|
Here are your options for reviewing this report:
- Read this version online
- Print a copy by clicking on the print icon in the top right-hand corner of this page.
- Download PDF copy
- Send an email that includes a link to this report by clicking on the email icon in the top right-hand corner of this page.
The 8 mistakes that make 99% of websites a total waste of time and money
How to take full advantage of the business-building power of the Internet and not get left behind as your prospects shift from using the Yellow Pages to the Internet to find a martial art school
Wednesday, 3:30 PM
From: Allen Oelschlaeger
Dear Martial Arts School Owner,
If your community is like most, your prospects are now using the Internet more than the Yellow Pages to find a martial arts school.
In fact, advertising experts expect that it won't be long before the Yellow Pages are dead, having been completely displaced by Local Internet Search.
In this report I'm going to show exactly how to take advantage of this trend to grow your martial arts school.
---------------------------
For martial arts school owners, the Internet represents either a huge opportunity or a pending disaster
Our research has consistently shown that 99% of all martial arts schools are throwing their money away on poorly designed and ineffective websites.
That means only 1% of martial arts schools have websites which are effective in bringing in new students.
What are the 1% doing?
Well, for one, they are making a lot of money, each and every month, by making the Internet an integral part of their business and getting several new students every month, with little extra effort?
So, the Internet represents a huge opportunity for martial arts schools.
It is a great lead-generation tool but, more importantly, with only 1% of school owners doing the right things, it is possible to effectively own the Internet in your area.
However, due to how the Internet works, it could be a pending disaster for many school owners.
Here is why.
- This shift from the Yellow Pages to Local Internet Search (up 78% in just the last 2 years) is not going unnoticed. Over $16 billion in Yellow Pages advertising revenues is at stake – so everyone from venture capitalists, to opportunistic entrepreneurs, to proactive local businesses are trying to make an Internet "land grab."
- New Local Search companies are getting billions of dollars in investment capital
- Local business category domain names (e.g., milwaukeeattorney.com) are being grabbed up in mass (one company recently paid $160 million to acquire 100,000 such domain names; www.martialartswebsites.com charges $39.95 per month to "lease" martial arts domain names they pay $10/year to own).
- Paid Local Internet Search (pay-per-click advertising) is exploding -- $418 million (2005), $1 billion (2006); $1.7 billion (2007).
- One company creates single-page websites that are optimized for 5 local business search phrases and is able to charge $159 per month because they limit their clients to just two in a local area for a given business category.
In other words, if martial arts school owners don't act soon, they may be left out in the cold.
With the Yellow Pages, if there are more advertisers, they just add pages. But, with the Internet, once spaces on the first page for a given Internet search phrase are gone, they may be gone forever – or only available at a ridiculously high price.
Bottom line, you can't afford to NOT be one of the 1% -- because the upside opportunity for your business is so large and the downside risk of being locked out is so great.
My name is Allen Oelschlaeger and I've been involved in helping local businesses take advantage of the business-building power of the Internet for the last 10 years. Since 2006, I have been working with Master Chan Lee and other martial arts school owners from throughout the U.S. and Canada to improve how they use the Internet to give them a very real and sustainable edge over their competition. As you'll see, the martial arts schools I've worked with have experienced tremendous success.
Why? Because I know what it takes to be part of the 1% -- where a school:
- Has established claim to one of the top Internet positions for search phrases used to find a martial arts school
- Has a website that converts interested visitors to paying students
In this report I'm going to disclose the secrets for accomplishing this.
-------------------------------------------------
Let me start with the 8 mistakes that make 99% of martial arts websites a total waste of time and money
Mistake #1 – Not having a website
That one is pretty obvious isn't it? It's darn tough to get new students from the Internet if you don't have a website (although, as I'll explain below, it's definitely possible).
But, what's surprising is how many martial arts school owners are making this costly mistake.
They don't have a website despite the fact that:
- Over 75% of all North Americans are using the Internet to find local businesses
- The primary target market for most martial arts schools -- middle and upper class families with children -- are the biggest users of the Internet
Not having a website is just plain crazy. These schools are missing out on a big opportunity to get new students with almost no extra effort but, more importantly, they are taking the risk of giving up the prime Internet real estate to their competitors – potentially forever.
But, with so many martial arts schools not having a website, it prompts the question as to why.
Well, from my research there seems to be three primary reasons:
- Confusion as to what to do (this Internet stuff can be extremely complicated)
- Bad previous experiences in trying to develop a website (some of the stories I've heard would curdle your blood)
- Lack of time and/or interest to hassle with this Internet stuff (especially given the far greater marketing return that comes from face-to-face marketing)
Later in this report, I'll offer up a solution on how to deal with each of these issues. But, for right now – don't be the proverbial "deer in the headlight" to your competition. You must find a way to have a website for your martial arts school.
-------------------
Mistake #2 – Not having Traffic (prospects finding and visiting your website) and Conversion (visitors deciding to contact you) as your top priorities
To get new students from your website, there are ONLY two things that matter: Traffic and Conversion. You want lots of prospects to visit your site and you want a high percentage of them to contact you.
Please read the previous paragraph again because it's critical to your success on the Internet.
Traffic + Conversion = New Students
What is so disappointing is how few website developers understand this fundamental principle. Instead of concentrating on what is important, they focus on such trivial issues as:
- Selecting the coolest technology
- Designing the fanciest graphics
- Developing the slickest logos and slogans
The Internet gurus call the resulting sites "brochure-ware" – because, just like fancy four-color glossy brochures, they are very expensive to develop (sometimes ridiculously expensive) and they do almost nothing to help grow a business.
In fact, much "brochure-ware" work actually detracts from what should be the two goals for any website – traffic and conversion (I'll give you some examples of this problem later in this report).
You have to ask yourself why this happens.
If the equation – Traffic + Conversion = New Students – is so fundamental to success on the Internet, why do so many web developers get this so wrong?
- They don't know any better. Often school owners try to get by on the cheap by hiring a student, family member or friend to develop their website who, honestly, know very little about how to develop an effective website
- The website developer is like a carpenter with only a hammer. If they're a technologist, they want to use cool technology. If they're a graphic designer, they want a fancy look. If they're an advertising agency, they want to promote your "brand" or "image" (more about this misconceived idea below)
- The ego of the school owner. Yeah, sometimes, the school owner's ego gets in the way of creating an effective website. They put form (cool-looking design) over function (traffic and conversion) and the site ends up being completely ineffective as a business-building tool.
If you want your website to generate new leads, you must protect yourself from these barriers to developing a website that prioritizes Traffic and Conversion – the two essential factors for the success of any website.
-------------------
Mistake #3 – Building a website that is invisible to the search engines
There are only four ways for someone to find your website:
- Entering a keyword phrase (e.g., martial arts in Milwaukee) into a search engine like Google or Yahoo
- Following a link from another website to your website
- Clicking on a paid advertisement
- Learning about your website from an offline promotion (e.g., postcard, flyer, media article)
If you know anything at all about the Internet, you understand that the first one is critically important. Most people who are looking for a local business just go to Google or Yahoo and enter keywords they think will get them to what they are looking for.
Sadly, many martial arts websites are built in such a way that they are completely invisible to the search engines. In other words, these websites will NEVER show up in the search results – no matter what keywords are entered.
What a travesty!
Here you have paid good money to have a website developed and no one will EVER find it via an Internet search.
There isn't room in this report to explain all the ways a web developer can make a website – for all practical purposes – invisible to the search engines. But, trust me, there are a bunch of them. Here are just a few:
- Using "Flash" technology
- Not including a "Title Tag" in the source code for your site
- Not using "SEO-friendly URLs"
- Implementing "tricks" that get your site banned by the search engines
Whatever you do, make sure your website is visible to the search engines.
-------------------
Mistake #4 – Thinking you can hire an SEO (search engine optimization) expert to get traffic to your site
With 15 to 30 billion web pages on the Internet, getting your website found isn't easy – and requires some effort.
Business owners faced with this problem often hire SEO (search engine optimization) experts – individuals or companies who charge hundreds to thousands of dollars a month to fiddle with company's websites in an effort to increase their search engine ranking.
There are three problems with these supposed "experts"
1. As Perry Marshall, a world-renown Internet guru says, "70-80% of SEO guys are incompetent and 5-10% are Con Men." Here are just a few of the cons these guys get away with:
- They use "tricks" that get a site banned from the search engines
- They make a big deal about the value of search engine submissions. The truth is that search engines will find your site on their own – if your site is findable – so there is almost no value in this heavily promoted practice.
- They focus on "on-site" SEO when effective "off-site" SEO accounts for 80% of the difference in search results – but is hard work so it is often completely ignored.
- They apply the same methods across all market segments when Google actually uses different criteria for ranking sites in different business categories.
- Rather than trying to optimize Traffic and Conversion together, they only emphasize Traffic and overall site performance suffers
- They fail to apply the 80/20 principle, focusing their energies on the 80% that produces meager results rather than the 20% that has the most impact.
2. Even if you find an SEO expert that isn't incompetent or a Con Man, they will likely know little about Local Internet Search.
See, the goal of traditional SEO is to get traffic from all parts of the world. As you can probably imagine, this is a completely different challenge than getting traffic from interested prospects who live within a few miles of a martial arts school.
For example, to be effective with Local Internet Search, here are just a few of the search categories you need to fully understand:
- Organic Search – Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask
- Paid Search (national/geographic) – Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing
- Local Search – Google Local, Yahoo Local, Windows Live Local
- Hybrid Local Search (web-crawler augmented) – Local.com, TrueLocal.com
- Online Yellow Pages – YellowPages.com, Switchboard, com, SuperPages.com
- Social Local Networking – Yelp, MojoPages, InsiderPages, YellowBot
- Data Aggregators – InfoUSA, Amacai, Acxiom
- Local Classified Advertisements – Craigslist, Kijiji
- Referred Search – Angie's List, Judy's Book
- Business Category Search - business-specific category directories
3. No matter who you use, you are going to spend a ton of money. Internet Search is such a hot area right now that these experts – whether real or not – have extremely high rates.
So, for a martial arts school, hiring a website traffic expert is almost impossible. Sure, you may get promotions from companies who say they can help but they all have at least one of these problems:
- Generally incompetent
- Con Men
- Unknowledgeable about Local Internet Search
- Unfamiliar with martial-arts-specific search issues
- Too expensive
-------------------
Mistake #5 – Not doing anything about "off-site" traffic generation
Remember in Mistake #3 I said there were only four ways for someone to find your website:
- Entering a keyword phrase (e.g., "martial arts in Milwaukee") into a search engine like Google or Yahoo
- Following a link from another website to your website
- Clicking on a paid advertisement
- Learning about your website from an offline promotion (e.g., postcard, flyer, media article)
Well, SEO (search engine optimization) targets the first way by optimizing your site for selected keywords and phrases. This is called "on-site" SEO.
But, as I said above, "off-site" SEO (the other three items above) can account for 80% of the difference in search results --- but it's often ignored because it is too much work.
Off-site SEO includes such tasks as:
- Submission to local search sites
- Submission to martial arts school directories and selected local business directories
- Developing search-engine-optimized online business profiles
- Managing pay-per-click campaign with Google and Yahoo
- Advertising with the free online classified ad services
- Implementing a social media link program with MySpace and Facebook
These off-site SEO tasks are absolutely critical to get traffic to your website.
-------------------
Mistake #6 – Not designing your website with clear priorities as to what you want visitors to do once they get there
Think for a moment .. after someone has visited your website, what would you most like them to do?
Frankly, it seems that martial arts schools who spend a lot of money on their website, expect their visitors call and say, "Loved your website . . . please sign me up."
How many times do think that happens?
Not often – if ever – but many martial arts schools have websites where that's the only possible outcome. And, even then, sometimes it's almost impossible to find a phone number to call.
Instead, an effective lead-generation website needs to consider four realities:
1. Visitors need a very compelling reason to respond and provide you with their contact information. Having a nice website will almost never be enough
2. Visitors need multiple reasons to respond. What might be compelling to one visitor might be a big bore for someone else – and your goal should be convert as many visitors as possible.
3. Visitors need multiple ways to respond that require various levels of commitment. For example, calling is a pretty big commitment for some people and, if that's their only option, you will likely never hear from them. But that same person might be willing to request a coupon for a free trial or a special report on a topic of interest.
4. Not all visitors are ready to take action the day they visit your website. However, they may be willing to sign up for a newsletter so you can stay in touch with them on a regular basis until they are ready to take action.
You must design your website with these four realities in mind and then be crystal clear on what you want visitors to do once they make it to your site.
I'd suggest you want them to do the following, in this priority order:
- Visit your school
- Call your school
- Get a special-offer coupon via a request form
- Get a compelling free report via a request form
- Sign up for a weekly newsletter via a subscription form
In other words, your website should have a range of offers to peek the interest of as many visitors as possible and cause them to identify themselves so you can follow up.
-------------------
Mistake #7 – Relying on your website developer to write the content for your site or trying to write it yourself
I hope it is obvious from reading Mistake #5 that the content of your website is critically important to its success. You absolutely must have compelling reasons for your visitors to respond and provide you with their contact information -- and those reasons generally come in the form of written content (website text, coupon copy, reports, newsletters).
But, writing this content is a very specialized skill. For a martial arts school website, it requires:
- Professional writing ability
- In-depth knowledge about the benefits of martial arts to your target market
- In-depth knowledge on such topics as self-confidence, focus, discipline, and fitness
- Detailed understanding on how to correctly use keywords to search-engine-optimize a site
- Expertise in direct response marketing so that the copy compels visitors to respond
- Proficiency in website usability to ensure visitors don't get frustrated in navigating the site
You can not make Mistakes #1 through #5 and still end up with a worthless website if you make Mistake #6. Writing good website content – using all of the specialized skills listed above – is that important.
Almost all website developers don't have these skills and I'm guessing that you don't.
That's why the prevalent "template websites" are of almost no value. These online-business-card sites make all of the mistakes listed above – in spades. But they also have the additional problem of requiring you to write your own content.
Sure, some of these companies give you some boiler plate copy to use and/or a collection of links to other websites of interest. But this content is generally of little interest to your prospects and the external links just suck away your hard-earned Traffic.
Bottom line – you must find a professional, website copywriter to develop the content for your website.
-------------------
Mistake #8 – Not considering the long term maintenance of a site in the initial decisions on how to get it developed and hosted
Here is the most common complaint I hear from school owners about their website (besides their complaint that they rarely, if ever, getting any leads).
Every time they want to make a change or addition to their site, they need to go back to their web developer to have the work done. This creates three problems:
- Delays --- the work almost never gets done in a timely manner
- Cost --- each little change gets billed at the developer's hourly rate
- Hassle --- just explaining the change usually takes more time than what it takes the developer to complete it
The most common result is that the website ends up almost never getting changed. It is just too untimely, too expensive, and too inconvenient to make it worth the effort.
This creates issues on multiple fronts:
- The site begins to look old and out of date to visitors
- The search engines begin to ignore the site because it looks abandoned
- The school misses opportunities to creatively use their website as an integral part of their marketing effort
The good news is that it is now possible to develop a website using a Content Management System. Such systems make it possible for a school owner or staff person to make changes and additions to their site without the need for any technical expertise.
Such changes only require a few minutes (or, often, just several seconds) so it is possible to fully manage your site without ever having to use your web developer again.
But, not all of these systems are created equal. Some might not require any programming ability but are so complicated they can take hours or days to learn.
Others allow you to make simple changes but doing more complicate tasks like adding images, creating links, or adding videos (the future of the Internet) still need to be done by a developer --- all which can cost lots of money.
But, whatever system you select, using a Content Management System for your website is almost always a better decision than developing a traditional website using HTML.
Another factor to consider relative to the long term maintenance of your website is how to address the technical issues, such as:
- Selecting a reliable website hosting provider
- Interacting with the host when there are problems (and, trust me, there are always problems)
- Registering and renewing domain names
- Regularly updating the server software used on the site
- Monitoring the site for technical problems (e.g., site going offline)
Here you're going to a technical guy to help you out – so you'll want to find a good one.
--------------------------------------------------
My dilemma – do I do what my client asks or what I think is right?
So, now that you know the 8 mistakes that make 99% of websites a total waste of time and money, let me tell you a brief story abut a dilemma I faced in late 2006.
Master Chan Lee was organizing a national conference for martial arts school owners. The focus of the conference was on school growth so he had decided to include a two-hour session on how to develop and maintain an Internet website.
Chan and I had worked together for several years and I had helped him expand his business from two schools to five and grow per-school revenues to over $35,000. Part of this work included developing and maintaining his website so he was aware that I knew a thing or two about the Internet.
As a result, I was his first choice to give the Internet presentation at his conference.
But, after we had done so much work together, you can imagine his surprise when I told him I wouldn't do it.
See, I had been in this situation before. I had given plenty of presentations about developing and maintaining an Internet website and the results had always been the same.
Do you know what these results were? Let me give you a bit more detail about my experiences with these presentations and I bet you'll be able to make a pretty good guess.
Here is an outline of the normal course of events:
- I worked my tail off to put together a presentation that explained EXACTLY how to develop and maintain a website that would get lots of traffic and convert that traffic to lots of interested leads (if you've ever given a two hour presentation on any topic, you know that's A LOT of work).
- I flew to the meeting destination and spent two miserable nights at some fancy hotel (business travel lost its luster years ago after spending three years as the global marketing director for a large medical device company).
- I gave the presentation with all of the energy and clarity I could muster -- with the audience of business owners taking copious notes. Again, my presentations explained EXACTLY what was required to have a successful Internet presence.
- The meeting ended and everyone went back home to run their businesses (and dig themselves out from the pile of work that accumulated when they were gone).
So, what do you think happened from there? Do you think these business owners:
- Interviewed a bunch of web developers and professional copywriters to find a team who seemed to know what they were doing?
- Reviewed with the team they selected what they had learned from me?
- Put together a project plan to get the website done in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost?
- Managed the project to completion, referring regularly to their notes from the presentation to ensure that mistakes weren't being made?
- Put in place an ongoing effort to do on-site SEO, off-site SEO, and site maintenance?
So, what do you think? Did all of the business owners go home and take these steps?
Do you think any of them did?
If you are the owner of a martial arts school, you know the answer. No small business owner on the planet has the time, interest or energy do any of this stuff.
Therefore, what were the results of all the hassle and hard work?
Nothing!
Sure, there might be a few who realized they absolutely MUST have a website given the massive shift – from the Yellow Pages to the Internet – in how people find local businesses. And these few might find some web developer and try to communicate to this person what they had learned from me.
But, here is what would happen next.
- The person they hired would share their biases ("You really need to use this cool technology;" "You need to spend a bunch of money on a fancy graphics")
- The conversation would deteriorate into the use of a bunch of incomprehensible technical jargon
- The business owner would get hopelessly confused
- The priorities would shift away from Traffic and Conversion to whatever the web developers biases were
- The school owner would be tasked with writing all of the content
- Traffic generation tasks would be put off for sometime in the future
The end result – another website that is a total waste of time and money.
So, given these previous experiences, I had a BIG dilemma. Did I just do what my client asked or did I reject his request?
Well, at the end of the day, I just couldn't get myself to accept Chan's invitation to present at his conference. I knew it would be a big waste of my time and the conference attendee's time. In addition, I was worried that my presentation might just create a bunch of frustration --- where the martial arts school owners knew they HAD to so something but they didn't have the time, interest, or energy do it.
But, given that Chan was such a good client, I felt an obligation to search for another option.
So, I asked myself this question:
What if I developed a martial arts website that addressed ALL OF THE ISSUES specified above, put a professional team in place to COMPLETELY MANAGE all of the ongoing Local Internet Search SEO and site-maintenance tasks, and then offered it to the conference attendees on an EXCLUSIVE BASIS for their geography?
-------------------------------------------------
How I was able to do what I thought was right AND meet my client's needs
Wow! – I thought to myself – that would be pretty darn fantastic. And it would certainly make Chan a lot happier than if I just gave another interesting but – at the end of the day – useless presentation.
So, that's what I set off to do, with the following – no-compromise – goals:
- Be visible to the Internet search engines
- Be configured to enable optimal use of the main website-traffic-building methods.
- Be optimized for the high-volume keywords and phrases used by individuals searching on the Internet for a martial arts school in a specific geographic area.
- Include all graphics, text, photos, reports, and newsletters -- all created by professionals with the specialized skills to develop website content for a martial arts school.
- Offer informative content which pre-sells visitors on why they should enroll in a Network-member school and positions our clients as the authority in martial arts and child character development.
- Provide multiple compelling offers to get visitors to provide their contact information it is possible to follow-up with interested prospects.
- Provide a mechanism to automatically stay in touch by email with visitors who aren't quite ready to make a decision.
- Be supported by comprehensive Website Traffic Generation Services, which include:
* Complete management of a pay-per-click advertising program (including all advertising costs) using Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search.
* Submission of website to local business directories, national martial arts school directories, and the major search engines.
* Development and maintenance of a search-engine-optimized online business profile
* Management of an online classified advertisement campaign
* Development, maintenance and promotion of two national martial arts websites which include a school directory with links back to the websites of all DED subscribers.
* Implementation of a social media link program with MySpace and Facebook
- Offer the ability (via the best CMS system on the market) for school owners to manage all aspects of the system - including uploading images and videos - without the need for any technical expertise.
- Provide all of the ongoing technical maintenance services related to hosting, domain registration, software updating and site monitoring.
Obviously, this was a bunch of work and required tens of thousands of dollars of investment as well as the hiring of some very specialized talent.
But, the results were worth it. I could now go to the conference and offer something real rather than just a bunch of empty words – that I was totally confident would deliver incredible value to the conference attendees and that was unequaled in the marketplace.
- A website that was 100% complete from day one – with the right technology, right design, right structure, and right content.
- Comprehensive website traffic generation services that include both on-site and off-site Local Internet Search SEO
- Ongoing technical site maintenance services
- Ongoing support to further customize the site if desired
- Ongoing advice and tips on how to get the maximum business-building value from the site
- Exclusive system rights for the geographical area served by the school
Well, it seems that the conference attendees agreed with me since 90% of the attendees signed up for what I had developed.
--------------------------------------------------
Digital Enrollment Director, one of several Proven-To-Work, Done-For-You, 100% Guaranteed marketing solutions from the Martial Arts Marketing Network
As you probably know, following this conference Chan and I formed the Martial Arts Marketing Network to offer this service as well as several others to the martial arts school industry – and we launched this company in July 2007 at the annual Martial Arts Success Show.
We decided to call this service the Digital Enrollment Director – because that is what it does. It is like having another enrollment director on your staff who is working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to get more students for your school.
The Digital Enrollment Director comes in three versions: Silver, Gold , and Platinum. Here is a summary of what is included with each:
DED SILVER - Digital Enrollment Director
- Complete online lead-generation and prospect follow up system
- Martial arts specific domain and transfer of any existing domains
- All website graphics, text and photos
- 4 martial arts reports on self-confidence, focus, discipline and healthy weight
- 30 emailed newsletters (Life Lessons From Martial Arts Masters)
- Traffic conversion technology – online forms, email notification, integrated lead list
- Self-managed content technology – create unlimited number of pages and easily add text, upload images and videos, and make changes
- Integrated website statistics
- Optimized for martial-arts keywords specific to school and location
- Ongoing assistance to customize graphics, photos and text on site
- HonestEOnline website validation system subscription
- Three tiers of fanatical customer support
DED Gold - Digital Enrollment Director with Traffic Generation
Adds Website Traffic Generation Services (Platinum) to DED Silver above
- Local Search Directory Submission Service
* Submit 26 fields of school data (including business category, keywords, and logo) to over 45 local search sites (representing over 85% of all local searches) and the major local business-directory sites.
* Submit subset of school data to InfoUSA, Acxiom, and the major search/business-directory sites not included in submission above
* Generate search-engine optimized business profile page and upload to: martial.artsprofiles.com
* Resubmit school data to above if changes occur
- Online Advertising and Directory Campaigns
* Manage and pay for Google and Yahoo pay-per-click service with expert selection of keywords and optimization of ad copy
* Regularly submit school advertisement to Craigslist and Kijiji (local online classified ad sites)
* Regularly submit school to over 15 online martial arts school directories with link back to Digital Enrollment Director
* Regular submit website to major organic search engines
- Social Media Link Program
* Set up school "group" and school "profile" pages on MySpace and Facebook
* Regularly submit DED to over 30 social bookmarking sites
* Provide detailed instructions for school students on how to join your school's group and how to add links from their social networking pages to those of the school
* Allows school staff/students to easily add content on a regular basis to website
* Includes setting up WordPress blog technology on site domain, installing 12 plugins to enhance search engine visibility and eliminate spam and adding video upload capability
- MAMN National Martial Websites
* Development, expansion and promotion of our national martial arts website (Better Kids Institute) and its associated martial arts school directory (Martial Arts Dojos)
* Add DED to martial arts school directory on each site
* Opportunity to contribute to blog on each site with link back to DED
----------------------------------
That is what's included in the Silver and Gold version of the Digital Enrollment Director.
Now, before I tell you what's included in the Platinum version, let me describe a ninth mistake that make 99% of martial arts websites a total waste of time and money (yeah, I know I only promised you 8 mistakes but this one is so darn important I just had to include it).
-------------------------------------------
Mistake #9 – Not taking advantage of the power of the Internet to transform your school's operations
If you are like most martial arts school owners, you are inundated with ideas on how to better your school's operations -- how to improve your customer service, how to add value to your programs so you can raise prices, how to be more efficient so you can devote more time to higher-priority tasks, and on and on.
But, here are the problems with these ideas:
- Many require significant investments in labor to implement and maintain
- Some just aren't practical to implement unless you have a big operation
- The ideas to increase school efficiency often don't create the impact promised
- Large companies faced these problems years ago but then they discovered the power of the Internet -- to improve customer service, add value to their products and services, and increase their efficiency. At the time, the cost of the technology was enormous (often in the millions of dollars) but the results almost always produced a very positive return on investment.
The mistake local business owners make today is thinking this business- transformation technology is still out of their reach.
It's not.
Due to rapid advancements in technology, it is now possible to take advantage of the power of the Internet to transform your school's operations -- to improve student retention, increase the value of student upgrades and enhance school efficiency.
That's why we developed the Digital Client Support Center, our comprehensive online student retention and upgrade system for martial arts schools, with the following core attributes:
- Not accessible to your competitors – students must login using a private username and password
- Dead simple to administer – no technical expertise is required to add content (text, photos, videos) and manage student registrations
- Includes the latest and greatest Internet capabilities (e.g., online calendars, journaling, photo/video galleries, surveys) proven to increase student loyalty and improve school effieciency
We offer this system as a stand-alone product but it's included at a substantial discount with the Digital Enrollment Director, if you purchase the Platinum version.
----------------------------------------------
Our Comprehensive Lead-Generation, Prospect Follow Up, Student Retention/Upgrade and School Efficiency System
DED PLATINUM - Digital Enrollment Director with Traffic Generation and Online Student Retention and Upgrade System
Adds Digital Client Support Center (Platinum) to DED Gold above
- Automated online registration of students for private log in
- Event and class calendars
- Curriculum repository of text, photos, and/or videos
- Document upload system and repository
- Photo/Video upload system and gallery
- School information area (e.g., for school policies, instructor profiles, event information
- Newsletter creation tool and repository of past issues
- Student "Journaling" and "Act Entry" system
- Student/Parent survey tool
- Staff training area only accessible by staff for text, photos and videos
- Online discussion forum for use by staff or students/staff
- Self-managed content technology – enables simple addition of pages that include text, images and video without the need for any technical expertiseCapability to "feed" in content from outside experts
- Integrated online payment system and retail store shopping cart
- Three tiers of fanatical customer support
So, there you have it – the three versions of the Digital Enrollment Director: Silver, Gold and Platinum.
-----------------------------------------
OK, Allen, What Does The DED Cost?
Now, you are probably curious as to what the Digital Enrollment Director costs. I think you'll be surprised given the tens of thousands of dollars we have invested in this product and the professional staff we have put in place to support it.
Digital Enrollment Director – SILVER
- Set Up Fee: 3 monthly payments of $495 or one payment of $1395.
- Monthly Fee: $139
- Value: no comparable system available – would require over $15,000 investment to develop technology, create graphics, shoot photos, design site, and write text, reports and newsletters
Digital Enrollment Director – GOLD
- Set Up Fee: 3 monthly payments of $630 or one payment of $1795.
- Monthly Fee: $349, plus $30/month for each additional school location to be supported by Website Traffic Generation Services
- Value: Digital Enrollment Director value plus value of Website Traffic Generation Services (generally $1000 setup and $700 per month from companies with no martial arts focus)
Digital Enrollment Director – PLATINUM
- Set Up Fee: 3 monthly payments of $835 or one payment of $2395.
- Monthly Fee: $389, plus $30/month for each additional school location to be supported by Website Traffic Generation Services and $100/month for each additional 400 registrants to Digital Client Support Center above 200
- Value: no comparable system available – would require over $25,000 investment to develop technology
So, let me summarize
You can get our premier system that addresses ALL OF THE ISSUES specified in this report for less than it would cost you to develop a basic brochure-ware type website.
AND
You get our ongoing Local Internet Search SEO and technical maintenance DELIVERED BY OUR PROFESSIONAL STAFF for a monthly fee that's probably less than what you are paying for a Yellow Page ad that's producing little, if any, results.
AND
You get the EXCLUSIVE USE of the system in your geographical area so you can have the business-building value of the Digital Enrollment Director all for yourself.
AND
You get something unheard of in the Internet marketplace – the Martial Arts Marketing Network TRIPLE GUARANTEE.
- Guarantee #1: 90-day pay nothing if you aren't thrilled
You can use the Digital Enrollment Director for 90 days and, if you are not thrilled, we'll give you a 100% refund. The truth is that, if are services aren't working for you, we really don't want your money.
- Guarantee #2: Cancel anytime with no penalties
The Digital Enrollment Director has no long term contract. Therefore, you can cancel at any time and the monthly charges will stop that month. You are never "locked in" to any long-term commitment.
- Guarantee #3: No risk / unconditional
There is NO fine print. You are either happy with the Digital Enrollment Director during the first 90 days or you get your money back - PERIOD. Then, from 90 days to forever, you can cancel at any time with no penalties.
Our TRIPLE GUARANTEE demonstrates how confident we are that our Digital Enrollment Director will work for you. Bottom line, we're taking all of the risk. You have a massive amount to gain (more students, better student retention, greater school efficiency, higher value upgrades, less hassles) and nothing to lose!
------------------------------------------
How to Order the Digital Enrollment Director
There are two ways to order the Digital Enrollment Director.
The simplest way is to just call our Customer Support Center (10 AM to 9 PM CST Monday through Friday; 10 AM to 3 PM Saturday) at 888-893-8952 so we can take your order over the phone.
The second option is to order online. Just go to http://mamnetwork.com/dedorder, select which version you want and complete our secure online order form.
Once we receive your order, here is what will happen next -- in this order:
1. You'll get an email from us requesting some basic information about your school
2. We will purchase a domain name and establish a hosting account for your DED so we have an initial location in which to develop your site
3. We will upload all of the DED technology to this location, add all of the content (text, reports, newsletters, graphics), and customize the site for your school.
4. We will optimize the Local Search on-site SEO for your DED
5. We will take your DED live and then work with you to further customize it to your specifications, including doing the technical work to ensure that any existing or new domain names point to your new site.
6. We will launch a sophisticated Local Search off-site SEO effort for your DED – including submission to local online search directories, managing an online advertising campaign, implementing our social media link program, and adding your school to the MAMN national martial arts school directory websites.
7. We will provide ongoing technical maintenance of your DED including interacting with the host when there are problems, registering and renewing domain names, regularly updating the server software used on the site, and monitoring the site for technical problems (e.g., site going offline).
8. We will provide ongoing three-tier fanatical customer support
-----------------------------------------------
So, is the Internet going to be a huge opportunity for your martial arts school or are you going to let it become a pending disaster?
Let me re-emphasize – 99% of all martial arts school websites are a total waste of time and money.
That statistic represents a huge opportunity if you are part of the 1% -- because it means you are in a position to own the Internet in your area and take full advantage of this massive movement from the Yellow Pages to the Internet as the preferred tool for finding a local business, and:
- Get several new students every month, with little extra effort
- Increase your school's student retention and the value of student upgrades
- Improve your school's business efficiency
However, this statistic could represent a pending disaster if you are part of the 99% -- because it means there is a significant chance you'll be left out in the cold as venture capitalists, opportunistic entrepreneurs, and proactive local businesses make a "land grab" on the Internet to gain the financial upside of $16 billion in advertising moves from the Yellow Pages to the Internet.
I hope this report opened your eyes to the primary mistakes that are keeping a vast majority of local business owners in the 99%. If you never do business with the Martial Arts Marketing Network, I encourage you to address these mistakes in whatever approach you use to develop and maintain an Internet presence in the future.
However, I'd also love to have you as a client of the Martial Arts Marketing Network so we can ensure that your Internet presence has the right technology, right design, right structure, and right content and that it's supported by comprehensive website traffic generation and technical maintenance services.
Certainly, if you have any questions after reading this report, I encourage you to sign up for one of our tele/web presentations about the Digital Enrollment Director.
During these presentations we provide a detailed overview of the system and do our best to answer all your questions (verbal, if you are participating by phone; typed, if you are participating by webcast).
To learn the dates and times for upcoming presentations, you can either call us (888-893-8952) or go to http://mamnetwork.com/registration and submit the online form.
Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy report. I hope it provided you with great value.
Allen Oelschlaeger
Co-Founder, Martial Arts Marketing Network
P.S. Once again, to order the Digital Enrollment Director, you can either call our Customer Support Center (10 AM to 9 PM CST Monday through Friday; 10 AM to 3 PM Saturday) at 888-893-8952 so we can take your order over the phone – or go to http://mamnetwork.com/dedorder and order online.
|
