A yoga teacher training is a high cost product that requires high touch sales. There is a lot of noise and competition out there. Make sure you have done your research before marketing your training, so you’re able to easily answer students’ questions about your program in relationship to the larger market.
To begin, consider these key motivators that students consider when choosing a teacher training:
• Location
• Program Format
• Style of Yoga
• Quality of Teachers
• Pricing
• Program format
• Job opportunities post certification
Keeping these motivators in mind, you’re well positioned to begin marketing your training program. Here are five helpful tips:
Know Your Market
Every market is different, so you’ll want to have a good understanding of your customer demographics. Consider what people in your network are willing to spend and if the format of your program will work well for their lifestyles. Here are some other questions to ask: What are people generally willing to spend? What type of Yoga is popular in this area? Are there more beginner or advanced students?
Build a Motivated Sales Team
These days it takes a whole team to sell a yoga teacher training. Motivate your teachers and ask them to make announcements in classes and talk directly to their students. Ensure your entire staff is educated on your programs and talks to students as they come and go. It’s also a good idea to hire a team that can handle traditional and online marketing (ads, social media, etc). If the value of the program is well expressed and understood, there’s never a need for pushy sales.
Utilize Traditional and Online Marketing
Getting the word out about your program is part of the excitement (and part of the headache)! You will need to budget money for traditional ads (local or national depending on your budget), online advertising, social media campaigns and contests, grassroots marketing, community building, pre-training events, in-studio marketing and announcements.
Online advertising could range from buying Google search terms to Facebook ads to doing online brand campaigns on various yoga blogs. A good idea for a social media campaign is teaming up with other yoga brands to offer a prize giveaway. This way you can collect emails, increase awareness and social media following. Pre-training events could be sample classes or open house type events whereby people are invited to meet the trainer and take some yoga. This allows them to get to know the teacher, the studio and get their questions answered. Yoga teacher trainings are big investments for students, so it’s important that they feel inspired by your marketing campaigns.
Offer Alumni Incentives
The Alumni went through your yoga teacher trainings already. Offer them incentive programs to create more support. You can use their testimonials or invite them attend a studio event, so other students can talk to them about their experience. It’s always good to build your alumni network as they are a great referral system.
Enlist Community Support
Making friends with other yoga and wellness related companies is a great way to generate awareness about your teacher training program. An example might be to offer a VIP discount shopping spree at a local yoga apparel company. The store is thankful for the customers and you are offering a nice opportunity to create a happy hour for prospective students. You can both benefit from email trades. Other ideas might be to have your teachers attend and teach at community events to build awareness. Many students like to see that their studio is service oriented and a community team player.
Have you had experiences in marketing your own teacher training program that you would like to share? We’d love to hear them!