• The Martial Arts Show – May 12-13 @ Birmingham NEC
• New Marketing Tools for Schools
• Craig Smith – Stealth Black Belt Academy
• Carphone Warehouse Promotion
• Martial Arts Taster Sessions in Schools

The challenge this year is to continue the momentum built up in the first two months so that the whole year produces the results you truly want. It is vital to maintain focus on getting and keeping students throughout the year, not just in the post New Year period, if you are to ensure success.

We must resist the natural temptation to “take the foot off the marketing peddle” following an intensive period; to succeed you will need to be consistent and imaginative with your marketing approach, particularly as consumers priorities change at differing periods during the year.

Easter and school holidays are now looming and focus should now move to preparation for that period. For our part, a new promotion with Carphone warehouse is underway as is the work with the Youth Sports Trust and both of these initiatives are designed to be overlaid onto your planned marketing activity.

We are also delighted to be formally releasing an iPhone/iPad app by the end of March. This will enable you to take attendance while you are online or offline due to a new synchronisation process within the functionality. This is just one of the new products that will be released this year and you can see much more technology due for release later this year when you visit us at the Martial Arts Show in May.

In the meantime, I would like to congratulate all customers who have had a great start to 2012; and to invite anyone who needs further guidance to contact us for help.

• David Trower – Evolution Taekwondo
• How will your business handle the London 2012 Olympics?
• Exciting new links with schools

The state of the economy remains high on everyone’s agenda as we begin 2012 – we should however be encouraged by the growth seen in the Martial Arts industry last year which continues to demonstrate the resilience of businesses engaged in sporting activities.

The Government expects increases in participation in sporting activities as a lasting legacy of the 2012 Olympics and while some businesses may see this as a “double edged sword” especially those sited near Olympic venues, we should look to gain every advantage from this prestigious event. The first half of this year will be awash with imagery and news about sport and the long term benefits that participation can provide for all age groups. Consequently, consumers will continue to be encouraged to join well run and professional organisations that provide sporting activities for children and adults.

NEST will be involved in a number of initiatives this year to take advantage of the “sporting climate” to help customers get and keep students, including:- our new “Partnership” arrangement with the Youth Sports Trust, new prospecting and student attendance systems and real time reports mechanisms designed to promote regular attendance. The Youth Sports Trust work will help you to engage with primary and secondary schools and get your message out to potential students.

We look forward to working with everyone and will keep you posted on all the new marketing developments we have planned for this year. If you need any help in any areas of your business, please call us.

• Paul Pretty – Tsunami Martial Arts
• Asda Sporting Chance Success
• Advertise in Yellow Pages
• New Additions to the Marketing Toolkit

It’s hard to believe that yet another year is coming to an end, but even with a back drop of financial difficulties in national economies around the world and the gloom seen on the TV each night, the Martial Arts industry has shown an unparalleled resilience. I do believe that the efforts of school owners to rise to the challenges presented by the current economic climate have paid off in 2011 and will continue to do so in the coming year.

It is not in the nature of school owners in this industry to be complacent, and we should not. But the facts are that up to September of 2011 we saw a significant increase in customers’ annualised billing and we estimate that this growth will be around 8% on a like for like basis by the end of the year.

• Lee Sansum Black Belt Academy
• Social Media Marketing
• Ask the Expert

The three months of September, October and November always stand out as the biggest opportunity every year for our industry, but we have to work at it to achieve our goals. While I am sure that you have been taking notice of our marketing prompts in preparation for this time please also remember that those with consistent success also show a consistent approach to their marketing activity. That means formulating and executing a well prepared plan to implement marketing actions which support your goals for getting new students and retaining the ones that you have. It is clear, from our analysis of schools, that success will only come where there is a consistent focus on the business of getting and retaining students throughout every single month.

• Terry Estcourt Wing Chun
• Win £500 worth of Equipment
• Network Meeting – Book Your Places

We are now well into the summer period for sales and many schools are underway with promotional activity to ensure that they get the most out of the opportunities available. As everyone in this industry knows, potential students move their focus elsewhere at this time to holidays and other summer activities. The danger for our industry has always been that Martial Arts school owners take the view that if consumer interest is low we can do little to attract new students – this is simply not true – what we need to do is put our imagination into gear to ensure that the promotional activity implemented in the summer is as exciting and fresh as possible in order to get a good share of the new student opportunities available.