Aside from schools

[kenpo4life]

where do you guys put flyers and stuff to get kids for your school?

[younwhadoug]

my head instructor does demos everywhere he can. he invites people he meets everywhere. i'd say word of mouth is the biggest catcher for us and our divission is growing quickly with all age groups. the most impressive sign ups i think is people who seen our senior group doing tai chi. their family members sign up, passer byers who see an 66 year old green belt can suddenly start to think it could work for them too or a mom dad and 4 children.

[MartialArthur]

Yes, word of mouth is the best, but that can take years to build up a following to provide enough referrals.

If you are just starting out you need to get your name out there. I go door-to-door in neighborhoods and put flyers on the people's doors. I can do about 100 in an hour, so I spend one or two hours 3 times a week. It seems tedious, but it adds up. I can cover about 1000 - 1500 households each month. If only 1 out of 50 (2%) call back that's 20 - 30 new prospects a month.

I also managed to get copies of several local school directories and entered the names and addresses in a database. Now I can just whip out a few hundred mailers whenever I want.

..

[kenpo4life]

thanks for the ideas guys, keep them coming. Believe me that I can use all of the help I can get.

[red dawn]

We use newspapers adds. We get some good responses from that.

[ArmorOfGod]

Try putting the info for your classes in the classified section of the newspaper under the sporting goods section. That is far cheaper than running an ad and it is read by people interested in sports.

Also, you could do the same thing in those weekly trader papers that they have at the gas stations.

AoG

[jaymac]

We once handed out flyers (small ones) during trick or treating. We opened the school and gave candy and fliers. Demonstrations seem to be one of the best ways though. You get a large group to watch and have someone hand out fliers to the spectators.

[Sohan]

Fax press releases about kids events, anniversaries, black belt tests, etc, to local news outlets, newspapers, and magazines. You should get a few free submissions or even a live broadcast opportunity. Works well for us.

Respectfully,

Sohan

[jaymac]

Thought of another way to promote your school. Get involved with local charities like March of Dimes and stuff. It is great for a school to care about local things and assist with raising money for great causes. When people see a group of young martial artist taking part in a positive neighborhood effort, it reflects on their personal image of martial arts. The students love representing their dojo this way also and love supporting local charities. It has been a positive experience for us and groups now have come to ask if we would like to sponsor a kick a thon to help raise money for so and so. What a great way to be a positive impact in a community and give back to others.

[kenpo4life]

Thanks a lot guys. I am trying to implement some of these changes right now!