August 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

35 Direct Response Techniques that Improve Response Rates

With back to school in full swing and fall is upon us, it’s time to hunker down and get serious about increasing your response rates.

To help, here is a brain dump of 35 direct response techniques I learned while working at various direct response agencies over the years. While not a comprehensive list, it will at least give you some ideas to work with and help lift your response rates.

Before I dive in to things, remember that direct response is different than general advertising.

Direct response is …

  • Sales oriented
  • Makes an irresistible offer
  • Backs things up with a guarantee
  • Prompts the prospect to take action
  • Compels the prospect to take action
  • Is measurable

General advertising is…

  • None of the above

The good news is that direct response applies to both online and offline marketing vehicles.

35 Trusted Direct Response Techniques

  1. Be selective on where you advertise and how you market
  2. Target your audience so you don’t waste your time or money
  3. Always build value
  4. Establish your credibility
  5. Make an irresistible offer
  6. Test several irresistible offers (Be sure to measure ROI)
  7. Ask for the order multiple times, not just at the end
  8. Tell them what happens if they don’t take immediate action
  9. Use an eye catching visual
  10. Use a caption under your photos
  11. Use pictures of people throughout
  12. Include the word “you” as much as possible
  13. Use a photo of the offer
  14. Be concise but descriptive
  15. Tell a story
  16. Compare your services to something else
  17. Use black type on white background
  18. Personalize throughout the message
  19. Assign a dollar amount to your offer
  20. Offer a no nonsense unconditional guarantee
  21. Put a deadline on the offer
  22. Focus on benefits to your prospect
  23. Test multiple headlines
  24. Don’t offer too many choices
  25. Make it clear why they should do business with you
  26. Make it clear what the offer is
  27. Make it clear how they can redeem the offer
  28. Use compelling testimonials with photos
  29. Talk about how you’re different from your competition
  30. Use simple calls to action

Now it’s your turn… help me get to 35 tips that help lift response rates.

Share your response rate ideas in the form of a comment below!

Popularity: 4%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: direct response, profit, response rates, success
August 13, 2009 By 1 Comment

Making Every First Impression Count

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”

How many times have you heard this statement?

However, there are a lot of first’s that happen with prospective new students. It’s not just about the first time you meet.

And, all are equally important.

Here are some of the firsts you need to consider with your prospects:

  • First time they see your ad in the yellow pages
  • First visit to your website
  • First time they land on a “thank you” or confirmation page
  • First time they call you
  • First time they drive up to your martial arts school
  • First time they step foot in your martial arts school
  • First time they shake your hand and meet you
  • Your first conversation
  • First time they talk to one of your assistant instructors
  • First time they talk to one of your students
  • First time they use your restroom
  • First email they receive from you
  • First class they watch
  • First lesson they take from you
  • And more.

The reality is that most of these are in your direct control.

How can you make each interaction the most remarkable it can be? How can you make a lasting positive impression?

If you haven’t done this in a while, evaluate every contact point you have with prospects and see if there are ways to improve those critical first impressions.

Put yourself in their shoes and remember it’s about them, not you.

How do you address some of these opportunities to make great first impressions?

Popularity: 3%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: first impressions
May 15, 2009 By 1 Comment

3 Referral Marketing Systems that Can Help Make it Rain New Students

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?

Popularity: 16%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: referral, referral marketing
May 5, 2009 By 3 Comments

Add an additional $21,456 of pure profit to your martial arts school

How would you like to add an additional $21,456 of bottom line profit to your martial arts school?

What if I told you you could actually do this if you implemented just one idea from this site?

Well, it’s simple really.

Just work to get one referral a month every month for an entire year.

Getting one referral a month isn’t too hard, especially if you put a system in place to help make it happen.

Referrals Are The Best Source of New Students

As we all know, referrals are usually the cheapest marketing vehicle there is. It can cost you little to nothing and can help fill up your martial arts classes, fast.

It is also the most persuasive marketing there is because people listen to their friends and family members and value what they say.  It comes down to trust and people trust their friends and family (well, in most cases!).

How many things have you purchased just because a friend told you they loved it?

I have TiVo because a friend of mine wouldn’t shut up about it. He got me excited enough to pay $150 for the box and $15 a month for the service. I’ve had it for 5 years now and can’t live without it.

In fact, I know of many martial arts schools that almost exclusively market their martial arts school through referrals.

How cool would that be for your business? Not only that, how much more profitable would your martial arts school be?

If you got one referral a month every month for a year, that can add up fast.

Here’s the quick math if you are charging $149 a month for lessons:

  • $149/month x 12 months = $1,788
  • $1,788/yr x 12 referrals/yr = $21,456

Remember, that doesn’t include down payments, belt tests, proshop sales or anything else. That’s $21,456 just off of lessons (assuming they each stayed on for a full year). Then when you factor in the lifetime value of each student, this number really starts to skyrocket!

Simply substitute your monthly number to see how much you could add from this idea. Hopefully this little exercise motivates you to create a referral system for your martial arts school.

I know when I ran the numbers, it put a BIG fire under my butt to get moving!

Don’t Wait For Referrals

Most people think referrals just happen and that you don’t have to work for them.

If you’re doing this, slap yourself in the face. Hard.

You can’t rely on referrals just happening on their own to grow your business. Sure, they can happen on their own. But, probably not enough to sustain your business.

You have to make them happen.

If you don’t have a referral system in place, its time to create one.

Even if you are already getting a lot of referrals each month, imagine how many more you could be getting if you had a referral system in place that did all the work for you!

In my next post,  I will share three referral marketing systems that can help you get more students from referrals.

So, how many referrals a month do you get?

Popularity: 4%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: referral
April 29, 2009 By 2 Comments

4 Books Every Martial Arts School Owner Should Read

As a martial arts school owner, it’s always important to always be studying, learning, and growing.

And, I’m not just talking about the martial arts style or system you study, I’m talking about what you fill your noggin with as it relates to marketing and business!

You can’t build your business unless you are learning and implementing new ideas, systems, and strategies.

I don’t know about you but I read a ton about marketing and business. And, I must confess I’m obsessed! It’s about all I read anymore. I just ordered 5 new books yesterday from Amazon and just got 3 in the mail.

If you’re not a marketing and business book fanatic like I am, this post will help you find some good reading!

There are some great books specific to marketing martial arts that I will write about later. However, I thought I would first recommend a few books that aren’t about the martial arts business that can really help your martial arts school or mixed martial arts gym grow.

Here we go, in no particular order…

1. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
Michael Gerber

book-cover-emyth

This book hit me right in the face and woke me up to the fact that I was thinking more like a technician and not an entrepreneur. It’s a real eye opener!  The book is a little longer than the others listed below but worth the read.  Mr. Gerber tends to go on and on with his stories, but they do help illustrate his points.

According to Gerber, every business owner needs to simultaneously be 1) an entrepreneur and 2) a manager as well as 3) a technician.

1) The technician is the one in the trenches producing the product or offering the service.

2) The manager ensures that the operations and finances run smoothly.

3) The entrepreneur drives the company in the right direction and leads with vision.

Of the three, it is the entrepreneur role that is the key to long term business success. However, most small businesses fail because the technician is usually the one in charge and doesn’t know how to run a company or lead with vision. They’re only good at the job, not running or leading the business!

2. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Seth Godin

book-cover-purple-cow1Cows, after you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. However, imagine driving down the highway and seeing a purple cow.

A purple cow is the idea of something out of the ordinary… something that gets noticed and gets people talking.

Every day, we are bombarded with boring, average products and services. They all start looking and sounding the same.

For example, open up any yellow page and flip to the martial arts section and this will stare you right back in the face… you’ll see a ton of ads that all look the same and sound the same.

What a waste of money! No one is trying to look, sound, or act any different. There are no purple cows!

The author reveals that a Purple Cow must be inherent. In short, it’s not something that can be added on later it must be at the core and work from the inside out.

Godin has an incredible gift of being succinct yet still getting his point across. This is an easy read and finished it in two days. I didn’t want to put it down!

3. All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
Seth Godin

book-cover-marketers-liarsYes, I’m a Seth Godin fan…. I saw him speak in Salt Lake City on his “The Dip” book tour (also a great book!) a couple of years ago and found him very insightful and entertaining.

He is a great marketer and definitely gets it.

The title of this book alone is brilliant.

However, it isn’t exactly true. It’s not the marketers who are the liars. It’s the customers who lie to themselves.

According to Godin, successful marketers don’t talk about features or benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story customers want to believe.

There are some great examples to learn from that can help inspire you to tell your story in a new way.

4. Creating Customer Evangelists
Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba

book-cover-customer-evangelists

If you’re looking for ways to get people talking about your business, READ THIS BOOK!

Creating Customer Evangelists describes the 6 step process of creating customer evangelists:

1. Customer Plus-Delta (Continuously gather and use customer feedback)
2. Napsterize Your Knowledge (Share freely what you know)
3. Build the Buzz (Find the right word of mouth networks and tap into them)
4. Create Community (Encourage your customers to come together)
5. Make Bite-Size Chunks (Make it easy to try, like a free trial)
6. Create a Cause (Focus on making the world, or even just your community, a better place)

While these all might sound rather intuitive, not every business implements them. There is also a workbook you can get to accompany your reading that I also recommend.

I have used the principles in this book since 2002 and believe me they work!

Well there you have it, Four solid books you should buy and read as soon as possible. I have a ton of other books I will recommend in other posts but this will at least get you started.

Be sure to leave your comment about the books you would recommend!

(I really do read them ALL!)

Popularity: 4%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: books
April 10, 2009 By 4 Comments

3 Factors of Successful Martial Arts Marketing

Do you ever wonder why some martial arts school owners just seem to attract students like a magnet? Students seem to find them, line up, then sign up.

It just doesn’t seem fair, does it?

However, the reason for this is likely because they understand the three factors of successful martial arts marketing. And, it’s not too late for you to start building these into your own marketing efforts so you can start having more students find you, line up, then sign up! [Read more...]

Popularity: 7%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: marketing martial arts, success
January 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Marketing Martial Arts Turns 1 Year Old

It has already been a year since Marketing Martial Arts went live. My, how time flies. [Read more...]

Popularity: 3%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: anniversary
November 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment

How to Build a Marketing Calendar for Your Martial Arts School

Some martial arts school owners plan their marketing efforts each and every month in advance while others just do a yellow page ad waiting for the phone to ring.

If the later sounds a little too familiar, it’s time to get more proactive with your marketing efforts. It’s time to develop a marketing calendar! [Read more...]

Popularity: 4%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Marketing, offer, promotion
October 17, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Poll: What Martial Arts Marketing Associations Do You Belong To?

Please join the conversation and identify which martial arts marketing associations you belong to. All entries are 100% anonymous!

What Martial Arts Marketing Associations Do You Belong To?

View Results

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Popularity: 2%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: poll
September 11, 2008 By 1 Comment

Poll: What Marketing Vehicle Brings Your Martial Arts School the Most Leads?

Please join the conversation and identify the single most important lead generation effort that works the best for your martial arts school. In case you’re worried, all responses are anonymous.

What Marketing Vehicle Brings Your Martial Arts School the Most Leads?

View Results

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Did I miss anything? If so, please let me know in the form of a comment below!

Popularity: 3%

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: poll