How To Grow A Martial Arts School

Whether you teach Judo, Karate, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Aikido, Krav Magra, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, or any form of martial arts, you began with a passion, and a desire to share your passion with others, while making money out of it. Here’s how to grow your martial arts school, maintain your martial arts business, and still have time to spend on the mat, and with your students.

1. Get your martial arts school’s name out in the community to improve brand presence

To get more people on board, they need to know about your school, and how to join up. To do this, you could:

• Contact your local school to offer your services.
• Do flyer and coupon drops to homes and local businesses in your area.
• Connect and network with other gym and fitness businesses to chat about holding special workshops.
• Offer corporate team-building programs to big businesses nearby.
• Talk to your local council and offer to participate in or sponsor local events and festivals.
• If you have young children, you have a ready-made hub for networking in your local parent community. Chat with other parents to build your knowledge and connections.

2. Encourage more word-of-mouth referrals to generate new leads

Word-of-mouth is a powerful way to generate new leads. When people enjoy training with your school, they’re more likely to tell friends and family, and refer them on. 

You could start referral programs, with incentives for existing students and prospective students. Offer rewards for every successful new sign-up, such as:

• Free lessons for existing students
• Discounted membership for new students
• Free movie tickets
• Gift vouchers for services with partner businesses
• Free merchandise or gear

3. Offer martial arts services to schools that add value to their existing anti-bullying strategies

Schools are a great source of potential students. Most schools have bullying prevention frameworks, and may be looking for new, engaging ways to develop students skills. Contact your local school to see what you can offer:

• Propose anti-bullying workshops on practical skills in emotional self-regulation, bystander/upstander training, and assertiveness. 
• Demonstrate how your workshops support, and can be integrated into, their existing framework.
• Offer your workshops as play-based learning in a fun environment, interspersed with physical activity and role play.
• Offer to sponsor prizes for fundraisers, such as annual fairs and other events.
• Look into paid advertisements or spotlight mentions in newsletters or yearbooks.

4. Try using social media to promote and build your martial arts school

‍Facebook and Instagram (even TikTok) are a great way to reach your target audience with paid ads and generate more leads, especially if you’re strategic about it.

If you’re thinking about TikTok, here’s what you need to know:

• It’s mostly short videos (around 15 seconds) set to music.
• You can jump on trending hashtag challenges to make fun, action-packed videos.
• Most users are in their teens. It may be a great way to engage students, but you are less likely to reach parents.
• It’s less likely to provide direct return on your investment. 

With Facebook, you can:

• Keep parents and students engaged and informed with an online community with a Facebook group to keep parents and students engaged and informed.
• Reinforce your brand with a Facebook page, and direct more traffic to your website.

With both Instagram and Facebook, you can:

• Use paid ads to target local parents looking for martial arts schools, or after-school and school-holiday activities.
• Share compelling videos and images of your classes and facilities.
• Livestream events and demonstrations.
• Use trending hashtags and topics to share information and promote your martial arts school at key times.

With proper martial arts school management software, you can integrate social media, automate and personalise existing marketing and communications tasks, and grow your school.

Contact Us

Contact Clubworx today to find out how our specialised martial arts and dojo management software can reduce your desk time, so you can put more into teaching the martial arts you love.