7 Referral Marketing Tactics For Yoga Teachers

 

These yoga marketing tips are taken from the Yoga Teacher Business Kit.

You could be the best yoga teacher in the world, but if you ignore the marketing side of the business you have very little chance of building a sustainable business. 

Most yoga teachers associate marketing with handing out business cards, putting up yoga class flyers and getting a yoga website designed. They are all useful tactics for attracting some leads, but everyone knows the best lead generator is a Raving Fan.

A Raving Fan is a yoga student who tells everyone they know about your amazing yoga classes. You can build a thriving business from just one Raving Fan!

My advice is to focus most of your time on “referral marketing strategies“.

There are loads of referral marketing strategies, but here are a few to get you started….

Referral Tactic 1
One Friend And Two Rolodexes

Call a friend and arrange to meet up to share referrals. Sit down and systematically go through your contacts (e.g. on your phone or in your rolodex). You’ll be amazed at how many referrals you can get from one friend in one sitting (and also enjoy a cappuccino if you meet at a coffee house).

Referral Tactic 2
One Friend And A Skype Chat

If you have friends who live too far to meet up, arrange a Skype chat (and turn on the web cam so you can see each other). Then follow the steps laid out in “Referral Tactic 1”.

Referral Tactic 3
Host A Tea Party

Host a tea party to enlighten a group of carefully selected well connected people in your network. The cocktail party is aimed to educate these guests about your areas of expertise so that they will be better informed about your company’s services and therefore more likely to send you potential referral opportunities. Be upfront with the party goers. Let them know the reason you are throwing the party is so they get to know a bit about your business. Make sure you provide good food, good company and don’t be too serious when you give your presentation. You’ll probably find several of the guests come to your classes, and several others start sending you referrals. You can also arrange time with each guest (following the party) to “work each others rolodex”.

Referral Tactic 4
Host An Informal Gathering

Have a few friends over for coffee and a discussion about “how we can help each other”.

Referral Tactic 5
Host A Gathering Somewhere Unique

Consider hosting a party in a unique location (e.g. at the largest underground trampoline).

Referral Tactic 6
Organise Your Contact Lists

This is simple and easy, but most small business owners fail to do it. Get your contact list organised. Create a spreadsheet of all the people you know and contact every single one of them (e.g. to arrange to meet up to find out how you can help each other).

Referral Tactic 7
Offer Free Classes

A great way to get referrals is to offer your first class for free. Usually someone who is interested will want to come with a friend. If its free the friend will almost certainly come along (and may end up becoming a regular). So get used to offering free classes to friends, associates and total strangers. For example, say you’ve just had a great hair cut, offer the hair-dresser a free class or 1-2-1 session as a tip. Here’s another example.  If you’re in a queue at Tescos,say something funny to the person next to you such as: “Tescos would like to offer you a free yoga class due to the inconvenience of waiting in this queue,” then hand them one of your business cards.

Referral Tactic 8
Loyalty Card

You can use vistaprint’s loyalty card template. I couldn’t believe how well this strategy worked with my yoga students. They loved receiving their loyalty card. Once you give out the loyalty cards you’ll need to initial a box on their card each week until they have 10 boxes filled in. It’s also a great way to chat and get to know your students because they have to bring their loyalty card to you to get signed. I find in my classes that 1 out of 10 students are really shy and find it hard to approach me (the loyalty card gives them courage to approach me). People love being rewarded for loyalty.

I hope these yoga marketing strategies from the Yoga Teacher Business Kit have helped you a bit.