This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How can I market an online yoga course? That's the question we're gonna take today here on "Side Hustle School." Welcome, by the way, my name's Chris Guillebeau. Thanks for tuning in wherever you are in the world. We have an amazing community of folks from so many different countries, so many different parts of the world, all united with the goal of making extra money without quitting your job, okay? Or perhaps making enough money so that you can quit your job, 'cause that's good too.
So in this episode, as mentioned, we're gonna address a question from Maria. She is a yoga instructor looking to expand her business beyond the confines of her local studio, which conveniently leads to her question about marketing an online yoga course. Now that said, with the rise of so many online courses and a plethora of free resources available, plethora, that just means like a lot. There's a lot of free yoga videos out there. Maria is facing the challenge of marketing her course effectively and competing with all that free content.
So we're gonna explore a couple strategies for promoting and differentiating that online course. And if you're seeking to broaden your reach, perhaps boost your online business or get your new online business off to a good start, whatever it is, this discussion will be helpful. At least that's my goal, all in a short period of time, detailed question, and my answer coming right up. [Music]
- Hey, I'm Maria, a yoga instructor who wants to expand my business beyond my local studio. I've created an online course that teaches students how to practice yoga at home, but I'm struggling to get enough sales to make the course profitable.
My question is how can I market my online yoga course to a wider audience and what strategies can I use to increase sales and engagement? In particular, I don't know how to compete with all the free yoga streams that are available on YouTube and elsewhere. [Music]
Hey, Maria, it's awesome to hear that you're taking your yoga business online and expanding beyond the local studio. So I also recognize the challenge. First things first, let's tackle how to compete with all those free yoga streams.
Yes, there's a lot of free content out there on pretty much every network. Just remember that your online course offers unique value that the free videos can't provide, or at least, hopefully it does, think about it like the value of an in-person studio. Like I still go to yoga, though not as much as I should. Let's not talk about how infrequently I'm going to yoga these days, but when I go to yoga, I go to it. Like I actually go to an in-person studio, even though I could just watch it on YouTube and there's lots of free content, but I value that in-person studio.
There are ways to make the online course have similar value, okay? So to make your course shine, emphasize the personal touch that you bring as an experienced instructor. Emphasize the structured learning path that your course offers. Like presumably it's not just one class, right? There's a series of steps that people are going to learn.
Emphasize any exclusive content or resources that come with it, perhaps access to you. That tends to be a pretty important benefit of an online course. Whatever it is, you want to showcase that value as much as possible. Now next, we need a plan for reaching a wider online audience. Ultimately, you need to reach more people on the front end because lots of people are not going to pay.
So you need more people who are at least seeing whatever free content you make. At least kind of going through any kind of funnel process that you create that will eventually drive some to pay. So lots of options there. But because it's an online course, you probably want a strong online presence. So you want that website.
You want to be active on the social media platforms where your target audience hangs out. You might collaborate with other instructors, wellness influencers, bloggers, some kind of cross promotion perhaps. But I would say more important than that is don't forget about email marketing. Like build a mailing list by offering a free resource of some kind, a short yoga sequence, a guided meditation, whatever it is in exchange for an email address. And then nurture those subscribers and promote the course through a targeted campaign.
You might also, here's another idea, host a live webinar or a workshop. That can be like a preview of your course. Give students a taste of your teaching style. Plus you can offer some kind of exclusive discount or bonus to attendees to encourage them to sign up for the paid course. Lots of options, but mostly stay persistent, keep refining the strategies, do more of what works, do less of what doesn't.
And with time and effort, you'll be able to grow your audience and make that course a success. So Maria, I wish you every success. Keep sharing your passion for yoga and everything else. Best of luck on the journey, namaste. All right, listeners, if you've got a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
We'll continue to feature them each week. I just love this ongoing dialogue. Let me know what you're working on, what's going well, what's not, or just keep tuning in. You know, I want this to be good for you in whatever way is best for you. So I'm gonna sign off now and come back again tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
from the Onward Project.
