Don’t Freeze This Festive Season
In last week’s blog we spoke about preparing yourself for a successful 2017, which is all good and well, but what about now!? Not to worry, we certainly haven’t forgot about the present and hopefully you haven’t either! This week we have a few quick tips to help you over the festive period…
Don’t ‘Freeze’
Like anyone, you will no doubt want to take a break this time of year, especially as Christmas gets closer, and that’s not a problem. But don’t slow down in the run up to your time off as that is valuable time to get new students and keeping current students interested. If you find yourself with some extra free time as things are quieting down, do something to make them busy again! Such as…
Offers!
It’s a great time of year for offers, so why not consider offering some for your martial arts lessons? This doesn’t have to be something overly spectacular such as ‘Join now and get a free XBOX!’, it could be much simpler. Something that you already do can be spiced up a little or made more festive such as a free trial lesson or bring a friend.
Outside The Box
It can often be a great approach to think outside of the box or to try something a little more adventurous, especially when it comes to your offers. Again, you don’t need to do anything crazy, but something that helps you stand out from other club offerings. Why not think about trying something like:
Prepaid martial arts lessons gift vouchers – A great offering for parents to give to their children this christmas and get them interested in joining. It’s a good way to showcase what your lessons are like as they have more time to get a feel for things. The best part for you as a business is it’s already paid for!
Extended Trial lessons – A lot of clubs already offer a trial lesson, but why not look to extend this offer by an extra lesson or two. It could help convince your prospect and turn them into a student.
Free Family training day – Similar to a trial lesson offer but for all the family. With more people attending there is a better chance someone will enjoy it and want to join full time. You can help increase your chances of success by running it over a weekend, helping families have something they can all join in with.
Current Students
It’s one thing to give offers out to new customers, but it’s your current students that can provide word of mouth referrals. By creating offers that your students can also potentially benefit from as well as who they recommend, helps them to actively participate in the offer. For some ideas, why not:
Bring a friend – A simple offer of a free trial lesson for the students friend or family member, but this time you can add more value for the student (as they have already joined). Offer your students a small reward for each friend they bring, something in the festive theme of a selection box for example. If you wanted to go the extra mile, you could even offer them a ‘10% off’ pro shop voucher.
Additional lessons – If you run multiple styles or lessons, you could look to offer a free trial to your current students who aren’t signed onto these classes. This will help them get a first hand experience of the full range of what you offer and may just convince them to take up more classes.
Grade over Christmas – You could consider doing a grading for your current students just before you break for Christmas, with the results provided in January. This helps keep you in mind while the students are off over Christmas, with the aim for them to return and get their new grade!
Those are just a few ideas and things to be aware of over the festive period, there of course so many more that you can probably think of yourselves. If you would like help with any of your own ideas or even using the ones suggested above, give the marketing team a call. We are always happy to help, you can email us on marketing@nestmanagement.co.uk or call us on 0115 945 5030
