5 little things that can make a BIG difference
From a customer’s perspective, it’s the little things that can often make a difference when it comes to their experience with a business. Your martial arts business is no exception to this, so it’s important that you take some time and get those little details right. So, what are some of these ‘little details’ you need to pay attention to?
Information
One of the first areas where you can make a difference to your martial arts business is with your information, more specifically the missing bits of information. Having an incorrect or outdated phone number for example could cost you potential leads as no one will be able to get in touch with you regarding booking a lesson.
Another example for those of you with listings on Get Into Martial Arts is updating your age tags. We get many requests from your prospects wanting to know if their child is old enough to attend a class. Fixing this small detail is quick, simple and could help improve your sign up rate. We even have a guide to show you how to do this (Click here).
I often see details that are incorrect, different or outright missing across various websites and social media pages from various businesses, make sure you are not one of these!
The right place
When it comes to your marketing, advertising in the right area can often make a big difference to how successful it is. It could also potentially save you some money as you won’t be paying for adverts in areas you don’t need them to be in. This is especially relevant when it comes to Facebook ads.
When it comes to the digital side of your advertising with things such as Facebook, the location targeting can also make a big difference. I recently wrote a blog on how you can narrow down the location of your adverts to be very specific to an area of your choosing. This approach should help you get more engagement in the right areas and make better use of your advertising budget.
It is worth taking some extra time to plan out your advert’s locations to both save cost and increase the chances of engagement with them. For example, if you choose to do a leaflet drop to people’s houses, you may not actually get that many people interested or respond (You can use the mapping system in myMA to help make sure you have the right areas!). If you take those same leaflets and take them to a busy location such as a shopping centre and provide some demonstrations over a weekend, you may find your success with sign-ups improve. You could even look to combine the two to better your chances.
The right time
Following on from the location side of your advertising and promotions, another important detail to consider is the timing. For example you wouldn’t advertise a Christmas offer in March. However, the principle remains the same; you need to run your promotions and adverts at the right time.
It’s always a good idea to get your adverts out ahead of the event (just not too soon) but how do you know when is a good time to start advertising? It does depend on the event but anywhere from 3-6 weeks is usually good, as it gives it a good chance to circulate and for people to see it.
Using your calendar or NEST Campaign Planner can be a great way to help highlight key dates coming up as well, such as back to school, half term holidays and national holidays, giving you plenty of warning to prepare your marketing materials.
Please leave a message
When it comes to your prospects contacting you about booking onto lessons, be this through email or over the phone, it is vital that you respond to them. You may already have something in place to catch the phone calls you miss, such as an answering machine, but do you make sure to respond to the messages! You can use the prospecting section within myMA to help track and manage your prospects along with your communications to them.
Setting aside some time to return a call or respond to an email can make a real big difference to the prospect, especially if you contact them sooner rather than later. This helps you create a positive start to their customer journey and can help increase the chances of them becoming a full time student.
Are you actually out the office?
We all need a holiday now and then to unwind, but how many of you remember to put on your out of office or update your voicemail to inform people when you leave? More importantly, how many of you remember to turn it off once you are back? Keeping prospects and students informed of the dates you are away is great as it helps to manage their expectations.
However, this can look a little unprofessional if you forget to update or turn off these notifications upon your return from a prospects perspective. You can set a reminder for yourself in your calendar or phone to update everything when you get back.
Equally, if you say you are away, make sure you take some time out for yourself and enjoy the break. It may be tempting to respond to prospects or messages while you are away, but it can look a little confusing if your ‘out of office’ message says you are away and then you respond.
As always, if you need any additional tips, help or advice you can contact the marketing team here at NEST and will be happy to help!
