5 Ways to Use Video in Your Martial Arts Marketing

Why use video in marketing your martial art school? Let’s go over a few reasons:

• Video is the most consumed content format online – it roughly makes up 80% of all internet traffic.
• 85% of the US Internet population regularly watches online video.
• Both men and women are equally likely to watch videos online (something to consider if you’re in dual markets)

So, if you’re not using it as part of your marketing strategy, you’re missing the boat. To help you get started on the right foot, here are some tips regarding the most popular ways to use video to market your martial arts studio.

Martial Arts Video Marketing Tip #1: Use Video On Your Website Home Page

I’m a big fan of web copy for selling online. However, the fact remains that video is being used more and more often to supplement or even replace the written word on business sites and sales pages. Many people find it much easier to do a brief video that’s informative and persuasive, rather than writing a long sales letter.

If you’re not a fan of being in front of the camera, you can always hire someone to create an animated video or you can just use clips of your classes, and edit them together with a voice over using the video editing software on your Mac or PC.

Martial Arts Video Marketing Tip #2: Promote Your Studio On YouTube

Quick question: What’s the second most popular search engine on the internet? Bing or Yahoo?

Answer: Neither. Most people are clueless to the fact that YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the internet. YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users, and it gets an average of 30 million users a day. As a search engine, it’s way bigger than Bing, Yahoo, and the other smaller search engines combined.

Bottom line – YouTube is where you want your videos to reside. If you’re not using video marketing on YouTube, you’re missing a huge marketing opportunity for your martial art school. So, start putting your videos on YouTube right away if you aren’t already.

Martial Arts Video Marketing Tip #3: Go Viral In Social Media

How many times have you shared a video of someone doing something that’s really, really cool, martial arts-wise? I bet the answer is somewhere between “daily” and “more times than I can count” – which should tell you something about one of the best ways you can use video to market your school.

The trick to going viral in video is to show something that has a major “WOW!” factor. Just the typical thing won’t do. If you have a video of an incredible martial feat, or something you can pull off and video that’s simply amazing, that’s the sort of thing you want to share in your viral video.

Make it short and sweet, because most viral videos are three minutes or less in length. Also, it should have an element of surprise, use humor and laughter when appropriate to the content, and get to the point quickly. Be sure to include a link back to your school website when you upload the video, or it won’t do you a bit of good (it’ll help your Google rankings – trust me on this).

Oh, and just a suggestion… if anything like the following happens on video in your school – destroy the footage immediately. :)

Martial Arts Video Marketing Tip #4: Use Video On A Lead Capture Page

Putting a video at the top of your lead capture pages can increase your response rate drastically. Of course, it has to be the right video, one that is professional and persuasive.

Animated videos have become a bit passé. Stick with live video, either something you came up with yourself or something you purchased from a third-party source. Video editing is incredibly easy these days, and if you have an iPhone, you can shoot decent footage and stitch it together into a presentable format.

Having a custom video that’s branded specifically with your school name, logo, your picture, etc. sets your school apart from the competition by making you look like you have your collective stuff together. Just looking a bit more professional than your competitors can mean the difference between getting a student, or losing them to the school down the street.

Martial Arts Video Marketing Tip #5: Video Mail

One of the easiest ways to use video is to include one in your emails. Using video content in your emails can double your engagement (the number of people who open and read your newsletter).

If you want to look really professional I suggest you use an email autoresponder service, since they often provide templates that you can easily edit and customize with your logo, images, and videos.

However, video technology is often blocked by popular mail service providers. So, the best way to send a video in an email is to take a thumbnail (a screen capture image) and embed that image in the email, and link it to where the video is hosted on your site or on YouTube (better to use your site, since you can better control the call to action, etc). That way when they click on the image, they are taken to your site to view the video.

A Million Ways to Use Video – But You Have To Have One To Use It

There are a million ways to use video to market your business, and these are just a few examples. But, you have to have a decent video presentation first in order to make video work in your marketing.

If you’re interested in getting a high-quality video presentation done for your school, I suggest you get a custom video created that you pay for once and use over and over again. That way you can upload it all over the internet, and use it how you like for as long as you own your school. The great thing about animated video presentations is that they don’t start looking outdated over time. You can continue to use such a presentation for years and years to come.

And if you want more ideas and tips on marketing your martial art school, click here.