There are many great reasons to create a marketing plan for your yoga studio, namely bringing in more students so you can increase your profits. But what are some of the ways that yoga studios can market? What strategies can you use to bring in your students?
The best marketing ideas for your yoga studio include creating fun and challenging programming, creating a pricing system that works for both you and your students, using your social media, creating an online presence through your website, sending out emails to subscribers, organizing special events, working with other businesses, hosting promotions, selling or renting out merchandise or gear, and utilizing reviews.
Marketing for your yoga studio is incredibly important—it’s not just about bringing people in, but keeping them interested and coming back. The following are some of the ways that you can do that for your yoga studio.
Start by creating a fun and challenging class program for all types of learners.
The best marketing idea? Making sure the programs that you’re providing are fun, educational, and exciting. People should want to be in your classes, which means they should want to be coming back and encouraging others to do so. This is your best campaign because it’s word of mouth, and it’s free—people trust the opinions of their friends and family, so if they’re touting your studio as the best on the block, there’s a good reason why. Keep up with great programming, and more people will flock to your studio.
- Create a pricing system that works for both you and your students.
Money tends to be the biggest sticking point with people taking classes like yoga, and a great marketing campaign is making your classes a no-brainer. How do you do that? Make sure your classes are appropriately priced for you, the yoga teacher, and your yoga students. Determine the best pricing per class, and consider creating a pricing schedule where students can purchase multiple classes at once or even use a subscription service to both cut their prices and make sure you have a consistent student base.
- Use your social media.
Social media is here to stay, whether we like it or not. It’s something that will continue to grow and become more and more useful to both personal users and businesses alike. So what can you do on your social media to make sure you’re bringing in more people? Start by building relationships before they even step into the door.
You can effectively use your social media by making sure your content is accessible. People don’t necessarily want overly complicated yoga poses or someone that seems mystical or unapproachable. It’s about making sure your content is authentic yet appealing to any user, whether it’s how to videos or photos of your yoga classes.
- Create an online presence through your website.
Your social media isn’t the only important part of your online presence for your yoga studio. You need to have an online presence through your website, and you need to make sure you maintain it to the best of your ability. Having a website is one of the best ways to be found through Google, and not just that—you have more control over how it looks than you do on any social media platform. It’s also a great place to link all your other pages to in order to provide the most thorough information that you can give to your potential students.
- Consider sending out regular information through email marketing.
Sure, we all get tons of emails a day, but you can break through with additional information through that email marketing process. You can engage with your students regularly, send out newsletters, special event information, blog posts, reminders, and anything else you may be able to consider. Because it’s so easy to set things up automatically, this is one marketing idea that can give you a lot of bang for your buck.
- Organize special events.
Creating your own special event to bring in more students is another great way for you to market your studio. Some of the following are ideas for special events that you can plan to entice people to stop in:
- An open house. If you want people to know what you’re doing and maybe invite them into a class, this is the way to do it. Anyone can walk in and ask about your business and inquire about classes, and you can meet with people in your community.
- Host a themed class. People love taking classes that are surrounding a certain theme. Consider a Halloween class that allows costumes (within reason!) or a class that focuses on a decade.
- Create a joint event with a non-profit organization or another business. You can work with that organization or business for a certain cause, or just link up together to host a joint open house. Whatever you’re doing, make sure you are both represented and the partnership is clear.
- Open it up to families. Parents may not always think that bringing their children to a yoga class is appropriate, so create an event where that’s encouraged.
- Bring in someone well known for a masterclass. Whether they’re beginners or experts, yoga students can benefit not only from a new perspective, but from seeing yoga from a name they know and trust.
- Take it outside. It’s simple, but if you have the space and the ability to bring your class outside, it’s a great way to enjoy nature.
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- Work with another business on a promotion or event.
Whether it’s working with a retail store or a coffee shop, with a bit of creativity you can come up with a great way to market both of you. Because you’re a small business, it’s important to make those connections with other small businesses in your community. The more professional relationships you can make, the better, because you can work with them to cross promote your businesses. Who to choose? Make sure it’s not only a business that meshes well with your yoga studio, but that they promote and have a similar mission to you. If you don’t also believe in what they’re doing, you can’t properly promote them to your students.
- Consider hosting a promotion for your classes.
One great way to bring people into your studio is by offering a discount. Whether you’re offering discount classes or a “bring a friend” event, any of these can encourage more people to show up, meaning you’re more likely to entice those people to come back on their own. You can also give incentives to those who do bring a friend by giving them a percentage off their next class or even giving them a class for free.
- Provide merchandise or yoga gear for sale or rent.
One of the reasons people don’t participate in yoga is that they simply don’t have the right equipment. If you make it that much easier for people to come into your studio by providing equipment for a rental fee, you’re not only helping them by making yoga more accessible—you’re giving them the chance to experience something they may not have experienced yet. And if they start to like it, you may give them the boost they need to decide to commit to purchasing their own equipment. At the same time, you can sell merchandise that is branded to your yoga studio. Not only is it great for use in your studio, but people will wear your items—and in some cases, others will ask about it. Word of mouth is still one of the most powerful marketing tools, and selling merchandise can get that conversation started.
- Solicit reviews from your regular students.
Whether you’re posting them online, sharing them on your social media, or just want to know how you’re doing, reviews can be extremely powerful—and extremely telling. It’s a very easy way to not only find out what you’re doing right or what people like, but it can be used as a marketing tool. As mentioned before, word of mouth is extremely powerful, and being able to share with others what your students think of you can be a wonderful marketing tool. Make sure you incentivize sharing their opinion, whether it’s good or bad—no matter the feedback, it’s a great way to learn from what you’ve done, and it’s a great way to share your successes with others.
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Frequently Asked Questions
In most cases, a yoga studio can bring in about $100,000 in net profits if 13 people pay $10 per class, and you teach three classes a day, five days a week on average.
Becoming a yoga teacher truly depends on how confident you are in yourself and in your practice. In many cases, though, a yoga studio will only hire those who have received accreditation, typically through the Yoga Alliance, where you must complete at least 200 hours of instruction before you become a registered yoga teacher.
To learn more about starting your own Yoga Business check out my startup documents here.
Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.
Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Yoga Fan
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online yoga business resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a yoga business owner in public at a studio or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Yoga Business Boss: I want to help future yoga business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.