| Marketing Your Yoga Career |
| Written by David Morgan | |
| Friday, 21 May 2010 | |
|
Yoga teachers often don't want to promote themselves or their businesses through advertising and marketing, as it seems somehow contrary to the spirit of the yoga tradition.
Yoga teachers often don't want to promote themselves or their businesses through advertising and marketing, as it seems somehow contrary to the spirit of the yoga tradition. That is all well and good, but here are a few things to consider: Expecting classes to fill with no outreach is arrogant, even if you polish your attitude with a spiritual veneer... If you don't value what you do, who else will? Lose the guilt over charging money... Plus, it's irresponsible not to let the community around you know about the ways you can improve almost any aspect of their lives! With the right intention, marketing is another way of being of service If teaching yoga is your career, then you are in the solutions business -- you have answers for stress relief, weight loss, fibromyalgia, you name it! But here's the problem. Can people find you when they need you? One of the duties of yoga teachers is to make our expertise available. We need to share ourselves -- our experience, skills, and training -- to be of service to people in our communities. You can be much more effective at that by doing a little marketing. And the money you charge? Think of it as an exchange of energy. You put your teaching energy out, let money be one way you receive. After all, even the most selfless swamis in India are supported by their communities -- they may not be paid by check or credit card, but all their needs are provided for. Your job now is to build a community to nurture with your skills -- and be nurtured in return. Print ads and other traditional advertising are not effective yoga marketing Advertising in the phone book and the local paper will not prove effective, as most people search for yoga online. Not only that, but traditional advertising is very expensive for the response rate you're likely to get. So now the task is to help your future clients find you on the web. I have spent a lot of money on advertising in the past -- newspapers, local health rags, and the yellow pages. Yes, I got a few students from them, but I lost much more money than I made. Ad representatives will tell you the more you advertise, the better the results. That may be true, but it's ridiculously expensive for the few results you'll likely get. A bigger budget will not solve the problem. You will not likely get a flood of new students by spending more on advertising. It just doesn't work. Now the good news. You can attract new clients much more effectively and inexpensively in other ways. Some strategies won't cost a dime, yet they work quite well. Your best advertising is word of mouth, and your location -- both your actual address where you have a street sign (if you have a studio), and your location in Google searches. Even if you do not own a website, there are still ways for your offerings to be found on the Internet. Five ways to find more yoga students online, without spending a cent 1. Use free press release distribution sites to get your events, services, and news online. 2. Post your events to your Facebook business page, and be sure to invite your yoga friends. Not only will they see what you offer, but their friends will too. 3. Craigslist is a free site where you can post your events, classes, and services. 4. Write about yoga topics you know well and distribute your articles through EzineArticles and other directories. 5. Create a YouTube account and post videos about your yoga expertise. You can build a rewarding and profitable yoga career off these yoga marketing tips alone. There are many more tools available, of course, but these will give you a great start in finding more students and making more money doing what you love! The Article Author: Want to find out more about yoga marketing online, then visit David Morgan's site and pick up the report on yoga business marketing to boost your yoga career and help your students. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
