Grassroots marketing and outreach for your yoga classes or business will require your attention. The old adage, “build it and they will come” is great, but only somewhat true. You will still need to actively seek, reach, and share to grow your potential customer base. However, the process can be a lot of fun and all you have to do is start tapping into what you already have available! Gratitude! First, you’ll need to get pumped about self, and community promotion. Still feel a little cringey about it; DON’T! I’m serious friend, you have something incredible to share and offer. Do it. Remember, you’re either a business or a charity, and both require promotion for success. I betcha your peers will be willing to get on board. So, are you ready to build on your existing relationships as you build your business for success? If so, this article is for you.
Marketing VS Advertising
To get to the NEXT LEVEL, we’re going to take a group approach to build a leg up. Here’s what you need to know: In the words of the American Marketing Association: “Marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and determining how best to meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the exercise of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels. Advertising is a component of marketing.” Essentially, advertising is paid marketing. However, there are a lot of grassroots marketing & advertising strategies that you can employ for your business. Your customer base exists, you have the skills, services & information to serve them. Now, build some hype around your biz and get the word out on the street.
Grassroots Community Initiatives
Now, let’s consider how to turn your ideas into actionable initiatives. Grassroots forms of marketing will require you to start talking and collaborating with the amazing community that you probably already have around you. Remember, when the content and sharing is mutually beneficial, it’s a lot easier to gain cooperation. Even better, participation usually ramps up as well. Thus, driving customers to YOUR yoga-related business is only boosted by sharing that audience with the other yoga businesses that surround you. It’s cooperation, not competition. What’s meant to be yours, is already yours. Share the wealth! Help build each other up & everyone benefits.
Create A Social Media Campaign for Yourself & Your Biz
In an arena based on authenticity, you’re going to want to streamline your presence. In the digital age, we all have platforms for self-promotion. Yet, it’s good to tease out your professional persona, as to not burn out your personal relationships. Whether you’re promoting your classes as a teacher, or your services as a business, it’s good to have a specific space for that to take on its own life. Be integrated but know, when it comes to marketing, the personal platform can’t handle the full-blown scale of what we’ll need. Additionally, ask yourself, “is it really your target audience anyway?” Sprinkle it in when you can, but move marketing into its own sphere: website, Facebook page, or Instagram account. Once it’s there: be consistent. (BONUS: Set it up on a schedule).
Collaboration With Your Studio, Gym, or Professional Office
Creating a sense of community in your business and with your customers means making supportive relationships visible. Highlighting individual personalities and endeavors helps location-based offerings to make your products more accessible, and more importantly, more likable. Basically, it infuses your offerings with humanness. And that may be just the thing that draws more clients in. Remember, in a studio, gym or professional office, both the setting AND the instructors become part of your sellable commodity. Make each instructor into the online mini-celebrity that they already are in your heart. Share that with the world. Allow this relationship to remain mutually beneficial.
Synergy & Synchronicity
Not one single instructor, business, or complimentary service is going to suit every customer’s every need. This is why we share. This is how we assist our customers in finding what they need that fits and build up a positive rapport all the way around. Feature each other in blogs, newsletters, workshops, etc., and cross-promote with enthusiasm. Grassroots marketing & outreach won’t always be your main source of marketing & advertising, but it will always be a component of it. Walk your talk and create an ongoing atmosphere of synergy & synchronicity.
Collaborate.