As you look ahead to the new year, it’s the perfect time to make a plan for success. Setting goals and finding ways to measure the business impact of your marketing will help you to find out what is and isn’t working for your studio. You’ll be able to optimize your efforts to get the most out of your time and money investments.
In this post, we’ll share ideas on what to include in your yoga marketing strategy to attract new students and keep your current students engaged.
Choose Your Marketing Strategies
You’ll find that there are dozens of avenues you can take to market your yoga studio. So where do you start? It’s important to mix both digital marketing and offline marketing to reach the widest possible audience. You’ll find that it’s easier to track ROI and reach your target audience with digital, but offline marketing provides the opportunity to build deeper bonds within your local community which can lead to lasting relationships.
Offline Marketing Strategies
If you haven’t already, consider joining your local chamber of commerce and connecting with other small business owners. When you go to networking events and present your business, offer special chamber-only discounts to try out your classes. Collaborate with like-minded local businesses (health food stores, nutritionists, massage therapists) to create wellness packages. Brainstorm ways to reach the employees of a business, such as by offering a short seminar of yoga poses to do throughout the workday.
Digital Marketing Strategies
Digital marketing allows you to launch a marketing campaign more quickly with much more nuanced tracking—whether you’re looking at email opens and clicks or social media follows. The most common digital marketing strategies for small businesses include:
- Website and blog posts
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
Managing all these channels and spending time to create content for each will be a huge time investment, which is why it’s so important to make a plan around how you’ll handle each one. The first step to success is to find a system to manage all your accounts in one place, making it easier to handle posting and updates.
For instance, with EZFacility for yoga studios, your website and marketing tools are in the same system that manages your studio, so it’s easy to jump from one task to the next. Plus, the simple email builder includes pre-designed templates, so you spend less time focused on the details and more time reaping the rewards. And, EZFacility websites are fully responsive and search engine optimized so you’ll be found online.
Once you have your social media, email, and website accounts in one place, you can create your marketing plan. Here’s how to get started for each channel:
- Website and Blog: Create a content calendar outlining which topics you want to cover on your blog and when you want them to go out. Consider promotions you may run around holidays and special events and work backwards to plan when you need each article to be written and edited in order to be published before you need the content for email campaigns and social media posts.
- Social Media Marketing: Similar to your blog calendar, you’ll want to plan exactly when you’re posting different kinds of content on social media to keep your feed fresh and interesting. Talk to your yoga teachers to see if they would be open to creating a post a week for the business. And think of a unique hashtag for your students and members to use to share content that you can re-post from your brand account. Finally, make your content work harder for you. Don’t be afraid to post the same content to both Instagram and Facebook—they’ll reach different audiences depending on where your customers spend more time.
- Email Marketing: Whenever someone comes to a yoga class at your studio, be sure to collect their contact information so you can reach out and stay top-of-mind. Share special promotions, referral deals, and class schedules and updates to keep new and old members alike abreast of what’s happening at the studio. To keep your updates interesting, consider also developing a monthly newsletter including member spotlights, trainer interviews, and links to your blog.
Focus on What’s Working
When you’re running a small business, it’s vital to make the most out of the time and money you invest into the business. While it’s important to diversify your marketing efforts to reach people both online and offline, you also should spend the most time on the areas that are providing you with the most value.
Maybe sharing yoga poses on Instagram is driving engagement among existing students but isn’t driving new people to practice yoga at the studio as much as your website. You’ll want to keep up your Instagram presence, but maybe pull back on the time you spend interacting with other accounts and put that time towards building your SEO.
With EZFacility, not only will you be able to manage the day-to-day operations of your studio including membership, payment processing, and teacher scheduling, but you’ll also be able to see promotion engagement, lead conversion rates, and referral reports. Find exactly what is working for your individual business and hone your efforts where they count. With these tools, you’ll be able to build the perfect yoga studio marketing plan for your business.