To create a successful online yoga business, you need to know how to find a profitable niche and specifically your yoga niche.
Finding your niche is about narrowing in on a specific type of student with a specific need.
Without a niche, it’s difficult to create messaging and offerings that resonate with the right people. If you don’t have messaging and offerings that resonate, your marketing simply won’t work.
If your marketing doesn’t work, you won’t make any sales, which means you don’t have a yoga business.
In reality, 99% of yoga teachers are resisting niching down and avoiding focusing on a specific yoga niche. It feels safer for them to keep their options open with a broader more general offering.
When you’re starting out, you want to attract as many students as possible. It can feel scary and counterproductive to focus your efforts on finding a smaller group of students. Which may feel as if you’re excluding people altogether. Why would you want to exclude anyone if they’re interested in yoga and they’re paying money?
Although this is true; the goal is to add value. Adding value is much easier if you’re familiar with your student’s pain points and challenges. Allowing you to focus on solving their needs and addressing their specific problems.
You’re destined to fail if you try to be everything for everyone. To make money and create a successful online yoga business, you need to understand how to find a profitable yoga niche.
What is a niche?
A niche is either a person or problem. A specific type of person or problem. It’s not enough to have a yoga niche that teaches headstands or yin yoga or yoga for beginners. Who is it for and what is their problem that you can help solve?
Everyone starts off as a beginner, but why are they coming to the practice of yoga? Who are they? What is their problem?
A specific type of person could be prenatal women, elderly people, new mums, athletes, even actors. It can be related to an activity that this person does or stage of life they’re in.
Essentially, it’s a person who has specific characteristics and type of problem. Other examples include a physical injury or ailment such as back pain, thyroid imbalance, mental health issues, addictions, stress, lack of time, grief etc.
The best yoga niche is when you can identify a specific type of student with a specific need or problem. As a business owner you then need to create offerings such as workshops, retreats, courses or memberships that provide solutions to meet your students’ specific needs.
What problem do you help to solve?
Having a business is about providing solutions. The key is to research and understand what problem you’re solving. Once you have clarity, you can grow and build your community, create online offerings that you’re passionate about, have a positive impact on your audience and generate income in your yoga business.
Remember to niche down and avoid being too broad. If you say your niche is “I teach restorative yoga”, this is not specific enough. Ask yourself who is this for? What problem are you solving with restorative yoga?
When you know this, you can be more targeted and creative with your content.
Creating content becomes easy. If you’re struggling to create content and you’re running out of ideas, it’s because you haven’t got clarity on your yoga niche.
When you have clarity on who that restorative yoga is for and what they’re struggling with, it becomes easy to create content. You can speak to the emotions, challenges and desires of your ideal student.
People resonate with content that they can relate to and is about them. Reading about a yoga class that’s taking place on a Sunday morning isn’t inspiring them to engage and take action. But reading about a problem that they’re currently experiencing will resonate with them.
When your content isn’t resonating with people, you won’t make sales. And if you don’t make sales, you don’t have a business.
Stand Out Amongst the Noise
There are so many voices in the online space competing for everyone’s attention. Many yoga teachers saying the same thing, sharing the same message in the same voice.
Without laser focus on your messaging, your message will get lost. When you craft your message with details and specifics that represents your ideal student, it’s incredibly easy to gain their attention even in a noisy online world.
When you know your ideal student, you speak their language using words and emotions that resonate with them and builds trust. When you get specific about what you’re offering and who you’re offering it to, your ideal student begins to feel like you’ve created your offering just for them.
Would You Rather…
Be good at a lot of things or really good at one thing? A jack of all trades or a master of one?
When you’re a master of one you become an expert in that field. If you’re a woman looking for yoga to support you through menopause, your most likely looking for a toga teacher who specialises in yoga for menopause.
You will buy from teachers and companies that have spent the time to create tailor made offerings for what you really want.
This is what defining a niche can do for your business. It helps your business appear more professional and credible than your generic competitors. It makes it easier for students to choose you amongst the noise.
It also helps you be more efficient with your time and energy. Rather than running yourself into the ground trying to create many things for lots of people, you focus on the students who need you most.
Most people aren’t just looking for any option. They want THE option
Think about your own behaviour. When you’re searching for something online, you’re specific about what you’re searching for. You’re searching for something that’s going to solve your problem.
If you’re trying to be everything for everyone, you won’t show up in online search results. Your message will get lost amongst the sea of other yoga teachers who have a general offering with the same message and voice.
Summary
Make a decision today to explore your yoga niche. Decide that having a niche is the best decision for your business. Research and understand your ideal audience and create content that resonates with them.
If you’re struggling to find your niche or know how to create content that reaches your ideal audience, you can learn more inside of our Yogipreneuer Launchpad. A powerful course to launch your yoga business into the online space and create success.
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