
5 Ways to Grow Your Yoga Studio’s Sales
How to better engage your yoga studio’s customers, make them want to come back for more, and unlock opportunities to upsell them.
It’s a rare bird who loves to feel like they are selling something, especially in the yoga world. Nevertheless, selling is a must for a healthy studio. Fortunately, there are ways to frame your “asks” so you feel less like a salesperson, and more like a yoga instructor who wants to share what you love with the world.
When done correctly and consistently, you create a culture where you and your staff drop the fear of sales, invite your customers to keep spending and returning, and your customers feel comfortable about it too. Begin by thinking of each sales opportunity as a conversation, an opportunity to share, an offering. Then, be consistent about inserting this conversation into each interaction you have with your clients.
Below are five simple ways to insert an ask, and change the vibe from awkward sales type transaction to a win-win value exchange.
1. Capture Emails and Use Them
Email is everything. Social media is a constantly changing landscape, but people check their email daily just like they did ten years ago. Make sure you have a solid email communications plan.
- Opportunities: Always ask for customers’ email addresses at the point of their first interaction with your studio. It could be when they visit your website, call with a question, or walk in your door for more information.
- Offers: In exchange for their email, consider offering a small incentive like a discounted trial pass. Or, if your trial pass is already too good of a deal, offer a discount off their second purchase. In this way, you are offering value while encouraging their next purchase.
- Communications: Once you’ve got their email, send out regular communications with worthy content. This could be news about upcoming events and programs, or information that allows them to get to know you and your instructors a little better.
- Tone: Don’t make every email a marketing push. Strike a balance. If you’re consistently communicating, and you’re offering a reason other than “buy this!” to open the email, you have a good shot at a client clicking through to a sale.
- Links: Be sure to include direct links for class and event registration, or retail or service purchases. Make any links easy to follow through with, in particular on a mobile device, where most people are checking their email. If you mention a product, for example, the link should go straight to a cart with that product in it, versus to your online storefront.
- Simplicity: Overall, the fewer steps customers need to take, the more likely they are to follow through with purchases.
- Systems: Ideally, use a system that stores customers’ credit card information so they can continue to make purchases without entering their details each time. Most online store or scheduling software for yoga studios offers safe storage of credit card details.

2. Encourage Pre-Registration for Classes
Encourage pre-registrations every time, all the time. In short, you should constantly ask yourself, “How can I get this person to come again?”
- Why: When someone pre-registers for class, you have their contact information and therefore an opportunity to send them a class reminder, and the option of reaching out to them again if they don’t show up. All those communications can include direct links to future purchases.
- Automation: The advantage of purpose built scheduling software is that it can save you time. Features might include automatically sending customers a reminder email with a calendar link, the option to share their schedule with friends on social media, or a follow-up email which thanks them for their attendance or nudges them to try again if they missed the class.
- Incentives: If you have a cap on your classes, remind customers that there is limited space. You can also incentivize pre-registrations by offering a quicker check-in process, by sending class reminders, or by rewarding pre-registrations through a customer loyalty system.
- Payment: The fewer barriers to pre-registration the better. Allowing un-paid class sign-ups gives you an opportunity to capture someone’s contact information. If they show up, you’ll get their money — and if they don’t come, you can still reach out to them.

3. Follow Up When Passes Run Low or Expire
Let your students know their attendance matters to you, and invite them to return when their time is running low.
- Tracking: Ideally, your schedule software has the ability to track when clients have passes that are running low or expiring. It’s not enough to assume these folks are having such a good time they’ll renew on their own.
- Timing: When a customer’s current passes are running low, send a follow up with direct links to renew.
- Incentives: Consider offering discounts for those who commit to an auto-renewing option, or for those who renew before their current pass’ expiration.
- Loyalty: Make renewal suggestions based on a client’s frequency of visits. For example, if a customer on a ten class pass uses it in fewer than three months, suggest they switch to an unlimited plan. For example, “You’ve been making wonderful progress with your ten class pass, it would be great to get you enrolled in our monthly unlimited program so you can continue with this momentum and we could see you more often.”
- Tone: Your tone should say to customers, “We notice that your time with us is almost ending, and want to ensure that we see you again. We appreciate your attendance here, and invite you to return.” Everybody wants to feel they matter, and it’s nice to know that your yoga studio sees when it’s time for your pass to renew.

4. Incentivize Through Smart Pricing Plans
With sales, our job is to have an answer for every ‘no’ we receive. Most people have a limited budget for fitness, and the addition of a yoga practice is not something they have planned for yet. Offering a variety of class packages and memberships at several price points gives you the opportunity to approach this from different angles.
- Overall: The higher the total package price, the lower the per-class price. You are in the business of encouraging healthy habits.
- Big Savings: For the customer who would like to pay as little as possible per class, you might offer an unlimited monthly package or a 20 class package.
- Less Up-Front: For those who would like to pay as little as possible up front, offer a five class package or a one-week package.
- Single Classes: Discourage the purchase of individual classes by making this price point the least economical. After all, once a person has more than one class or one day on their account, they are more likely to revisit you. The more a person visits your studio, the more likely they are to continue.
- Simplicity: When too much is on the menu, it becomes difficult for you to sell and difficult for them to decide. The key is to maintain a variety of options, but keep it simple enough so you and your instructors can offer customers a clear and a quick decision.

5. Involve Your Instructors
Your instructors are your front line, and the most closely connected with your students. Involve them in the sales pitch as much as possible.
- Announcements: Many teachers shy away from making announcements before or after class, but when done properly, it doesn’t have to sound like a sales pitch. Your instructors know better than anyone the transformative power of yoga, so why wouldn’t they invite their students to experience that as well, either through more consistent attendance, a workshop or retreat registration or by jumping on the opportunity that this weekend’s sale offers for adding more classes to their account. Post-class announcements should sound like an invitation to participate more.
- Emails: What if your customers received an email from an instructor personally, instead of from the studio? Obviously, you must follow privacy laws, so can’t be giving student contact details to instructors. However, perhaps you can have your instructor sit down in your studio office and send off a few emails from the studio email account, but sign with their name. For example, “Hi, this is Jane from YogaStudio. Thanks for coming to my class last Tuesday. I thought to drop you a note because ____.”
- Letters/Postcards: What if your instructors sent handwritten notes thanking clients for their attendance, or reminding customers who haven’t taken a class in a while that you miss them? Again, follow your local privacy laws, but there should be no problem with your instructors writing a few notes in the office for you to later send out.
- Calls: What if your instructors made phone calls to someone who expressed interest in teacher training but did not yet register, just to ask, “Do you have any questions?” Obviously, you don’t want it to feel like a sales call, so try doing some role play exercises to find the right balance. The call should feel friendly and helpful. Of course, you can’t give your students’ phone numbers to your instructors, but you can have them make calls from your office.
If you’ve properly incentivized attendance and sales, your instructors should realize they have as great a role in the success of the business as anyone. After all, who doesn’t want bigger classes? Be prepared to offer bonuses based on class attendance or commissions based on sales.

Ready to Take Action?
When we take the perspective that “selling” is simply another way of inviting someone to experience yoga, to take part in our community, and to see progress in their practice, then we’re much more likely to reach out. Let your customers know that you care about their presence. Help them feel invited back at each and every opportunity.
