Marketing Tips for Yoga Teachers: Offline Marketing

These tips focus primarily on how to bring people to classes you have set up in the local community. Once you have the basics of the class you'll be teaching and where you'll set a reasonable price, you'll need to research it. Read our blog articles aboutMarket researchandValue your timeMore information about these first two phases.

Marketing yoga courses via posters or flyers

Your first stop should be at your chosen location. Do they have a bulletin board for posters or even railings where you can hang a banner outside to catch the attention of people walking by? This is a very easy way to raise awareness of your class among people in the region. If the venue is a community center, many people are already using it for other purposes, and your class may even appeal to them - but only if they are made aware of it.

Make sure you include all essential details in your marketing materials:

• Yoga-Stil
• Zeiten und Daten
• Genaue Position
• Preise plus Einführungsangebote
• Wichtige Informationen, wie die Notwendigkeit, eine Matte mitzubringen
• Kontaktdaten wie Ihre Website oder Instagram

Build relationships with local businesses

Are there relevant businesses in the local community willing to display your poster or flyers as it would be of interest to their customers? For example, a holistic café or a health and wellness shop. If you teach a specific class like yoga for runners, you may find a local sports store or running track willing to help you.

Local businesses generally like to support each other. You may want to consider how you can support them in return too. Working with relevant brand partnerships is a popular marketing tool, and there's no reason why this can't work on a smaller scale in your community. Perhaps there is an independent personal trainer in the area you could work with. Your potential customers are likely very similar and could be valuable referrals for both companies.

Offers, loyalty programs and recommendations

If you're first starting out, you might want to encourage people to try your class. An introductory offer such as half price first class can be a good way to do this. It may be a small financial success at first, but the long-term gains will hopefully outweigh this as your popularity grows. Once you've reached the stage where you can comfortably fill your classes each week, you can stop offering it at any time.

Once you've gotten those customers through the door and found a few regulars, the next step is to motivate them to attend as often as possible. Consider offering them a reward for attending a certain number of classes. For example, take four classes in a row and receive the fifth half prize.

Alternatively, you can develop a pricing scheme that rewards customer loyalty upfront by giving them a discount for buying in bulk. For example, a drop-in class may cost £10, but a pack of 10 pre-paid classes costs £90, saving you £10 or the equivalent of a free class.

Once you've built up a fairly loyal customer base, consider giving them an incentive to refer their friends to take your class too. Recommendations are one of the most powerful forms of word-of-mouth marketing, especially from a trusted friend. If you've built a good relationship with your students, perhaps offer them a half-price class plus any friend they bring. Chances are good that you have many friends or work colleagues with similar interests who are equally interested in yoga!

Host a yoga workshop

A great way to make a little extra money with your time and raise your profile locally is to run a workshop. Workshops allow you to go into far more detail than a regular course and last an average of three hours. You can even use this to collaborate with another local business and target their audience.

Find a reason to hold the workshop – what needs are there in the community that you are meeting? Maybe your city is hosting a half marathon next month so you can do a yoga workshop for runners. Or if you want to attract new yogis to your weekly classes, consider conducting a workshop on yoga basics for beginners. It can be a bit intimidating showing up to your first yoga class if you've never done it before. Therefore, something specific can be far more attractive to this group of customers.

1-2-1 yoga classes

It is often the dream of many yoga teachers to reach a number of reliable and regular private clients. This allows you to not only charge more for your time, but also give the student your undivided attention. These types of classes are often achievedafterThey have created some regular group classes. Once students are comfortable with your style and know you a little better.

The best way to market these is through word of mouth to your existing customers. They just know you're offering a 1-2-1 session when you talk about it. Using some of the introductory offers and loyalty programs we've already covered can be a good incentive to encourage your customers to try these courses too.