Referral Events are you opportunity to recruit new students by giving your students the opportunity to invite people they know to specific events, for specific reasons, and often in a non-threatening way (they don’t come in with their guard up believing that you’re going to sell them something).
Many referral events can also be done as income generators. If you implement just one or two events a month, you can not only increase your bottom line but create a steady stream of new students into your school. In addition, many of these events are also good for retention, meaning that they help your students connect to the school outside of the class anchoring good feelings to your program. Over time, you’ll become more and more the hub of their families activity.
Below is a partial list of activities that can be done for children, adults, or the whole family. We’ll post How-to’s over the coming weeks.
- Birthday parties
- Christmas Party
- Halloween Party
- Bring-a-Buddy Class / Week
- Annual Cook-Out
- Independence Day event
- Spring Break Camp
- Parent’s Night Out
- Defeat the Bully Class
- Anti-Abduction, Stranger Danger Seminar
- School talks
- Show and tells
- Teen Movie Night Outings
- Fight Night at a Sports Bar
- Summer Camp
- Member Appreciation Days
- New Year’s Eve Lock-In
- School’s Out Party
- Back-To school Bash
- Open House
- Day after Thanksgiving Camp
- Break-a-board class
- Academic Achievement Challenge
- Karate in the Park
- Karate on the Beach
- Teen Lock-Ins
- Teen Game Night
All of these are low impact events and relatively inexpensive (either for you or for clients if you pass the cost along). They can be done in one evening on Friday or Saturday for a few hours and everyone goes home happy and you have the contact information of the guests that come. In addition, they require very little martial arts or if they do, a variant of your trial lesson classes. The point isn’t to teach them a bunch of martial arts, but for them to come in get a little taste of class OR interact with you and your staff so that they have good impression of you and will be more apt to take advantage of your trial program when you invite them back.
When I think of these kind of events, I’m reminded of fellowship at a church. I’m not comparing us to church, but rather that one of the key things that makes churches good churches is that they give people opportunities to connect, not just in worship times. The more events your students attend and bring friends to, the more they’ll be anchored to the program. It becomes feedback loop of success. The more people are juiced about your program, the more events they attend, the more friends they bring, the more leads you have to work with. And ultimately, the more leads you capitalize on the more students you’ll sign up.
