Marketing your yoga business is just a great way to educate and inspire others about the benefits of yoga and in so doing you are also taking active steps towards growing your brand. If you’re planning to teach yoga for a living, then it is worth to know there are 27 marketing steps you could take right now to grow your business.

Before we start

Many yoga teachers fail to understand that marketing isn’t about self-promotion. It’s not about your ego as a yoga teacher. It’s not about your success.

96% of Americans shop online for reasons like saving time and avoiding crowds. In 2017, 46.8% of the global population accessed the internet. A whopping 1.2 trillion worldwide searches happen each year on Google. Yet there are still too many yoga business owners who don’t have an online presence or avoid communicating with their customers through a blog or a social media profile. 

Most don’t promote their services and products because they fear they would be too pushy, they worry their products and services aren’t of good quality or simply because they lack the know-how. In many cases, I found all of the above to be frequent concerns among yoga teachers.

I’ve met teachers who worry that by marketing their yoga workshops they would be manifesting ego and setting a bad example for their yoga students. I’ve seen them concerned that their clients might be put off by their marketing. I’ve seen them lost in despair trying to survive a full-time job and growing a yoga business on the side. 

Marketing your yoga business is just a way to educate and inspire others about the benefits of yoga. In so doing, you’re sharing your knowledge, your drive, your energy. In so doing you’re inviting others to experience the benefits of yoga on their own. If they want to start and don’t know how, you’ll be there to give an advice or to motivate. You need to let them know that the workshop experience goes beyond buying a ticket and showing up for the event. You’re also offering a connection with and a community of like-minded  people.

The truth is simple: if you want to keep your business alive (and grow it for that matter), you need to accept marketing is part of the journey.

Marketing a workshop or your yoga business doesn’t have to be super pushy, long and boring. It can be an expression of happiness, a driver of motivation and even a positive intent sent out into the universe. Ask to receive what you need.

Through marketing your business you can tell people why you’re doing yoga, why you care about it and how it impacts your life. The more you tell your story and demonstrate your knowledge, the more likely people will be drawn to you and interested in buying from you.

PS: If you’re still not comfortable with implementing marketing strategies for your yoga business, then take baby steps. Anything is better than doing nothing. Browse through the action steps below and identify those that are easy to start with. And when you’re ready, go for the action step that scares you the most.

Spice up your game and your content marketing to ensure it’s inspiring for your readers and customers. Make sure you motivate yoga practitioners to continue their workouts. Be authentic, use your marketing to inspire, motivate and share your love of yoga with the world. The right people will hear and listen to your message.

On Your Website

1. Create a dedicated landing page for your workshop. Include workshop benefits, info about yourself, location and call to actions to book their ticket or contact you for more. If you have photos from previous events, include a link. If you have customer testimonials this is a great place to share them.

2. Place information or link to a page about upcoming events in your About and Contact pages.

3. Use Google Analytics to identify the most popular pages on your website and include banners or links to your event.

4. Blog about it. If you’re doing yoga workshops for a living, then a strong blog will be doing most of the work to get you leads and customers. Even if you’re only doing 2 or 3 big workshops per year, make sure you spend time blogging. It’s a great place to introduce yourself to your audience. Share your personal goals with yoga, your mission helping others practice or teach yoga and the lifestyle.

Don’t overlook social media

5. Update your social profiles with short info about your next event. If there’s space add a call to action. 

6. Create Facebook events and post in the discussion area about the benefits, the location, your training. It’s also helpful to share customer testimonials and tease your workshop with short videos. 

7. Share in Yoga related Facebook groups, Pinterest boards, local events groups.

8. Use the Facebook Shop feature to add tickets to your next workshop.

9. Add a Facebook note that gives all the info and expands on the benefits. 

10. Identify the social network where you have the biggest following. Focus on it and customize your event to match the guidelines. 

11. Use Stories on Instagram to build up ahead and during your workshop. 

12. Create a YouTube video where you talk about the therapy and the workshop and add a call to action to the end that invites viewers to learn more. Include an info card on your video.

13. Check in the location whenever you post on social media (Instagram and Facebook).

14. Tag or mention the location in your posts and ask their team to help with the promotion.

15. Create a Facebook group dedicated to your workshops and link to it from your website, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook page and newsletter. Invite your previous customers to join in.

16. Create a dedicated Pinterest board with your workshop name and location. Use it to share information from your event page, website or YouTube channel, as well as other pinners. After the event, post photos. This is very useful if you’re doing repeat events in the same location.

17. Consider investing in social media advertising. 
 

If you need help with your Pinterest strategy, let me help. Contact me here and let’s build your brand on Pinterest.

Trust your tribe to spread the message

We all have our tribe of people who help us spread our message. It starts with our families, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances. It goes on with our Facebook or Instagram following. And most essentially customers. 

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make in promoting events is forgetting about sharing with those closest to them. It can be as simple as telling your mom about it to writing about it on your personal Facebook. The closest to us want to see us succeed. They are those who know what you do and how invested you are in what you’re doing. Most importantly, they trust you. So don’t overlook this opportunity when looking for ways to promote your next yoga workshop.

18. Tell your family, friends, work colleagues and acquaintances about your upcoming workshop.

19. Ask them to help you spread the news.
 

Embrace the email

So many entrepreneurs and bloggers shy away from starting with email marketing. We all hate messy inboxes with hundreds of unread messages. Truth is that most brands use newsletters to make sales, rather than build on the customer experience and provide insightful content to their readers.

It’s no wonder only 30% of US retail email list subscribers have actually made a purchase from the retailer whose email list they subscribed to. Yet, when used properly, this email marketing can come a long way. And here are two metrics to remember:
 

Email can help you collect leads, promote events and even retain customers. Here are a couple of ideas to use:

20. Create an announcement email campaign to send to your entire list. You can dedicate a full newsletter to the workshop announcement, followed by a kick-ass blog post or YouTube video on the benefits of yoga and how your workshop will specifically help them. 

21. If you send weekly newsletters, you can include reminders in your main content. 

22. You can go deeper and send customized email campaigns to different segments of subscribers. You can segment by geography, language and even by engagement to better identify your core client.

23. Create a specific email automation for people who already booked your workshop. Send them a welcome/on boarding sequence that gives thanks, informs about what they need to bring with them, inspires them with content from the blog and finally, it promotes excitement for the upcoming workshop.
 

Traditional media could work too

This is one marketing strategy that’s more and more overlooked in our digital times when we all go to Google to find what we need. We now primarily hear about events from our Facebook friends or through a sponsored post. Yet local print, radio, and TV could still be powerful marketing channels.

24. Post an ad in the most popular local newspaper or a health/yoga magazine popular in the region

25. Check with the local TV network to see if they’d be interested in covering your workshop

26 Find out if there’s a local radio and run a workshop announcement. Or check to see if there’s a dedicated show for the community and try to get an interview with the host.

27. Call hotels, restaurants, spas, beauty salons and different community groups to let them know about the event. You might even get some sponsorship. Ask if they’d be willing to let you place a roll-up or some flyers in their location. 

Bonus idea:

You know how back in the 90’s businesses would pay people to stay in front of their building with signs? It’s an idea you can implement at the location your workshop is set to take place. It can be a simple poster at the reception, a banner that covers the entire front window, a welcome mat, or this awesome thing sign created by advertising agency Rethink Communications:

Don’t wing your marketing.

You might not want to be salesly or you find it challenging to learn marketing strategies. But these worries keep your business away from growth. It doesn’t have to be like that. 

I have been in marketing for almost a decade and through the good and the bad, the ups and downs, one thing remains true: if you want to grow your business, there’s just no way to do it without marketing. 

The good news is that you can customize your marketing and branding to represent your values and tell your beautiful story. Marketing is here not only to sell, but to inspire. 

If you don’t know where to start with brainstorming your yoga business marketing strategy I can help. Here’s how.

Hi there! My name is Monica and I am a content marketing specialist who creates blog & Pinterest strategies to generate website traffic and leads.