In part one we talked about a technology to get more students to your dojo called bluetooth/proximity marketing. It basically sends ads and coupons from your school directly to people's smart-phones as long as they are within a certain range. So you can reach hundreds of people in a cost effective way if you are near a large group like at a mall or tradeshow. Today we compare bluetooth advertising to other ways of growing your martial arts school.
Here are some reasons why in a lot of ways Proximity marketing is better than print and yellow-pages ads:
- Geographically targeted ads, market to people right near your school or trade show booth. Promotes more walk-in business.
- You can send them to your website (if your site can be viewed on mobile phones.) If you have an email list sign-up on your site you can have them sign up for it and continue to promote you school to them.
- Targeted ads since you can choose what to display. So if you are in a huge convention for business owners you could put something in your ad like "Free report, top ten ways business owners can use martial arts to improve focus and energy." followed by a link to your site where a special video plays that you uploaded to explain your program to this specific audience. In this way you are creating curiosity and offering value instead of just pitching your school. People who would never even thought to start taking martial arts might even be interested after seeing this kind of advertising.
- In some ways easier to track than yellow-pages ads which won't always give you a way to track certain specific details like their phone number and email. It is measurable so you can decide quickly weather or not it's working for you.
- Small investment. The industry is changing and so are prices, but right now there are some affordable ways to get blue-tooth advertising to promote your school with. Once you are set up you can market yourself without paying monthly fees for your ads. You can reach thousands if you get near a large crowd. Imagine how much it would cost to reach these people with a mailing. Not only that but they are right near you when they get you message so they can come talk to you unlike most ads where they have to visit your school or call you.
- You can send coupons and offers! I still can't get over that. Anywhere you go you can send special offers to get new students.
- You can send directions to your school to their smart-phones with blue-tooth.
- It's new. This is good and bad. It's mostly good though because you can be the first to use this. As of right now if you implement a proximity marketing campaign, you will not only be one of the first dojos to start using the technology, but one of the first businesses of any type to start taking advantage of blue-tooth. (as a side note, it could be a great way to generate free publicity to your school. Send a story to local news about this crazy new way businesses like your school are reaching out to new customers. Maybe you could use the technology to help promote you and a local charity at an event in the ads you send out and get local news to cover it. I'm sure you can come up with a million ways to get press with this new tool.)
- It's viral. This means people can send it to their friends easily. It could spread like wildfire. They aren't going to clip out your yellow-pages ad to their friends but they might click a few buttons to send a free private lesson from you to their friends. This is a great way to get referrals to your school.
Drawbacks to using proximity marketing:
- It's high tech. Looking into blue-tooth marketing might be scary for you if you aren't a techie.
- Proximity marketing/blue-tooth advertising is new. Since it is new it will be evolving. I mentioned this in the benefits of blue-tooth advertising list as well. Unfortunately since it's new, It's not a timeless thing, it's a very technology based tool so it will continue to change.
- It is optional if they receive your message on their smart-phone or not. This might keep people from seeing your messages but it also keeps the FCC from banning the technology like it's some type of spam advertising. It is up to the person to accept or decline receiving your message.
- Not everyone has a smart-phone and those who do might not choose to enable the bluetooth feature that will allow them to get your message.
Here are some reasons why in a lot of ways Proximity marketing is better than print and yellow-pages ads:
- Geographically targeted ads, market to people right near your school or trade show booth. Promotes more walk-in business.
- You can send them to your website (if your site can be viewed on mobile phones.) If you have an email list sign-up on your site you can have them sign up for it and continue to promote you school to them.
- Targeted ads since you can choose what to display. So if you are in a huge convention for business owners you could put something in your ad like "Free report, top ten ways business owners can use martial arts to improve focus and energy." followed by a link to your site where a special video plays that you uploaded to explain your program to this specific audience. In this way you are creating curiosity and offering value instead of just pitching your school. People who would never even thought to start taking martial arts might even be interested after seeing this kind of advertising.
- In some ways easier to track than yellow-pages ads which won't always give you a way to track certain specific details like their phone number and email. It is measurable so you can decide quickly weather or not it's working for you.
- Small investment. The industry is changing and so are prices, but right now there are some affordable ways to get blue-tooth advertising to promote your school with. Once you are set up you can market yourself without paying monthly fees for your ads. You can reach thousands if you get near a large crowd. Imagine how much it would cost to reach these people with a mailing. Not only that but they are right near you when they get you message so they can come talk to you unlike most ads where they have to visit your school or call you.
- You can send coupons and offers! I still can't get over that. Anywhere you go you can send special offers to get new students.
- You can send directions to your school to their smart-phones with blue-tooth.
- It's new. This is good and bad. It's mostly good though because you can be the first to use this. As of right now if you implement a proximity marketing campaign, you will not only be one of the first dojos to start using the technology, but one of the first businesses of any type to start taking advantage of blue-tooth. (as a side note, it could be a great way to generate free publicity to your school. Send a story to local news about this crazy new way businesses like your school are reaching out to new customers. Maybe you could use the technology to help promote you and a local charity at an event in the ads you send out and get local news to cover it. I'm sure you can come up with a million ways to get press with this new tool.)
- It's viral. This means people can send it to their friends easily. It could spread like wildfire. They aren't going to clip out your yellow-pages ad to their friends but they might click a few buttons to send a free private lesson from you to their friends. This is a great way to get referrals to your school.
Drawbacks to using proximity marketing:
- It's high tech. Looking into blue-tooth marketing might be scary for you if you aren't a techie.
- Proximity marketing/blue-tooth advertising is new. Since it is new it will be evolving. I mentioned this in the benefits of blue-tooth advertising list as well. Unfortunately since it's new, It's not a timeless thing, it's a very technology based tool so it will continue to change.
- It is optional if they receive your message on their smart-phone or not. This might keep people from seeing your messages but it also keeps the FCC from banning the technology like it's some type of spam advertising. It is up to the person to accept or decline receiving your message.
- Not everyone has a smart-phone and those who do might not choose to enable the bluetooth feature that will allow them to get your message.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nolan_Barger
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