This is my first post in the business section but not the last. I am opening a school and I will have many questions in the months to come.

How do you advertise your school? I am a graphic designer so I am working on advertisments right now but I kind of have designers block. So what are some other good ways to market your school other then flyers? I also don't want to make my school sound stupid with the flyer saying thinks that I don't teach. These days martial arts ads say COMBAT READY and many more. I just want to keep it simple. Any advice would be nice.

Not sure what to tell you specifically. My wife did advertising in college, but I didn't.

For a start, you may want to look up some of the more well known *GASP* McDojo's, and check how they advertise. I know, I know......but business is business, LOL.

Try checking here, too:

http://www.fightingarts.com/ubbthreads/s...=0#Post15850076

Sweet thanks Matt. Those McGuy's really do know how to market they all have tons of students. I think the more students I have the better chance I have of finding students willing to work hard.

lol. The sad thing is those mcdojo instructors don't teach there students how to have a chance at surviving if they are attacked. Plus it's all about the money.

Trick is to get the students who want to learn self defense and not just go for the black belt. Easier said then done though.

try something new in advertising: give an accurate representation of the truth.

I train at a community center and we don't do any kind of commercial advertising. We have a sign in front on the fence and a flyer at the front door. Also when we are enrolling new students we ask the community center to put up a sign on their billboard. We have around 50 students give or take and about 7 instructors. We really rely on word of mouth as our adverising. We don't do contracts (my instructor sees it as if we keep the quality up then there is no reason to have a contract, they will come back month after month because they enjoy it not because they are tied to a contract) also with contracts I don't find them fair to kids. They get interested in other things throughout the year (soccer, football, baseball) and tying them to a contract might shy some kids away because their parents might not allow them to be in more than 1 or 2 activities at a time. Just a thought. Some people like the contracts some don't. I personally see it as a way for the school to guarantee their money and if you instruct well, you shouldn't have to have things like contracts. Just my personal opinion.

Casey

Once you have finished your flyer please post it for us to give you some feedback on it. Thats what works best getting feedback on something so you can adjust it to suite everyone. Where do you plan on posting these flyers.
May I also ask have you got many students interested already? If so why not get their feedback and get them to help out with word of mouth.

Where do you guys advertise?

I dropped some flyers at university.

What are good locations to spread flyers?
We've hung up some posters before, but they got removed every now and then.

Well what ages are you looking at? As if you were offering a kids class maybe at a playschool or something where the parents could see it and think its something new to keep the child fit and healthy or maybe like an anti-bullying campaign so parents feel that they should help their child 'beat the bully'.
I remember my old school designed a booklet which was called 5 secrets to raising better behaved children. They then handed out the first section of this and with a telephone number in which parents could call if they wanted the whole booklet sent to them and were then offered a free trial lesson for their children. A very Mcdojo way to look at it but like what was mentioned its a business afterall.
I hope this makes sense lol.

We at our school aim at an age of 15 and above.
We don't have sport attitude.

I think most adolecents at that age already have chosen a sport or activity to pursuit. Which could make it a little complicated.