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John Lindsey
18th March 2002, 02:39
Every dojo should have flyers to advertise with. If the purpose of the flyer is to get people interested in calling or stopping by, how do you make it so that it gets their attention? Do you use just enough text to let them know what you are doing, or do you overload it with lots of information?

What about a customer handout of commonly asked questions? I use this for any guests who show up so I don't have to take away time from my students to talk with the person.

Chuck.Gordon
18th March 2002, 14:41
Originally posted by John Lindsey
Every dojo should have flyers to advertise with. If the purpose of the flyer is to get people interested in calling or stopping by, how do you make it so that it gets their attention? Do you use just enough text to let them know what you are doing, or do you overload it with lots of information?
What about a customer handout of commonly asked questions? I use this for any guests who show up so I don't have to take away time from my students to talk with the person.

Hi John,

I've used flyers and handouts over the years, and continue to do so, although not as energetically. I don't actually recruit much, but if I decide to do so, I usually use quarter-page (four to a standard sheet of paper) design that offers a very basic bit of info and a referral to the website, e-mail address and phone number for more info. I post them in the local MA shops, coffee shops and bookstores, too.

I try to keep the design simple, elgant and direct. I'll dig up a couple and PDF 'em for you to gander is you want.

However, all that said, most of my students come in because they run across the website or hear about us from someone else. Word of mouth is powerful.

Handouts for visitors? Yep. Used them quite a bit. Handy and time-saving ... providing they actually read the damn things. We are, unfortunately, not a culture of literati these days ...

The website is my most powerful marketing tool, I think.

Chuck

Shitoryu Dude
18th March 2002, 16:42
The dojo I attend has a standard handout situated right at the front counter. I usually have a few in my truck to give to people who are interested in training. The dojo manager recently had a sidewalk sandwich board made up - it stands about knee to waist high - but I have no idea where he plans to place it.

We frequently have a banner up advertising a free month's worth of lessons or a free dogi (not that I would wear the free dogi, but it seems to help get them in the door).

As far as I know we have never plastered the parking lots with window flyers or anything like that.

:beer:

Bob Blackburn
18th March 2002, 17:57
We leave the schedule outside for people who come by after hours. We sometimes run a 1/4 page ad; but, mostly it is word of mouth. We are also on a busy road one block from a movie theator so a lot of it is probably drive by. As stated, word of mouth is still the best.

Enfield
19th March 2002, 01:31
Our club makes use of four flyers. We have two for advertising and two for information.

We're a university club, so we flyer the campus at the beginning of each term, putting up the two ad flyers. One is just a general club flyer. It just has our name, with the "kendo" part in really large letters, a graphic, practice times and locations, cost, and our web address. The other is specifically for our beginners class that we run every term. It is basically the same, but the graphic is a bit smaller and there is more information, specifically about the beginners class.

Then we have two informational flyers: one for kendo, and one for iaido. They're pretty much one and a half page introductions to each martial art. Those we hand out when we have a club booth at some event, etc.

red_fists
19th March 2002, 01:39
Ok.
I don't have my own Dojo.

But my current Dojo/Kwoon does not hand out flyers as such.
We are listed in our local muncipality papers as we also take students on their behalf.

The Shrine at each entrance has a sign that lists all the standard activities like:
Zen meditation, Aikido, Tai Chi Chuan, etc.

Inside we have 2 stacks of flyers ready (English & Japanese) that lay out fees, Dojo rules, etc.
The flyer also doubles as a registration form for newcomers.

Apart from that anybody is free to walk in and join for one free lesson.

Sensei will talk with prospective students before/after the class only.