Examples of marketing (good and bad) can be found everywhere. I always keep my eyes open when I drive around and check out what other businesses are doing in terms of marketing. With a little creativity and courage most marketing ideas can be applied to any number of businesses, including your yoga studio. Below is an example:

I have been driving past the practice of a particular dentist for over two years now. He works from a single storey house with a large front yard which is located on a main road near a set of traffic lights. Everybody who stops at the red lights will notice his various marketing activities.

The first thing he did was to display a massive, 1 metre tall, white plastic tooth – roots and all – on wheels outside his front fence. (Mind you it is chained to the fence!) I am sure I pass at least 6-10 dental practices on my way to work but could I tell you where the are? No! Do I know where the practice of Dr. Tooth is? You bet!

The next thing that happened was the appearance of a small billboard near the front fence. It stated in big bold red letters that this practice was open 7 days a week and that is was the ideal place for dental emergencies. This sign was up long enough for everybody to take note. For a while the sign disappeared and as it was close to Christmas, the dentist really got into the spirit of things – glittering tinsel would around the fence, flashing Santas on the roof, reindeers, fairy lights all over the place. Especially at night you couldn’t miss the place. The children love it.

To get the new year started the right way, the next sign reminded potential customers that there was no need to lose valuable work time to get your teeth seen to, you could conveniently arrange your check ups on weekends. Part of the advertising arsenal is yet another billboard mounted on a trailer which lists all available services, the telephone number, web address and Fax number. On the other side it describes the new technology used at the practice, digital x-rays and the like. This particular sign gets moved about a lot. It is white with blue writing – cool, clean and professional looking.

A couple of months ago (around September) the arrival of laser tooth whitening was announced on the billboard. Just letting everybody know that this service was now available. Over time more specific details were added – that it is really quick and only takes one hour of your time to have shiny pearly whites. A little stop sign and telephone number appeared. The price and the information that you will receive a massive discount getting your teeth whitened now was added recently.

Last week an extra sign went up underneath the bill board. It is time to buy gift vouchers for your loved ones. Dentist gift vouchers – who would have thought of that? Can you see how this ties in with the tooth whitening?

What can we learn from this dentist?
* Be visible, pick a clear, simple symbol, make it big – in this case the huge tooth – everybody will understand it and take note
* Make use of the passing traffic or trade, organise your material so the motorists or pedestrians can read it without too much effort.
* Use bold colours and large lettering. White background and simple primary colours work best.
* Put enough information to make it interesting but avoid overload.
* Put your information out in increments – get people curious.
* Change your signs often enough to keep people interested and make them take note.
* Keep the signs displayed long enough so the message has time to sink in.
* Have your signs or other advertising materials on wheels so it is easy to test different locations. You can see which one works best.
* Use the different times of year to tie in with your promotions, however far fetched it may seem to you. How about a plumbing gift voucher for mothers day? Or accounting gift vouchers near the end of the financial year?

What I would like you to take away from this article are some ideas. Remember to be successful people have to know that you are in business and what you offer. One time or another people will need your services. Who are they going to call? The business they remember. Make your business memorable and noticeable whichever way you can. People love to talk about unusual experiences they had in a particular coffee shop, restaurant or yoga studio!

Till next time,

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

Today Charly and I had a talk to Shelagh Jones from the Spiritual Marketing Directory. Shelagh started out by helping small businesses getting their marketing strategy right, then she went on to coaching and helping entrepreneurs in a more wholistic way by identifying blockages that stopped them from moving on.

Over time she found that there was a lot of insincerity around the issue of internet marketing. The problem is that a lot of communities exist on the internet but they do not want any marketing to happen in their forums or other places on the internet where they “hang out” so to speak. Anyone wanting to gain access to potential customers who might be interested in their products had to pretend to be there for different reasons and this way of establishing yourself on the internet gets very frustrating, time consuming and insincere.

So Shelagh decided to create a directory and community that was purely for marketing and showcasing your business.

She also is a firm believer in the Law of Attraction – like is attracted to like.
She found that a common wish was to” find more customers who are just like me.”  People who have the same values, who think like me about life, how to run a business, how to have business interactions work out to the best advantage of all involved.

She wanted to create a place where people looking for a company in a particular industry could find out about the values of businesses, about what motivated them, before starting a business relationship with them. I think that this is a great idea. It will also make it easier to ask the right questions before going ahead with a purchase or bigger project.

Shelagh tries to make things simple for members of the directory. Once the entry is in the directory is does not have to be added to or updated all the time (unless you want to). Participation in the forum is completely voluntary but very valuable. Businesses who do not have a website established yet and find that task daunting can get themselves a domain name and point it to their page in the directory till they manage to set up their own web presence.

I am finding that there are very few yoga teachers who have a well established web presence. It seems all to much work, too daunting, too technical and time consuming. I think that those of us that spend a lot of time with people and doing our own practice are not naturally drawn to the online world. It is very different, somehow artificial and not very “yogic”. To establish and maintain your own website is quite a task. The Spiritual Marketing Directory might be a simple solution to take your business out into the world or to find people you want to do business with.

To find out more, listen to our interview here:

Shelagh has also made a very generous offer for our listeners. She will give a 2 month free subscription to the Spiritual Marketing Directory when you join the directory through the link below:

http://stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/spiritus

To find out more about the directory you can go to:

http://www.spiritus-thespiritualmarketingdirectory.com

It is all about creating authenticity in marketing, sharing your values and being able to show who your really are. This philosophy is very much in alignment with the values of yoga.

Connie

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com