Getting new students from demos

[shesulsa]

How good do you think demos are at advertising for your style to generate business?

I've heard one person say in the 20+ years someone he knew had been giving demos he had gained two students from demos.

Your feedback?

 

[HKphooey]

Geeasssse you are busy today!

I think demos are an important part of a schools marketing. It would be tough to measure the number of students gained by the demo. Our school performs very often. It gets the schools name out into the community. Many people may walk in the door of the school and not even remeber the demo, but your name stood out when they looked inthe yeallow pages.

The other part of this is having the right staff and marketing materials in place to follow up the demo. Just having a bunch of students perform will not always get someone hooked. Have the children that are watching participate. Let the parents see them try somehting new. Hand out fliers, coupons and/or promotional goods.

Above all this business stuff....

It is a great motivational tool for the existing students.

 

[Eternal Beginner]

I know we joined our BJJ school because of a demo our instructor did. In fact, we do demos with him now and have seen many people join because of them. For us, it has been effective. The same has been experienced by the capoeira club that shares our gym. Most of their new members come from demos.

 

[stickarts]

People that come to us usually see us in more than one way. For example: they may see us at a demo, see a coupon, and then hear a friend talk about us before they finally come in.
The demos definately help but in combination with other advertising.
It's worth it for us.

 

[IcemanSK]

People that come to us usually see us in more than one way. For example: they may see us at a demo, see a coupon, and then hear a friend talk about us before they finally come in.
The demos definately help but in combination with other advertising.
It's worth it for us.

Darn it, Stickarts took my thought:mp5: . But, I think demos are great for helping folks get excited about an art or a school. It might not be the only thing that brings em in, but it can be one of many.

 

[tshadowchaser]

They are a good way to show the diffeence between your art and another art if the other art has been the only one around for many years.
A good sales pitch by a good speaker is also needed at the demo

 

[Ceicei]

Advertising, word of mouth, and demos have all played a part in bringing students to our studio. Making sure our reputation is kept good helps a lot too...

- Ceicei

 

[Xue Sheng]

demos help, back when I use to teach Tai Chi I did demos from time to time and i seemed to always gained a student or two.

Also WAY back in the old days, I started martial arts (Jujitsu) because of a demo.

 

[Eternal Beginner]

I think the key for a succesful demo is that it has to be a really good demo. It has to show exactly what they art entails and make it appealing.

I know many of our demos show self-defence as well the fun aspect and stress how it is good for you physically. I think if we to only do self-defence, you alienate a certain demographic and likewise if we were to only make it sound like a fitness routine or play time.

A good demo will be all-encompassing and appeal to a larger demographic. We also make sure that there are not just one age or sex represented. Our last demo had children, women, older males plus the young bucks represented. I've seen many demos that just focus on cute little kids so many adults thought it was for children only.

 

[Mcura]

My club's demo/s are more of an open house. It's open to the general public and of course family and friends, and is more of a big party that invites people to try out various things as well as talk to the students and teachers. The last one had people trying out sharp sword cutting against tatami mats and shooting airsoft pistols. And yes, one or two students have joined because of that.

However, the most successful recruiting tool has been a joint program between AEMMA and the Royal Ontario Museum. For six weeks, every Saturday, a group of twenty or so folks of various ages can train in the fundamentals of using an arming sword. This was first done in the ROM's Grand Gallery, and later transferred to our home location because of the museum's renovations. After six weeks, the ROM class can train free for a month, and some of them stay on, train hard, and get really good. Thus far, all the feedback I've heard has been extremely positive.