Before a parent types anything into Google, they ask someone they already trust. Usually that’s their kid’s teacher, the school counselor, or whoever’s running the front office. “Is there a good after-school thing around here?” is a question that gets asked in school hallways every single day in August, and if your martial arts school isn’t the answer that comes to mind, you’re losing students to whoever is.
Most owners find this out the hard way. They spend September running ads, boosting posts, and wondering why enrollment feels harder than it should. Meanwhile, the school down the road already told three families about the gym two towns over, because that owner showed up in May and introduced themselves.
How Do I Get Referrals From Local Schools?
Start by identifying the people at your local schools who talk to parents every day: guidance counselors, PE teachers, and PTA coordinators. Call or email to introduce yourself as a community resource, not a salesperson, and ask for five minutes to explain what you do. Once they know your name and trust that you’re a good fit for kids who need confidence, focus, or structure, they’ll bring you up naturally when a parent asks.
Why September Is Already Too Late
By the time September rolls around, the back-to-school schedule scramble is in full swing. Parents have already picked fall activities, teachers are buried in the start-of-year rush, and guidance counselors are handling schedule changes, not fielding cold intros from businesses they’ve never heard of.
The relationships that actually produce referrals get built in the slower weeks of summer, when a counselor has time to take your call and a PE teacher isn’t sprinting between six different things. If you wait until the first week of school to introduce yourself, you’re not early. You’re behind, and you’re competing with every other studio that had the same idea at the same time.
Who to Contact (and Why They Say Yes)
Not every person at a school can help you the same way. Knowing who to talk to saves you a lot of wasted effort.
- Guidance counselors hear directly from parents about what their kids need. They don’t need formal approval to mention your name, they just need to trust you’re a good option.
- PE teachers talk to parents constantly and tend to be natural fans of martial arts, since they see the discipline and structure firsthand.
- PTA and PTO coordinators run newsletters and family nights, which puts your name in front of parents who are already looking for activities.
- Principals are the gatekeepers if you want an in-school presentation or a table at a family event, but they’re usually easier to reach once a counselor already knows you.
You don’t need all four. Two or three solid relationships at each school are enough to keep your name coming up all fall.
What to Actually Say (Without Sounding Like a Pitch)
The schools that get referred aren’t the ones with the flashiest pitch. They’re the ones that sound like a neighbor, not a vendor. A short phone call or email that says “I run a martial arts program nearby, and I wanted you to know we’re here if a family ever asks” lands a lot better than anything that sounds like a sales script.
Keep the ask small. You’re not asking for a partnership contract or a check. You’re asking to exist in someone’s head as an option worth mentioning. That’s a much easier yes, and it’s the whole point of doing this before things get busy.
Track It, or You’ll Forget It
Reaching out to five schools sounds simple until you’re three weeks in and can’t remember who you called, who you emailed, and who never got back to you. A basic spreadsheet with school name, contact, date reached out, and next step keeps this from falling apart.
Follow up matters more than most owners expect. Most non-replies aren’t rejections, they’re busy people who meant to write back and didn’t. One follow-up email a week later, phrased as a gentle nudge rather than a chase, often gets the response the first message didn’t.
Illustrative example: Picture a martial arts school owner who spends one afternoon calling five schools within a ten-minute drive. Three counselors take her call, and two agree to keep her flyer on hand. By late September, two separate families mention that “the counselor recommended you” when they walk in for a trial class. Nothing complicated happened here, just a handful of calls made before the school year started instead of during it.
According to the webinar’s promotional materials for an upcoming Member Solutions session on this exact topic, some school outreach programs have reportedly generated tens of thousands of dollars in enrollment from a single day of focused outreach. That number hasn’t been independently verified, and results like that aren’t typical, but it points to something real: a few hours of relationship-building with the right people at local schools can move the needle further than most owners expect.
Start With Three Schools This Week
If you do nothing else after reading this, pick three schools within a short drive of your location and find the name of one guidance counselor or PE teacher at each. Call or email this week, before the fall rush eats your calendar. That’s the whole first step, and it’s the one that makes everything after it easier.
If you want the full system, including phone scripts, email templates, and a tracking checklist, Matthew Brenner, founder of Double Your Dojo, is walking through exactly how he built his school outreach approach in a free webinar on August 26. He’s coached hundreds of martial arts school owners across the US, UK, and Australia on this, and he’s sharing the whole playbook.
FAQ
Q: How many schools should I contact before September? A: Start with three to five schools within a reasonable distance. That’s enough to build real relationships without spreading yourself too thin, and it’s a realistic number to actually follow up with consistently.
Q: What if the school doesn’t respond to my first email? A: Follow up. Most non-replies are busy people, not a no. A short, friendly follow-up a week later often gets the response the first message didn’t.
Q: Do I need the principal’s approval to get referrals from a school? A: Not usually. Guidance counselors, PE teachers, and PTA coordinators can often mention you to families without formal approval. You’d only need a principal’s sign-off for something bigger, like an in-school presentation or a table at a school event.
Q: Is this better than running ads before fall enrollment? A: It’s not either-or, but school outreach tends to produce warmer leads at a lower cost than ads, because the referral comes with built-in trust from a teacher or counselor the family already relies on.
Want the exact scripts and templates for reaching out to schools? Register for the free webinar, How To Get New Students Without Ads Through Your Local School District This Fall, on August 26 at 1:00 PM ET with Matthew Brenner, founder of Double Your Dojo. Everyone who registers gets a free copy of the School Outreach Starter Kit, with the phone scripts, email templates, and contact checklist you need to get started this week.
