| Friend,
So this week we're wrapping up the series on why dojo owners fail with a look at marketing mistakes.
Yesterday I wrote to you about not marketing enough and not marketing consistently, and today I'm going to talk about...
Sending The Wrong Marketing Message
Let's face it, most of us aren't born with an innate sense for what other people are thinking and feeling. It's the rare individual who can put themselves in someone else's shoes and accurately predict their emotions and train of thought.
If you're currently in a relationship, you are probably all too keenly aware of just how difficult it is to determine what's going through someone else's head and heart. And as we all know, the misinterpretation of body language and other cues has led to many a heated argument and break up.
So if we're aware that this chasm between what we are thinking and feeling and what others are thinking and feeling exists in our interpersonal relationships, why would we think it should be different with our marketing?
Yet, for some reason martial art school owners (and business owners in general) tend to approach their marketing from a self-centric perspective. And, this inevitably leads to marketing that sends the wrong message.
How And Why It Happens
How it happens is simple enough. A school owner sits down to create an ad or other marketing piece, and they screw it up royally. But why it happens... well, that's a fairly interesting process.
For starters, I've observed that most martial artists tend to enjoy things that the vast majority of the population does not particularly enjoy. We "like" pain, getting hit, roughhousing, and all other manner of mayhem and violence.
I don't know about you, but when I'm at the theater watching an action flick and a bad guy gets their arm broken or the hero stabs them to death with a Bic pen, I don't react the way everyone else in the theater does. They cringe, I chuckle.
And that neatly sums up why martial artists often send the wrong message in their marketing. What you think is "cool," your market thinks of as cruel. What you think is neat makes them cringe. And what you might think of as a good time will have them running for the door.
So when you sit down to write an ad and you write it from the perspective of what you think sums up all the best things about martial arts training, your ad is doomed to fail.
The Typical DIY Martial Art School Ad
The typical DIY martial art school ad goes something like this: - Headline - Nonexistent, or something like "Hibatchi-Ryu Ancient Samurai Arts," which is total and complete gibberish to the average person on the street...
- Image - A black belt beating the crap out of someone else, usually doing the coolest move ever. Well guess what? The person reading that ad never sees themselves as the black belt. Instead, they will always identify as the person getting beaten up. This mistake alone kills many an ad.
- Body of the Ad - Typically all about "me, me, ME!" Martial artists tend to write about themselves in their ads, which is a huge mistake. "I have this degree black belt, we belong to that organization, our style is better than every other style because..." well, you get the picture. And the person reading the ad cares nothing about any of that. Not. A. Whit.
- Offer - Usually absent. I am frankly amazed at how many ads I see that don't include an offer. Why anyone would think that "Come train with us!" is a compelling enough reason to get a reader to pick up the phone is beyond me, but I see that sort of thing in ads all the time. People need a compelling reason to respond, and a good offer (and good ad copy) provides that reason.
- Call to Action - Usually weak or absent. Again, "Come train with us!" is not the best call to action. Instead, you need to tell people what you want them to do. "Call now!" "Call us today!" And so on. And giving them a deadline to do so with an expiration date on the special is even better (and so long as it's legit, there's nothing wrong with using that tactic).
Fixing Your Ads
If you want to fix your ads, you need to start looking at your marketing from the perspective of the average person who knows nothing about martial arts. Why would they want to take martial arts classes?
Not to get beaten up, that's for sure. So what would motivate them to take a class?
The same things that motivate everyone else. Weight loss and fitness. Feeling confident and safe. Being accepted by and receiving the approval of others. And so on.
Those are the things you want to focus on in your ads. Of course, there's a lot more to writing a good ad than that, but getting the message right is always going to be at the heart of what goes into a good ad.
So, fix your ads. Spend time thinking about things from the customer's perspective, and write your ads to them, not to you.
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
Quick-start Guide to My Books and Resources: - Looking for a list of books and resources I've written? Click here! - Looking for low-cost business coaching to grow your dojo? Click here…
P.S. - It's easy to slip back into that old way of thinking, even after you've had some success with changing the way you market your school. To prevent this from happening, after writing every ad set it aside for a day or two, then go back and read it again as if you were someone who knows nothing about martial arts. Often this will reveal mistakes you made that you didn't pick up on the first time around.
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