How to create a marketing plan for your yoga business

“When should I post on social media”
“When should I email my list”
“What should I say to my audience”

These are words I hear all the time so if you’re thinking these things too, you’re not alone my friend. It’s tough to teach all your yoga classes AND think about marketing too.

“Let’s face it. You want to teach yoga to impact lives, not to spend all day on Instagram” — Amanda McKinney

And this is where having a marketing plan will come in handy. Not just handy but time-and-sanity-saving-handy! So even if you aren’t the planning type, trust me when I say this will help you so much.

What is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan can feel overwhelming and BIG but it can really be simple. As a matter of fact, using a simple Google Doc is what I suggest you use. And I’ve even created a template that you can simply copy and paste and use immediately. Enter your information in the form below and get it delivered to your email right away.

A marketing plan is simply a document that outlines what marketing actions you will take in a given time. In an ideal world, if you and I were chatting over coffee or tea I would love for you to know the answer to this question —

“What do you do on a weekly basis to promote your yoga business?” — Amanda McKinney

If you just looked down, cringed or whatever your nervous tick is, that means you don’t know what your marketing plan is on a weekly basis. So let’s work towards that together today. I’m going to share a go-to, basic marketing plan with you and then you can adapt it to what feels right for you and your yoga business.

For this exercise imagine that you have a Google Doc open and there is a table with 4 columns.

Elements to include in a marketing plan

Publish Date / Timeline

When will you publish to your marketing channels AND when you will create the marketing elements. It’s important to know when you will be creating these social media posts or emails because doing this on-the-fly is setting yourself up for disaster or at the very least, blinking-cursor syndrome where you have no idea what to write. Don’t do this to yourself.

Marketing channels
What marketing channels will you use to promote your yoga business and invite students to join your awesome party?

What 2 to 3 marketing channels will you use to promote your yoga business to your audience? I highly suggest that email is one marketing channel for you and that you are (or will be) intentional about building your email list. This is how you will be able to grow your business and nurture the relationships you already have with your audience right now.

Choose your 2 to 3 marketing channels and stay in those lanes. Please don’t feel like you need to be on all social media channels or interacting in all the places where you see people marketing their business.

If you find yourself struggling with this ask yourself what social media platform you enjoy and/or what social media channel your dream student interacts on more? That’s your social channel. Email will be another and then if you want to add a local, non-digital marketing channel such as posters in your local area, make that your other channel.

Messages & Call To Action (CTA)
For each marketing asset you will want to identify the key message and the CTA.

You know that blinking-cursor syndrome I mentioned, well it’s real and it will kick your butt if you aren’t sure what to say. This is where your plan will come in handy. If you know the overall message and call to action you want to share, coming up with the words for the social media posts or the email is much easier.

The Simple Go-To Yoga Marketing Plan

Are you ready for it? I’m about to share the simple marketing plan that you can follow for years to come if it feels right. You can always add more to this if you want but you can keep it this simple:

• Email: email your list at least one time a month, graduate up to 2 times a month and then week.
• Social Media Channel: post 3 times a week based on these post ideas — (1)your content, your ideas, your message; (2)someone else’s content that your audience would appreciate; and (3)something fun and engaging

That’s it!

How to Put Your Marketing Plan Into Use

A plan is great but if you never take action on it, that plan can’t work for you. Let’s talk about how to make this happen.

I want you to declare ONE HOUR A WEEK that you can work on marketing your yoga business. One hour. Just one hour away from all the other things but this hour will help you get into a habit of marketing your business which will help you grow your business.

This hour doesn’t have to be consistent week to week but it helps if it can be. Once you have this hour in your mind, you need to get it on the calendar. Whatever calendar you use, that’s where it needs to be. Like a hair appointment, doctors appointment or lunch with a friend that you wouldn’t miss. This is important! Make a promise to yourself that you will make it happen and I promise you will see results eventually.

But it’s not enough to have it on the calendar as a blank calendar invite. This needs to be specific! You need to map out what you will do in that time. You will find what works for you over time but here’s what you can start with:

• Write your social media posts for next week.
• Write your email for the month.
• Schedule all the marketing.

And if you’re thinking — “Amanda, it takes me longer than 1 hour to write one social media post, let alone 3”. I’ve got you. Here’s the secret, you will actually become even quicker with writing when you’re writing more than one at a time.

“Trust the process and give it time.” — Amanda McKinney

The more you do this, the quicker you will get and the more you will know what’s resonating with your audience. Once you’ve been posting consistently for a while, you can look back and see what people engaged with the most and create more content like that. Your audience will help you but you don’t know what they need until you produce the content for them.

So get after it!

Your next step

Download and test this simple marketing plan and see how it works for you. Get started with simple and easy and add things as you feel like you have the capability to do that.

Make sure to download the template that you can use for this process. It has the details for the simple marketing plan and the template you can use each and every week to plan out your marketing.

Until next time give yourself permission to keep marketing simple and grace along the way.

Talk to you soon!

For more stories like this, listen to the Marketing Yoga with Confidence Podcast.

About Amanda McKinney (Marketing Coach for Yoga Teachers)

Amanda McKinney is a Marketing Coach with a passion for empowering yoga teachers to earn more money doing what they love. She does this through her podcast: Marketing Yoga With Confidence and Online Offerings. All of which focuses on building confidence and community with an extra dose of encouragement every step of the way.