What marketing works best?

I am just curious which type of marketing you all feel has the highest return on your dollar. Keep in mind I am not talking about the given ones such as demos, referral programs and so forth but rather the conventional methods such as direct mail, newspaper, TV or other media.

If you believe newspaper ads hold a higher return on your investment how often do you run your ads? Daily, weekly, monthly? Thanks for input.

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Permalink Reply by Sensei Nick on November 3, 2009 at 6:25am

Shihan,

Social media does. It is free. Have you watched any of the free webinars on how to start social media for your school? I will be posting them again.

Nick

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Permalink Reply by Franz Shihan on November 3, 2009 at 8:40pm

Sensei Nick,

We already use those but I am more curious about non-internet marketing since we already know that this works. For example...where do people place flyers that produce results? Do you use door hangers? Inserts in the local paper? Etc.. Thanks for the heads up though and you are correct that Facebook is excellent for promoting a business.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin @ Black Belt Marketing on January 12, 2010 at 11:36am

Flyers don't produce results and marketing isn't about taking shots in the dark. It's a systematic approach to building connections and relationships and leveraging those. It's about getting permission to market people. It's about spreading the word.

There is no one big thing. It's a collection of small and medium sized approaches that integrate into one consistent marketing message (a story).

Franz Shihan said:

Sensei Nick,

We already use those but I am more curious about non-internet marketing since we already know that this works. For example...where do people place flyers that produce results? Do you use door hangers? Inserts in the local paper? Etc.. Thanks for the heads up though and you are correct that Facebook is excellent for promoting a business.

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Moriniere on March 10, 2010 at 8:52pm

I have put out a lot of flyers in my time all over the place. This past summer I was personally passing out, putting out, or blanketing communities with at least 500 flyers a week. Maybe of that 500, 5 will come, BUT 500 people know I am here... so they just became word of mouth for me for anyone who is looking for something for little Johny. e.g.

Kate: Man, Jonhy's soccer season is over and his just keeps going and going and going. I need to find something for him to do this summer.
Melinda: Oh yeah, well I just got this flyer or my car window at lunch time, some type of martial arts school right down the street. They do martial arts, music and dance.
Kate: Well let me see it if you still have it, I think I will go see what they are all about.

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That's my take on the flyer issue. Actually I receive a lot of calls for performances because some manager of something had one of my flyers in his windshield wiper.

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Permalink Reply by Sensei Nick on March 22, 2010 at 7:53pm

Shihan,

Are you familiar with inbound and outbound marketing?

Some schools think they are using social media, buy they are not. Flyers and doorhangers are a form of outbound marketing-meaning they are forced upon the consumer and are annoying.

I would be more than happy to give you a few strategies for social media. Not just facebook and twitter. If you talk to Dan Hect from the masters hall of fame, he was amazed at science behind social media.

Franz Shihan said:

Sensei Nick, We already use those but I am more curious about non-internet marketing since we already know that this works. For example...where do people place flyers that produce results? Do you use door hangers? Inserts in the local paper? Etc.. Thanks for the heads up though and you are correct that Facebook is excellent for promoting a business.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Bolinger on April 5, 2010 at 8:42pm

I do the flyers. Several business allow me to put flyers up. I also let people know that we do a trial period, were each new student has 4 days of free training, so i'm not looking for any upfront payment. Try it out and if you like it, then we'll finish up the application. I also do a little promotion with my kids every now and then. I might do a deal were if they bring in someone new to train for the day, then they get a free shirt. If they sign up, the get a set up hand wrapps or a sweatshirt with the club logo on it.

I'd rather give away shirts and sweatshirts with the club logo on it, than waste money on newspaper advertisements. I"ve never gotten anyone to join up from the newspaper and thats usually at least $85 down the drain doing that.

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Permalink Reply by Tosh Cook on August 30, 2010 at 4:04pm

An interesting and timely topic for me as I was just looking into this last night. I don't mind sharing my findings and I hope someone else has something to offer on this thread.

In 2010, my school has had 512 phone calls or walk ins from prospective clients. The top marketing sources were:
Signage/Drive By Traffic: 53%
Internet (www.rgjjoffresno.com): 13%
Referral from a friend: 11%
Phone Book: 11%
TV Commercial: 5% (we run an adult themed MMA commercial during UFC programming and are in the process of buying slots for a kids themed programming aimed at "moms")

Top sources for actual signups are:
Signage/Drive By Traffic: 41%
Referral from a friend: 26%
Internet (www.rgjjoffresno.com): 18%
TV Commercial: 9%
Phone Book: 3%
Print Advertising: 3%

It's funny because the bottom three sources for sign-ups (commercial, phone book, print ads) are the three most expensive forms of advertising we utilize. That being said, I would venture to say we will still have positive cash flow comparing our yearly costs of advertising against the life time value of a student on the TV Commercial. As far as the phone Book...I question if we will have a positive cash flow generated. We are probably one of the most expensive schools in our area and I would venture to say the phone book makes it easy for prospects to "price shop", a battle we will always lose (despite our efforts to sell "value" and our low priced "intro" program).

As far as the question by the original poster, I would stay the heck away from newspaper "aka the fishwrap". You will pay out the nose for it, and it has a advertising shelf life of one day. I have also never recieved a decent return on radio.

My $.02, for what it is worth.

(Caveat-I use a simple excel spreadsheet and a few pivot tables to track our results. It is fairly low tech, but hey...it works.)

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Permalink Reply by john paul ampongan on September 5, 2010 at 8:27am

streamers placed in a good area and inserts (in the season). works best for me

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Permalink Reply by Michael Iannone on October 27, 2010 at 7:05pm

One of the thing we do is Free Birthday Parties, I know it sounds Crazy but one of the reasons it works is because I teach them and don't have to pay anyone to do it. Plus the parents pay for everything( Decorations, PInata, Pizza, Plates, Cups, Drinks, Cake) So the only thing I provide for them is Teaching an hour of Karate, 15 Minutes of Dodge Ball or Freeze Dance, Pinata set up and Keeping the kids under Control, Then Sing Happy Birthday and Cake. So it only cost my time and Electric, My Wife helps with the party and the parents always take care of handing out the pizza and cake. We allow anywhere from 20-25 kids. We tell the parents that they can invite fellow students but we would appreciate it if they Invited 20 kids that do not already belong to our school, Right before we serve cake I make an anouncement and tell all the kids and parents that the birthday boy/girl got them a gift and they are invited back to take their 2nd class and earn their white belt. This past Saturday I used Sensei Nicks Tip At the begging of the party I told all the parents that we would be taking pictures and video and it would be uploaded to our facebook fan page. All the parents at that point picked up their cell phones and said what the address to your fan page.
Bonus of the party is 20-25 new leads delivered right to your front door.
Cost what ever your electric is for two hours. and your time if you pay and instructor what ever the cost is for that.
We sign up at least two kids from each Birthday party on a 6 week intro program and usually book another Free Birthday party. Not to mention whoever did not sign up. They are still fans of our fanpage and are communicating with us so who knows weeks or months down the line.

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Moriniere on November 9, 2010 at 8:41pm

Most of leads right now come from "Yard Sale" Websites. For $8.00 a month, I can unlimited ads with pictures. Every Monday I update it so it goes back to the top. If I posted one right now.. in about 5 minutes 4 - 6 leads would hit my blackberry.

If you have yard sale website in your area. You should definitely check them out.

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Permalink Reply by michael simkin on November 14, 2010 at 7:10am

What do you mean yard sale website? It sounds like it works for you. How do I find it? How does it work?

Benjamin Moriniere said:

Most of leads right now come from "Yard Sale" Websites. For $8.00 a month, I can unlimited ads with pictures. Every Monday I update it so it goes back to the top. If I posted one right now.. in about 5 minutes 4 - 6 leads would hit my blackberry. If you have yard sale website in your area. You should definitely check them out.