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Marhardt Consulting

Case study · Class booking site

Back 2 Basics CPL website: found on search, booked online.

A one-day Michigan CPL class in Dimondale, taught by a competitive shooter, with online seat reservation.

Advertising platforms restrict firearms training, so a CPL instructor cannot count on paid ads. The Back 2 Basics website had to do the marketing alone: be found by people searching for a Michigan CPL class, answer their questions, and take the reservation.

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What we built for Back 2 Basics CPL, and why

  1. Class dates and online seat reservation

    Upcoming CPL classes are listed with seats remaining, and a student reserves and pays online. The instructor’s roster fills itself.

  2. Signup to county paperwork, explained

    A student’s questions do not end at the range. The site walks through each step after class, from fingerprints to the county clerk, so fewer people call.

  3. Pages for new and renewal students

    First-time concealed pistol license applicants and renewals search differently and need different answers, so each has its own page.

  4. Town pages by drive time

    The class draws from a radius, not a city. Town pages are grouped in drive-time tiers, each saying something true about getting there.

How the Back 2 Basics CPL website was built

  1. Public licensing data set the page plan

    County licensing figures showed where applicants actually are, so the towns that got pages are the towns the numbers pointed to.

    Every page targets real demand.

  2. Organic only, by design

    With paid channels off the table, every page was written to be found in search, and every page links to the others, so the site holds together without ads.

    The site is the marketing channel.

  3. Answers before the phone call

    Requirements, what to bring, the day’s schedule and the paperwork that follows are all on the site, in the order a student needs them.

    Students arrive prepared and fewer call first.

  4. Booking at the end of every answer

    Each page ends at the class calendar, so a student who has the answer they came for is one step from a reserved seat.

    Questions turn into reservations.

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