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Martial Arts Gyms – Get Your Internet Presence Right
I’ve gotta get something off my chest: It’s this 100 lb black belt with magical powers who feels like he’s 400 pounds and now I’m stuck in bottom side control. Just kidding, it’s about how crazy it drives me that you all can be so AMAZING at martial arts while being so BAD with the simplest elements of your online presence! If you own, work at, or patronize a great martial arts gym, keep reading – let’s clean things up.
As a full-time traveler, my whole training in BJJ has been defined by bouncing around from gym to gym at the best place I can find in the town I’m staying at for any given period of time. What that means is that I’ve become a legitimate expert in finding martial arts class descriptions, class schedules, addresses, phone numbers, and everything else that a prospective student is looking for about your martial arts gym.
And with that, I’ve ALSO become an expert in finding completely INCORRECT information, schedules, addresses, you name it. I’ve shown up to old, empty buildings, called disconnected numbers, arrived at old schedule times and been stood up easily dozens of times. Don’t worry, I still love BJJ, and I always get things sorted out and show up again. But do you really think every one of your prospective students would do the same? Unlikely!
Seriously, you’ve mastered a realm of physics that I can’t even fathom, but you can’t get your hours, right on Google? Let’s do something about that – today. Before another poor white belt like myself shows up at all the wrong times in all the wrong places. Martial arts are hard enough, let’s at least make this part easy:
If you haven’t already, you need to go claim your gym or school on Google Business. This is the Number 1 place people will go to find your website, address, phone number, and see reviews, so it’s massively important that you get your listing claimed and updated there regularly. We’ve talked before about improving your listing on Google Business, but this blog is more about just making sure that the information is absolutely correct so your prospective students don’t get lost or have no way to get ahold of you.
You may not think of social media as a place where people go for pure information, but all of the social media platforms have created places where small businesses can list their correct, updated information for new students. And the truth is that new prospective students are absolutely going to check out your social media to make their decision and get a feeling for your gym. After you’ve impressed them with your great content, it’s crucial to make sure your contact info, schedule, and other business information are all readily available right there on your page or profile.
I’ve come across a LOT of gym websites that desperately need updating. Yes, this includes updating designs and technology to make your website look like it’s from this decade, but once again, the most frustrating thing for a potential student is to find conflicting schedules or contact information. I’ve seen this so many times at so many gyms, and as the student myself, what do I do? Trust the website’s address and hours and ignore the different address that I found on Instagram? Or vice versa? Call the number that doesn’t work anymore?
If your website has old information, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. Maybe you’re relying on your ‘internet guy’ who takes forever to get things done. Maybe you edit your website yourself and find it way over your head to edit and keep things updated. It’s time to get yourself a website that’s easy to update and beautiful to navigate.
Did I mention that we can help with all of these to-do items? Every Marketing TEA client starts with a complete internet presence cleanup, where we work through all of your information in all of the online places and get you updated and ready to meet your new prospective students.
So if you are looking for a way to transform your Martial Arts school, gym, dojo, team, program, whether you teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, Karate, Boxing, Kickboxing, Self-Defense, Judo, Wrestling, Muay Thai, or any other discipline that trains, inspires, and ignites your community, it’s time to bring the power of content marketing to your business in a whole new way. Let’s chat.