Martial Art Club Owner, Goes From Shutting His Doors To DOUBLING His Members - In Just 31 Days!
Dedicated, Third Degree Black Belt Had Tried Masterminds, Flyers and Other Common Marketing Methods to Increase Student Numbers. But Was Left Scratching His Head When Nothing Worked to Get More Students.
A Chance Meeting Changed Everything…
From The Desk of Craig Marty
Dear Martial Art School Owners,
If you have tried and failed to grow your martial arts business, I’m writing this for you.
After 17 years of attracting and winning customers for businesses across Australia and internationally,
I’m here to tell you that:
If you have attended masterminds that were supposed to help you grow your school.
If you have invested in marketing courses before.
If you boosted posts on social media and tried running Facebook Ads.
If you tried MOST crazes that came around like Snapchat, Chatbots and now TikTok.
If you have put time and or money into marketing your business.
…and if most / or all that didn’t work:
IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT!
There’s often one critical part missing from a marketing idea or effort that kills any campaign before it starts and I’ll be revealing that to you in this letter.
I’m Going To Show You How This Martial Art School Owner Doubled His Student Numbers Without Following “Trends”, Or Other Hype That DOESN’T Work In The Martial Arts World.
My goal in writing this, is to help two kinds of people:
School owners or managers who have been struggling for a long time to bring in more students than what leave each quarter.
(I’m talking about when 2 new students replace the 2 that just left! And:
People who have recently started their studio and want a proven way to get students (people who want to avoid years of stress, pain and running classes at below 50% capacity!)
If you fit into one of those two buckets, keep reading… (this is not for people who are only thinking of, or dreaming about starting their own studio).
“But How?”
Dane Doubled His Member Numbers
Dane Barbour is a Third Degree Black Belt and runs a Kenpo Karate school in Melbourne.
I’m sure you’ve heard this expression:
“I don’t fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks, I fear the man who has practiced the same kick 10,000 times.”
That’s kind of how Dane was able to double his studio. Well, the principle is the same anyway. More on that later.
Most martial art studio owners I speak to (and maybe you’re the same), wish to…
Teach and Share Your Knowledge and Skills of Your Style to Other People in Your Community.
I believe that’s the same for most martial art school owners, and maybe you also aim to do these things each day:
Provide quality instruction and training to your students.
Create a positive and safe learning environment where your students can improve their physical fitness.
Help your students of all ages develop their mental toughness, and self-defense skills.
Build strong professional relationships with your students.
Earn a reputation as a respected martial arts school in your community.
Attract and retain students who are committed to their training.
AND OF COURSE..
Create a sustainable business that generates a steady flow of income to cover overheads, costs, to pay any staff and provide a good income for yourself (without this, achieving the 6 other points above will remain a dream).
Dane
Owners and Operator of Melbourne Kenpo Karate
He is a 3rd Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He has trained in Australia, New Zealand and USA. He has spent over 25 years studying various martial arts including Japanese Karate styles, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do and Boxing. He has studied Kenpo Karate for almost 20 years and is dedicated to the proliferation of Kenpo throughout Australia.
Dane’s Story
Is Not Uncommon
After getting into martial arts at a young age Dane started to attend his local school.
After watching The Perfect Weapon in the early 90’s, Dane was swayed over to Kenpo Karate where he has achieved his third degree black belt.
Like most martial art school owners, Dane was passionate about sharing this craft with his community and ensuring that the passion, techniques and skills get passed onto the next generation.
So he did what a lot of passionate students do…
He opened his own studio in Melbourne.
Opening just one night a week, Dane had started a local community based martial arts studio and he couldn’t have been prouder at that time of what he had built.
The usual friends and family joined, attended… but dropped off over time.
Referrals from the same friends and family group helped to keep new blood coming through the doors for the first 1 to 2 years but the revolving door was a double edged sword!
The couple of new faces in his classes were comforting, Dane knew he could at least cover the rent the next month…
…but on the other side of that revolving door were students leaving for the usual variety of reasons.
After we’d been working together for a couple of months, Dane said to me on a call:
“Before I started working with you, I had to decide if I was going to do something about student numbers or keep it as a hobby school that will eventually dwindle and die…”
The Perfect Weapon is a 1991 martial arts action film directed by Mark DiSalle and starring Jeff Speakman, Mako Iwamatsu, James Hong, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Set in Los Angeles, the film relates the story of a young man (Speakman), who is trained in the martial art of American Kenpo, and his fight against the Korean mafia.
What Marketing Methods Work Best For a Martial Arts School?
Dane tried all the usual marketing efforts other martial art school owners try to get more students. I’m talking about…
Printing Flyers
Finding a designer, a printer and then walking the streets handing out 5,000 flyers was great cardio but had mixed results – never great results.
Yellow Page Ads
Listing his business alongside 12 other martial art schools in his area helped bring in the occasional new face but not enough to actually grow.
Website Built
Dane learned that having a website was great for people to look at but he still needed to find the people first and then get them to look at the website – the website does not get up, walk around and knock on peoples doors by itself.
Expensive Masterminds
They were great to network with like minded people but it was very expensive and didn’t translate into what he actually signed up for and wanted: new faces in his class!.
Local Networking Groups
Being a Dad, working a job outside of the studio, instructing a class once a week and also continuing to train and develop his skills and techniques left no time to continue this.
Other marketing channels like radio ads, hiring sales staff or a marketing agency where the costs can be $5,000 – $10,000 per month was not an option for his size of business.
The campaign we ran for Dane Barbour’s school is what’s recommended for ALL schools because:
1. It works. And…
2.The black and white results are obvious – down to the cent!
Other school owners who train alongside Dane in their advanced classes asked him:
“How are you getting all these new people in your class!?”
Wouldn’t that be a good question to get asked by your peers?
Now, you might be thinking who is Craig Marty and why does he care or is he for real? These are valid questions.
Here’s my quick response:
My Passion Is In The Craft…
Over the last 17 years I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide wide range of businesses in Australia and overseas.
In late 2022 I met Dane Barbour and he accepted my proposal to help him market and grow his long established martial arts school.
YES…
We doubled his business in just 31 days, however, it was the 17 years of experience I had BEFORE this 1 month that’s important. That’s the reason why I knew what approach with his studio and now any studio.
It Took 17 Years to Achieve That “31 Day” Success…
Craig Marty
Dad, Husband and Full Time Marketer. Based in Sydney, Australia.
It Took 17 Years to Achieve That “31 Day” Success…
My start in marketing and getting customers on the internet was long and painful.
Back in 2004 when a friend of mine started to make some money with online marketing, websites, and such…
…I thought: “HEY! That sounds like a good thing!”
In 2004 getting customers for businesses on the internet was all about SEO and websites (a lot has changed).
I didn’t go full time until 2012 after getting laid off by the company I was working for in the call centre industry. But…
I’d been doing Facebook Ads, Google, Affiliate marketing, email marketing and pretty much EVERYTHING else online in the evening after my 9 to 5 job and on most weekends. I really wanted to learn it all and make something out of it!
I stopped going out, stopped doing what normal 19 – 27 year olds do…
I was obsessed.
I read every article.
Watched every video when they came online with YouTube.
Seeked LOTS of advice.
Invested in courses.
I felt like I had learned it all...
Fast forward… AND IN HINDSIGHT, I didn’t know how to get the tools working together or in what order – therefore I never made a living from it back then.
I completely missed that lesson/principle for about the first 8 years, therefore I was never able to hand in my resignation and live that glorious “laptop lifestyle” on the beach, which was the buzz back then.
I got some results and had some success over the years but NOT where I needed or wanted it to be.
My Lightbulb Moment In the Shower
It was a regular week day, I was moping at home and was almost ready to give up completely on owning and running my own marketing business, I was showering and what I had been missing for about 8 years at that point hit me like a roundhouse kick to the head!
I’d learned and tried mostly everything, but I was missing an underlying, 100% critical principle WITH ALL the marketing campaigns and efforts I had created and rolled out up until that moment.
The answer was “Strategy” and the “Sequence of Strategy”
Let me explain…
If Muhammad Ali had the best right hand in boxing… That still would not have made him world champion alone.
He needed his jab, his movement, his defense and not only did he need to use them all together…
…But he needed to know WHAT and HOW he was going to do it for 12 rounds… That’s his strategy.
He had BOTH the right tools & the right strategy. And is widely considered as the greatest of all time. Make sense?
After my shower that day I frantically wrote down and mapped out this lightbulb moment and what it would look like OUT of my head, and on paper. (I always have to write my thoughts and ideas down).
I called it the Customer Mountain Map at the time, here is my original drawing:
My original drawing after getting the thought out of my head and onto paper (I’m no artist!)
I ended up getting it designed professionally much later, into the graphic above to help explain it to clients.
It’s now known as the Customer Mountain Strategy, or ‘Customer Mountain’ for short and…
It’s what I used to double Dane Barbour’s martial arts studio in late 2022 – early 2023.
This Is How We Doubled Dane's
School
Using today’s online marketing tools and overlaying my Customer Mountain Strategy we was able to DOUBLE Dane’s business in 31 just days!
Things like social media, Google, chat, etc are all tools – they’re fantastic tools! BUT… by themselves they are as unproductive as a brand new shiny hammer that sits inactive on a shelf. Make sense?
These are the 4 steps Dane and I went through:
A long and detailed conversation
Dane walked me through the students, who they commonly are, what they look for, etc.
Dane shared the basics on the operations of the business
Reasons why students come, reasons why they leave and reasons why they stay.
Plus much more.
We went away and considered the martial industry, what’s similar and what’s different from the other countless projects I’ve worked on and witnessed.
What would make the target market take action?
How to position, what to say and HOW to say it.
How to lead these people toward becoming a student.
And then what tools and processes would work best to achieve all that.
We crafted marketing messages across the range of angles I knew would most likely get the results.
Several different “marketing messages” were created for testing.
Dane reviewed these to ensure they were right and correct for the industry.
We launched the marketing campaign with a manageable $20 advertising budget behind it each day.
We started to get results within the first 3 days.
We then doubled down on what worked.
Stopped doing what didn’t work.
Help Dane manage the new students coming in (booking them in on predetermined dates and times, etc).
Whatever You’re Doing, Just Keep Doing It!
In our world that is the greatest feedback to get, and that’s exactly, word for word what Dane said to us on one of our phone calls.
The end result for Dane was:
95% of the current spots were full to capacity.
Dane had to open 1 additional day during the week to accommodate the overflow.
Combine these two and that equalled a doubling of student numbers all within 31 days.
Great, right?
You may be thinking: “Well that all sounds too simple…”
Admittedly I have provided a 10,000 foot view. There is a whole bunch of “stuff” we do in the background which Dane never sees. Dane simply greets people as they enter his dojo on their scheduled date and time. (Sound good?)
Attracting and winning new customers (or students) and growing a business is about having the right strategy to attract the customer in the right way, and manage them through the conversion process. We have this process mapped out, tested and have applied it to several different industries…
Martial art studios are now proven to be one of them!
How To Double Your Martial Arts School
Remember That We Have Tested and Proven This Works
Next month, we’re working with martial art school owners and doing the same thing for them that I did for Dane Barbour + 2 extra services that will make this even easier and more impactful for you if you secure one of the spots.
It’s called the “More Martial Arts” campaign and has been developed to GROW martial art student numbers and INCREASE the impact of their owners.
The More Martial Arts campaign includes:
The Customer Mountain Strategy Developed For Martial Art Schools
(We take care of all of it for you. We set it up, deploy it and manage it. You just accept the new students. Easy).
New Student Enquiry Management and Processing (*Just Added*)
(You won’t be fielding questions from time wasters, or new enquiries as they come in. We will handle all that for you. Including prices, class times, what’s included, who it’s for, etc, etc. We’ll get the general answers for all the common questions from you in advance. Any question that’s left of centre we’ll forward to you).
Student Run Sheets And Follow Ups
(Each week we will provide you with a list of new students and the classes they’re attending so that you are informed prior and prepared. We will have your class times and availability and any “not available” dates in advance. This is all taken care of by us).
All The Marketing & Advertising
I know what Ads and marketing works. I know where to run them and how to run them – I’ve cracked the code already and it works! You do nothing. We do all this for you. You literally only welcome new students as they arrive in your studio. Sound good?
NO Long Term Contracts
The ‘More Martial Arts’ campaign runs for 4 weeks. We do everything for you. If you love it, you can do a 2nd month, and so on. Many clubs have been with us for over 12 months.
You’re getting all the above included FREE when you join the next group for the ‘More Martial Arts’ campaign.
BUT… There is 1 critical piece of this strategy that we need you to accept…
A critical part of the Customer Mountain Strategy for martial art schools is a “Free Lesson”. How we do it, and where we do it has been proven to work.
This is part of the strategy that you must agree to offering new students if you take one of the spots in the next group. We handle EVERYTHING for you.
You only need to:
Be 100% happy with providing “1 free lesson” to a potential new student. And:
Welcome students into your school who are there for the free session.
And I mean:
Really welcome them.
Look after them.
Leave them wanting more.
Sell them into becoming a paying member.
We can’t be there in your school to welcome new students, therefore you will need to handle and process them as you do normally with current students.
BUT …
We’re ALSO providing you with a New Member Welcome Kit and a list of other tips to maximise the number of these people becoming full paying members (more on this later in this letter).
If you know you’re terrible with people and you can’t get anyone to join your studio after they attend a free class then this definitely is NOT for you. But…
…you’re reading this, you’ve had your studio for a while now, so I KNOW you’re more than capable of handling this. We will also be providing you with a list of tips to strengthen this process.
How To Join The ‘More Martial Arts’ Campaign
The steps are:
1. CLICK HERE to book in a free 30 min call so I can get the details we need to send new students your way.
2. Let’s find out if your school is a good fit for the campaign and for the money back guarantee.
Your Investment
What is doubling your business worth?
How much is each fully enrolled student worth to you over their first year alone?
We were able to double Sensi Dane Barbour’s business with my Customer Mountain Strategy and I can guarantee to bring you and your school enough new students to cover your investment in the More Martial Arts campaign.
(Note: Full details on my guarantee below)
A Question for You
Imagine in 2 months from now, if you leave this website now and do nothing new for 2 months… if you do all the same things you’ve been doing…
…will the amount of new members and enquiries change drastically?
No, it’s unlikely. Because as you know… Actions = Outcome. right?
Is it fair to say how you have tried to grow your club previously… has given you the number of members you have today? …. yes, I think so too.
The 43 martial art schools that we’re growing live right now, are only growing now because they did decided to do something different.
Our Guarantee
As long as you do your bit (which I’m sure you will) when it comes to welcoming new students and convincing them to sign up,
We guarantee we will at least get you enough paying students to cover your investment in full. And if we don’t…
I will return your investment in full. Is that fair?
Our refund GUARANTEE only requires you to do 2 things:
1. Welcome new students who come in for their free lesson (we’ll also provide some tips on how to enhance that interaction). And:
2.Put a mark next to someones name who didn’t turn up so that we can follow up with them (we’ll give you a live online sheet where we update who is coming in, their age, their date and time).
**Can you mark down who didn’t show up? If yes…
We guarantee we will get you enough paying students to cover your investment in the More Martial Arts campaign.
Is that fair?
Here’s What To Do Now…
Click the GREEN button below and it will open up our calendar.
Select a date and time that works for you, book it in and then we will call you directly at your chosen time for a
casual (and free) conversation about the More Martial Arts campaign
(After clicking the button above, a new window will open with my calendar. You can choose a date and time that works for you.
We will then call you at your chosen time to learn more about you and your school to make sure we’re a good fit.
No payment & NO commitment is required at this stage).
What Our Clients Say...
Every Month Is Another Handful of NEW Paying Members..
Read the testimonials above, these are from martial art club owners in Australia who decided to at least schedule a call with us for a chat. That was their first step too.
The difference between these club owners and others who are stuck at their current numbers and losing 1 or 2 every couple of months is HAVING a system to get new members and not having one. Take 45 seconds to click on the green button below and schedule a call with us – we’ll outline the system we’ve created for martial art schools in Australia
(After clicking the button above, a new window will open with my calendar. You can choose a date and time that works for you.
I will then call you at your chosen time to learn more about you and your school to make sure we’re a good fit.
(No payment is required for this booking | No commitment is expected either).
I look forward to talking with you. SCHEDULE YOUR CALL HERE NOW
Talk soon,
Craig Marty
More Martial Arts
P.S. The bottom line here is that just a few months ago we took on a new client who ran a martial arts school. He wanted to increase his student numbers…
31 days later after working together, we had DOUBLED his student numbers!
In the coming weeks we are doing the same thing for other martial art school owners – who don’t need to do ANY extra “work”, except sit down for 2 minutes once a week to update us on who attended, who didn’t, etc.
AND…. we are GUARANTEEING the results!
If it’s worth it to at least HEAR how our system works… just SCHEDULE A CALL WITH ME HERE so we can make sure we’re a good fit for each other – We are guaranteeing the results, so we request a phone call first.
CLICK HERE to schedule your free call now and hear more and ask ANY questions. We’ve got nothing to hide.
FAQS
What is the cost of the More Martial Arts campaign?
Because I’m guaranteeing you’ll get enough new paying students to cover your 1st month campaign (and likely more), your getting a money back guarantee. However I do want to speak to you first, ensure we can help you and that you’re eager to grow your numbers. And then what’s needed from your side (very little) will be laid out in black and white.
What are the dates of the More Martial Arts campaign?
We start a couple of different groups through each school term in each state. To deliver a money-back guarantee, we like to be prepared and organised. So schedule a call with us, if this is a good fit for you – you won’t miss the next group.
Will there be future groups of the More Martial Arts campaign on future dates?
Possibly. However the required investment will likely be increased significantly
What do I need to be qualified to join the More Martial Arts campaign?
You must already run or manage an operating martial arts club. This is not for people who have not yet opened their doors.
What if this doesn’t work for my school and I get no results?
We offer a 100% refund guarantee on the campaign fee. If we don’t get you an agreed number of NEW + PAYING members during the campaign, we will refund your investment. This is put in writing for you of course.
Do you cover my area?
Yes. The campaign we ran for Dane Barbour was in a different location than us. Dane’s studio is in Melbourne and we are in Sydney (we run the More Martial Arts campaign Australia wide). If we have a club in your same location, we won’t be able to work with you. Schedule your call to find that out first and then we can break down your guaranteed member numbers too.
© 2026. More Martial Arts. All rights reserved.
EARNINGS DISCLAIMER: Any mention of revenue and profit, or any “success”.. should NOT be taken as a guarantee for you or your business. Please note; we are offering to refund your investment if we don’t get you the results promised above. However, we’re not guaranteeing any specific revenue or income goal – that’s out of our hands. That’s because there’s no guarantees in business. Any suggestion, trick, or recommendation this website or one of our guests makes.. Is based on our and their personal experience. There is no guarantee what works for someone else, will work for you. You should only spend money you can afford to lose. It is likely your first (or more) attempt to implement a strategy you see and/or hear here will be a 100% failure. It takes practice get anything new to perform well.