What do you think of when you hear the word “marketing”? Does it make you think of sleazy sales tactics? Or does it remind you of all the things you think you are supposed to be doing, like social media and email lists, and make you feel immediately overwhelmed??
Whichever camp you fall into, this episode has something for you! Y’all have been asking me to talk about marketing for yoga teachers for YEARS, and I have resisted until now. I met someone who I am TOTALLY in agreement with when it comes to marketing and I’m so excited for you guys to learn from her.
Nikki Naab-Levy is a Pilates teacher, licensed massage therapist, and certified functional strength coach with over a decade of experience helping clients build strength and overcome injury. She holds B.S. in Exercise Science and B.S. in Magazine Journalism from Ohio University and when she’s not teaching a sneaky hard Pilates class, you can find her using her journalism experience to help yoga and Pilates teachers find creative and effective ways to market their workshops, classes, and online programs.
In this episode you’ll hear:
- what marketing actually is and why it is important
- the several phases of a yoga teaching career and the different kinds of marketing that is appropriate for each one
- the main obstacles yoga teachers run into when they market their offerings
- three simple things you can do right now to make your marketing more effective
- some specific homework from Nikki and I to help you get started with some marketing basics if you’re not doing anything right now!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Nikki’s website
- Nikki’s Pilates IG
- Nikki’s Marketing IG
- Nikki’s Course: How to use social media for your business
- How to write a bio from Alexandra Franzen
- How to write a bio from Melissa Cassera
- The Myth of the Ideal Client (a podcast episode from me)
Hi Francesca,
Thank you so much for this podcast. I am a big fan of your podcasts. I am a NYC-based yoga teacher and I know we share some common friends. Hopefully we’ll get to meet in person one day!
I have a question about sharing a video with students who sign up for a newsletter. Does Nikki send a file of the video in an email or does she post it online and have it password protected? I have run into technical difficulties when trying to share video files via my Mailchimp due to the file size. Would love to hear any advice you have about this.
Looking forward to listening to more of your podcasts. Thanks so much for sharing!
Best,
Jenny
Hi Jenny! Thanks so much for reaching out; I’m really happy to be connected and I would love to meet in-person one day!
I’ll ping Nikki so she can share her thoughts about sharing videos with an email list, but in the meantime I’ll tell you what I do!
I always want to drive traffic back to my website, so I:
— upload my videos to Vimeo and make them private
— embed the link in my blog on my website
— share the link to the blog in an email
Then I take a screenshot of the blog image and hyperlink that in the email so people feel like they are clicking on the image and opening the video right from there. Does that make sense? This way people don’t need a password to watch the video, but no one has access to the videos unless they are on my email list. It looks like you use YouTube, and I’m not sure about this, but I think the privacy settings are different on YouTube. I like Vimeo because I can make something completely private (so it doesn’t come up on google searches… I’m pretty sure! 😉 but people still don’t need a password.
Let me know if that makes sense and if you have any questions!
Hey Jenny,
Thanks for your question. I’ll second everything Francesca said!
Here’s a few follow up thoughts for you though:
1. It depends on the video. If this is a free video that they had to opt in to get as a lead magnet, then I’ll put it on Vimeo where anyone with a private link can access it and I’ll use that private link in the email.
2. Go with easy. What Francesca said about using an image is awesome, but if you’re short on time/patience/tech skills, you could just include a link. I’ll be honest. Her way is prettier and “better,” but I’m lazy, so I often just use the link and skip the image 😉
3. If it’s a free video that I’m sending out to my list as a regular newsletter, then I honestly just send them to the YouTube link, which is public. In that case, they’re already on my list, so in that moment I’m not personally worried about driving them to my website, because my goal is to build a relationship with them, so when I do sell a digital product, they know me and are more open to purchasing it.
BUT if I were trying to get them to work with me for yoga privates or a class, then I’d probably embed that video into a blogpost and link to the blog, so they end up on my site potentially browsing my services (that’s just not my business model at the moment).
Final thought, if that happens to be your model….When writing the newsletter, I’d probably include a link to click the video sending them to the video, however you decide to host it AND in a line below it, say something like want more help with INSERT WHATEVER THE VIDEO HELPS WITH? We’re working in this in my next class series/workshop/when I teach privates. Click here to learn how we can work together.
Anyways, a long way of saying it all depends on your goal, but don’t directly embed videos into MailChimp, because the file would be huge and that wouldn’t work 😉
Let me know if you have any questions.
Nikki