There is no denying that yoga has received an immense amount of attention from fitness enthusiasts all over the globe. In the past couple of years, yoga has become especially popular in the world of fitness and health. And if you’re someone who practices yoga often, this probably doesn’t surprise you much.
Yoga offers undeniable health benefits that are both physical and mental. It helps treat a number of health concerns such as body pain, headaches, anxiety, stress, and depression to name a few.
Keeping the indisputable importance of yoga in mind, it is not surprising to see thousands of yoga studios across the world. Research shows that there are about 3500 yoga studios in the United States alone. In this competitive age, starting up your own business is tough, especially if you are investing in an industry that is famous worldwide already.
And by that, we mean the yoga industry, of course.
With so many yoga studios around the globe, you will need more than just a striking studio to attract the masses. In order to let your potential clients know about your start-up, you will need to delve into some killer yoga marketing. Thanks to the internet, we have a wide range of online marketing strategies to make a yoga studio a household name.
In addition to online marketing, traditional marketing is also worth consideration. In this blog post, we’ll discuss both types of marketing strategies to help you get your business off the ground.
Related: 25 Best Yoga Podcasts
Online Marketing
1. Search Engine Optimization
SEO setup is crucial to make your businesses like yoga studio grow. You will need to prioritize local SEO as it will make your business grow faster than ever. Did you know that last year 46% of searches on Google were based on local inquiries?
And since then, the local search queries have spiked up 900%. Are you wondering what we mean by local SEO? You should know that local SEO is the way to optimize different elements of your website so that your brand has a stronger online presence.
This way, your website will automatically appear on top of Google searches. For instance, if someone searches a query like “yoga studio near me” or “the best yoga studio,” Google will instantly suggest you the best options based on ranking. That is only possible if your website is locally optimized in the expected fashion.
You’re probably thinking about how to rank well in local search results. There are three key areas to work on – proximity, relevance, and prominence. It is important that you “localize” your yoga studio first. This means that you include basic details about your studio – name, address, phone number, etc on the website.
Boost the prominence by adding quality back-links from famous bloggers, newspapers, etc. And manage your reviews and ratings by getting honest and genuine feedback on your services.
2. Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-Per-Click marketing makes pay-per-click ads the basis of its marketing strategy. Unlike SEO, PPC marketing will show you instant results. Every time, a client clicks on your ad, you will get paid. While you can’t pay Google to stay on top ranking, you can, however, pay a website to run your yoga studio ads online.
In this way, PPC is faster, profitable, and more reliable than other marketing plans.
In order to promote PPC advertising for your fitness business, you will need to follow a certain set of instructions. First of all, you will need to develop a list of solid keywords that your target audience generally searches for. This could be as basic as “yoga studio services” or “yoga studio policies”.
The next step is to create a powerful ad campaign to market your enticing ad copies. Keep track of the success, growth, and performance of your program by using conversion tracking.
Marketers that invest in PPC ads tend to make an average profit of $2 for every $1 spent on Google Adwords.
3. Email Marketing
Many yoga studio owners have given up on email marketing in favor of social media marketing. But by doing so, they are missing out on the numerous advantages that email marketing offers. Email marketing is tricky to pull off, so you will need to keep certain things into consideration before you delve into it.
If your aim is to increase your email list, make the subscription process easy and simple.
Don’t reach out to your target audience for selfish reasons (for instance, contacting them only when you need new members for your yoga studio). It is important to send out valuable content to your subscribers now and then. For example, send them a blog that they would love to read such as “reasons you should join a yoga studio”.
Make sure that all this while, you keep your tone friendly and the content informative as this will encourage your clients to contact you in return. At the end of your every email, have a call to action, otherwise, it is likely that your customer will move onto their next email. Provide contact details or an in-link to your website so that your client knows how to get in touch with you.
4. Content Marketing
Yoga studio content marketing is a fully strategized marketing approach that helps educate or entertain the yogis with its powerful content. The question is exactly what kind of content appeals to the yogis? There are plenty!
A blog is a perfect place to begin the content marketing journey as it is relatively easy but effective at the same time. Since yoga is an ancient and continually growing practice, there are innumerable topics for blog posts. For instance, your blog post could talk about “the different types of yoga yogis can indulge in”, “songs yogis should listen to when they practice”, or “the best landscapes for practicing yoga”, etc.
As well as blogs, videos are another content marketing tool among old and new customers. You can create video content for your yoga practice or film a yoga teacher whilst practicing yoga. Later, you can upload the video on your website or on any social media platform to drive more traffic.
An FAQ section works best for new customers that may have questions related to your fitness studio. It is also likely that you may have heard your clients asking certain questions repeatedly. If either of the two is the case, it is about time to create an FAQ section to answer all their queries. You can also link different sections of your own website or social media platforms for more information.
5. Social Media Marketing
In today’s digital age, social media marketing is the most common way to boost digital marketing. Social media marketing can be carried out via popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For successful social media marketing, you will need to form a large community so that you gain more followers.
Facebook advertising is a quick means to drive traffic to your website, without having to spend lots of money. Want to target older yogis, let’s say, in the Santa Monica region? Use Facebook wisely and you will find your target audience right away.
You can also create a Facebook page for your fitness studio to increase your followers. Have contests as a means to get more people to like your page. For example, you can offer a special offer, gift, or discount to someone who gets more people to like your page. This same marketing plan can be used for Twitter or Instagram promotions.
Ensure that your social media posts are captivating enough to pique interest in your yoga business. Since content is the king, make sure that your posts are informative, promotional, and interesting all at the same time.
6. Social Ads
Facebook is the number one platform for posting ads to reach the maximum number of clients all over the globe. Facebook ads are designed to help you achieve three goals – awareness, consideration, and conversion.
If there is any type of social ad that will help generate maximum viewership it’s the one that is visually appealing. This is the reason why photo ads can do wonders for your yoga studio. Facebook ads give the user an opportunity to include at least 125 characters – a text, headline, and link description.
These Facebook ads may also include a call-to-action button or send message option to reach the customer faster. Creating a Facebook ad is simple as you can make one via Facebook Business Manager. If Facebook ads are not your cup of tea, you can promote a post with an engaging photo from your Facebook page.
Get the most out of your Facebook ads by using the Facebook pixel. This analytic tool helps you measure how effective your ads are to your audiences. It helps you understand the maximum reach of your ads and what kind of response or feedback you are getting from your target audience.
In other words, Facebook pixels allow you to assess the overall result of your Facebook ads. On the basis of the output you get, you can re-optimize and re-build audiences. Consider retargeting your ads to generate more revenue.
Offline Marketing
1. Print Marketing
In this advanced, digital world, people may think that print marketing isn’t as valuable as digital marketing. But print marketing holds its own invincible power that no other marketing tools can beat. Print marketing has a number of benefits; the most common one being the fact that print is tangible.
Your ads will always be there in a physical form and hence are more durable and long-lasting than any digital ads out there.
There are plenty of print marketing materials that you can consider to help increase your sales. There are some key formats that you can consider to improve your marketing strategies such as brochures, catalogs, business cards, signs, and banners. Each of them has a “sticking power” to them which means that they can stay on customers’ minds for a longer period of time.
Since they are in a hard copy form, they can be around for a longer period of time, serving as the perfect reminder of your business. This is especially true for business cards that also act as a method for one-on-one networking. You can always impress your customers with the aesthetics of your business card, converting them into your regular clients.
2. Event Marketing
In order to attract new customers, it is important to host exciting events. This is a great way to help others know of your business and expand your customer base. Host public events in your community, give out free entry passes so that people in large numbers can attend your event and learn ins and outs of your yoga studio.
If possible, get in touch with a famous yogi or well-known fitness enthusiast, and invite them to teach a class at your event. Seeing a famous face will bring hosts of people to your event and will also add credibility to your business.
Your event can also include motivational speech sessions by wise yogis all over the world. Motivational speeches can inspire non-yogis to incorporate yoga into their lives and it is likely that they may join your yoga studio!
Hosting events won’t only draw in new clients but will also excite your old members and give them a reason to stay. The success of event marketing lies in the number of attendees. So make sure that you have got the word around about your upcoming event via social media marketing or print marketing.
3. TV Ad Marketing
As compared to other forms of marketing, TV advertising can help you reach a wider audience. That’s because TV is a commodity that is found in every house these days, and watching TV is the most common leisure activity which is why TV ads have more potential to reach larger audiences. Did you know that the average American watches 5 hours every day?
Yoga is a practice that can be performed by people of all age groups. And TV is something that is watched by all – kids, teens, adults, and older adults. Hence, promoting your business via TV ads will be far easier.
TV ads also have the potential to be on your mind for a longer period of time, more so when they have catchy tunes and phrases. Create a fascinating TV ad that encourages TV viewers to contact you and join your yoga club right away!
While TV ads are more captivating and engaging, they can be costly to produce than other forms of promotion. That being said, the costly risk will prove to be totally worth it as TV ads are the most influential marketing tactic. Consumers trust the credibility of TV ads more than any other medium.
Plus, the level of sophistication that TV ads offer through their visual and auditory stimulation is unparalleled.
4. Radio Marketing
While many forms of marketing require an active audience, radio marketing works just well with only a passive audience. As soon as a radio channel plays your ad, people, whether they are traveling or are at work, can listen to your ad.
You won’t find the need to share your social media posts and thereby drive more traffic to your website. The radio stations you select will take care of distributions without letting you do a thing. Radio also provides an opportunity to get personal in a way that no other platforms give.
Since your customers can only listen to you, you can be as interactive as possible. The listener will have nothing more than your voice and the words you speak to rely on. With the right tone and attitude, you can build a personality that may encourage your clients to contact you. Instead of associating your brand with a visual image, listeners will create a mental image of your business.
The type of station you go for will be determined by your target market. If you want to appeal to younger people, you may consider advertising on sports station or FM music station, etc.
5. Cold Calling
Cold calling happens to be the trickiest marketing strategy on the list. If you are not well-versed in this practice, then the goal to impress your clients may backfire. Selling your brand on the phone is tough and more so if you haven’t done proper research or laid groundwork. Before you pick up the phone and dial the number, it is crucial to strategize.
The first few minutes are important because the rest of the conversation will depend on it. If you are unable to engage the client sooner, it is likely they will dismiss everything you have to say. But if you are able to grab their attention then it is likely for them to show interest in your offer.
The key is to be friendly, communicative, without being overly persuasive. Don’t try to be clingy or intolerable as it may put off your client and affect the future of your business. Discuss, talk, and negotiate – three things you must keep in mind whilst cold calling.
6. Guerrilla Marketing
Want to surprise your target audience? Guerrilla marketing is the way to go. This type of marketing relies on unconventional methods to entice potential clients. It is natural to feel inclined towards something that is unique from the rest. And guerrilla marketing works on this psychological factor.
The most admired quality of this form of marketing is that it can be easily achieved on a low budget. The real investment is in intellect or creativity. This marketing tool won’t work until your idea is fresh and innovative.
There are various types of guerilla marketing that you can consider promoting your yoga studio; some of them are indoor guerilla marketing, outdoor guerrilla marketing, experiential guerilla marketing, and event ambush guerilla marketing.
To all those business owners out there, it is our humble request to make the most of both online and offline marketing strategies so that your brand reaches new heights of success.