How to Ride The OLYMPICS MEDIA WAVE and Grow Your Gym Like Never Before 7 Simple Steps YOU MUST IMPLEMENT Immediately. By Jason M. Silverman Executive Director of Powerful Words Character Development Entrepreneur and Marketing Expert, Jason M. Silverman, is known as the After School Marketing Guru. In addition to his duties as the Executive Director for POWerful Words Character Development, Mr. Silverman offers High Level Marketing Coaching Classes for some of the top owners in the Gymnastics, Martial Arts, Cheer, and Dance Industries. Everything that Mr. Silverman teaches, he s learned from practical hands on experience. He s used all of the concepts that he teaches to help build POWerful Words Character Development into the Most Successful Character Education Program for After School Activities available anywhere. The Powerful Words Character Toolkit, http://www.flipwithcharacter.com is an easy-to-use, age-appropriate character education program for students ages 3 and up. The Toolkit is currently being used in over 500 large and small gymnastics, dance, cheer, swim and martial arts academies worldwide. Have you ever heard of the 80/20 Rule? It s super important and actually quite interesting as it relates to all of our businesses. Wikipedia says, the 80-20 rule states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. What I m about to share in this article will most certainly fall into the 20% category so sit up straight, print this article, get out your highlighter and your plan book and TAKE ACTION Your community is counting on you. FACT: The Olympics are coming! This means that Gymnastics is going to be at it s most visible point in the media that it s experienced in the last 4 years. 80% of the gyms out there will do NOTHING and will then complain that they didn t see a large jump in enrollment. 20% of the gyms will put together a full out marketing campaign and will enjoy boatloads of new students where do you see your gym one of the 80% or one of the 20%? This article should be YOUR OFFICIAL JUMPING OFF POINT to Success. What follows are some important Action Steps that I strongly urge you to take TODAY: Action Step #1 Prepare the school.
I mentioned this in my last article, but it s so important, I m going to repeat it. Which of the following bullet points can you take care of THIS WEEK? Re-paint the school. Update, replace or clean the flooring or carpeting to make it look fresh. Make sure that all light bulbs are working and dust-free. Do a school-wide clean up. Basically do the white glove test on everything. Get some fresh plants to add to the life of the school. Fix anything that needs fixing. Cracked mirrors, spackle any sort of holes on the walls, etc. Get a new sign. This always draws some excitement. Air Freshener (nothing says old like the stench of dirty feet!) Action Step #2 - Get in Sync with USA Gymnastics New Message It s All About Life Skills! When Loree Galimore shared bits and pieces of the new marketing direction that USA Gymnastics is taking, I jumped for joy! As many of you know, I come from the martial arts world, so I m still learning a great deal about the mindset of the gymnastics industry. I have to tell you, THE INDUSTRY IS NOW HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Very few of our students will ever touch an Olympic podium right? Every one of our students will, however, benefit from the life skills such as Respect, Discipline, Perseverance, Open Mindedness, Empathy, Power, Balance, etc. that you NEED to be teaching as part of your curriculum. Don t worry, there are professionally designed and developed systems available to you which leads me to Step #3 - Develop Your Expertise and Reputation as a Personal Development Center I touched on this in my last article, but it s very fitting here as well - Parents generally enroll their children in after school activities with the hope that their teachers and coaches will help to strengthen the character of their kids. It s very easy to do when you have the right tools! In addition, from a dollars and cents perspective, when you offer more, you can charge more and get it! Whichever character development system you choose to implement, make sure that it has the following components to maximize the effectiveness and minimize any additional work for you or your staff: Credentials! Make sure that whoever designs your program actually is a Child Development and Character Education Expert! Non-Repetitive, Age Appropriate Character Education Lessons for each of the age groups that you teach Age Appropriate Character Education Projects that your students can complete at home so they re talking about your gym when they re not at your gym
A monthly Parents Letter that educates the parents of your students about all of the additional value that your school brings to their family in addition to gymnastics skills A monthly Parenting Education Column that helps parents see your facility as an important family resource Ready made Bulletin Boards that allow your staff to instantly create a Character Education Center in your gym A community building project that brings the students of your school closer together every month A constantly updated Parenting Blog so that your students parents are continually reminded about the extra education your school provides A top of the line Character Program should allow for instant implementation. This will give you a major advantage over your competition. Obviously, my suggestion would be Powerful Words! Action / Marketing Step #4 - Weekly Press Releases Did you know that the newspaper, TV News, and Radio are all Beasts that must be constantly Fed? It s true. They are always looking for high quality, informative, family friendly stories that their readers will greatly benefit from. If you haven t yet developed a relationship you re your local press so that they see you as a wonderful resource to them GET STARTED TODAY! Some ideas for press releases include: How to Pick the Right Gymnastics Center How Gymnastics Helps Children become more flexible How Gymnastics Helps to Build Perseverance in Children Why Gymnastics is One of the Safest Activities for Boys and Girls Action / Marketing Step #5 - Grassroots Marketing Campaign Now is the time to make sure that your community is well aware of the benefits your facility offers. You should FLOOD the town with the following Grass Roots Marketing Systems: Flyers Plan to get out 5000 per month Lead Boxes Plan to place 50 within a 7 mile radius to your gym Door Hangers Plan to get out 500 per week Action / Marketing Step #6 - Have a Professional Website that Works for YOU! If you were a participant at my session on Website Must Haves for Gymnastics Clubs at National Congress, then you know how I feel about having a Professional Website that collects leads, sends out e-mails to your prospects automatically, and tells you exactly how many people have visited and then become students. It s vital to your success. If you don t have a system like this call me at 877-769-3799 RIGHT NOW. I don t build websites, but I can put you in touch with my own personal webdesigner who has done dozens of sites for me that work VERY WELL an example would be http://www.flipwithcharacter.com Action / Step #7 - Connect and Re-Connect with Your Community I can think of a hundred different ways to connect with your community and let them know you want to serve them. When was the last time you reached out to your local police or fire
department to find out if they are doing any safety presentations to children imagine if you brought one of your demonstration teams to perform. How about the local library? How about the Mayor s office? How about the Parks and Rec. Department? Are there any summer camps in your area? These are all places that would LOVE to meet athletes and coaches from an amazing sport they just saw on Television!!! <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> The gymnastics Industry has an amazing opportunity in front of it RIGHT NOW. People all over the country will be watching and cheering our athletes as they make us proud. They ll notice your marketing efforts EVERYWHERE and you ll be the obvious first choice. Then, they ll turn to YOU and ask the question, Why should I join your Gym? Hopefully, you ll be able to explain all of the Character you ll develop, the Relationships you ll help form, and the Success you ll help to build. Get ready for an AMAZING YEAR! I m honored to work with such fantastic people and I m excited about your pending Massive Success! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** ATTENTION GYM OWNERS Did You Miss any of Jason M. Silverman or Dr. Robyn Silverman s 6 different Presentations at USA Gymnastics National Congress this year in Philadelphia? We figured that it might be impossible to attend every session that you hoped to attend So we hired a professional videographer to come in and record all of our sessions and create DVDs for you. We ve just sent the DVD Sets out to be Duplicated and they should be ready to ship in about 2 weeks or so. There are 2 different sets: 1.) Powerful Marketing Success Systems includes the following 3 hours of DVDs Automated Marketing Secrets for Quick Growth and Rock Solid Retention Gymnastics Club Website Must Haves The Dirty Little Secrets of Success: 7 Ways to Build Your Gym and Work Smarter-Not Harder 2.) Powerful Staff Development Success Systems Includes the following 3 hours of DVDs From Everyday Learner to Exceptional Leader: Strategies to Cultivate Your Student Leadership Program Helicopter Parents: Strategies For Dealing with Over-Involved Moms and Dads Turning Quitters into Keepers: Strategies to Win in the Retention Battle Each of the 2 Sets will be priced at $297 (including domestic shipping). If you d like to PRE-ORDER we ll make a special offer on both sets for only $397 Including Shipping! To Take Advantage of this Pre-Sale Opportunity CALL 877-769-3799 or e- mail JSilverman@powerfulwordsonline.com IMMEDIATELY This offer is good for ONLY the first 250 sets sold.