Marketing (A2 of AIDA)

Marketing can be broken into 4 sections
Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Action. Poor salesmen typically focus on this step. The "close". "What's it going to take to put you in a car, today?" brrr.

To me, that's fairly unethical, and not the way to go. The way I feel, is that if I've done the first AID part correct, the last A part is as simple as saying "Ok" to their request to sign up.

I truly believe that martial arts, specifically Shinka Martial Arts is the absolute best vehicle for self improvement, self actualization and self empowerment that there is.

Our curriculum is second to none, our martial arts facility is extraordinary, our martial arts teachers are awesome and, our culture is one of collaboration and positivity.

Put simply, I know of no better place to send your child, or attend yourself. Period.

So, all that is left, is finding out our potential student's needs, explaining the process as to how Shinka can fulfill them, and allowing them to come to class.

There are millions of reasons to purchase YOUR product. Find out which reasons your potential client has, and explain to them how it will fulfill those needs, and, more importantly, their wants.

If you had ice cream that was good for you, you'd still market the taste.

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

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Marketing (D of AIDA)

Marketing can be broken into 4 sections
Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Desire is simple. While interest is piqued, desire is simmered. The best way to achieve this is through visualization, stories, or engaging/probing questions.

Why do you want to take martial arts, is a question I love to ask my potential students, as it helps them understand it themselves. Many people don't even know why they do things, which makes intrinsic motivation hard to come by.

Being able to help people find their inner desires, ensures that they will be happier students who learn to push themselves harder, sooner, and achieve better results.

It also helps them mentally commit to the change that is undoubtedly a little scary for them to commit to. People know where they are, now. Even if it isn't where they want to be, its familiar/comfortable. To promise them a better life can sometimes be intimidating/scary for them. "Will people treat me differently if I'm in better shape?" etc.

Its our job to ensure that people can break through those mental barriers, and be healthy, fit, and smiling as a result!

Read on!

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

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Marketing (I.1 of AIDA)

Marketing can be broken into 4 sections
Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Interest is found by establishing emotional motivators, not listing facts.

"We have 7000 square feet to work in" = fact.
"Are you tired of getting frustrated and hurting yourself by bumping into walls in your tiny dojo?" = emotional (pain) motivator.
"Are you wanting to see how high you can fly, and how far you can jump?" = emotional (pleasure) motivator.

As most people come to Shinka Martial Arts for fun martial arts, self defense and fitness, I do my best to illustrate that this is what we provide, through emotional motivators.

ie, fun is easy. As it IS fun, all the photos of our students are generally laughing, smiling, and having fun. Self defense is trickier to market, because it tends to be "gritty", which can unintentionally frighten some people unless you show people in a position of strength in the right light. Fitness is pretty easy too, as most of our students get in great shape very quickly. The downside is, you also want to make it achievable. Many people see all these "toned bods" and think "I could never do that" or "I wouldn't fit in there".

So, a better way to market fitness is the before/after approach, as it shows "hey, that's me" and "hey, that's where I want to be". You get both pleasure AND pain from that angle.

Read on!

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

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Marketing (I of AIDA)

Marketing can be broken into 4 sections
Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Interest can be summed up very easily. We're all tuned in to the same radio station, weather we want to believe it or not. The WIIFM station.

"What's in it for me?"

Even altruistic people still tune in via this method "That appeals to me so that I can give and feel good" ergo, its in it for them.

So, after you've gotten their "A", the next step is to provide them with their "I".

This is where many people make the mistake of stating FACTS. People don't want to know that you have all the latest in martial arts technology, or that you can guarantee that their brain's aptitude will be increased by 33%. All they care about is the emotional benefit, first. "I'll feel great after I work out? Sounds good to me."

You have to package your emotional motivators to people, and let them rationalize with the facts.

See, in the case of Shinka Martial Arts (my dojo), I made the mistake of marketing it via telling people about all the benefits. All the facts. They'd get in great shape, they'd get smarter (guaranteed), I talked about the exact specifics of our huge dojo (7000 square feet, bla bla bla) but what really worked, was when people either talked to me, and saw that I was smiling and personable, or when they saw some of our students training and having fun with martial arts.

Afterwards, our brains will rationalize our decision that we're training for self defense, but, ultimately, what we want, as a species, is to have fun, foremost.

Read on!

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

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Marketing (A.1 of AIDA)

There are three types of problem/solution openings.
1) Using a YOU-based problem/solution (use "you" a lot)
If you are tired of looking at your balding head in the mirror, you should know about this new product.

Do YOU have money problems? etc.

2) Using a ME-based problem/solution [me, my, or my client]
My store is totally over-stocked, and our staff don't have any place to put our products - everything must go!

3) Using a THEM-based problem/solution (people in general, third party)
People are getting more and more frustrated due to the economy...

Everyone is feeling the financial pinch from this year's financial crisis

So, evoke emotion as quickly as possible.

In the case of YOU, its generally pretty easy, as it tends to be a fairly pointed, direct statement. "Do YOU suck in the following area? Then YOU need THIS!"

While the me-based is often very pity-me type approach. "Oh woe is me, please help us solve this problem and save lots of money in the process". While the first can trigger a defensive reaction "I'll show them, I'll take action and buy their product!" the second is generally a mix of altruism and predatory instinct. "Those poor people, I could help them (fangs come out) and save a bundle in the process! Those fools, they're practically giving those sofas away... I could even sell them to people I know and make a profit..." The other me-approach is to tell your story more fully "I used to be this, and now I'm this." (Tony Robbins uses this a fair bit through telling illustrative stories of his past). Also, a lot of internet finance type sites do this as well.

The third invokes the cattle/sheep nature of humans. "Everyone else is doing it. The leading brand must be the best one. I don't want to be seen as odd..." Also, you can use it as presupposed knowledge - ie "y'know how so many people are suffering from...?" (tonality in this one is really crucial. Kind of a whiny, complaining like at the beginning)

And they all work, of course.

The challenge I propose to you, is to use this information ethically. Only sell products you believe in passionately; and use this information to help people make the right decision for them, not for you.

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

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Marketing (A of AIDA)

If there was one thing that every business person should increase their aptitude, it is marketing. Why?

Because nobody will BUY your product unless they know about it! Think about it, would you have married your spouse if you had never met them?

Doesn't matter how much you would totally love them, and want to be with them... if you never even KNEW about them...

Okay.

So, marketing is crucial, yes? We need to break marketing down into its core components (AIDA) which stand for:

Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Attention must come first. Again, it doesn't matter how interested someone is in a car that's about to hit them, it doesn't matter how much they desire not to be hit - if they don't have the car brought to their attention first, they're still gonna get creamed, yes?

Okay.

So, we have two basic methods of having our attention being caught.

The two P's, Pleasure, and Pain.

Which means, there are two types of openings... (you guessed it, pleasurable openings and painful openings)

"Now you can have the figure you've always wanted, introducing..." would be a positive opening.
"Indulge your deepest fantasies with..." etc.

Now, research shows that people will do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. Which means that on the whole, pain based introductions work better in marketing. (which is one of the reasons so much news is fear-based)

"Find out which cereals could be killing your children, tonight at 5pm" oy.

So, a basic pain based marketing method is a problem/solution based opening. ie: "Do you suffer from (blank)? Try new..."

(side note: finding problems to solve is the secret to massive wealth - solve problems massively to large groups of people)

There are three types of problem/solution openings.

Read on!

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

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