Authentic & Effective Email Marketing For Yoga Teachers

Whether you're building a following in-person or online, growing an email list is one of the best things you can do for your yoga business. Your email list is your personal community of supporters who love everything about you and what you offer.

However, getting new (and repeating) students from your email list will only work if you know how to master email marketing.

Now, I know what you're thinking… Email marketing is salesy, sleazy, and just not authentic.

That's what I used to think until I studied copywriting and learned that actually, email marketing can be incredibly powerful, value-driven, and effective. So if you're interested in learning how to grow and nurture your email list authentically, read on!

How To Grow Your Email List Organically

If your email list currently consists of your best friend, mum, and neighbor, your priority is to grow your list and gain many potential students who will (hopefully) become your loyal yogis. 

The quickest way to grow an email list is through paid advertising (such as Facebook ads), but this gets costly quickly. Because of this, most yoga teachers prefer to grow their lists organically. Here's how you can do this.

Add an opt-in form on your website

The easiest thing you can do to get more subscribers is to add an opt-in form to your website. Besides their name and email address, other fields you may want to include are experience level, location, and practice frequency. This additional information will be helpful once your email list has grown to the point you need to create segments based on one of these factors. 

Offer an incentive

If you have an opt-in form on your site and your analytics show you're getting visitors but no new subscribers, offer an incentive or freebie. 

People are typically wary about giving their email addresses out, especially if they don't know you. But if you offer something of value in return for their information, such as a guided meditation, pre-recorded class, or e-book, they will be much more likely to subscribe. 

To craft an irresistible incentive, look at what other yoga teachers or studios offer as their opt-in freebies, then try to create something even better. 

Over time, you can transform your email list into a loyal following of yogis who get excited whenever your name pops up in their inbox and instantly sign up for your workshops, retreats, and memberships. 

4 Tips For Nurturing Your Email List

Growing your email list is only one aspect of email marketing. There is no point paying for Facebook ads or spending hours and hours preparing opt-in freebies if you're not going to utilize your new email following.

So here are four things you should do to ensure your subscribers are glad to be part of your exclusive email community.

Stay consistent

Just as consistently posting on social media is crucial, you don't want to disappear from your email list's radar for months on end. If you do, when you finally send a new email, your yogis will probably wonder, "Who the hell is this person?"

To stay fresh in your student's minds (and visible in their inbox), I recommend sending a newsletter, preferably weekly, but bi-weekly or monthly also works. 

What should you talk about in your newsletter? Well, it's up to you, but be sure to mention your upcoming classes and events with clear information about how they can join. You can also talk about your class theme that week/month or choose a specific theme for each newsletter, such as an aspect of yoga philosophy or the lunar energy of that month.

If you need more ideas, sign up for newsletters from other yoga teachers or studios and see what topics they discuss.

Add value

In your newsletters and email campaigns, include lots of value rather than simply trying to promote and sell your services/products. Giving value through free content will immensely build trust between your students and you. 

You don't have to give away complimentary classes or spend hours creating free on-demand courses. Instead, you can give value by sharing things like:

• Personal stories or insights you've had that may be helpful to your students
• A few journaling prompts you use
• Explaining yogic terms like Sankalpa or Dristhi
• Ideas for daily rituals or morning routines
• An alignment or benefit breakdown of a specific yoga pose

Encourage interaction

Another way to build a strong relationship with your subscribers is to encourage them to interact with you. Rather than running your newsletter or marketing campaigns as a one-way street, ask your yogis to reply and share their thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

For example, if you're sharing a guided meditation, ask your subscribers to let you know how they found it. Or if you're sharing a bunch of affirmations or reflection prompts, encourage them to share which one they resonate with the most. 

You can also ask your subscribers what type of content they want to receive from you. Perhaps, you're sharing pose breakdowns; in that case, ask your readers to submit poses they would like a deeper explanation of.

You may also like to consider running a yoga challenge. For 5, 7, or 10 days, send a short sequence or mini-class with the intention of helping your yogis cultivate a daily practice.

Ask your yogis to document their practice through photos or emails and either email it to you or share it with your community on Instagram or in a Facebook group. To encourage participation, create a prize (such as a free class) for the yogi who engages the most.

Automate (and personalize) your emails

When you become a yoga teacher, you quickly realize you take on many other roles; marketer, event organizer, DJ, and so on. Before you know it, you're spending more time doing admin tasks than teaching. As you became a teacher to share your wisdom and passion through teaching, you're likely looking for ways to offload some of the admin work.

When it comes to email marketing, automating your emails is an absolute must. And the good news is you don't have to be a technical whizz to do this. 

Thanks to Momoyoga’s recent Mailchimp integration you can now send hyper specific emails to your yogis automatically, saving you time while increasing your engagement and booking rates. Mailchimp is the industry go-to email marketing platform, adored for its beautifully branded emails and sophisticated contact lists. 

Final Thoughts On Email Marketing For Yoga Teachers

You don't have to be a sales or tech expert to grow and nurture your yoga email list. While it may take some time and effort initially, it's well worth it. Over time, you can transform your email list into a loyal following of yogis who get excited whenever your name pops up in their inbox and instantly sign up for your workshops, retreats, and memberships.