around the world and when you get the exposure that your business deserves, then you will find more people seeking you out and your enrollment skyrocket. Using blog posts and video to dig into interesting topics around your club’s style, tournament results or training ideas highlight that you are an expert in your field and get a discussion going.
These sorts of ideas can help you turn a trickle of interest into a large stream of new revenue for your business.
