5 Tips to Get More Yoga Clients

When it comes to launching your yoga business, the hardest part is, of course, getting clients. While simply popping up some posters in your local community center or in shop windows might get you a few attendees, building a steady flow of clients for your yoga classes takes just a little know-how. 

We’ve previously looked at various ways to market a fitness business, many of which can also apply to yoga professionals too. But in this post we’ll take a look at five of the most simple and effective ways to attract more paying customers to your yoga classes, or yoga studio.

Ready to start teaching yoga? Read our blog: How to become a yoga instructor

1. Leverage the Power of Social Media

Any business looking to attract clients in the modern era needs to know how to leverage social media. And this goes double for yoga teachers and yoga studios, especially in competitive areas.

But of course there is a lot that goes into promoting your business on social media pages, with each of the platforms having their own best practice and methods that generate traffic.

But because yoga is a relatively visual practice, there are definitely lots of ways you can attract yoga clients through your social media platforms.

We’ll look at a potted version of the best practice for the main platforms.

Instagram for Yoga Professionals

Posting on Instagram has changed a lot over the years, from simple inspiring visual posts, to videos or reels and even live streaming. There is a bewildering amount of stuff you can do to promote your yoga business on Instagram.

But we think you can keep it simple and focus on these three things:

1. Post an image or video to your feed a minimum of 3 days per week.
2. Post a video to your reels ideally daily, but at least 3 days per week.
3. Engage with any comments and comment on posts with hashtags related to the industry, or in your local area.

The key really is a combination of consistency and engaging with the target audience. While this can be very time-consuming, it is a key part of building your following on Instagram.

Facebook for Yoga Professionals

Although Facebook is often seen as the social media network for people who haven’t kept up with social media (i.e.; older demographics), it is still a very powerful tool for yoga professionals. The best way to use Facebook is to have a business page which is optimized and regularly updated.

On your Facebook business page you can share everything from upcoming events and classes, to your thoughts and tips about how to practice yoga or be more mindful.

In addition to this, make sure to engage with relevant local pages where your target audience might spend time.

For example, there is likely already a yoga page for your local area which might include people looking for classes. Join and post whenever you have something useful to offer. There might also be a Facebook mindfulness or meditation group, a fitness group and there is almost certainly a ‘what's on in (your area)’ group.

Some of these pages might sometimes be run by competitors, but they may also be run by people who are simply trying to connect the community. 

Connecting and engaging as a business page on Facebook is almost an essential for small local businesses, including yoga teachers and professionals. 

TikTok for Yoga Professionals

While TikTok is excellent for connecting with younger demographics, it can be hard to master and really grow on. The reason for this is that getting a post that performs and goes ‘viral’ can be a bit of a lottery.

But, to put it simply, what you want to be doing on TikTok is creating videos that have that thumb-stopping appeal. 

This tends to be:

• How to guides
• A day in the life of… (you and your business, of course)
• Funny and meme-worthy content
• Inspirational content

And, like all of the social media platforms, it comes down to being consistent and engaging.

Other Social Sites for Yoga

While Twitter, Reddit, Linkedin and Snapchat all offer great opportunities to expand your reach and following, they might not be ideal for building your yoga business following.

Of course, it will depend on your target audience. For example, if you’re targeting local B2B then you should definitely have a Linkedin profile.

When starting out, keep it simple and focus on the social media platforms most likely to help you build a local following.

Read more about social media marketing for fitness professionals on our blog.

2. Optimize Your Local Business Profile

There are many ways you can optimize your profile for local search which can help people looking for yoga classes in your area.

It helps to have a professional website so that customers can read about you and your services. Wordpress, Wix and Squarespace are all very user-friendly and make perfectly search engine-optimized websites.

While a professional website does make a big difference to your customer experience, and to your ability to be found by local clients, it isn’t 100% essential.

You can still set up a Facebook page as your business website, or even setup a simple booking page and landing page with Arbox.

But. Once you have your online presence, you’ll need to use these steps to optimize your presence.

• Add your business details to Google My Business, now known as Google Business Profile. This means your business will show on Google Maps, so long as you have an address listed
• Find local business directories and add your business details there also. There is likely a local Chamber of Commerce or government-hosted business directory page for your city or region
• Make sure you have a Facebook business page profile - as this can show up in search results

Once you have a local presence, make sure to share it on your social media accounts too. Share blogs or useful content on your profile and make sure to include your website link or URL in the content, or in your bio heading.

3. Partner with Local Businesses

One of the most effective ways to build any local brand is to partner with local businesses that might benefit from the mutual exposure. There are many ways you can do this, some of which might cost some money, others which might be free.

Some ideas to partner with local businesses to attract local clients may include:

• Giving a talk or lecture about the health benefits of yoga or other related health tips.
• Offering free classes at their place to build your local exposure with larger local businesses.
• Doing a cross-promotion - meaning you promote them in exchange for them promoting you. This can mean online, such as via social media, but might also be at local events or in your yoga studio.
• Offering employees of local businesses free yoga classes, discounted rates or other favorable deals.

Wherever you’re based, there are likely to be office buildings, industrial parks or other working locations with a potential goldmine of clients. By working with the business themselves you can get exposure to people who would very likely benefit from your yoga services.

4. Hand Out Flyers 

An old classic promotional trick, but one that still works great. However, you don’t want to just hand out flyers on street corners to anyone passing by. The best trick is to attend events or head to areas where your target audience are likely to be.

For example, if you do mom and baby yoga classes, head to parent events and hand out flyers to attendees there.

If you run corporate wellness focused yoga weekends, head to business networking events and conferences and hand out flyers to the decision makers.

But you don’t just want to put a flyer in their hand and walk away.

Make sure to engage your prospects in conversation, even if only briefly, and then mention what you do and then hand them your flyer. They’re much more likely to keep the promotional material and even engage with it if they remember speaking with the person who handed it to them.

Make sure your promotional materials have all the relevant necessary information such as your contact details, website and social media accounts.

You can also include a QR code so that people can quickly scan and visit your website or booking page.

5.  Collect and Nurture Leads

Whatever you do with your promotional efforts, make sure to keep track of your leads. This means keeping your contacts name, email, phone numbers and even their job title or company in a CRM or customer relationship management tool.

Once you have a list of leads, this is your potential client list, and you’ll need to nurture them with useful content and coax them to convert to paying customers.

Some great ways to do this are:

• Sending a weekly newsletter of useful yoga or mindfulness tips
• Keeping them updated on events that they could attend
• Offering discounts

Nurturing your leads means not annoying them to the point that they unsubscribe, but sending content that they’d be happy to receive in their inbox.

It’s also a good idea to segment your leads where possible. This might mean having a list of emails from corporate sources, and others from your website or social media.

There are many options to keep track of your leads, from spreadsheets, to built for purpose business management software.

Arbox is business management software made for fitness and yoga professionals, and offers lots of essential features to keep track of leads, marketing efforts, paying clients, upcoming classes and more.

Read more about marketing your fitness business in our blog.

Taking Your Yoga Business to the Next Level

When it comes to leveling up your yoga business, you’ll want to start by attracting a steady stream of clients. These tips will help you build a solid foundation to get more private yoga clients and make your yoga business more profitable.

Using Arbox yoga business management software will help you manage your classes, take online payments and send marketing communications.

Best of all, you can get started for free.

If you want to get more yoga clients and manage your yoga business effectively, sign up for Arbox today.