Martial Arts and Marketing...

[Himokiri Karate]

How important do you find marketing to be in the martial arts and what method or methods do partake in?

List of methods:

Competition: Going in to tournaments in different striking or grappling tournaments.

Internet marketing: creating an e-course and promoting your style and adding your own unique flavor in to it

Ads: both online or just posting your stuffs around town

Events: public practice in the park or some charity that gets your school name out there in community.

Guerilla marketing: hiring a graffiti artist to paint the town in a manner that is your school or leads you to your school.

Social Media: using any and every platform to get your name out there like becoming an instagram sensei or something like that.

The reason I mention this is, I am beginning to notice a trend that people are becoming turned off with the lack of culture in the MMA settings. There is a slow but noticeable shift towards traditional martial arts once again. I say this for two reasons:

1. The most important reason is the amount of injuries in MMA schools. The nature of MMA training for most gyms is not a very nurturing and it tends to attract the wrong personality archetype. As people get older, they want self-defense as well as fitness, fun and a sense of community.

2. I noticed that people are valuing martial arts in their singular form. Boxing gyms are full of recreational members looking for fitness and weight loss. While people love judo and jujitsu because they wont get hit but they can still be competitive. That and working towards a higher belt.

Curios to hear your opinions on this and what is going around in your towns.

[OneKickWonder]

In my town, you have a choice of tang soo do, 2 different taekwondo clubs, judo, aikido and karate that I know of. Oh and tai chi but I'm not sure about counting it because it's not the martial aspect, just the health one.

We also have boxing, and a club that does BBJ and a bit of MMA.

The traditional clubs are always busy. They barely do any marketing at all because they really don't need to. People actively seek them out. I know this even though I've only trained at a few of them because I've visited some, and have friends at others.

The boxing club, to my knowledge, doesn't really advertise. No need. They're right in the centre of town and have always been there.

The BJJ / MMA club looks like it has maybe a dozen students. They are also the most active in terms of marketing effort.

Are we seeing a shift in trends? I don't know. I see great value in MMA and BJJ. I have friends that are involved with them. I don't see any significant levels of disrespect for other styles or their practitioners. But I do see a recurring pattern of misunderstanding. Most notably, that martial arts is about fighting another person now. Traditionalists often recognise that it's about developing a level of fitness and ability that will last into old age, and for many, it's not even about the anticipation of a fight, but just the pure passion for learning what the human body can do with regular training. The modernists on the other hand seem far more obsessed with seeing who can fight right now, without any thoughts about still being fit enough lead a good life at 80 or beyond.

One thing I do like about the MMA guys though, and this is nothing to do with combat, is the importance of strength training. Like many traditionalists, for too long I believed that basic training would give me all the muscle in needed. It's only after learning more about injury rehabilitation that I realise that resistance training is absolutely core to injury rehab, flexibility training, even cardio and stamina.

[sensei8]

Marketing is everything to said school of the MA!! Without it, the school dies, and the remaining students are left with no favorable recourse whatsoever.

Whatever the marketing is used, it must work for THAT school, and not for the school down the street; to each their own.

I don't use the following marketing for my own reasons:

Competition: Going in to tournaments in different striking or grappling tournaments.

Internet marketing: creating an e-course and promoting your style and adding your own unique flavor in to it.

Events: public practice in the park or some charity that gets your school name out there in community.

Guerilla marketing: hiring a graffiti artist to paint the town in a manner that is your school or leads you to your school.

Social Media: using any and every platform to get your name out there like becoming an instagram sensei or something like that.

However, this one has served me best:

Ads: both online or just posting your stuffs around town

But not online...just what's in the bold type above!!

For me, word of mouth, has always served me the best, and I will not turn my back on it; most successful for me!!

My Sensei and his Sensei used the Ads method; passing stuff around the town. They both have heavily used the Events method both here and in Okinawa; that's how my Sensei found his Sensei in Okinawa.

To each their own!!

[Bulltahr]

Facebook seems to be the go these days, posting links on community group pages will definitely get your name out there. And it's free......

[Himokiri Karate]

In my town, you have a choice of tang soo do, 2 different taekwondo clubs, judo, aikido and karate that I know of. Oh and tai chi but I'm not sure about counting it because it's not the martial aspect, just the health one.

We also have boxing, and a club that does BBJ and a bit of MMA.

The traditional clubs are always busy. They barely do any marketing at all because they really don't need to. People actively seek them out. I know this even though I've only trained at a few of them because I've visited some, and have friends at others.

The boxing club, to my knowledge, doesn't really advertise. No need. They're right in the centre of town and have always been there.

The BJJ / MMA club looks like it has maybe a dozen students. They are also the most active in terms of marketing effort.

Are we seeing a shift in trends? I don't know. I see great value in MMA and BJJ. I have friends that are involved with them. I don't see any significant levels of disrespect for other styles or their practitioners. But I do see a recurring pattern of misunderstanding. Most notably, that martial arts is about fighting another person now. Traditionalists often recognise that it's about developing a level of fitness and ability that will last into old age, and for many, it's not even about the anticipation of a fight, but just the pure passion for learning what the human body can do with regular training. The modernists on the other hand seem far more obsessed with seeing who can fight right now, without any thoughts about still being fit enough lead a good life at 80 or beyond.

One thing I do like about the MMA guys though, and this is nothing to do with combat, is the importance of strength training. Like many traditionalists, for too long I believed that basic training would give me all the muscle in needed. It's only after learning more about injury rehabilitation that I realise that resistance training is absolutely core to injury rehab, flexibility training, even cardio and stamina.

Well said, the ultimate end result is improvement in quality of life.

Marketing is everything to said school of the MA!! Without it, the school dies, and the remaining students are left with no favorable recourse whatsoever.

Whatever the marketing is used, it must work for THAT school, and not for the school down the street; to each their own.

I don't use the following marketing for my own reasons:

Competition: Going in to tournaments in different striking or grappling tournaments.

Internet marketing: creating an e-course and promoting your style and adding your own unique flavor in to it.

Events: public practice in the park or some charity that gets your school name out there in community.

Guerilla marketing: hiring a graffiti artist to paint the town in a manner that is your school or leads you to your school.

Social Media: using any and every platform to get your name out there like becoming an instagram sensei or something like that.

However, this one has served me best:

Ads: both online or just posting your stuffs around town

But not online...just what's in the bold type above!!

For me, word of mouth, has always served me the best, and I will not turn my back on it; most successful for me!!

My Sensei and his Sensei used the Ads method; passing stuff around the town. They both have heavily used the Events method both here and in Okinawa; that's how my Sensei found his Sensei in Okinawa.

To each their own!!

Ad posters are pretty good. Do you offer any fitness incentives? Like having a fitness class after Christmas for the new years resolution.

Facebook seems to be the go these days, posting links on community group pages will definitely get your name out there. And it's free......

Its free that's true but isn't facebook oversaturated?

[tallgeese]

How important do you find marketing to be in the martial arts and what method or methods do partake in?

List of methods:

Competition: Going in to tournaments in different striking or grappling tournaments.

Internet marketing: creating an e-course and promoting your style and adding your own unique flavor in to it

Ads: both online or just posting your stuffs around town

Events: public practice in the park or some charity that gets your school name out there in community.

Guerilla marketing: hiring a graffiti artist to paint the town in a manner that is your school or leads you to your school.

Social Media: using any and every platform to get your name out there like becoming an instagram sensei or something like that.

The reason I mention this is, I am beginning to notice a trend that people are becoming turned off with the lack of culture in the MMA settings. There is a slow but noticeable shift towards traditional martial arts once again. I say this for two reasons:

1. The most important reason is the amount of injuries in MMA schools. The nature of MMA training for most gyms is not a very nurturing and it tends to attract the wrong personality archetype. As people get older, they want self-defense as well as fitness, fun and a sense of community.

2. I noticed that people are valuing martial arts in their singular form. Boxing gyms are full of recreational members looking for fitness and weight loss. While people love judo and jujitsu because they wont get hit but they can still be competitive. That and working towards a higher belt.

Curios to hear your opinions on this and what is going around in your towns.

We work the most in the social media content. It free at a base level, and very affordable to push more directed advertising. It's worked very well for us.

Competition kind of dovetails into that. It's largely an internal marketing structure anyway, so people already aware of you, following you, or attending only really care. Bu highlighting it within our social media marketing efforts we kill two birds with one stone.

I'm not certain with the second part of the post. I think it's probably regional, we haven't seen that trend near me, but that doesn't mean that's not a thing.

[MatsuShinshii]

Well I guess I'm much like my Shinshii in that I do not use social media, don't have a website (have no idea how to build one), and do not run adds. Everything is word of mouth.

I think the difference is I'm not looking to create a mega-dojo or have 100's or 1000's of personal students. I'm happy teaching those that I have and occasionally take in new students that hear about us. Not looking to make it a business, so small works for me.

[sensei8]

Well I guess I'm much like my Shinshii in that I do not use social media, don't have a website (have no idea how to build one), and do not run adds. Everything is word of mouth.

I think the difference is I'm not looking to create a mega-dojo or have 100's or 1000's of personal students. I'm happy teaching those that I have and occasionally take in new students that hear about us. Not looking to make it a business, so small works for me.

That, right there, that is our Soke and Dai-Soke and many other Shindokan dojo's within the SKKA network including myself!!