Understanding the mind of your martial arts prospects is key to connecting with them and creating an effective marketing strategy. By understanding what motivates them, their interests, and their goals, you can create content that resonates and helps build relationships with them. At some point, maybe you were in the same shoes they’re in now!
The mind of a martial arts prospect is full of questions, doubts, hopes, and excitement. Connecting with them on an emotional level will help them feel inspired and motivated to take action – opting-in on your website, responding to your automations, and even signing up for your trial. Getting leads to opt-in is one of the most important parts of the customer journey. Once they have opted-in, you can then nurture that lead and move them further along in the customer journey.
The customer journey consists of six phases. In the graphic below, our partner Gro Pro Agency has clearly defined what each phase looks like for the martial arts prospect and member ????
- Awareness – the prospect becomes aware of a need or a goal and begins to look for a way to achieve it
- Consideration – prospect is researching their options and considering solutions
- Purchase – the prospect has weighed their options and is ready to make a decision
- Onboarding – prospect has become a member and is getting to know your brand
- Retention – the member continues utilizing your facility
- Advocacy – the member refers others to your facility
SOURCE: Grow Pro Agency
A prospect moves through the awareness, consideration, and purchase phases, at which point they become a student (or member). After the trial purchase, they begin to move through the onboarding, retention, and advocacy phases.
Effective marketing is critical in all phases of the customer journey, but particularly the awareness and consideration phases – encouraging leads to become students and purchasing your trial. Your prospects likely have tons of questions – where are you located? How much is a membership? Will I be okay if I’ve never done martial arts before?
So how can you help move your prospects along in the customer journey?
1. Create website content that resonates with the prospective student ????
Communication is the key to connecting with prospective martial arts students. It’s important to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently in order to make sure that prospects understand what you have to offer and how you can help them reach their goals, as well as what they can expect from your martial arts program. Through effective communication, you can build trust and ensure that potential students feel comfortable and confident about joining your martial arts program.
The content you include on your website should be personable and use conversational language. We don’t recommend including your schedule or your pricing directly on your site – this encourages leads to opt-in to gain this information. Your goal is to get leads to opt-in so you can start a conversation with them.
2. Leverage social media to build an engaged community ????
Social media is a great way for martial artists to connect with each other and form a community of like-minded individuals who support each other’s progress. Through social media, they can share tips, techniques, videos, photos, stories and more – all of which help to further promote the sport.
Use your social media accounts to share photos and videos of your school and information relevant to your audience. Something we always recommend is to take as many photos and videos as possible. Using your own content allows you to showcase your school’s community and builds a personal connection with the lead, simultaneously building engagement from your current members.
TIP: Turn website content & blog posts into a graphic – this is a great way to repurpose content and get more engagement with your blogs!
3. Blog ????
Blogging is a powerful tool for lead generation. Publishing new blogs often is a great way to engage with potential members, build your brand, and increase your SEO.
Through blogging, you can showcase your expertise and help people understand why they should become a student – demonstrate the value of what you offer and the advantages of becoming a member to help them make an informed decision. By sharing useful content and engaging with readers, you will create an emotional connection that will make them more likely to take the next step.
4. Use SEO to increase visibility ????
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to increase visibility and drive people to your website. A study by Backlinko found that the top organic result on Google gets almost 28% of all clicks – so it’s important your SEO strategy is strong. Here at Market Muscles we specialize in organic SEO – helping your website be one of the top results in a Google search!
To boost your SEO, it’s important to include keywords within your website and make frequent updates. The updates can be as simple as adding new photos and videos or publishing a new blog! We recommend blogging at least once a month, but the more often you post, the better results you will see.
5. Focus on lead management and follow up after opt-in ????
Once a prospect has opted-in, they’re ready for more information. Automated messages are a great way to get the first touch point to them quickly – at Market Muscles, we recommend about two minutes after opt-in. They’re wondering when your classes are and what they should expect when they come in, so managing the conversation is crucial to building trust with the prospect to get them through the door.
Market Muscles has all the tools you need for the awareness phase all the way through the advocacy phase. We create your website to attract and convert leads, while providing you with many tools to help keep a high retention of students. Our websites are designed to encourage leads to opt-in and are structured to put your business in front of the right audience. Our real time insights track your key metrics: website activity, SEO, conversions, and more! Schedule a call with us today to learn more!