Yoga Marketing: 3 Summer Tips for Studio Owners

The sun is shining, the waves are crashing, and the beach is calling people to the sandy shores. Summer is about to be in session and you know what that means – it’s time to prep for bathing suit season.

Let’s be honest, most people make their New Year’s fitness resolutions, keep with it for a month, and then when summer comes around - scramble to squeeze into that itsy-bitsy-yellow-polka-dot bikini. Desperate for that summer bod, people are looking to get fit and get fit fast… and that’s where your yoga studio comes in!

Fitness businesses like Yoga studios have the potential to really stretch the size of their wallets late spring/early summer… if they can market themselves properly. You opened your studio because you’re a yogi, not because you’re a marketer. Completely get that. So let’s make marketing your yoga studio as easy and painless as possible this summer.

Here are 3 yoga marketing tips for studio owners to make this summer the most profitable one yet.

Yoga Marketing Tip 1: First-Visit Specials

Your yoga studio has come a long way. When reflecting on day one, it’s remarkable how much your business has grow. However, in order for it to keep growing, your client base needs to grow alongside it. So, this yoga marketing tip is all about driving new clients to your studio.

Getting more new clients to your yoga studio can actually be quite simple. Just make them feel special - literally and figuratively. Welcoming first-time yogis with some sort of “first-visit special” is the perfect way for your yoga studio to warmly embrace and encourage new clients.

This promotion should act as a welcoming into the yogi community. For example, use something like: try your first class half off. Or if you want to be even more enticing: try your first class on us. All you have to do is make sure you’re providing any potential, new clients with a little extra incentive to step through your doors. These first-time specials act as a means to give any potential, new clients that might have been slightly unsure about trying yoga, ample motivation to give it a try.

Use these welcoming specials to drive new clients through your doors, then rely on your excellent quality of service to really win them over.

Yoga Marketing Tip 2: Loyalty Programs

It’s important for your yoga studio to grow its client base, but it’s equally important for you to nurture the clients that already stand with you. Considering that typically it can cost small businesses close to 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than nurture more from an existing one, AND that repeat customers typically spend 67% more per transaction than first-timers - customer loyalty and retention is certainly something your Yoga studio should be prioritizing.

Executing some simple loyalty programs at your yoga studio are a great way to promote customer loyalty (it’s literally in the name). Think about creating something easy like:

A) Punch Cards: This is a basic, yet effective, method for generating repeat customers. Consider supplying loyalty punch cards at the close of their first class. Clients will look forward to coming in more, and earning the free treatment.

B) Points System:  Begin by setting 'value' to points -- what does it take to earn a single point at your studio?

For example:

$1 spent = 1 point earned (it’s important to note that points are not able to be redeemed for cash)

Now that you’ve established the value of your points, you can start assigning different points to different behaviors:

Customer Referral = 500 points

Each class booked through your app = 250 points

Each class made through pre-booking = 250 points

Happy Birthday points = 300 points

Once you’ve assigned points to each behavior you can then assign rewards for collecting a set number of points. Something like:

Once a customer has earned 1500 points, he/she has earned himself a free class.

Yoga Marketing Tip 3: Getting the Word Out There

Now… you’ve got a great way to get new clients for your yoga studio AND a great way to keep them coming back. What more could you need? Well, you’re going to need a way to get the word out about your first-visit specials and/or your loyalty programs to your clients. Here are two avenues to take for effective and efficient communications between your yoga studio and your clients:

A) Email Marketing: Always remember - don’t fix something that isn’t broken. Despite being around for ages, email marketing still reigns one of the most effective forms of direct marketing available to businesses, especially small businesses. There are about 4.3 billion active email accounts and most businesses see a return of $40 for every $1 spent on email marketing. With statistics that incredible, just listen to the numbers here. It’s almost a no-brainer not to promote any and all of your yoga studio’s marketing efforts through email.

B) Text Message Marketing: This is a newer, cutting edge method of getting your new, fancy promotions in front of clients. Nearly 3.5 billion text messages are sent and received every day. Yes, you read that right - in just one day. In addition to that, according to a recent study conducted by Business2Community 99 percent of text messages sent are opened by consumers. With a near 100 percent open rate, text message marketing proves to be an (if not the most) effective way for your yoga studio to spread the word about your new promotions.