By Faye Martins
Does every Yoga school need a website? Without students, a school will not last. Let’s face it, advertising isn’t cheap. Some schools go broke because of over priced marketing services and costly print media marketing. One ad in your local newspaper can seriously set you back on your annual budget. If you don’t come out ahead with your return on investment, you could be out of business in a matter of weeks or months. The Internet is filled with opportunities, but how can you use it to keep your studio thriving? You’ve put a lot into training, getting certified, and now you have a school, but this advertising game is full of sharks that make you empty promises. Let’s look at how to keep your studio running in good times and in rough economic waters.
Inexpensive and Effective Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Yoga Website
You finally had the time and money to get your yoga website finished and running. Now you realize this is only the beginning. Maintaining and driving traffic to your site is essential for success. Ask yourself a few questions that will help you devise a marketing plan.
1. What is my primary objective?
2. How much time do I have to devote to the site?
3. How much money do I want to spend?
Answering these questions will enable you to determine if you need to hire someone to optimize your website or if you will tackle it on your own.
If you are on a budget, there are a few ways you can get started without spending a fortune.
Build an Email List: It is good to offer something for free that requires a visitor to input their email address. This could be a video or audio file, or a PDF document. Examples could be something like a graph showing five asanas for relaxation or five easy steps for a peaceful meditation. Use this list to send out monthly newsletters. You can find an email service like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp for a small monthly fee.
Social Media: The phenomenon of social media is real and if handled correctly can create productive results. By combining Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube, you can reach thousands of potential visitors. Set up a business page on Facebook, download yoga videos on YouTube, and create a board dedicated to Yoga on Pinterest. Put the icons on the top of the front page of your website to allow visitors easy access
Blogging: Google loves new information as well as video. It is essential that you post a new written or video blog at least weekly. Make sure the blog is not always about you or your studio. Create compelling articles on a variety of topics that would be of interest to the yoga community. Create anchor links in the body of your articles to sites or pages that give your readers valuable information
SEO: Use some of your marketing budget to find a reasonably priced search engine optimizer. They understand the correct architecture for your site, which includes things like backlinks, keywords, and meta-descriptions that will pull your website to higher rankings on all the major search engines.
These four methods will get you off to a good start for attracting visitors to your website. Keep them coming back by offering a site that is easy to navigate with eye-catching images and interesting content. Hopefully, your visitors will bookmark your site and visit often.
How to Get More Visitors to My Yoga Website
Running a successful yoga studio often involves maintaining a well organized and informative website associated with the studio. The content of these websites can vary, but the focus is primarily on education regarding yoga and promoting a studio. Many people who visit the website may never have heard of the studio, and new visitors like this can become dedicated future students if the website is captivating and interesting. Increasing the visitor count to a website is important, as it can lead to lucrative opportunities and the ability to connect with other teachers and students.
The visual aspects of a website are taken in before the content is, and attracting visitors to a yoga website is difficult if the design is boring and plain. An appealing website is well-organized and easy to maneuver. If people cannot find what they are looking for with ease, they will often move on, and this is a visitor and potential student that is lost. The colors used should not clash, and the font should be something professional and easy to read. Pages should be clearly labeled, and navigating the website should not require more skill than flying a jet.
Though it may seem odd, the content of a website is the second thing that a visitor notices, following the appearance and layout. The content available on a website should be accurate, well researched, and skillfully written. Content that is difficult to understand or read will only serve to drive visitors away, rather than draw them in as a website is intended to do. Having a wide variety of information available is helpful, as this can draw in visitors who may be looking for information about yoga, meditation, or poses that is specific to them and different than what others are searching for.
Another way of increasing the traffic to a yoga site is to provide lessons and tips online if it is an option that can be utilized. Creating short videos that detail how and why poses are performed or how to meditate comfortably are an easy way of increasing traffic, and offering free short video lessons is also a way of helping students determine if your teaching style will mesh with their learning style. This can help potential students decide whether or not they should take classes at your studio, as well as which classes will benefit them the most if you offer a variety of courses.
© Copyright 2010 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
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If you are a teacher, yoga school manager, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is. Namaste!
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