Web Design

Undiscovered

CVMA is full of some of the best coaches Utah has to offer. World team members, Gold Glove winners, and black belts could be found on their staff. CVMA wanted to take the next step to increase its customer base and grow its semi-pro fighting team.

A local gym with world level talent

Have you ever been secretly good at something and it was fun to keep it on the down low? Well, CVMA was great at what they did and was tired of being kept secret. The problem was that CVMA is in Logan, UT, a city usually flooded with seasonal, broke college students. CVMA needed to switch its brand and marketing strategy to attract its real target audience: students and families.

• 18 to 35-year-old men and women actively searching or involved with exercise, self-defense, and/or fight training.
• Parents of children and teens ages 6–18 looking for youth classes or activities.

What does this mean for the business?

The research made the stakes clear. CVMA wasn't just competing for members — it was competing against a deeply held stigma. Three things had to be true for the business to grow:

• CVMA would need to highlight their youth programs to help parents trust that their children were safe and developing healthy skills.
• CVMA's online presence needed to be confident and inviting to people who had negative connotations against fighting gyms.
• If CVMA didn't make changes to its branding and website, it was possible that the company would fail.

I was the target audience, so I knew who to research

After doing extensive market research comparing CVMA's offering and brand to other fighting gyms in the area, I realized I needed to perform field research to understand what CVMA was doing well. I interviewed people who attended classes and several students on campus to get a better understanding of:

• Overall opinion of fighting gyms
• Why someone would think about joining
• What people are concerned about regarding martial arts

Establishing great information architecture

Before we talked about UI, it was important to get the content right. Content is king when convincing potential clients to try something new and scary. It was critical to work with the business to create content that stayed true to the brand and made martial arts more inclusive. My research showed that our target audience wanted a low-risk trial period as well as to be educated on the benefits of martial arts.

Choosing a font and voice

CVMA's voice needed to be friendly and inviting but sound confident and full of authority, to encourage students and families to try something new while reinforcing that CVMA staff were trained professionals. I chose "Impact" as the header font paired with "din-next" as the body font to emphasize boldness and authority. The language on the website changed from wishy-washy to definite and inviting. For example: "Safety is a top priority" became "Your child will be safe."

Getting ranked #1

A new website and brand can only get you so far if people can't find you. It was important to research the trending keywords in the area that would get CVMA to the top of Google listings. Some of the top keywords implemented into content and page descriptions were:

Creating a scalable system

I was concerned about creating a system that would be hard for them to manage after the project ended. The business was excited about the rebrand but needed help ensuring scalability. I worked with the owners to install a booking system that would automatically inform coaches of new students attending and how large class sizes would be.

Marketing plan

I created an in-depth marketing plan for CVMA. Equipped with a new website, brand, and SEO, a marketing plan was the last thing CVMA needed to succeed. This plan included an estimated budget, measurements of success, examples, and clear instructions on the type of content needed to attract their target audience.

Where they ended up

Cache Valley Martial Arts is now one of the top MMA gyms in the state. With full classes and multiple amateur belt holders, they are now being recognized for their hard work and expertise as a go-to gym to train.