How to Grow Your Online Yoga Business
Reading Time: 5 minutes 57 seconds
BY: ISSA
DATE: 2021-06-02
Being a yoga teacher and developing an engaging yoga practice is fun and rewarding. Completing yoga teacher training and beginning to teach yoga class are only the first of many steps needed to successfully grow your yoga business.
Yoga practice typically takes place in a yoga studio. However, the internet and world wide web have made online yoga a reality for any instructor willing to do the work necessary to reach new students. Whether content marketing on social media or utilizing a website to draw attention to a yoga practice, there are many valuable tools and resources available online for all!
Benefits of Bringing Your Yoga Business to the Internet
Whether providing yoga instruction online or just getting the word out about your yoga practice, a website on the internet is an important business-building step. Providing information online is a huge opportunity to spread the word on the benefits and styles of yoga. Instructors can reach new yoga students, reengage with current students, and work to grow their following and paid customer base. Offering a storefront where people can make purchases opens up a big opportunity for a yoga business to function easier as well!
Creating a website is relatively simple. First, select a website builder. This is a company that will help a business owner create a website, add images and photos, and help to post it on the internet for all to access. There are many companies available for such a service including:
GoDaddy
WordPress
HostGator
WIX
These services can be free or they may have a monthly fee (typically a few dollars to $100+ a month) to add upgrades like a storefront where people can purchase goods and services.
Once a website builder has been selected, the next step is deciding what information to share online. A yoga teacher may want to host a live class on their website. Or direct yoga students to their class schedule for in-person yoga practice. You can provide information about the styles of yoga you teach, your personal philosophy on meditation and the physical benefits of yoga, yoga lessons you offer, and the location of your studio. You can even share workouts on-the-go for busy students who still wish to enhance their yoga practice! There is a lot of information that can be shared on a yoga website, but whatever is provided should be informative and of value to anyone visiting the site.
Online Technology to Grow Your Yoga Business
Appointment tracking and scheduling are important pieces of a yoga or fitness business. Students must be able to view your class or lesson schedule and, hopefully, make an appointment or purchase classes easily. Software like MindBody Online (MBO) and Calendly offer both free and paid tools to share your schedule and availability with others and allow them to book themselves into classes and schedule sessions. These tools can easily be embedded into a website page or each can be used as a stand-alone application on a phone, computer, or tablet. It's never been easier to run an online yoga business!
Outside of your yoga website, tools like YouTube and social media can help entrepreneurial yoga teachers share valuable content and reach more students. Content of all kinds is shared and viewed on YouTube. Users can create an account for free and share videos and create their own content. For a yoga teacher, this is a wonderful platform to share virtual yoga classes or asana tutorials with current and prospective students. People who follow and enjoy your content can subscribe to your channel and receive notifications when you create new content.
YouTube videos can be linked and embedded into your yoga website. They can also be shared via email marketing campaigns and on social media. One piece of content can go a long way!
Taking your training and yoga business online can feel complicated. ISSA Certified Online Coaches have all the tools necessary to be successful in the virtual environment including email marketing strategies, sales strategies, and programming guidelines for creating effective classes and sessions online.
Speaking of social media, platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are widely used social media outlets. Each has unique specialties and features that make sharing content and information valuable to a yogi with a business plan!
For example, Facebook is a great tool to connect with yoga students, host online yoga classes (live or recorded), and network with the friends and family of your yoga students. Twitter is valuable for sharing links to content and images, short bits of information, and redirecting people to your website or studio. Instagram is all about the videos and images! This platform is the perfect place to share tutorials, testimonials, photos, and stream live events.
No matter which platforms a yoga instructor uses, here are a few best practices for social media:
Always keep your business and personal social media separate.
Keep your content yoga related.
Avoid political or opinion-based content.
Make sure to direct people to your website or studio!
Best Online Places to Market Your Yoga Business
Sharing your yoga business online is so much more than simply sharing your favorite yoga routines! The point of the web is easy access to content and information anywhere in the world. However, there is so much information available that your website may be hard to find. Enter search engine optimization. Known by its abbreviation SEO, search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic to a website. This type of digital marketing doesn't have to be difficult! Tips to improve SEO include:
Linking to other websites with relevant content. This can help to increase your credibility in yoga practice.
Encourage other trustworthy websites to link to your content. This can help increase traffic to your website.
Use yoga related keywords, terms, and phrases on your webpages and social media posts. This increases your likelihood of appearing in someone's search results when they search a yoga related term.
Another easy place to market yourself and your yoga business? A blog! Add a page on your website for a blog and link your social media to it. Don't be intimidated by blog writing either. Your content doesn't have to be long. Choose yoga related topics you are passionate about like your favorite postures, the philosophies of yoga, or your teaching methods. Then, share what you know! As your blog posts grow in size, you can take the time to learn more about the aspects of yoga you don't already know. Not only will you expand your yoga practice with research and learning, but you will become a trusted authority for current and potential yoga students.
Tips for Developing Your Online Presence as a Yoga Business
There are many yoga businesses that have successfully taken their businesses online. The most successful businesses to model offer streaming services with live and recorded content to support their in-person student following. Companies like YogaGlo and Yogis Anonymous have built massive video databases and have large followings online!
To develop your yoga business and keep it uniquely yours, be uniquely you! Every yoga instructor has a foundation of philosophies and yogic teachings from yoga teacher training. However, how each instructor delivers their classes, the flow and styles they incorporate, and their communication styles differently. Stay true to your authentic self as you present material whether online or in-person.
Authenticity is an important concept in yoga. Every time someone steps onto a yoga mat and expresses a posture, they have the opportunity to express their most authentic self. This means embracing their movement and self and letting go of thoughts and worldly assumptions.
A yoga website and social media marketing strategy should be centered around the values, visions, and yogic philosophies of the involved yoga instructors and their yoga studio. Students in the yoga community value consistency, authenticity, and a commitment to practice. This can be conveyed in both content and marketing. When current and new students encounter your online business and persona, they will expect the same experience when they meet or interact with you.
Over time, consistent and valuable content will build a positive reputation. Each aspect discussed will help you build a strong online presence as a yoga instructor:
Build an engaging website
Establish your social media outlets
Create authentic media and content (videos, images, tutorials, and classes)
Market your services and sessions
Stay diligent with SEO to drive online traffic
For a wholistic approach to yoga instruction, become a ISSA Certified Yoga Instructor today! We take the guesswork out of class programming and give yoga instructors the functional and practical knowledge needed to get the most out of yoga asana and practice.