10 Questions to Ask Your Next Website Company

 Unless you are 100% satisfied with your website’s lead generation and performance, at some point you will likely find yourself having to choose a new website solution for your martial arts school. I created this article to give you some insight on what your options should be, and to give you a checklist so you may make the right decision when you choosing your martial arts website company.

1. Do you specialize in Martial Arts Websites, and what are my customization options?

This should really narrow down your choices, as you will likely come up with 2 or maybe 3 companies that you are comfortable doing business with, whose website examples reflect your brand and image. Most will use a basic structure similar from one client to another, but you ideally will want to have a website with the following:

• A color scheme of your choice that fits your brand and your school colors & image;
• The ability to have their designers replace stock photos with your own;
• The ability to edit text so that it reflects the story you are trying to tell and your sales message;
• Ability to embed video on every page (it’s 2017, this should be mandatory!);

If the answers to any of the above questions are “no”, you are dealing with someone that is not willing to put in the work necessary to make your website unique and personalized for your school.

At Website Dojo we pride ourselves with giving our clients the most unique sites possible. Even if the client is too busy or can’t be bothered with the design process , we always strive to customize a site as much as possible, and it does indeed take us a few weeks to get a site launched (due to the fact that we actually have to work on them to make them pretty, unlike some other companies, cough cough). 2. Is your website responsive? A responsive website resizes / rearranges itself depending on the device it is being viewed on to optimize the browsing experience. You can test this by simply resizing a browser window, if the layout disappears off the page, the website is not mobile ready and will be affected by Google Mobile Rankings. Make sure the responsive version of the site retains all elements and that things don’t look out of place, since a badly designed responsive website also kind of defeats the purpose. Alternatively, a website provider might offer a separate mobile website, but this is usually a simplified version that does not reflect the desktop version graphics, and looks pretty lazy to the visitor. Website Dojo sites are completely responsive and perfectly coded in CSS. When a site is launched it is submitted to Google Webmaster Tools to make sure they are 100% mobile friendly.

3. Can you please explain to me your marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel is the process your website leads go through after a user has engaged with your site. For example, a basic default funnel might involve: Lead Capture (Form) & Auto Responder. A more complex funnel might involve: Lead capture (Form), E-mail Auto Responder, Automated Email Sequences driving traffic back to the offer and explaining your services, as well as Facebook Ads Pixel Retargeting or Google Ad Words Remarketing. This means that when visitors leave your website, your ads follow them around on Facebook as well as on websites displaying Google Ads. Some platforms will have the ability to generate stand alone landing pages that will allow you to make special sales offers you can promote on social media (like a holiday specific Flash Sale or a tournament registration), and these pages will also have the ability to have follow up sequences and Facebook & Google Ad Words integration, taking your site even further down the funnel.   Website Dojo does all the above; by default each page has a lead capturing form (or more!) which is linked to an e-mail auto-responder (The system can also send Leads via SMS Text Message as well). Email sequences can be turned on after the client has reviewed our default email content and has made edits to make it more personal to their school. The e-mails talk about what to expect when you come to class and from martial arts, also encouraging the prospect to contact the school if they have not scheduled their first class. Buddy passes are offered along the way, as well as incentives to drive traffic back to the website if the School Owner has any other offers like a trial upgrade available. Facebook Pixel Code (for ad retargeting) as well as Google Ad Words Remarketing Code can be easily dropped in by request, or is handled automatically if enrolled in the Dojo Digital Marketing program. Our DojoCart (+$49/mo) allows you to create stand-alone pages you can easily setup and edit and collect payment directly on. These can be setup for Pro Shop Products, Tournament Registrations, or Social Media Flash Sales.

4. Can I edit the content of the website on my own?

Most modern websites will offer a Content Management System that allows the site owner to access a back end and make edits to his website content. At the very least, you should have the ability to edit your trial offers for your programs. If you do not have the ability to do so, you are left to rely on your website company to handle the changes for you. The Website Dojo Content Management System is the most advanced in the industry. Programmed from the ground up with a proprietary back end software, our CMS not only allows you to edit the content of your website, but also offers Website Statistics such as Website Traffic & Search Engine Rankings, as well as online marketing Video tutorials. The system is constantly getting upgraded and improved, and will continue to do so to always be the most complete in the industry. Our CMS is NOT a WordPress or an out of the box solution, it is custom built to be the most user friendly platform dedicated to martial arts websites. Since we have designed and built the software, we have full capabilities on continuining to program it and improve it with new features and additions!

5. How many leads can you guarantee? Can I collect Paid / Free Trials?

This will usually be a telling question depending on the answer you receive. The real answer should be “no company can guarantee you any amount of leads”. There are many factors that will determine how many leads you will get, such as how populated of an area do you live in, what kind of search traffic there is for martial arts schools, and most importantly what kind of additional marketing are you supplementing your website with. A school owner running print marketing campaigns, referrals, Google Ad Words and Facebook Ads will inevitably get more leads than someone not marketing their school. The Website Dojo platform is designed to engage visitors and capture leads. If you have hardly any visitors, you can expect to get hardly any leads. So marketing your website is very important. Our better performing single location schools involved in online marketing see upwards of 50-75 leads a month. (We consider a Lead someone that has input full information, not just an email optin). However the same exact website might generate 10 leads a month for someone that is NOT promoting it. Website Dojo captures all the leads in the back end CMS as well as sending them out via email. It also gives you the ability to view your website rankings and traffic statistics so you can see what needs improvement. You are able to collect Paid and/or Free Trials offers. When a lead pays for your trial, the transaction takes place on your website and the funds get automatically deposited into your bank account.   To continue reading the "10 Questions to Ask Your Next Website Company" click here.