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.
Before making up your mind, think about these considerations:
No class will fill without promotion of some kind. Thinking otherwise is simply arrogant...
If you feel guilty for charging money for your classes, it may mean that you do not value yourself or your work much. It will be difficult for other people to value what you do, too...
Lastly, withholding your skills and talents from the community is irresponsible. You need to let them know how you can help their lives, because someone out there really needs you!
Consider your marketing efforts as a form of service work
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.
This is not against the tradition of yoga. In India, even the most traditional teachers get support from their students. Maybe they don't have online credit card processing, but every need they have is taken care of by someone. So now get out there and feed your community with your talents... and let the community feed you in return.
Traditional advertising no longer works for the yoga business
Very few people use the phone book to look for yoga. Same goes for print ads. They simply are not cost effective. Most people will look for the services you offer on the Internet. The trick is to help them find you!
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.
Spending more on advertising will not guarantee you more students. It is more likely to guarantee you spend money you'll never get back.
Ready for some better news? It doesn't have to cost a fortune to attract new yoga students. In fact, some of the most effective methods don't cost anything at all!
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.
You don't even need a website for your business to be found online, though it would certainly help.
5 free methods of attracting new yoga students from the Internet
1. Write press releases for your events and services and distribute them on press release distribution sites.
2. You can easily build a page for your yoga business on Facebook. Invite your friends to your events. Their friends will see it. Word will spread.
3. Post your classes, events, and therapeutic sessions on Craigslist.
4. Write about yoga topics you know well and distribute your articles through EzineArticles and other directories.
5. Make simple videos about your business and share them on YouTube.
With these free yoga marketing resources, you can bring in more yoga students and enjoy a rewarding yoga career.
Looking to find the best ideas for building a fun, rewarding and profitable yoga career using effective marketing, then visit www.yogawebmaster.com to get David Morgan's yoga marketing report.