Martial arts tournaments aren’t only for fun – hosting one on behalf of your school can create many benefits for it as well. Tournaments bring the schools in your area together, helping your dojo establish its name in the local martial arts community, while also encouraging your students to stay engaged. Beyond that, your students will also be tested on their skill level as they compete with those whom they’ve never sparred with. Proper promotion is a must, in order to make your martial arts tournament successful. After all, as the old adage goes: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Here’s how to promote your school’s first martial arts tournament.

Plan Your Martial Arts Tournament

Before promoting your first martial arts tournament, be sure to make sure you’ve thoroughly planned it. This may seem obvious but it’s important to consider details such as your tournament’s purpose, like whether you want to better market your martial arts school or if you want to attract new students. When you prioritize your intention, you can better promote the tournament. As well, the sooner you finish planning your tournament, the sooner you can promote it, helping you more efficiently market the event and reach more people. Read our post - 5 Tips for Running Your First Martial Arts Tournament As a School for more tips on how to plan your tournament. 

Consider Your Budget and Avenues

There are a number of ways in which you can get the word out about your tournament but it will depend on what your budget looks like. This may include physically visiting other martial arts schools in your area to gauge interest or dedicating your marketing spend to social media platforms. Social media is one of the most effective ways to reach specific demographics, helping you get the most out of every dollar spent. Consider promoting posts about your tournament on Facebook and Instagram. Google Ads is another great way to reach a new audience, if you want to further increase your digital footprint. When you have clarified your intention for the martial arts tournament, you can easily target specific demographics to create an effective social media marketing campaign

For those who are uncomfortable with handling their own social media campaign and also have the budget for it, hiring a social media pro to take over can be a very effective and efficient option. Another method to integrate is email automation; schedule multiple types of emails (including letting your subscribers know about it) and giving them details.

Sell Tickets

This part of promoting your first martial arts tournament can get stressful, if you’re not organized. One good way to alleviate the work that can come with selling tickets is to utilize your martial arts management software’s POS and online store function and run registration for competitors there. An advantage of using the POS function is that it eliminates the chance for errors (such as duplicating registrants or failing to record a registrant), while also ensuring that the payment process is simple.

Especially when you are trying to organize an event, using a reliable system that can help you manage your martial arts tournament is very important. Xplor Recreation’s martial arts software is an intuitive cloud-based solution that’s built for martial artists by martial artists, and its POS function can help you better sell tickets for your tournament. Learn more about the software here.

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