How to Get More Yoga Students: 11 Top Tips

If you’re wondering how to get more yoga students to your classes or studio, you’ve come to the right place!

We’ll run through 11 top tips for how to get more students to your yoga class, boosting your numbers as well as everybody’s practice.

Before we start, one of the best ways to gain more class members is to deepen your own expertise and boost your knowledge with a level 4 yoga teacher training course.

Download our free course prospectus to find out more about this and all of the courses we offer!

#1 How to Get More Yoga Students Through a Referral Scheme

If you want to know how to get more students to your yoga class, you should utilise your existing ones by offering a referral scheme!

This is where you offer your existing students a discount if they bring a friend or family member along to class.

Of course people are much more likely to try something if it’s recommended by those they know and whose opinion they trust.

In fact, according to some studies, it’s not only a successful way of getting new customers but also provides better client retention with a higher number of students staying loyal. 

You should equally include an incentive for the friend or family member so that they find the offer more attractive and are even more likely to take the recommendation!

This is especially true if you want to start your own yoga studio because you can offer memberships rather than class passes and boost your customer retention and class attendance!

A great example of a successful referral programme is from Battersea Yoga, offering existing class members a discount that they can extend to their friends and family for referral:

They’ve set it up so that the discount will be given for every friend referred once a class is booked:

This way you’ll learn how to get more yoga clients whilst also increasing the rapport and relationship with existing ones!

So, not only will you be gaining new class members but you’ll be making sure your existing ones keep coming back.

That’s why this is a great tactic for how to get more students to yoga class, making sure you boost attendance as well as maintain it! 

#2 How to get More Yoga Clients by Offering a Free Trial

Another thing you can do if you want to know how to get more yoga students is to offer a free trial or taster session.

One of the hardest parts of getting more yoga students is getting people through the door! 

Plus, everybody loves a freebie so it’s a great way for people to try your classes out without feeling like they’re making a commitment.

From there you can start to build rapport and show off your teaching skills to convince them to sign up for further classes or invest in a class pass.

What you decide to offer will just depend on where you are in your career and what is cost effective for your business.

If you’re just starting out and want to know how to get more yoga students to try out your classes, one of the best things you can do is offer a free taster session!

Warm Hearts yoga is a great example of this:

As you can see, they’ve made it explicit in the copy that the free trial is for everyone, not just beginners.

This is a great way to attract seasoned yogis who might be interested in trying out a new class!

This might even serve as a way to get some class members who religiously attend one style to try out another for free! 

That’s why if you want to know how to get more students in your yoga class you shouldn’t forget to include your existing class members in your marketing efforts!

For example, if you’re freelance and work in several locations you can use these trials to draw class members from one to another, building brand loyalty and introducing students to new styles. 

Maybe you’ve got, or are interested in starting an online yoga business? Then you can offer a free trial for memberships with access to your online content.

Just look at how The Yoga Class organise their own free trial:

They’re offering online support from teachers as well as unlimited access for a limited time.

This way people will be able to try out as many different classes as they want to and get an impression of the service you offer and how much they could get out of a paid membership! 

#3 How to Get More Yoga Clients Using a Giveaway on Social Media

Next up for how to get more students to your yoga class is with a giveaway on your Instagram or other social media pages.

This is where you will offer something, usually a discount of some sort, to people who enter a competition.

The way of entering will usually involve:

• Sharing a dedicated post
• Following your page
• Commenting on the post by tagging a friend

Not only does this reward your existing customers, increasing brand loyalty, it’s also free promotion from your existing followers to potential new ones.

They’ll be sharing your post and promoting your content to their followers, potentially lots of people who aren’t aware of your business, which will help with engagement on your page!

Tirana Yoga is a great example of this: 

As you can see they’re asking people to: 

• Follow the Instagram account
• Tag 2 friends who would be interested in the competition too
• Comment separately with what deal you want

Obviously when you’re starting out you don’t need to offer something this big that will cost you more money than you could potentially make.

However, it’s a great idea to offer something that friends can share to give them motivation to tag other people and help get you more followers and engagement!

You could offer a discount on a class pass or a free class or trial like we discussed in our previous tip! 

Everyone who’s tagged in the post could become a potential client by engaging with your social media and seeing what services you offer.

This is why if you want to know how to get more yoga students this is an easy and accessible digital marketing strategy for yoga teachers!

#4 How to Get More Yoga Students With Seasonal Offers

Another way to attract new yoga class members and reward existing ones is to offer a seasonal deal or discount!

Being aware of how your business can benefit from particular trends and behaviours is a great way to make money as a yoga teacher.

This way you’ll be catering to a wide range of people, and you’ll also be aware of when people are more likely to sign up for your classes or invest in a membership to your studio.

Capitalising on seasonal offers also makes it easier for new class members to try out your services as well as giving existing customers a chance to invest more and attend more of your classes!

Some examples of seasonal offers you could create include:

• ‘New year, new me’ offer to encourage people when they’re making new year’s resolutions
• Offer in time for summer solstice 
• Christmas offer for a certain number of classes  

Taking advantage of particular times of year when people are looking to make a change or give a gift to somebody is a great method for how to get more yoga students. 

Stay Gold Yoga have done this, creating a few Christmas deals to encourage people to sign up for a certain number of classes or take part in a new style:

Another reason adding a seasonal offer is great for how to get more yoga clients is that it adds a time limit and time pressure to signing up!

As you can see, Stay Gold has added a deadline for sign ups.

Doing this encourages people to actually sign up and commit to a sale rather than just thinking about it.

The time pressure means people will act quicker because they’ll want to make the most of the deal while it lasts!

#5 How to Get More Students to a Yoga Class Using Google My Business

Next up for how to get more students to yoga class is to use Google My Business to promote your classes.

When you search for something on Google, and you’re looking for a specific service, you will usually add a location or Google will assume you’re doing a ‘local search’.

This is called a ‘high intent’ search where those typing in, for example, “yoga class Liverpool” or “yoga studio near me” are more prepared to sign up for a service than someone googling a particular style of class for information.

In fact, according to Search Engine Journal, 78% of people who Google search for a specific location when looking for a nearby business, will visit within a day’s time.

Someone asking specifically for a location wants to find one in order to attend! 

Perfecting your Google My Business listing will increase your ranking on Google, putting you in what’s called the ‘Local 3 Pack’.

This is the first three business results that show up at the top of the search engine results page when people Google a business near them:

This circled area is the local 3 pack for “yoga class Liverpool”. As you can see there’s certain details they all offer and can be easily viewed, as well as their exact location on maps.

A Google My Business listing is great for how to get more yoga students because it will tell prospective class members: 

• The name of your business
• Where to find you
• The kind of service you offer
• Your contact details
• Reviews of your classes or studio
• Your website or social media pages

You can also use SEO for yoga teachers in your Google My Business listings to direct people towards your service better.

This stands for ‘search engine optimization’ meaning that you include factors in your listing that will increase your discoverability on Google. 

The better your SEO the higher you’ll rank on the first page of Google. The higher you rank the more likely people are to click through to your website, social media, or booking page to sign up for a class!

One of the best ways for you to optimise yourself for local searches is with keywords in the description on your Google My Business listing.

You can choose from a variety of local keywords with a location. For example, here’s some examples for Liverpool:

The Yoga Space in Leeds is a great example of a studio optimising its description to get into the local 3 pack on Google:

You can find out more about this and other techniques to optimise your listing by reading our article on ‘How to Use Google My Business as a Personal Trainer’ where there’s plenty of overlap for how to get more yoga students!

#6 How to Get More Students to Yoga Class with Social Media Content

Next up for how to get more students to your classes is with strong social media content.

Social media can provide huge platforms that you ought to be utilising if you want to reach as many people as possible.

In fact, statistics show that over half of the UK’s population uses Instagram, which gives you an idea of how lucrative it can be to use it for your marketing strategies!

This is why if you want to know how to get more yoga students, one of the best places to start is learning what kind of content your yoga target market wants to see. 

With your content, you should have a balance between creating that which actively encourages people to sign up to class and also posts that build up your brand identity by making your posts instantly recognisable.

This will help you to stick in people’s minds and increase your chances of engagement, which boosts your profile and will get you more leads for class members!

You should be aware of who you’re targeting in terms of: 

• Age
• Preferred style
• Exercise habits
• Approach to yoga

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Then you can target directly to them and create content that reaches your ideal class members, encouraging them to try your classes!

Some of the top things you should consider with your content is: 

• Boosting your discoverability by being aware of how the Instagram algorithm works. First and foremost your social media content will make it easier for people to discover your classes which will help boost your numbers!
• Creating content that humanises your brand. Your content should also humanise your brand by introducing people to you as an instructor! This means foregrounding who you are and your approach to teaching in your posts. 

        This will mean that people are much more likely to sign up to classes when they feel like they know a little          bit more about you as a teacher and connect to you through your posts!

• Promoting your brand as a trustworthy resource. You can promote your brand as a trustworthy resource by privileging educational and instructional content.

You want to give people an idea of what they can expect from your classes as well as asserting yourself as a yogi expert!

You can do this with posts that focus on tips and tricks for particular poses or interesting transitions.

This is what Helen Downey has done:

She has a great mix of content that asserts her expertise and foregrounds her personality, making her classes and brand seem more approachable, encouraging engagement:

There’s a mixture of posts about the classes she offers as well as tips on drills that can be done when you’re working towards particular asanas.

She’s also got plenty of reels which help with how to get more yoga students because the algorithm favours video content.

This is the kind of content you should be creating if you want to know how to get more students to your yoga class and boost your brand!

If you’re finding this helpful and you want more useful tips, check out our other articles below:

• How to Write an Exceptional Yoga Teacher Instagram Bio
• Ultimate Guide: How to Become a Yoga Influencer
• Everything You Need to Know About Continuing Education for Yoga Teachers 

#7 How to Get More Students to Your Yoga Class Using Paid Ads

Another thing you should invest in if you want to know how to get more yoga students is paid advertisements on different platforms.

There’s two main options for paid ads:

• Paid Meta ads
• Google ads

Meta is the umbrella company for Facebook and Instagram so you can decide ads on both platforms using the same software. 

On both you can choose to advertise to target demographics and bid for certain keywords for the ad.

You’ll only pay when someone is directed through and visits your website via your ad, called ‘pay-per-click’, and how much you spend will depend on a daily or total budget you set.

Instagram and Facebook ads work in much the same way, both ‘pay-per-click’, and can be targeted on stories or on people’s feed. 

Here’s an example of our own Instagram ads so you know what they could look like:

Facebook ads, though designed on the same platform, will look like this:

As you can see, some of the best things to advertise are if you’re doing a particular event or a workshop.

That’s because, as we mentioned earlier, things work best with time pressure and encourage people to sign up quicker.

Exeter Yoga has included everything you’d need to know from the date, time, and target market for the course, as well as persuasive copy and an image. All of this will help with click through rates.

A Google ad looks the same as a normal ranking page, except for a small piece of text saying ‘ad’ in bold at the side:

People who click through to your website via an ad are much more likely to become paying customers, and are much more likely to click through to your page when you show at the top of the results page on Google!

You can find out more information about social media ads with our article on fitness Facebook ads here.

You can also find out everything you need to know about setting up effective Google ads with our article: ‘The Complete Guide to Google Ads for Personal Trainers.’

#8 How to Get More Yoga Clients by Optimising Your Website’s SEO

As we mentioned earlier, if you want to know how to get more yoga students you should focus on your search engine optimisation.

We covered how you can do this with your Google My Business listing but what about your website?

This is where you make sure you have a website that’s as discoverable as possible, focusing on ranking as high as possible for different relevant Google searches.

There’s a range of different things you can do to make your website’s SEO stronger including:

• Linking one page to other pages on your site
• Including relevant, well written blog posts that prioritise keywords
• Keeping everything up to date and accurate, updating it regularly so that your web pages and content are fresh
• Focus on how your site will look and be read on a mobile first and foremost 

We’ll very briefly run through some of these to give you an idea of how you can optimise your site and learn how to get more yoga students using SEO! 

Linking to Other Pages

This means exactly what you’d think - on your web pages you should make sure that you include links to other parts of the site!

This helps users to find the pages they need and be directed to other places so that they can book your classes and find out more about your service!

This also helps Google navigate your site using an algorithm called PageRank. This determines the importance of particular pages.

If you’ve got several internal links that all lead to your class schedule and your booking page this will tell Google it’s an important page and make it more likely to rank highly. 

Eleven:Eleven yoga studios in Liverpool is a great example of this. They have several links through the site all leading to the booking page for a class:

These internal links prioritise the page and help it to rank higher and be more discoverable! 

How to Get More Yoga Students with a Blog 

If you want to know how to get more students to yoga class another great way to boost your SEO is with dedicated blog posts.

You can decide on the content for your blog based on keyword research we mentioned earlier.

Using keyword research will tell you what people are regularly searching for and what’s popular within your field, which is why it’s great for how to get more yoga students!

You can see what people want to know and cater to those searches, drawing people to your site and making them more likely to sign up for your classes!

When you’re getting started there’s plenty of free keyword research software you can use to source the best ones for your business including:

• Google Trends
• Keyword Generator from Ahrefs
• Bulk Keyword Generator from Higher Visibility

This can seem intimidating at first but you don’t need to write lots of blog posts to draw people to your site.

In fact, according to SEO expert Brian Dean at Backlinko, it’s far more important you have fresh and up to date information than volume of content.

Yoga Hub, the top ranking studio in Liverpool, is a great example of how to get more yoga students using a blog:

Being able to answer potential class members’ questions increases the reliability of your brand as well as keeping people on your site for longer.

You can find out more about how to get yoga clients using a blog with the tips in our article ‘How to Get More Clients from a Fitness Blog: Step-by-Step’. 

How to Get More Yoga Students by Prioritising Mobile 

Last but not least, one of the best ways to boost the SEO of your site is by prioritising the way it looks on mobile.

Considering most people will be looking for things on the browser on their phone, or from links via social media apps, it’s important to focus on this as it’s how your site will most often be viewed.

In fact, according to research.com, over half of the traffic to websites comes from mobile devices!

Because the screen is smaller on a phone the formatting will be different depending on things like: 

• Paragraph size
• How regularly images break up the text
• The size of your pop ups

All of these things should be things you test out and stay on top of with your website! 

There should be settings on whatever platform you use for your site to view what it will look like on mobile before you make any changes.

You can also use Google’s ‘mobile friendly test’ here to see how easy it is to navigate on mobile and ensure you regularly make any changes needed!

#9 How to Get Yoga Clients with Email Marketing

Last but not least, if you want to know how to get more yoga students with other digital strategies, you should also spend some time developing an email marketing campaign.

Working in tandem with other marketing strategies, the benefit of having a fitness email marketing strategy is that you’ve got a direct line to people interested in your yoga classes!

For example, if people have opted in to receive email updates and information then they’re interested in yoga and want to know more about what you offer.

In fact, according to Hubspot 73% of millennials, who make up the majority of yoga students, prefer to be contacted by businesses via email.

So, not only is this a more direct way of marketing, it’s also giving people exactly the kind of communication they want and increasing the likability of your brand!

There’s a few different platforms you can use, depending on your budget, including: 

• MailChimp
• ActiveCampaign
• Moosend

One of the best things you can do as part of your email marketing is decide on some yoga newsletter ideas which can include details of:

• Your class timetable
• Singling a particular class out and giving information about a style
• Details of any retreats or up and coming events you’re hosting
• Singling any particular students out for their success and development in class

All of this helps to personalise and humanise your brand so that people are much more likely to sign up for your classes and keep recommending you to their friends and family!

You can find out everything you need to know about creating a fitness email marketing campaign here, with our dedicated article!

Before You Go! 

Hopefully now you know how to get more yoga students, wherever you are in your career, with a mixture of creative marketing ideas and investments you should make.

Don’t forget that boosting your expertise and offering new styles is a great way to attract new students and increase attendance!

You can check out all of our yoga teacher training courses here, or by downloading our free course prospectus!