Writing an Effective Marketing Plan for your Martial Arts Business

By: Alan Gleeson

Alan Gleeson is the Managing Director of Palo Alto Software Ltd, creators of Business Plan Pro 2007. He holds an MBA from Oxford University and is a graduate of University College, Cork, Ireland.


Like any other business, your martial arts school needs effective marketing plans to ensure long term success. Take the time to plan your marketing strategy carefully and then watch your martial arts school grow.

A marketing plan is a core component of any business plan. It relates specifically to the marketing of a particular product or service, in this case a Martial Arts Class or Curriculum, and it describes:

  • An overall marketing objective (What will all your efforts translate into? Ex. Increase in overall student registration by 15.0% in the first quarter of 2009)
  • A broad marketing strategy
  • The tactical detail related to specific marketing activities
  • The various costs associated with these activities
  • Those responsible for delivering these activities by name


The starting point for any marketing plan is an analysis of the strategic context, as a typical objective for most plans is promoting a good or service as effectively as possible. An assessment of your Martial Arts school’s performance, its environment and its customers helps to ensure that you obtain a holistic view of the wider context.

In turn, this helps you to focus your energies and resources accordingly. This is particularly important given that most school owners will be subject to that all-too-familiar constraint—limited resources (invariably financial). In effect, a marketing plan is produced to ensure that limited resources are allocated to activities that are likely to bring the maximum return.

Tools to Use in Your Marketing Plan

An assessment of the context will include analysis of both internal and external factors. There are a number of frameworks and tools designed to assist you with this:

  • A SWOT analysis forces you to consider internal Strengths and Weaknesses alongside external Opportunities and Threats.
  • An analysis of the Martial Arts Industry in your surrounding geographic area will assist you in determining the broader competitive and environmental context.


It is also vital that you have a thorough understanding of your students; look to whether segments exist within your broad customer group that can be profitably served utilizing specific and targeted marketing activities.

Show Your Strategy, Costs and Expected Returns in Your Marketing Plan

Following an analysis of broader conditions, a marketing strategy can then be put in place. This strategy needs to include financials so that all activities can be assessed in the context of their cost as a portion of the overall marketing budget. Regardless of the product or service, the objectives tend to be similar for most Martial Arts school owners; create awareness, stimulate interest in the offering, and ultimately (profitably) convert this awareness into student registration. All these factors are intertwined and, hence, the importance of effective market planning.

Using a local restaurant as an example, their marketing activities are going to be predominantly concentrated within a two to three mile radius of their restaurant, as this area is where the vast majority of their customers are likely to come from.

Tactically, there is no point in such a restaurant advertising on TV (even locally) as the cost would be prohibitive in the context of their business model. They are limited in terms of capacity (number of seats) and their average cost per head so that, even if they created huge awareness and interest via TV advertising, the resultant revenues would still be unlikely to cover the cost of the specific marketing activity. On the other hand, stuffing leaflets through local letterboxes is extremely targeted and comes at low relative cost, which explains the sheer volume of fast-food flyers most of us get on a daily basis.

The reader of the marketing plan should clearly be able to relate to the marketing initiatives in terms of the message, the target audience and the means to accessing this audience. A good marketing plan will detail specifics, i.e., a number of marketing activities, their respective costs, and the expected return on investment.

Measuring Your Marketing ROI

Measuring return on marketing has historically been one of the greatest challenges the industry has faced. The advent of PPC (pay-per-click) advertising via the Internet has finally resulted in school owners being able to track sales resulting from specific campaigns and advertisements. However, this is just one means of advertising, and calculating effective ROI (return on investment) figures from other marketing initiatives such as print advertising remain as elusive as ever.

In summary, a marketing plan should enable school owners to document their assessment of the opportunity in terms of effective allocation of limited resources. While most owners would love the luxury of a seven-figure marketing budget to spend on every conceivable advertising medium, the reality is that most need to market effectively on a very meagre amount.

A marketing plan assesses the most efficient means to attract potential customers and ultimately convert them to sales. Without a plan, a business is essentially rudderless and marketing activities are more likely to be reactive and, hence, considerably less effective.



To learn more about creating an effective marketing plan and how to effectively track your marketing ROI contact a representative at ChampionsWay at 1-877-774-5425 or e-mail Joseph Seo at joseph@championsway.com.