After all the excess of Christmas and looking ahead to the New Year, many of us will have the New Year’s resolution to improve our fitness or to shift a few extra pounds. This is the perfect opportunity to amp up your marketing for your class ready for January. 

2018 saw a huge rise in the number of yoga classes available, from Hot Yoga to Goat Yoga. In the UK, “yoga” was one of Google’s most searched-for words in 2016, while the yoga and Pilates business brings in £812m a year, and rising. 

Yet many yoga classes still face the issue of bringing in new clients and not knowing where to start in marketing their businesses. Drawing people into your class over others is now incredibly competitive. Due to this increase in demand, there is now so much choice for consumers to pick from. 

Here are a few strategies to promote your yoga class: 

UNDERSTAND YOUR STUDENTS

The best way to resonate with your students is to understand what really matters to them. So do as much research as possible into what they want and what they are looking to gain from attending your class. From this position, you will know where to place yourself against any competitors and discover what your USP (unique selling point) is. 

By crafting a focused message that reflects the views of your students or potential students, you will be creating a bond with them that will bring longevity to the relationship. It will be these more targeted messages that will differentiate your classes from others in your local area.  

It is also worth cross-selling your classes with other classes you may offer. Introduce students and potential students to other classes you feel they may enjoy. For example, if you have had a Hatha Yoga class that has been successful, maybe work out why that class is so popular from your students and then use that information to push, for example,  an Ashtanga Yoga class to those looking for more of a challenge or a step up. If your students are looking to join the latest trends in yoga, why not look into offering more of the novelty yoga classes that are trending on various social media, or hosting a one-off novelty yoga event to introduce customers to your classes. 

DEFINING YOUR BRAND

Once you have a good understanding of your audience you can channel that knowledge into your brand. Defining what you are early on will help you keep your message and ethos consistent. Is your brand focused on beginners getting into their yoga practice? Or are they experienced yogis looking to develop their practice further? It will be this definition that will make your class stand out from the rest. Use the information gained from your students to really hone in on what makes your classes unique.  

An effective way of defining your brand is to have a website built which explains everything about your classes, as well as having beautiful visuals created to coincide with it. It should be a visual representation of your class, reflecting its look and feel. It should also perform in converting visitors to students. By using plenty of ‘calls to action’ (‘sign up’, ‘enrol here’, etc.) it should direct them into converting themselves from visitor to your site to a potential student. Being explicit in how you wish to convey yourself to potential students, create a clear marketing message about who you are and what your brand has to offer. 

MAKE THE MOST OF SOCIAL MEDIA

With the understanding of your audience, you can now concentrate your efforts into various social media channels. For Yoga, Instagram is about to become your new best friend. Yoga is growing exponentially on Instagram with accounts like Yoga Girl boasting over 2.1 million followers. Rachel Brathen (Yoga Girl) is the perfect example of how to harness the power of Instagram to advance yourself within yoga. She defined her audience early on and has spent the last few years building a loyal following, keeping on brand, but, at the same time maintaining authenticity. Yoga is a beautiful art form and Instagram is the perfect platform to share visual content. If you are looking to share something with more depth, look at sharing on Facebook and then cross-promoting it on Instagram. 

Here are a few tips on how to share effectively on social media: 

• Create custom content. Instagram is mainly viewed on mobile devices, therefore, keep your content short and sweet with plenty of eye-catching imagery and video 
• Social Media gurus Hubspot recommend the perfect post on Facebook being around 40 characters despite the 63,206 character limit, and Instagram hitting the sweet spot at around 125 characters 
• Don’t forget to create a killer bio on all your social media platforms, include links to special offers or a sign-up page. Your Facebook banner is also a great place to promote, so keep that in mind when creating an amazing profile page