3 Ways Your Martial Arts School Can Increase Revenue with Facebook

Social media is a great place to get and share news. In fact, a recent study revealed social media is now more popular than newspapers as a preferred source of news. Since Facebook is still the most widely used social network, it makes sense that you should use Facebook for sharing your school’s news and updates.

However, the benefits of using Facebook go far beyond just sharing news and updates with your page followers. Here are three ways you can use Facebook to increase revenue at your martial arts school.

Providing Exceptional Customer Service

Have you noticed people are now using Facebook Messenger to get information about your school? Conversations which used to take place over the phone or email are currently taking place over Facebook Messenger. Sometimes these questions come from current students, and other times they come from people who are interested in becoming a student. Either way, the face of customer service is changing, and you need to be on Facebook to be ready for it.

One way to make delivering customer service on Facebook easy is to create a cheat sheet with questions and answers so you can copy and paste replies as questions come in. This preparation will save you time and help you answer incoming questions quickly.

Some questions to be ready for include:

Are you open on (fill in the blank) holiday? What do I need to bring for my first class? Is there an area I can sit in to watch my child in class? How early do I need to get there before class? Is it easy to find parking? I’m going to be late for class- should I still come? How can I cancel my spot in class? And the list goes on.

When making your cheat sheet, standardize some of the questions you get most frequently and include any relevant questions from your website’s FAQ section. Then you’ll be ready to impress current students and win new ones with your excellent customer service.

Strengthening Your School’s Community

As you know, having a strong community is one of the best things you can do for student retention. The good news is Facebook makes building and strengthening your community easier with its private group feature.

Private groups are super popular because group members enjoy an enhanced sense of privacy and security. Things group members post in the group are not visible by people outside of it. Because of this security and privacy, members are far more active and engaged in private groups than they are with business page posts.

For example, you could post a question like “Would anyone like to carpool to the tournament next Saturday?” on your business page, and you might get one or two replies. But the same question posted in a private group would get many more responses and would likely spur conversation between group members.

Additionally, Facebook’s algorithms give private group posts priority visibility in newsfeeds, so your group members will see the things you post. That’s important because business page posts are less visible due to Facebook algorithms. The far better visibility for group posts is just another reason why Facebook’s private groups are so beneficial.

Once you create your group, invite your students to join it. Then post regularly. Ideas for great posts include school-wide news and updates, student birthdays and anniversaries, recognition for belt test promotions, new skill tips, instructor spotlights, new blog content, and event information.

Download our free marketing checklist for martial arts schools. 

Advertising to the Right Prospects

Finally, you should be using Facebook for advertising and connecting with prospects. Facebook continues to be an excellent place for people in your area to learn about your school, especially when using Facebook’s paid promotions.

As we mentioned earlier, business page posts have low organic visibility, so much of what you post on your page is never seen. While that sounds terrible, it doesn’t have to be. The answer is paying to promote your posts and running strategic, targeted ads to reach the right people in your city. When you run strategic ads and promote the right posts, the results are excellent.

So excellent, in fact, that a large portion of all digital advertising spending is done on Facebook.

When you want your page followers to see important posts, you should boost the post, which is easily done right in your timeline. You can target the post to reach a specific demographic, effectively getting the post in front of the right people. For instance, you can select criteria like location, age and gender for each boosted or promoted post.

However, you’ll be much more successful in reaching prospects with Facebook ads because they offer even more precise targeting options and allow you to optimize your content for leads. To be successful, you should run test campaigns, trying a mix of different ad elements like CTAs, custom audiences and even the difference between video and images. After conducting a few different test campaigns, you can compare your data, make informed decisions and run successful ads.

All of these ways of using Facebook increase your school’s revenue. Exceptional customer service helps you win new business and keep the students you have happy. Private groups help you strengthen your schools’ community, so students stay connected, supportive and successful. Finally, paid ads and promoted page posts help you bring in more of the best leads.

Ready to reach more students and grow your community? Check out our marketing checklist for martial arts businesses.