5 Tactics to Prep Your Martial Arts Summer Camps

Though your martial arts camps won’t start until summer, you should start preparing weeks in advance. Whether they are virtual or socially distanced in-person - start your work as early as you can before summer starts!  Your goal at this time is to focus on establishing branding and martial arts marketing campaigns.

Before creating any advertisements, make sure you have a clear, concise mission statement. What are you trying to accomplish with your summer camps, and who are you trying to reach? It shouldn’t be vague, but neither should it be overly complicated. One or two sentences are best. This mission statement will help inform your marketing decisions. Here are some other tactics to consider for this summer...

1. Preparation - Know your goals and guidelines ahead of time for your summer camp. Have a comprehensive plan of how to conduct a safe camp and what students will achieve when attending these camps. Make sure you know the local community's schedule and can schedule optimal summer camps based on surrounding calendars.
   
2. Staff Leadership Training - You want to have a summer camp team beyond your current class instructional team, because a sure fire way to burn out a great martial arts instructor is to have them run summer camps in the day and classes at night! So start drafting your summer camp staff and team early. Begin their training soon and frequently. They should also know what you need and expect from them during this time.
   
3. Theme & Activities -  Brainstorm summer camp themes and ideas with your staff to place into your camps. Make sure themes are in line with trending events and can be done with safety in mind (especially social distancing) within the community and with the age level you’re trying to attract. What your themes are will also determine what students may attend.
   
4. Schedule Planning - Not just the schedule of your summer camp dates, but schedule for staff and activities hour-by-hour. Your staff should be aware and committed to their determined schedule. Most importantly your martial arts students and their parents should be included in your plans so you can let them know ahead of time, in case vacations are pre-set. You’re unlikely to have a successful summer camp run if you give only a few weeks’ notice. Set your dates months in advance. Organization is important!
   
5. Customer Experience - This is different from customer service. Customer experience refers to every interaction your campers (and parents of campers) have with your program, from the time they enroll to the time their session is over. Always strive to provide a high level of customer experience with set guidelines and agendas. Your summer camps must compete with a variety of other summer activities; give yourself every edge you can.