Maximizing Your Martial Arts School's Zones for Better Student Enrollment

Fifty percent of your potential students’ first impression is made in seconds after they enter your four walls. Studies show men form an opinion on first impressions within 20 seconds, while women get there in 15. Those walls speak to your prospects whether you know it or not. Make sure the message is the one you want them to receive.

In the early days of my school, the first impression my school delivered was a foul stench of stale sweat. Prospects would say, “This place stinks.” My idiotic response was one of foolish pride. I would respond with, “We’ve earned that stench.”

On your own turf, you should have no problem setting yourself apart from the competitors in your city. From the potential student’s perspective, all schools are the same unless something clearly sets one apart. One of the most effective ways to win the perception battle is to look at the space inside and near your school as being made up of marketing zones.

Zone maximization is the planned, strategic use of the physical areas in and around your school. We will spend some time on these zones to increase enrollments and revenues by influencing your school’s perception and using specific promotional messages or visuals in each zone.

The Ideal Marketing Zone

Look at your school as an ideal micro-world where you control every inch of the physical space and everything that occurs inside the four walls. Inside your walls, that advantage is yours to use or to lose. Most schools lose it, a MATA Master will use it.

Zone One: The Parking Lot

Parking is a big issue. The busiest school I’ve ever been to was Billy Blanks Tae Bo Center in Ventura, CA. I showed up for a class once and there were over 70 people in the class before ours and over 100 waiting to take the class I was taking. What’s even more impressive is that my class was the 11 am MONDAY MORNING CLASS! Holy cow, the place was jamming. The single class fee was $20, so you do the math.

Parking could have been a nightmare but Billy had it worked out with valet parking and it worked great. I realize most of us are not going to be at the valet level anytime soon, but the lesson is that he took a potential negative that most owners simply leave to chance and turned it into a positive marketing zone.

Make sure your parking area is safe and well lit. Your parking lot is usually the first marketing zone your potential student encounters, so start your promotions there. It’s an opportunity to use marquees, banners, sandwich boards, entrance and exit signs to provide a great first impression.

Avoid using harsh language in signs such as "Parking For Joe’s Karate Only! All Others Will Be Towed!" That creates a negative first impression. Instead, see if you can post signs or create a welcoming presence in the parking lot. For instance, “Unparalleled Parking Provided by Joe’s Karate.” If you own your building, you may consider actually having your school name and logo painted onto the parking spaces and stripes.

Zone Two: Your School Front Zone

Make sure it’s easy to see inside your school and that it’s well lit with professionally painted lettering on the door and windows. Many schools hire an artist to change the look of the windows every month with colorful tempra-paint. Make sure your school front is inviting and clearly states that “Beginners are Welcome.”

You might have a little box to display your brochures. Make sure they are in excellent condition and only out during hours you are closed. You don’t want someone to choose to get a brochure rather than come in during business hours.

This emphasis on high quality extends to your signage as well. Keep your signs clean and up to date.

Zone Three: Your Front-Counter Zone

The three-foot rule is that everyone who enters the school is greeted within three feet of stepping in the school. Make sure the greeting is sincere and enthusiastic. If it’s a student, teach your staff and leadership team that the class warm-up begins the moment the student steps into the school. The greeting is part of the mental warm-up that gets a student ready for class. For prospects, a warm enthusiastic greeting is essential for creating a good first impression.

Zone Four: Your Viewing Area Zone

The viewing area or lobby of your school should be a comfortable and stimulating area. Within this zone are areas where students and parents are in limbo before, during (watching), and after class.

Parents: In or Out?

There was an old adage that you never wanted the parents to watch class because they will begin to gossip and talk among themselves about who should test and who is slacking etc. While that is true, preventing parents from watching class invites liability and suspicion. It’s better to be open and transparent with good two-way communication than to be hidden behind closed doors.

The Time Machine Effect

One of the advantages of having parents watching class is that it affords you the opportunity to resell the benefits of your school class after class. When you pull a ten-year-old brown belt up to lead part of the class, ask him how his training has improved his life. When he answers, “Sir, my school grades are better and I feel more confident,” you can be sure that the parents of the white belts in class will want their children to “grow up” to be like that brown belt. That scene works like a time machine to show the parent what her child will be like if he continues to come to class. This will help keep the parent on your side the next time the child says he doesn’t want to go to class.

Recap and Resell

Also, at the end of class, it’s a good practice to walk over to the parents and recap what was taught, how to practice it, the real-life skill benefits of the lessons, and what to prepare for next class.

Comfort

Obviously, the heart of a good viewing area is the chairs. The kinds of chairs you provide as well as how they are arranged can go a long way to send the message to your students and parents that they are welcome and you want them to feel at ease.

In today’s economy, businesses are selling off assets every day. Search Craigslist.org for good deals on waiting room chairs. Avoid fabric chairs as they are harder to keep clean than vinyl chairs that can be wiped down every night.

Zone Five: Your Pro-Shop

All inventory is expensive to keep. That’s why you only want products that will move regularly. Every dollar tied up in inventory is a dollar wasted. This is why direct ordering programs such as those offered by Tiger Claw and others is the preferred method of selling equipment. Too many schools overstock items they will never sell. In time, these items become dusty and unattractive which lowers the value of this important zone.

For this zone, keep just items that move each month. Display them with the least amount of space possible with professional-looking price and packaging information (no handwritten signs). Keep the displays bright and inviting.

Zone Six: Your Classroom

Clearly, your floor must be cleaned and safe. Torn, old carpet or carpet laid on cement without padding sends a message that the comfort and safety of your students is not important to you. Using firmly padded mats is the ideal flooring.

Many schools will mark an X where the students are to stand during class which is helpful for keeping kids out of harm's way with enough room to work safely.

Your pads, weapons, and shields must be in good shape. Sell off older targets and shields to students and then use the money to purchase the latest models.

Make sure your instructor’s station for attendance, and student cards, etc. is clean, organized, and professional. Mirrors are cleaned daily and instructors should spot-check the floor and mirrors throughout the day for potential obstacles or hazards.

Zone Seven: Your Restrooms

As someone who visits schools regularly, I often feel as though I have stopped at an old highway gas station where you have to go get the key from the front desk and walk around to the back to the restroom.

Actually, the restroom is a pretty generous title. Germ and Filth Factory (GFF) might be a more accurate title. For less than $1,000 you can have your restroom’s toilet and sink replaced, the walls painted and the floor cleaned or replaced. I highly recommend this.

Here’s the message: This is the standard that you are comfortable with in a restroom. You are there all day long. If you accept it, then that is the standard you are communicating to your student base.

If your school’s restroom is anything like a GFF or at all reminds you of a bus stop restroom at 4 am, take these measures quickly:

  • Overstock with toilet paper and use a new TP dispenser.
  • Replace the bar soap that has hairs on it with new soap dispensers.
  • Make sure your paper towels are in a dispenser not sitting on the sink where they get splattered throughout the day.
  • Have pleasant-smelling air fresheners that are replaced at least once a week.