At the end of 2011, I started offering a new eCourse called Build Your Following: How to Launch a Beginner’s Yoga Series.
After only a few months after the course finished, success stories starting pouring in from graduates! Teachers were running sold out Beginner’s Yoga Series with wait lists. This was a dream come true because it meant that even more people would be getting on the mat in 2012 and the yoga love was spreading!
It turned out to be quite the year for bringing new students to the mat. Based on surveys of our graduates, we calculated that over 13,000 new students tried yoga at their series in 2012! So yes, we ran another eCourse in 2012 that is now available on demand.
Building a successful Beginner’s Yoga Series from scratch isn’t always easy which is why I created the eCourse as a turn-key solution.
Whether you’ve taken the course or not, you still need to prepare and apply precise marketing skills to spread the word, since new students could be anywhere and are not always easy to find if you are new to an area or live in a rural part of the world.
If you’re planning a Beginner’s Yoga Series and are struggling to find people out of thin air, here are my top 5 tips for marketing your series with success:
1. Let your people know! Word of Mouth.
Announce the new series in classes (your own and other teachers). Email your current students, friends, family and everyone you know. Ask everyone to spread the word to their friends and family who are new to yoga – tell them all about the benefits of yoga and why your series will help them. Your current students are your best advocates for your teaching, but if you are new to an area, you’ll have to start from scratch and do good old fashioned “networking”. Even if it means starting random conversations with the mail man!
2. Take advantage of Social Networking!
Post regularly on your Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts about your Beginner’s Series. Post helpful tips on yoga or anything that would be valuable to potential students along with promotional information. Remember: you might be seeing every one of your posts, but chances are, most people are only seeing a fraction of your posts, so you can post more often than you think. Also – be sure to reach out to other online communities in your area. Make a CTA (call to action) that specifically asks people to share, re-tweet and post about your series.
3. Feature the series on your website.
Put your Beginner’s Yoga Series info in a prominent place on your website, the studio’s website, your Facebook Page and any other online outlet available. And link to it, link to it, link to it!
4. Link to your series in your email signature.
Even if you aren’t emailing a prospective yogi, include a link in your email signature that promotes the course. You never know who might be your next student!
5. Start marketing early and don’t get discouraged!
Keeping a positive attitude and visualizing a yoga room filled to capacity with new beginners can make a huge impact on your outcome. Get creative, stay inspired and don’t give up!
Get advice from someone who’s been there!
The teachers who’ve taken Build Your Following: How to Launch a Beginner’s Yoga Series have some great marketing tips to share, too. Read on to hear their advice.
I hope that these ideas help you build an amazing beginner yoga series, and, ultimately, introduce more people to the benefits of yoga. The world needs you!
Here’s more advice from fellow teachers like you!
KM: Add a question to your the feedback form, what would it take to keep you coming back? Or a discount or freebie for their first punch card? Do the beginners return for another beginner series? Inquiring minds want to know!
YS: Tried discounts but will try again (i.e. 10% if you sign up during the week following end of intro) and yes… quite a few take the intro again. This year offering 2 kinds of intros, one 4 week (4 classes), another 4 week (12+ classes 
… hope one leads to the other.
Taro Smith: Social interaction is the number one reason for coming back to classes yet it is the most underrated. Remembering names, having forums so students can chat with each other, asking questions of students, having them add value in some way to the class. You can also take it off the mat by having students connect with a FB professional page where you can keep dialog running.
KO: Guerrilla marketing all the way — I get 75% of my students by personally inviting them. Put a bunch of postcards/flyers in your purse and hand them out to everyone — I invited the beer stock-er at my local co-op and he’s now a devoted student — loves it for remedying his back pain. Invite people to come –anyone (friend/acquaintance) who has ever expressed an interest in yoga — send them a postcard with a handwritten note like — I hope you will join me! Really, I grow my classes by appealing to everyone I know and it works. And, they love the personal invite. And keep inviting people — I just perceive myself as a yoga class hostess and it is really working. My 4 classes are solidly at 10-12 people enrolled for 12 week sessions — and growing. I am all about personal attention and people love it! I live in rural Wisconsin — so its challenging yoga terrain. This approach is working great and 90 Minutes has helped me a lot.
KH: How about leaving some flyers with your hairdresser? They see and speak to lots of people every day and can help spread the word….
NR: Thanks! Hairdressers, chiropractors, acupuncturist, flower shops, colonics place, health food shops, ups store what have I missed? )
JI: How about gyms (that don’t offer yoga)? Dry cleaners? Local health-conscious restaurants?
LS: Have you seen the bulletin boards in almost every STARBUCKS? There’s a spot for us on those boards!
PS: One simple way I market to teens is I list my age requirement for my adult classes as 14+ years old. I also teach Teen and Tween Yoga classes, which I market in their PTA newsletters and participate in any school-sponsored fitness event (for free with flyers in hand) to get the word out, like Family Fitness Night and I even did yoga for school volunteers before they had a planting day. I have sent constant contact emails to the athletic coaches and PE teachers at the middle and high schools in my area, and I hang flyers on any community bulletin board I can find. The most effective marketing though is through my best ambassadors… my own teenage daughters!
… And here are a few more ideas I found online:
Try a referral program, like “refer a friend” or “bring a friend to yoga class” with your current students – for Beginner Series, you could offer existing students a free class if they refer someone to your beginner series, and their friend could get a discount.
Some great ideas from http://www.ivillage.com/how-can-i-market-my-new-yoga-business/7-n-221241 include:
– Volunteer to write a community newspaper column or do a local radio show
– offer free workshops or talks at schools, college athletic centers, libraries, health fairs, sports expos, health food stores
– Visit the athletic departments of schools and universities and let coaches know about your services.
A few more good ideas here: http://www.wikihow.com/Advertise-a-Yoga-Class such as:
-Write a press release about the benefits of yoga, then send it to local television and print reporters. Follow up by calling to invite reporters to attend your class at no charge.
About Amy Ippoliti
Amy is a yoga teacher, writer, and philanthropist. She is known for her innovative methods to bridge the gap between ancient yoga wisdom and modern day life, helping yoga students “turn up their own volume.”
Amy is a pioneer for advanced yoga education serving both students as well as fellow yoga teachers. She co-founded 90 Monkeys, a professional development school that has enhanced the skills of yoga teachers and studios in 43 countries around the globe.
She can be found online as a featured instructor for YogaGlo.com (the leading online yoga provider). She has graced the covers of Yoga Journal and Fit Yoga Magazine and has been featured in Yoga International, Self, Origin Magazine, New York Magazine, Yogini Magazine (Japan), Allure (Korea), Elephant Journal, MindBodyGreen and many more. Amy is a faculty member at the Omega Institute, Esalen and Kripalu.
Since the age of 14 Amy has been a champion of all forms of eco-consciousness, animal conservation and more recent forays into marine conservation.
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