Five Tips to Increase Your Marketing Results
Five Tips to Increase Your Marketing Results
by Barry Van Over
Planning your marketing almost immediately brings the age-old question, “How can we get better results?”
The answers typically involve things like increasing online marketing, implement new marketing systems, increase staffing, or spend more on your marketing budget, etc. Although popular (and in some cases effective), they may not actually drive the types of results a school maybe seeking.
Often times, driving substantial marketing results in the future may actually require getting back to the basics.
The following are 5 fundamental tips to consider to effectively increase your marketing results next year:
1. Have an objective and current understanding of your market
Decide who your real target market is! Who should you be going after most with your marketing efforts? Where do they live, shop and spend most of their time? How much money do they make and what are the best raise to reach them with your market?
2. Say what you actually do…understand your benefits
A common challenge for martial arts schools is clearly showing what you have to offer. Most schools do a terrible job of explaining and promoting the benefits of their training. All martial arts schools teach some sort of self-defense and fighting and do punching and kicking. Those are the features of the martial arts. But not all schools teach their student's personal development through the martial arts while getting them in the best shape of their lives in a state of the art facility with a convenient schedule for men, women, boys, and girls of all ages. THOSE ARE YOUR BENEFITS.
3. Establish the best marketing practices
The majority of schools suffer from the 80-20 rule in their marketing efforts (80 percent of results come from 20 percent of their marketing actions), due to a lack of consistent marketing process or systems. Take the time to learn the best marketing practices in our industry. Diligently train your staff in them, and implement them with details and focus.
4. Invest in improved performance
Many schools nowadays default their marketing investment to websites and social media. Remember only 34% of web leads come from a person searching and 100% of the people that find your website become interested in martial arts somewhere else. Focus on developing your marketing to include systems that will build name recognition, educate people about your school's benefits to help create their interest and to drive direct leads to your business.
5. Assess often and honestly
Achieving better marketing results almost always requires different and better performance moving forward. As a result, it also requires that you manage and value members of your staff on what they’re capable of doing moving forward vs. what they’ve done previously. Be objective regarding their skills and willingness to evolve and adapt to change. Change will be difficult for everyone as you implement new marketing concepts. But clearly explain to your team in a motivating manner that changes are required and that you have every confidence in them to implement new systems. Everyone, including the owner, must understand some basic marketing rules; without marketing…nothing happens; what got you where you are, won’t get you to the next level; without change, there can be no growth, and your team is only as strong as its weakest staff member.