It's a term I coined that's a fancy of way of saying you're teaching free classes in your local community.
Read on to find out why I started doing teaching free classes, and why I think they're so important to the growth of your dojo.
Now, I know some people may bristle at the idea of teaching "free" anything. However, "free" can be a very good marketing strategy, when done properly.
Plus, it's a great way to help out people who might never attend one of your regular classes... and it's a fantastic way to create goodwill toward your school in your local community.
Remember how I said that building up goodwill can increase your referrals? Well, this is one of the ways you can do exactly that.
And, every single time you teach a free class for a group or event in your local community, it's an excuse to write up a press release and send it out to your local newspaper and T.V. stations.
I'm no saint (heck, I don't even consider myself to be a "nice" person) but I've always had a desire to help two groups of people through martial arts:
- Kids who lack self-esteem
- And women who are at a high risk of being sexually assaulted
Well, because of my desire to help I stumbled into a very effective marketing and PR approach that revolved around offering my services as a speaker and instructor for FREE to the local community.
Believe me, it works... if you know what you're talking about with regards to these two topics.
Don't Be An Opportunistic Chump
However, the first thing I'm going to tell you about helping that second group is that there are a lot of people out there trying to profit from the fear of sexual assault.
Now, there's NOTHING wrong with charging people for instruction in self-defense. However, there's plenty wrong with presenting yourself as a subject-matter expert on women's self-defense, when you've only ever trained in your own system.
I don't care what you teach, whether it's TMA, MMA, or one of the multiple "street self-defense" systems...
...until you've taken off your black belt and done the hard, boring research into subjects like criminology, crime statistics, criminal psychology, and so on, you are NOT an expert on preventing crime.
First, Know Your Stuff
I was forced to realize this early on in my career as a martial arts and self-defense instructor, when my buddy and I taught a self-defense class for women at the local college.
And, we bombed terribly, because:
- We didn't know or understand our topic
- And we didn't know about or understand the unique needs of women when it comes to self-defense
So, I spent years studying the subject of women's self-defense and sexual assault prevention, until I became somewhat of a subject-matter expert on the topic.
How I Built My First School On "FREE" Classes
Once I felt confident in my ability to deliver solid, life-saving information on the topics of women's self-defense and sexual assault prevention, I let it be known that I was available to deliver 30 to 45-minute presentations on those topics (and also child safety and anti-abduction training) for free to groups in my local community.
At first, it started with a simple announcement on my website.
Then, a few local groups responded.
After that, word spread.
Eventually, I was doing these talks every other week, and my school started taking off. Now, I was doing a lot of other marketing activity during this time. But I have to say that the interest and coverage I got from the local press helped tremendously.
And, for that reason I greatly credit my service-based community education programs for my school's sudden increase in business.
Next week I'll go into more detail on how to use this approach to help market your school. Keep an eye out for those emails, because it's info that is worth much more than what you're paying for it (nothing).
