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Thread: Recruiting new students

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Location
    n. california
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    Default Recruiting new students

    I'm looking for ideas on recruiting new students. What have schools or dojos done to recruit new students? Currently at my Aikido dojo, there is only about a core group of maybe half-a-dozen students. This translates to maybe 3-4 students for any given class.

    Small classes are nice, but it's also nice to have a variety of people to train with. We share a space with other MA's and having so few students puts us in a tenuous situation for losing our few classes to make time slots available for larger ones.

    The space is large but it's location is kind of "out-of-the-way" and there is no foot traffic. It's off a small "industrial" section, however it is near homes and other businesses and a busy road.

    So what has your school/dojo done to promote it's classes? What kind of advertising, if any, did you use and find useful or effective? and cheap? Also what kind of incentive (i.e. "free gi", "free classes", "% discount for XY") did you use? Who did you target with your promotions?

    Any suggestions would be appreciated.
    Thanks.
    Eric
    eric acuna

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2000
    Location
    NSW Australia
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    Hello,

    Pretty much a shot-gun effect of flyers, brochures, business cards, mail box drops, demos at every event you can find locally, 10 to 20 word ad in the newspaper classifieds, news worthy stories about your dojo on TV, radio & newspapers, plus the good old web-page. Check out www.martialartsteachers.com for ideas

    Cheers,
    Paul Steadman

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Mechanicsburg, PA
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    Ask the students you have how they found the dojo. Although there might not be a consistent answer within a small group, it's at least a place to start. Going forward, be sure to keep records of the answers to that question, so that you can identify which advertising methods are yielding results and which are a waste of time and/or money. This is especially important when you have only limited resources to begin with.

    My own records indicate a web site has become the most important advertising method. Most search engines cue on the title tag of the home page (the title tag is what shows in the bar at the top of your browser window when at a page), so be certain to use a tag that contains enough keyword information to pull in searches.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Selbyville De.
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    Default recruting new students

    We tried to make our dojo as traditional and authentic as we could so as to be different from other schools around us.This creates an interest and lends to the total experience of the martial arts. We also make sure our programs are the best in the area.For our karate classes we offer 3 classes and a free uniform for $19.95. This gets people in and then they branch to other programs we offer.For Aiki and ken they mostly just come in and I let them try it out once or twice first.
    People have to drive to get to us. No foot traffic.Our best methods are the phone book and word of mouth. This will take a little time to build up so be paitient and good luck.

    Phil Scudieri

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2000
    Location
    Charleston, IL USA
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    A VIP contest is another good way if we are talking kids. Have every kid hand out "FREE VIP" cards to at least 5 friends. The pass gives a free uniform and a free month of classes. There are ways to convert these students into full students, BTW. For every student that has a response they earn say, 5 tickets. For every contact of theirs that joins they earn an additional 10 tickets. After the length of the contest, say 3 months, you have a VIP Party for all those with tickets. The tickets are drawn for door prizes such as gift certificates to your pro shop, restaurant gift cards, whatever. There is one grand prize, like a new bike, a Nintendo Wii, or something worthwhile to get the kids excited.
    With respect,

    Mitch Saret

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