Martial Arts Flyers.

[Mauthos]

I'm trying to attract some new students to my fairly new Kenpo club (almost running a year now).

I have a handful, put as normal I am only just scraping the cost of rent through the lessons. So without a lot of disposable income I have decided to put together a flyer and then rope in my students to do a flyer drop in their localities.

However, having never done this before, could anyone offer advice as to what would constitute a good flyer. For example, are there certain colour combinations that are almost guaranteed to catch the eye, any statements, graphics which could get people interested, or at least stop them throwing it straight in the bin.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

 

[Instructor]

I have found very simple flyers to be much more effective than wordy ones. An image of your style being practiced. Time, Place... contact info....

 

[jasonbrinn]

The best flyer is the one that works! Seriously, you need to know what your target demographic is for this to really take focused shape and be effective. I know, in the early days I was like.."demographics? I want everybody" but this is not realistic. The fact of the matter is that some things simply relate better to certain people and the same thing goes with different arts.

If you don't know what you're target market is, then take stock of your current class and draw from them. Where do they shop? What do they watch, read, listen to? From these things you can start to build a profile of the kinds of things that draw their attention and this will become your template for the flyer to bring in more of them.

You might also want to think about, and I know people are going to pile on me for this but it is honest and real, whether or not you want to keep attracting your current student "demographic." Seriously, this is a business it sounds like now with rent and all the trimmings and you want to make it a successful one it seems. College and high school students are easy for a demographic (at least for a handful of students anyway) but most of them don't have any money to invest in your classes and typically have a shorter student-lifespan (around 2.5 years) so you will always be needing to bring new ones.

Here is where your actual living demographics come into play. Do you live in or near an area with people who can afford and could potentially want what you are choosing to offer. Senior citizens have the time and money but rarely take up Judo. Lawyers and white collar workers seem to gravitate to things like Aikido and arts that speak to non-violence, etc. From your post it sounds like you already have a location so I hope you have the "right" demographics within a 5 mile radius or you will need to have something VERY unique to offer to pull in the good money. If you don't have the numbers you have little chance of growing and I would shut this down and move it with better planning.

If you don't want to move and you don't have the numbers then turn it into a club, community center class, Y, garage, backyard, park, etc., club. Business is for business and despite what some people will tell you once you open a business then that is the focus. If the business fails then everyone suffers and sometimes your love is not profitable for business so you have to make tough choices.

I can tell you that I have never ran a McDojo, but I have ran VERY successful schools. I did have to recognize that the customer is always right and I did need to tailor what I did and what I wanted to do with what made business sense.

Feel free if you have any questions, comments or concerns to hit me up anytime. I always love helping people who have a desire to help others!

I wish you the best, be blessed.


Jason Brinn

 

[WaterGal]

I think Jason is totally right! This is something we've been working on to try to improve our marketing. I even took a marketing class this semester, and that's basically what they said.

There are a number of "segments" of the population that might be interested in martial arts, but they're not all doing it for the same reasons, and you have to try to figure out what their reasons are and then how to appeal to that. For example, a parent that's looking for something for their kids to do to get some exercise is probably going to be persuaded by a different look or message than a police officer looking to improve their self-defense skills or a college student looking for something cool to impress their friends at the anime club.

Maybe your students could try to give you sense of their neighborhoods and places they go to - mostly families with young kids, college dorms, lots of single adults - and you could try to make a few different flyers to target each group? I just yesterday made a special flyer to appeal to a gaming/Ren Fest type group a friend of mine belongs to, featuring photos of our weapons training and some text about how our training is traditional and has ancient roots.

Also, do you have a website?

 

[Mauthos]

Thanks guys, great advice.

Although it may sound like it, being in the UK it is very hard to run a martial arts school as a business, so I am actually renting space from a friend of mine who actually runs a martial arts school . This is great as technically the rent is cheap and I have access to a fully matted gym, rings, weights, bags, pads etc etc. The only problem is, if a couple of my students decide to miss a week or two, then I don't cover the rent and have to pay out myself. So the main idea of the flyer program was just to pull in a few more students to keep an average that covers costs.

I have regular students, but not that many and the plan, as I know people always come and go, is to start building a greater student base. Luckily I am in the right demographic as it were, but there is stiff competition as there are several kick boxing, muay thai, wado ryu clubs nearby. However there is no Kenpo, which is where I think my unique 'selling' point comes in.

Although, the problem I have is the amount of people here in the UK who constantly ask me: 'Kenpo, that's the one with the wooden swords right?'.

I do not currently have a website, a friend of mine is putting the finishing touches to one as we speak though, so fingers crossed, within the next few weeks I will have one up and running. I do have a facebook page and soon (well in the new year) I have a couple of free demonstrations to run at the local schools and colleges.

It is early doors and although I don't ever intend this to be a business, hopefully I will at least cover the weekly rent.

 

[jasonbrinn]

How about this as an option;

Why not start a Kenpo "seminar" circuit specific to educating people on the fine points and how it is different. Most school owners are open to having a guest instructor come in house to teach a seminar. You can also offer something to the instructor like doing a $20 seminar for an hour or two on one of their off days and kick back $5 to them. This way the instructor can offer something cool and different to his school, make a few bucks without having to really do much and be a hero to his students for sharing the light of other arts with them. Meanwhile you could build a good network of people that express a greater interest making sure to talk it over with the instructors first. Maybe one day this group and heightened awareness and or interest in Kenpo good lead to a school that could stand on its own legs.


Hope that helps.


Jason Brinn

 

[rlobrecht]

You've gotten some good advice above. The school I attend has also done demos, and just plain info booths at community events. I think the flyer handed out had the weekly schedule, whatever intro special was being run at the time (usually a month plus a uniform for less than what a month really costs), address, phone number, and website. Plain black print on white paper.

The only problem is, if a couple of my students decide to miss a week or two, then I don't cover the rent and have to pay out myself.

Are you charging your students by the class, the week, or the month? My little sleepy suburb of Houston is probably pretty different from your town in the UK, but all the schools around here charge by the month. For that you get a set number of classes a week. It compares well to how things like Crossfit, gym memberships, etc. are also sold.

Good luck.