Despite its popularity, yoga still fails to attract a significant proportion of the population, among which people who could profit from its health benefits. However, people who don’t know yoga, or who don’t want to book a class to try and see what it is, are worried that yoga might be another name for a fancy esoteric nonsense cult. They can be difficult to convince otherwise, especially if you try to engage in a conversation. When words can’t get to these people, it’s a good idea to try other approaches to show them the good that yoga can do. Of course, it’s important to remember that, while these methods are effective, they won’t turn every yoga hater into new yoga students. But they can help to create an open-minded attitude towards your yoga business.

Throw an event

An open yoga festival can give you the opportunity to touch a lot of people, and especially people who wouldn’t have thought of the benefits of yoga in the first place. It’s always a good idea to mix open events and some promotional ticket sales for private conferences or classes within your festival. But creating a successful event can be challenging and stressful, especially if you decide against working with professional event management teams. A good tip to gather some local attention is to start with a yoga class in a public area so that people who are interested can find out more at the festival.

Join relevant podcast and vlogs

While you probably have a blog and a few videos dedicated to yoga, it’s fair to say that these are only found by people who are interested in yoga in the first place. Indeed, if yoga isn’t your cup of tea, it’s unlikely that you’d accidentally google a yoga blog. But you can target your audience by appearing on different podcasts as a guest. Ultimately, this means you need to target a podcast that doesn’t discuss yoga as the main topic but focuses on themes that are relevant to your potential audience. For instance, you could join a podcast that promotes travels and talks about a yoga retreat in Bali that inspired you to become a teacher.

Tell a universal story

Telling stories is one of the oldest skills of civilization. It is also the most effective method of promotion. Indeed, universal stories help people to relate to the message. Telling the story of your yoga business through the eyes of a character – or yourself – can become a marketing experience. It’s the emotional hook in the story that can persuade people more than the factual data can. As a result, you’ll find that telling others how yoga has changed your life can be more effective than reciting health-approved facts. Besides everybody loves stories, so you’re sure to find an audience.

Image Credit: Tell your story

Attracting a new audience is difficult, especially for something like yoga where the target group is already pre-defined. So, if you’re trying to reach out and make more people curious about what they could gain from yoga, why not try surprising them with an unexpected presence, as part of an event, on a podcast or through emotional storytelling?

Featured Image: Acro Yoga Flash Mob in Austin