In my last post, Add an additional $21,456 of pure profit to your martial arts school, I talked about how important having a referral system in place. This post gives you referral marketing ideas to test at your martial arts school.

Notice the word “system.” Many martial arts school owners are making a living off of their referrals because they have a “referral system” in place and do not sit around waiting for them to happen.

So, to help you kick things off, here are three straight forward referral marketing strategies that can help get you more students and on your way to making $21,456 more for your school!

Referral Strategy #1

Within five days of sign up, ask for referrals. This is a great system to put in place for all new students.

Timing can be everything with referrals. As soon as you have a student sign up for regular lessons, that is the perfect time to ask for referrals because they are incredibly excited about starting your lessons.

Send them a letter congratulating them to your martial arts school, give them basic reminders to help ease their transition into your classes (in essence provide value in the letter),  and then ask them for five referrals.

Don’t be a block head and say thanks for signing up, now turn in your friends!

Be sure to tell them what kind of person makes for a good student at your school, so they can have a better frame of reference and can easily picture the right people who match your description. Sometimes just telling them “more like you” isn’t enough information.

Then include five lines to collect the names, emails, and phone numbers of their five friends. To help lift response, tell them when they fill this out and bring it in, you’ll give them a $25 gift certificate to XYZ restaurant or a coffee shop or what have you.

Referral Strategy #2

Implement a win/win/win referral program.

Let’s face it, referrals ultimately benefit you the most and are usually a win/lose/lose proposition. You get more students and make more money, but the student who refers a new student gets jack.

Marketing is based around “what’s in it for me,” even in referral marketing and applies to everyone. Even you.

Sure, your student can feel warm and fuzzy for referring another student and one would hope that is enough. But, the reality is waiting for referrals usually won’t motivate the masses to refer new students, no matter how good of an instructor you are.

Simply put, you should reward referrals.

Not only that, but also give a reward to the person who is referred. In this way, you create a win/win/win proposition.

For example, give a discount on lessons, say a free month, to the person who refers a new student to your martial arts school. Then, give a $50 sign up discount to the person they refer. In this way, you all three win, and the person who refers the new student feels like they get a better deal than the person they are referring.

This is the one I use the most and works incredibly well for my martial arts school.

Referral Strategy #3

Would you spend $25 to make $100? How about $1,200 to make $4,800?

This referral strategy is something that Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch talks about in his Referral Flood book and that is to offer a full refund referral system.

Here’s how the full refund referral system works:

For every new student someone refers, they get a 25% discount on lessons. When that person brings in the fourth student, they train for free for the rest of the year. Talk about incentive to refer people!

This referral program can be adjusted to make sense for your business but is one that can get people talking and can seriously help you make it rain referrals.

Think about it, you’re not out anything until someone signs up. Not only that, but you’re making even more money as a result. Plus, it motivates the person to refer more students. It can be very motivating!

Referral Marketing Works

Referral marketing systems require consistency if they are going to work. You can’t start it and go on auto pilot. To keep it top of mind, put up a flyer. Include it in your newsletter. Send a letter announcing your new referral program. As more new people start, start building it into your sales presentation so that from day one they know you expect referrals.

On last tip, be sure to recognize people in class whenever a student refers someone else. That alone will help remind your students of your referral program and that other students are referring students; which can motivate them to jump on the bandwagon as well.

Do you use any of these referral marketing systems? What do you use and how effective is it for you?

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