The New Year is finally here and with it comes the January rush. This is a great time of year for martial arts school owners, as many people are looking for ways to get into shape and learn something new. For those of you who began preparing back in November you’re already ahead of the game, but don’t worry if you haven’t because ‘now is the time’…
It’s not too late
In November, we launched our ‘Now’s the time’ and ‘Big fun for little people’ campaign materials, with the aim of giving you a head start on your marketing for 2016. We also launched our new look Marketing Planner to help you plan out your marketing more simply and effectively. But don’t worry if you missed it or have just been too busy, there is still time!
Really? Great! Where do I start?…
A good place to start is by reading through our Now’s the time to plan for 2016 blog post, as this explains the sort of things you should be looking to do over the year. You can also find our Planning Tools and Campaign Materials on myMA, to help get the ball rolling for you.
Your online presence
Hopefully during the winter period, you took the opportunity within the quieter months to check through the details of your website and online profiles. Having these up to date and correct ensures anyone looking for you can find you easier. It’s a good idea during quieter times such as the winter months, to update the content on these platforms.
I’m not sure I have enough time for this…
When you are busy dealing with your students we know it’s not easy to update everything, especially with new students joining at this time of year, however, making sure you update or add additional content to these pages when you can, helps to keep them fresh, this can have a positive effect on how Google see’s these sites. Search engines such as Google have a preference for content that is newer and will potentially rank it higher as a result. It’s also a great idea to check your website(s) to make sure everything is working as it should be such as links. Having broken links on your site, especially ones which connect to things such as booking forms, could cause issues for visitors to your page.
It’s also a great idea to check your website(s) to make sure everything is working as it should be. For example having broken links on your site, especially ones which connect to things such as booking forms, could prevent people from being able to book online.
Online Booking
We have been hard at work over the previous months developing our online booking tool, which we have recently launched. This tool has been designed to simplify the booking process and reduce your admin time with managing leads. We’ve also made it as easy as possible to use and be installed onto your website.
It sounds almost too good to be true!
It is good and it is true. The booking widget is available to all NEST clients and a guide along with the code to place on your website can be found on myMA under the Marketing section. We have included some customisation options for the widget, allowing those with their own web development team more flexibility and those without, a simple way of adding it to their website.
It’s important to get yourself prepared for the busy January period, and although it has already started, it’s not too late to get yourself caught up. Make use of the NEST systems and tools to help you run your business easier.
As always, if you need any additional help you can contact the Marketing Team or give us a call on 0115 945 5030.
