As you'll recall, we're discussing reasons why martial arts marketing fails - and why marketing in general can fail.

Today we're looking at one of the factors that will stop any marketing campaign dead in its tracks. Get this wrong and you'll never even get out of the gate.

So, here's another reason why martial arts marketing fails...

WRONG AUDIENCE

Now, you may be thinking that this is the same thing as having the wrong message, but not at all. You can be hitting the right audience with the wrong message in your marketing. And, you can also be sending the right message to the wrong audience. 

Have you ever seen an ad for a martial art school in the back of a nationally distributed, or internationally distributed magazine? If so, have you ever wondered why they do that?

I'm here to tell you, it's certainly not to get students. For one, that's like killing a fly with a sledgehammer.

Second, it's a classic blunder (the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line"). 

All Princess Bride quotes aside, it's a mistake to advertise a local business in a national magazine because the ad is going too broad - way too broad. In fact, depending on the size of your city, I'd also say that advertising your school in a city-wide newspaper or magazine is also going too broad.

Considering that the majority of your students are going to come from an area within 10 miles of your school, you should be focusing your marketing there, instead of spending excessive amounts of money to advertise to people who will likely never even come within that ten mile radius of your front door.

A second example of targeting the wrong audience is choosing the wrong media channel. For example using mass media to market a local studio. 

Again, this is similar to placing an ad in a national magazine. You're reaching an audience that is way too broad. And without being able to target your audience you're likely going to reach a lot of people who are absolutely not interested in your services - not to mention that most of them are living outside of your target area.

This is why radio and T.V. ads for schools have gone the way of the dinosaur - the technology just doesn't allow you to target your audience as well as modern digital marketing channels do.

For example, I can place an ad on Google* and target within ten miles of my front door. I can also place an ad on Facebook** and target my specific zip code (which can be overkill depending on your area, but it's so cheap it's worth it to do so).

Bottom line is, the best way to advertise is also the most efficient - and that's using highly targeted ads and marketing campaigns to reach a very specific audience.

By doing so, not only are you making the most efficient use of your marketing dollars, you're also ensuring that your marketing has a much greater chance of success.

Of course, you can still advertise your school to people all over the country in a national magazine if you like... you won't get many students that way, but hey - at least you'll be famous.