Phone ads are your best bet. Be very careful when you talk to the phone company. They love to get you into something you can’t afford. One thing you can do is get a line ad for really cheap. It has the name of your school and phone number, some areas allow an address. It is around $50 a month depending again on the area.
Eventually, when you can afford it, get a bigger ad.
This would be a better marketing scheme than the mailers or flyers IMO.
Also, check the secondary phone books. See what their numbers are in your state.
Make sure you check the numbers on a secondary phone book. There are many floating around that are crap or industry specific.
The most important thing you can do is talk to people after they sign up - what in your flyer or ad attracted them? What is important to them?
Adjust your messaging as you go. This is a big deal at my agency. I don’t beleive in ‘fixed messaging’ anymore …
You may want to take a step back and identify your brand… what do your students think of you/your class. Why do they keep coming? Identify this … then look at your ‘prospects’ - what do they think? What interests them and where does this intersect with what you have to offer?
My little club here in Chicago keeps growing incrementally, and I have yet to advertise for it. Why does it grow? The reputation of the art.
You know, you can create a rep locally with well placed PR…
I’m rambling, but what I’m getting at is you need to really look at your messaging, have a plan, and consider everything a test that you benchmark.
Trying to work referrals as the primary marketing tool. I just did the little speach about how our best advertising should be our happy and satisfied students last week. I revamped the incentive program to offer discounts to students for referrals.
I do a 2 class intro for $35. (IF the intro student signs up for any of our programs they get the uniform (pants, tshirt, sash) free.)
Step 1 of my incentive program is that the referring student get’s $5 off their next tuition payment for each referral resulting in an Intro Class.
Step 2 is that the referring student gets $40 off their next tuition payment for each referral resulting in a new student.
Too Much?
Too Little?
We’ve reworked our message over the last few weeks. Mainly aimed to kids and their soccer moms. We are going to run a print ad in the back to school issue of the local parenting mag (circulation 30k I think)
Speaking from experience make it half off or less. Then give them a school credit per student.
You know uniforms, weapons, tuition ecetra. The most we ever had was a person bring in four people. Ususally they would bring in 2. Which actually worked well. The original student gets a free month and the next month you have 120 as opposed to just 40.
Monthly: $85 - no contract.
Quarterly: $75 ($225 up front)
Annual: $65 (requires contract)
So, they can get $45 off if their referral does the intro and signs up afterwards…that’s just over half. It is a school credit…technically, a coupon they include with their next tuition payment or they can use it to buy gear.
OK this is nauseating but, with you marketing the kid thing. Have you thought about the “movie night” or “parents night out”? I knew a TKD teacher that did this I think once a month, where parents dropped off their kids at the school for whatever entertainment you have. Parents go out on a date… the dude made an insane amount of money doing this!
Not sure if this will make sense to you, people seem to do things differently in some parts or the worl. Down here, estate agents used market boards which they attach to droppers, and then pin it up in from of the house that’s on sale. You know those right? They not too expensive to make either. We made a whole bunch of them, and put it up everywhere over our suburb and on light poles and stuff. When the town council contacted me to say that I cant put boards up on the light poles, I just told them I gave the job to some casual workers to do, and I think they probably made mistake. By the time the town councel takes those boards of, I have already had a bit of exposure. Works well for me, that and the adverts we have in our local paper. Down here, schools also issue weekly papers and news letters to their members, and I try keep advertising in all those papers of all the schools we have close by.
our town council just banned those types of signs…not the actual real estate signs but use of that type of sign on road sides and poles and such.
we had a real bad year with political campaigns and the bastiches didn’t go round and take all their signs down. it actually was a real mess for a few months.
but thanks.
I’m doing a demo for a summer camp next week. It’s a ‘creative movement’ class for K-2. I figure I can go in and make em act like the usual 5 animals and mantids and monkeys.
30 minutes and the camp director will put my flyer in her parent’s packets that week.
I might even drag out my old frog top that I haven’t worn in years.
