Marketing Your Yoga Studio

While marketing yoga can feel contrary to the non-commercial purpose of the practice, it is important to market your studio truthfully and effectively to make people aware of how they can benefit from your services.

Survey Students

It helps to survey your current students to determine your ideal target market of students. You can do this by asking questions about each of your students’ demographics and psychographics. To find about your students’ demographics, ask them questions like what their age, income, gender, place of residence, etc. is.

To discover the psychographics of this group, ask questions that help you discern the character, style, personal philosophy and inner workings of this group. Some of these questions might include whether or not each person engages in regular community service, what motivates them to do so if they do and about their beliefs regarding work-life balance. You can also ask questions about their professions, their religious beliefs, what they value most, if they have children and families and about their goals in life.

These responses can help you define your target market by specific characteristics. An example of a target market could be working professional mothers from helping professions.

It is also a good idea to survey the students you define as your target market to find out where they shop, what kinds of magazines this group reads and what organizations they belong to. Discover what conferences they attend, what kinds of directories they are listed in and who refers them to your yoga studio.

Identify Your Target Market’s Key Challenges

Once you have a clearly defined target market and sources like organizations, conferences and directories to question, identify the major challenges facing your target market by contacting these places. Some examples of major challenges your target market could face include chronic back pain, stress and lack of spiritual connection.

Survey members of your target market who currently attend your yoga studio about these challenges in addition to appropriate stores, magazines, organizations, etc. You can also do online research to find out what challenges your target market faces.

Core Marketing Message

Knowing the key challenges facing your target market, create a core marketing message for this group of people. Make sure this message addresses why these people need your yoga services, based on how your studio can help solve the challenges this group faces. Include what results your yoga studio clients will likely experience as a result of trying out your services. Incorporate testimonials into your message.

Local Alliances

Another great tip for marketing a yoga studio in the community is by creating business alliances with places that cater to your target market. Provide marketing information in the form of fliers and brochures to your target market at these places, as well as your own studio.

Brochures

When creating marketing brochures, many yoga studios target their services for different audiences by creating brochures with specific tips appropriate for the needs of each group. For example, they target baby boomers by featuring basic exercises for senior citizens to help them stay limber as their bones start to get brittle in retirement and senior community centers.

Free Classes

Many yoga studios market their services by offering free introductory classes. These classes can be offered at your studio, as well as organizations, stores, conferences and events you discover from your target market research.

Community Presence

Another tactic yoga studio managers use to market their services is writing articles for the local community magazines to establish themselves as experts in the field of yoga. Offering free workshops and talks about yoga at schools, health fairs, sports expos, college athletic conferences, libraries, health food stores and other health-related sites can help you gain visibility as well.

Mailing Lists

Yoga studios often create mailing lists by collecting e-mail addresses of people the owners meet who could be potential students at their studios. It is a good idea to send regular newsletters to update current and prospective students about your studio’s services.

Studio Website

A website is another marketing strategy the majority of yoga studios use to advertise their yoga studio services, feature yoga tips and testimonials from happy and satisfied students. Websites are a great way to feature information about your yoga services, including your contact information.