subject: Marketing plan of Martial Arts Business [print this page] Marketing plan of Martial Arts Business Marketing plan of Martial Arts Business
Marketing is a word thrown around by some martial arts business owners as something they apparently do quite often, or by others as something they fleetingly say they need to do more of, but do they really understand what marketing is all about.
As a martial arts entrepreneur, one needs to have a clear understanding of the things that are
part of marketing. There are many parts to marketing, with advertising, for example, being but one small aspect of what marketing is all about.
A marketing strategy that has a series of letter box flyer drops followed by a local shopping centre promotion is no marketing strategy at all. This is because a marketing strategy is a marketing plan, and a plan that is going to work, no matter what it is to do with in business, is always multi dimensional and multi faceted. One can think of it as a living organism, a plan that changes as new information comes about our products or services and the way our customers think, feel about and react to these.
First things first, though, it is essential to understand that marketing is largely about everything outside your business, it's about what people are thinking, feeling and doing about your products and services out there in the community. Many other business processes, like you accounting system for example, is very much about what's going on inside your business.
So what is it about the things "out there" that marketing is all about? These "things" are the things that tell us what will get people to buy your products or services. It's about what's going on in someone's mind ever before they hear about your business, how they think and how they'll react when they do hear about your martial arts school. It's about how they react with certain kinds of promotional activities, and why one works better than another with certain types of people.
The point about marketing is that we need real live information about our prospective customers in order to know what the products and services need to look, feel, taste and smell like in order that they will purchase them. There is one basic rule for all martial arts business owners when it comes to collecting this information about your customers - you can never have too much of it!
The truth is that most martial business people do not know really what their customers want, because they just never ask them. And if you do not ask, then you will not find out.
