Is Your Website Losing You Money? - Mike Parrella
Posted by Member Solutions on Thu, Oct 14, 2010 @ 12:00 PM
Hey…Mike Parrella here…and I hope you’re winding up a great year in your Martial Arts schools. In the upcoming weeks, I’m going to tell you about some Internet marketing strategies that are going to enable you to become one of the most dominant schools in your area on the web, and, as a result, to get more leads and students!
Now before I share any of my sexy ‘ninja secrets’ I want to tell you a little bit about the success that I’ve had while marketing my school online over the last few years.
Currently, 90% of my school’s marketing is done online. The other 10% always directs customers to my online offers and websites.
I really believe this is the shift that Martial Arts school owners need to take nowadays. Internet marketing is so much cheaper and much more effective than all the other conventional methods that we’ve all used over the years. It’s not that direct mail, flyers, VIPing, ad cards, etc. don’t work…it’s just that on the Internet you can do it cheaper, faster and reach more people.
The coolest thing about it is that it rarely takes my staff or myself more than one hour per day to work our online marketing plan. It certainly gives my staff more time to do what they love the most – teaching state-of-the-art classes and getting people the results that they came to my academy for.
BTW – I went over nine of these in a recent Member Solutions Webinar which you can download right here ===> Search Engine Marketing 101
And as a result of working that plan day in and day out, my school has enrolled over 500 students on contracts in the last 12 months. And I did this all with a few websites (yes, you need more than one to effectively market all of your school’s programs online) and a few hours per week. Is it starting to sound good yet?
Words like ‘recession’ and ‘struggling economy’ – those are words for cry babies and quitters – which as Martial Artists I know you guys are NOT!
The fact is there are more people getting involved in Martial Arts and fitness programs than ever before. You just need to know how to be ‘found’ by them.
Okay, now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. To successfully market your school online, you need a few things. One of them is a Sales-Style Website.
Most schools have a website that they are using to communicate with their current students and prospects alike. The problem is that prospects have a completely different agenda than your students. You need a completely different website to communicate with each group.
So how can I build a killer website?
Here are some of the features that comprise a good student recruitment website. If you implement them, your site will definitely bring in the leads. There are still other elements to discuss in a later post, such as your offer, a guarantee, killer sales copy, etc.
Basic Elements of a Good Sales Website
Your website must meet several criteria if you expect it to get you loads of leads. Ask yourself the following questions about your website.
- Is there an actual headline on your website? A statement that will compel the potential student to want to join your academy? A promise of a massive benefit perhaps? A provocative statement? Here’s a tip – do a Google search for the “100 Best Ad Headlines” and you’ll find a famous list of the best headlines ever used in advertising. Test them, tweak them and get them on your site!
Does your website have an ‘Opt-In’ box - a place to have people enter their names and e-mails? Does it offer an ‘ethical bribe’ to get people to opt-in? Are you giving prospects something of value in exchange for their info? Your opt-in box needs to be in the upper right hand corner/side of your website.
And make sure you’ve got something good to give them. The promise of receiving your nifty ‘e-newsletter’ is so five years ago and terribly ineffective. Give them something they want, such as a report, your schedule, prices, etc. We’ve tested out many different offers and these seem to work the best.
- Do you have testimonials on your main page? Testimonials or ‘Social Proof’ lets people know that others have used your service and have been satisfied or reached their goals.
Oh, and do you have these on video? If not, at least put a picture of the person in the testimonial. Prospects need to ‘connect’ with at least one of the people giving testimonials. Make sure you pull a juicy tidbit from the actual testimonial and use that as the headline for that testimonial.
- Do you have an offer? Is it clear, or are you using ambiguous terms like “Free Trial” or “Free Introductory Offer.” Structure your offer more along the lines of “Two Private Lessons,” “Three Classes,” “Four Weeks,” etc. And I would recommend a free uniform, gloves, etc. Give something cool to get people to take advantage of your offer.
- Do you have a way to let your prospects actually BUY a membership online? Can you imagine going to a website, reading some great copy, seeing people getting great results from using is the service, checking out the offer, and then there’s no place to buy? This is one of the biggest blunders on Martial Arts sites today. Give prospects a way to buy your offer!
Making people think they can buy, only to bring them to a page that asks them for their names, e-mails and phone numbers is just ridiculous. It doesn’t make sense
You can use a bunch of services to let people buy right there, but I really recommend Event Manager from Member Solutions. I know it sounds like a shameless plug, but I use it and I think it’s a great program for schools. Contact Member Solutions and they’ll get you started. Event Manager enables you to make a checkout page for just about anything that you can sell in your school; memberships, graduation fees, seminars, you name it. Plus it can also do non-paid registrations such as getting people to register online for buddy days, birthday parties, etc. It’s a sweet tool for sure, and at only $19.99 per month, it’s one of the least expensive checkout options I’ve ever found.
So I hope these ideas have got you thinking about your current site and where it needs to be in the future.
But remember, these are just a few tips to get your website up to snuff and give it the boost it needs to start signing up students. But it’s really just the tip of the iceberg – there are actually “Nine Essential Elements that make up a Successful Sales Website” and I will be covering all nine in detail in some future blog posts here.
If you want to get more great information about how to just kill it online for your school, go to my website http://FullContactOnlineMarketing.com, enter your info, and you’ll get a few free gifts from me!
And hey, please take a sec to comment below and let me know what you think! Don’t forget to share this with your buddies via the links below as well.
Michael Parrella has been one of the Martial Arts industry's top professionals for almost 20 years.
He is an expert in Internet marketing for Martial Arts schools. His own Long Island, New York location has enrolled over 500 people in the last 12 months, just from his websites.
Michael is also a published author and CEO of http://FullContactOnlineMarketing.com, a Martial Arts Internet marketing and website design firm. They build 'recruitment-style' websites for schools, where prospects can enroll online for different memberships. His company's websites have also been able to produce extraordinary results for school owners all over the country.
