About the customer
Business name: Universal Martial Arts
Business category: Independent martial arts studio
Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Objectives: Increase leads (calls, online bookings)
- 5 minute read
background
The customer’s problem
Universal Martial Arts is the largest martial arts studio in the North East, with over 25 years of experience. They had been advertising with Yell for many years but wanted to grow their business further.
In May 2024, their account manager, David Chambers, conducted a full marketing audit and recommended a tailored Accelerate digital marketing solution to help them reach more customers and drive more leads.
What the customers says…
Stephen Savage, Owner of Universal Martial Arts
“We’ve been really happy with Yell and the support we’ve received. Our business continues to grow, and I love that our campaign evolves with our needs. David has worked with us for years, always with our best interests at heart. I’d have no hesitation in recommending Yell to other businesses.”
their solution
How we helped
To boost their visibility and lead generation, we:
- Designed & optimised a new SEO-friendly website, making it easier for customers to find them and book classes.
- Showcased their key services – karate, MMA, kickboxing, and women-only classes – across their website and business profiles.
- Highlighted their key selling points, such as being a leading studio with fantastic coaches and 30+ years of experience.
- Launched highly targeted ads across Yell, Google, and Bing to attract local customers actively searching for martial arts classes.
- Provided the free Yell Business app to help them easily request new customer reviews and quickly post across social media with one tap.
Results & improvements
In just nine months, Universal Martial Arts has achieved incredible results:
✅ Ranking on the first page of Google for every class they teach in Newcastle
🚀 139,600+ potential customers reached
📈 18,000 clicks & engagements with their marketing
📞 300+ leads in nine months – an average of 33 per month (or at least one per day!)
📊 A huge leap from just 79 leads in the same period last year
💰 £11.60 cost per lead in December 2024 – a great return on investment, given their £250 average job value
💰 £36,150+ estimated profit so far – and with an increased advertising investment, this will only keep growing!
With this success, Stephen has been able to expand his gym and bring in more coaches to meet the growing demand – an incredible milestone that we’re so proud to have helped him achieve! Seeing Universal Martial Arts thrive and grow is exactly why we do what we do. 🚀
What their account manager says…
David Chambers, Digital Account Director
“I’ve worked with Stephen for years and watched his business go from strength to strength. Initially, he was only advertising on Yell.com, but since moving to an Accelerate solution, his growth has been incredible. His new website, combined with Google advertising, has helped him expand into MMA coaching, bringing in more traffic, clicks, and enquiries than ever before. Seeing him rank on the first page of Google, grow his team, and scale his business has been amazing. It’s onwards and upwards from here!”
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For businesses who want to reach ready-to-buy customers across multiple platforms and drive leads
Accelerate
Features in Accelerate
- A strong online presence across up to 58 platforms2
- Ads across Yell.com & the Yell app to drive ready-to-buy enquiries
- Instant access to local customer leads with Yell Ads & Jobs
- Request & manage Yell reviews
- Post across social media platforms in a tap
- Easily manage reviews across platforms (Amplify & Accelerate only)
- A conversion-focused website (Amplify & Accelerate only)
- Expertly managed search, social & display ads (Accelerate exclusive)
- Help & support just a call or message away
- Advice & guidance to help get the most out of your solution
- Manage your solution & view performance via the app
- Updates to your profiles, website & ads whenever needed (Amplify & Accelerate only)
- Regular performance reviews & optimisations (Amplify & Accelerate only)
- Advanced call tracking & analytics (Accelerate exclusive)
- A dedicated account manager (Accelerate exclusive)
accelerate solution Starting at £650 per month
Why choose Yell to help
grow your business
Your competition is advertising in your area, but we’ll help you stand out and grab the attention of customers.
we don’t want you to miss out on leads!
Help customers find and choose you
We don’t want you to miss out on leads!
Your competition is advertising in your area, but we’ll help you stand out and grab the attention of customers.
Let’s grow your business together
From support to strategy…
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Let us act as your marketing department
Get the power of an entire team – experienced, qualified, and focused on growing your business – without the hefty price tag.
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Partner with us
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We create and manage powerful solutions that help you capture attention, drive leads and maximise ROI.
Don’t just take it from us – in the UK, we’re No. 1 for managed digital advertising for local businesses among direct competitors.*
Here’s why businesses like yours trust us with their marketing:
SMOOTH ONBOARDING & ONGOING SUPPORT
POWERED BY TOP TECHNOLOGY & SPECIALISTS
HELP & ADVICE WHENEVER YOU NEED IT
24/7 PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS DASHBOARD
As a partner of Meta and Microsoft, and one of the UK’s top Google partners**, we know how to help your business succeed.
*those that target local businesses regardless of industry (MBrain 2023) **Google, 2024
- These results are indicative only, based on the information the customer provided to us about their profit per job and close rate, and performance is not guaranteed. Actual results differ and will depend on a number of factors including business vertical, business location, level of spend on Yell products and other digital solutions employed. ↩︎
- While Yell will distribute your business data to its syndicated network partners (subject to certain conditions), we cannot guarantee that your data will appear across all networks due to individual network restrictions and algorithms. ↩︎
- Yell internal data, 2024 ↩︎
- Yell internal data, 2023 ↩︎
- Yell internal data, 2024 ↩︎
- Yell internal data, 2024 ↩︎