I’m worried about martial arts school owners and how they’re marketing and advertising themselves these days. I live in Georgia but I’m confident that if I moved to Washington state, at the opposite corner of the country, and opened a local circulation I’d see an ad for a martial arts school that looks identical to a non-affiliated school back in Georgia (and probably equally as ineffective). That’s shameful.

To be clear, it’s important that everyone understands that advertising and marketing are not the same thing (here’s a good, short Quora answer on the difference). Martial arts schools typically use print ads and websites for advertising, so that’s mostly what I’m referring to here.

If you want to be successful, avoid the following 11 mistakes:

1. Throwing too many darts at the demographic map.
   If you’re lucky enough to get someone to stop and look at your print ad, can they clearly comprehend what demographic you’re targeting? And if it’s them, do they feel it? Many martial arts schools offer programs for young children, older children, teens, adults, and kickboxing for moms. If your print ad is trying to speak to all of those groups simultaneously, the prospect isn’t getting the message you need them to get and your response rate is going to suffer. Only target one group with each ad.
2. Providing too much information in each ad.
   Your ad can’t double as a sales rep. Your prospects can’t ask it questions and you don’t have enough room or enough of your prospect’s time to educate them to a sale in a single ad. Stop trying. Instead, focus your ad around one single concept with a great headline, your top competitive advantage, social proof (e.g. testimonial), your CTA (call to action), and any absolutely pertinent information someone would need to respond to your CTA. Leave everything else out.
   
3. Failing to tie each advertisement into an integrated marketing strategy.
   Ads that attempt to stand alone will fail alone. Think of an ad as a single piece in a larger marketing puzzle. It needs supporting pieces to click into or the prospect is never going to see the big picture. For example: If my end goal is to get the prospect to sign up for a 2 week trial I won’t sell the 2 week trial in the ad. That’s too difficult and messy. Instead, the ad’s sole job will be to send the prospect to a landing page online that will sell the two-week trial more interactively and hopefully more effectively. And I’ll use the landing page traffic analysis to measure my advertisement ROI and effective reach.
   
4. Using low-quality or generic stock photos.
   Do not, I repeat, do not use a photograph that any of your competitors could also find and use or buy and use. The photographs you use in your advertising campaigns need to be custom and should be your real students or staff. It needs to bleed your brand and you need complete control over the look and feel. The photographs also need to be similar in style and processing to create a consistent look. If you don’t know any students, parents, or staff who can do quality photography for you then another option is to ask whoever does your school’s annual student photo day to give you a CD of all the photos. If you have to pay extra, pay extra.  A photo is truly worth 1000 words and you can’t afford to miss out on that.
   
5. Failing to use consistent design, colors, style, and typography.
   Just as you can’t skimp on photography, you can’t skimp on design. Consistency is key. When it takes up to seven impressions for a prospect to act on an advertisement, you can’t afford for them to not be able to align all those instances with your brand. If all of your ads look completely different with no consistent style or type then it’s very possible you’ll fly below the radar. Use the same designer for all of your ads and find a couple of fonts and colors that align with your brand and use the same two or three every time.
   
6. DIY amateur hour.
   You can do a lot of this stuff yourself, but the key to success is knowing when you need to outsource. I’ve seen far too many DIY ad projects that looked like the owner outsourced the design to their Little Ninjas class. That’s unacceptable. If you take your business seriously and want your prospects and customers to take your business seriously then you need to put forth a consistent image of professionalism.
7. Being boring – Using the same copy, format, and offer everyone else in the industry is using.
   Tell the truth, does your latest ad feature any of the following words: respect, discipline, focus, family, degree/dan, sq. ft. facility, master instructor, or self-defense? Those are just a few of the words I see in nearly every single martial arts ad I come across. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s that they’re meaningless because they’re overused. What are you doing differently? What story do you want to tell? What are you doing that’s important?
   
8. Failing to decide what you want the prospect’s action step to be.
   The purpose of an advertisement is to get the viewer to take a specific action. Unfortunately, we often fail to make that desired action clear to the viewer. Do you want them to visit a website and fill out a form? Do you want them to call you? Do you want them to stop in and see you? Do you want them to tell a friend? What do you want? Choose a very specific action that you want the viewer to take and make it painfully obvious to them.
   
9. Racing to the bottom with your offer.
   The easiest way to get people in the door is by letting them try your school for themselves. They may not believe all the marketing hype but if you can get them in the door on a short, no-obligation trial program and they experience your greatness first-hand that goes a long way toward making them a full-time member. But take care when designing the trial program. If the trial is too cheap you’ll attract all the budget prospects who can’t afford your regular tuition. If you make it too expensive, you might turn away prime prospects who just don’t want to take that much risk. If the trial is too short they may feel like they’ll waste the money because they won’t get a good feel for your program and if you make it too long you’ll lose too much money. I follow the principle of refusing to race to the bottom. I don’t engage in price wars with the competition and I don’t try to undercut anybody; I offer a fair and honest trial program that makes me a little money and allows the prospect to try my school. And I never discount my tuition. I know what a spot in the program is worth and I demand that amount.
   
10. Selling without teaching or storytelling. – Use your ad to sell the next step and use the next step to sell your service.
    Sales is not about telling the prospect all the great services you offer and expecting them to fork over their hard-earned cash. Sales is about problem solving, understanding the prospect, and telling them a story they can relate to that’s also honest and reflects what your services can offer them. Stop using your ad space to list all of your services and talk about how amazing you are. If you’ve properly identified your target demographic, you can teach them what you want them to know or tell them a story that they can relate to. Ideally, you want to simply get their attention and then send them to an extra step where they will be willing to listen deeper to your offerings. Use your ad to sell the next step and use the next step to sell your program.
    
11. Failing to test and refine.
    Some ideas work where others fail miserably. Some colors work better than others. Some calls to action garner upwards of 80% response rates where others fail to even get 2%. Headlines are important and you have to figure out which ones capture attention the best. Which words are working and which aren’t? Which publications/circulations are working and which aren’t? There is always something you can test and re-test; do it religiously so you can spend your advertising dollars more efficiently and cut down on waste. In today’s world, testing is simple using tools on the internet before an ad ever goes out to the public. I’ll touch on that in a future article. If you don’t want to miss it, make sure you subscribe now!
    
12. Bonus: Not having anything special to advertise.
    The fact is that you can’t market chicken shit as chicken salad for very long. Even if you’re “just as good as” the guy down the street, that’s a failing position. And don’t just pursue being better, pursue different. Pursue drastically different. In a world where martial arts schools are popping up as often as McDonalds, the only way to attract attention and create a buzz is to offer something that nobody else is offering or offering the typical in a way nobody else is offering it. When the school down the street zigs, it’s time to zag. 

Have you made any of these mistakes? If so, the good news is that you can fix it immediately. Sit down with your team and outline a broad-based marketing strategy and then figure out how you’re going to use different advertising components to make that marketing strategy successful while following the above guidelines.

And start thinking differently. You’re not just a martial arts instructor, you’re a business owner. You can’t afford to ignore the important side of business and marketing. While you might not care about getting rich, there’s never a good reason to throw money down the drain on poorly executed advertising campaigns. Respect your business and respect yourself; promote responsibly!

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