Why are 99% of Martial Art School Websites So Bad?

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by Aries2k, Oct 2, 2014.

  1. Aries2k

    Aries2k New Member

    Hey guys and girls - I want to take my Son to a few different styles to see what he feels physically comfortable with.

    I've spent the last week looking at school websites to see if there is anything interesting in my area.

    Because of my career experience of online marketing, I can't help but notice how many club websites are not geared to encourage new students to join.

    The information is hard to find, the designs do not instil trust and professionalism and makes me feel that i'll be taking my Son to a dirty back alley hall rent out.

    I've actually spoken to a few people and they "Don't care wot the site looks like"

    Surely if they were set up with student acquisition in mind, half of these clubs would still be open, have more students, be able to afford nice things like matts and training equipment.

    Why does no one care?

    Do instructors here feel the same way or are you stumped on how to increase student numbers using the internet?
     
  2. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    Because most Martial Art clubs are small operations run by people in their spare time alongside their dayjobs rather than full time and not everyone has the money, time or skill in web design..

    All I care about when looking at a instructors website is their history/qualifications/record if competitive. Try going down and viewing the clubs before discounting them based on their website design.

    Some of the best schools I have been to have been recommended verbally by other members of the community.
     
  3. FunnyBadger

    FunnyBadger I love food :)

    So many aspects to what you have seen. Firstly there are some great clubs operating out rented spaces, in the UK it's pretty much the standard and full time clubs with dedicated buildings although more common now are still the exception.

    Secondly the websites are often made by a martial artist or for them by a third party so they may not be great sites but they might still be great clubs. I personally wouldn't know where to start to make a good website and I'm not exactly a crusty old fart. Also through your work you may be better able to spot flaws in web design and marketing so may have higher expectations than most (no bad thing).

    Student acquisition and marketing are slightly contentious, the quality of a club should not be defined by its numbers and if they try too hard to get people in through the door that is a slight put off for me. If it is a good club the quality of teaching, the quality of the students and their successes in competitions should do a lot of their marketing for them. Big branding and marketing efforts may be a sign they can't compete on their reputation alone.
     
  4. Aries2k

    Aries2k New Member

    @Dan93

    I totally agree, as a teenager I would go and check out any club that I saw a shop window ad for, way before we had the pleasure of internet in every home.

    Time or Skill
    I own a car, I don't have the technical knowledge to fix it when it's not working so I find someone that does - I don't care how they do it as long as the end result is achieved.

    I'm just saying in this day and age, it's getting harder and harder to keep something like a club going without 21st century strategies and there are so many people to compete with in terms of local market share.

    Many american sites that i've been looking at are crushing it with this kind of marketing and their schools are flourishing.


    @Jeffgau

    Thank you, my current club rents out a room in a gym and they're being ushered out, hence the current thoughts to help them also with student acquisition. The club is run by friends and is relatively new so moving to a new premises incurs additional costs and a lack of reputation.

    I appreciate your comment on the "Big branding and marketing efforts" aspect. Never thought of it that way. But for a new club with no competing fighters, I'm trying to think of other tactics that may help them.
     
  5. Dan93

    Dan93 Valued Member

    I hear you, bit of a stigma with me with the American style marketing reminds of some god awful full time blackbelt academys (or as I call them factorys) or the door knocker types (GKR).

    I suspect it might be generational as alot of the clubs currently are taught by a generation who did not grow up with computers ect and unlike a fulltime business do not have the cash to outsource to a specialist to build, this will change with the next generation of teachers, just a personal hunch...
     
  6. Unreal Combat

    Unreal Combat Valued Member

    Some of these clubs you will find are the better clubs to be honest. Don't judge a book by it's cover.

    I care what my site looks like, but I'm not a professional web site designer, and don't intend to pay out of my backside for one to design the site for me. I'm not completely IT illiterate and prefer to do things off of my own back where possible, regardless of the end result.

    I could definitely say that any advice to help increase student numbers is always going to be welcomed, but I would never pay for it. I don't teach for profit, I teach because I have a passion for martial arts and am fortunate enough to have a sponsor who feels the same way.

    I find a lot of marketing nowadays is done via Facebook and other forms of social media. It's quite a powerful tool if used right. Websites seem to be taking a bit of a back seat in comparison as a lot of people tend to look for a Facebook page (I know I do anyway). Always handy to have a website as a source of information though.
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2014
  7. FunnyBadger

    FunnyBadger I love food :)

    Don't get me wrong I do totally see the need to advertise and new students are essential for all clubs but when they rely on their brand more than their quality that's a bad sign for me.

    These days there are so many clubs/styles marketing in misleading or outright deceitful ways. Unfortunately most people outside of the MA community don't know what's what and are easily suckerd by great claims of 'ex sas soldiers with undefeated mma records teaching a self defence style that dates back to 1500bc and now with bjj classes aswell in a family friendly professional dojo, only £300 a week!'
     
  8. Unreal Combat

    Unreal Combat Valued Member

    I agree whole heartedly. That's why I openly embrace my roots and feed no nonsense on my site. I am certainly no high profile professional fighter, who's trained for 20+ years with umpteen world titles, etc, but it doesn't mean I am not good enough to teach people what I know. With 12 regular students after just six weeks, two thirds of which are actually quite experienced, I like to think that kind of speaks for itself. Honestly though I try not to think of what I am doing as selling a service or product. I am building a community of martial artists with the same goals in mind and I think that is more important. Money comes second in priority to me.
     
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2014
  9. 47MartialMan

    47MartialMan Valued Member

    It would be interesting to see those websites that are good. Although this maybe on borderline of advertising
     
  10. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    I'd like to know these developers actually. The problems of these websites, at least in my experience, don't seem to be due to lack of technical skills as much as lack of common sense, as in info hard to find, poor organization and so forth. :rolleyes:
    And then there's lots of missing information.

    I'd say it could as well be some kind of marketing strategy, so you have to visit the gym to get some info...
     
  11. Moi

    Moi Warriors live forever x

    Unless you are in a city and even then you just don't need one? The people walking through the doors are there through 'word of mouth'
    I think it's quite rare to have sufficient knowledge to know what to even start looking for, without knowing people?
    A long distance move might be a challenge but the better the website, the worse the gym
     
  12. Moi

    Moi Warriors live forever x

    If you have a good product, people will come :)
     
  13. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    in my experience, website projects (or software projects in general) fail because of a lack of unifying vision and lack of maintenance moving forward post-deployment.
     
  14. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    Tbh most people don't look at the content anyway, they just click contact and ask for information that's on the first page.
     
  15. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    That's so true.
     
  16. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    exactly. this is what i'm getting at with lack of unifying vision. in my view, the site should be one page: contact information, prices, hours, description of the gym. that's about it. twitter feed, youtube channel, pictures, all superfluous requirements.
     
  17. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    If you limit a site to that it probably won't appear on most search engines until page 20.
     
  18. furinkazan

    furinkazan Valued Member

    they're martial artists not web designers...

    heck my job as an animator involves design and I can't make a website to save my life haha
     
  19. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    good point. but, seo is a different issue altogether. and there are a lot of techniques you can use, not necessarily number of pages. you're not wrong, but there's a lot more to it.
     
  20. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    Oh I know. I made my own website from scratch and it's not easy.
     

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