Yoga website design is real important, but it’s about much more than just having a website that looks good…
Effective web design for yoga schools is actually about building a tool that will serve your needs, whether that is attracting new students or building a community, a place for your “tribe” to congregate, or both!
(by the way, I really recommend you read Tribes by Seth Godin. It’s a great marketing book that explains how the internet has made it easy for anyone with a passion to build, nurture and lead movements, or “tribes”)…
While there are many important aspects of web design that we’ll touch on it future posts, I thought in this post I’d just focus on 3 tips that I believe every yoga website in the 21st century needs to have…
Ready?
1. Tell your story
People who receive my emails know I put great store in telling your story on your website. What do I mean by this?
Well, to answer this let’s look at the yoga community.
It’s very competitive as we know. There are a lot of yoga schools with more being formed every day.
With that in mind, just how do you make your website stand out, so that it makes people want to find out more about what your offer?
The answer is to engage with them emotionally, and the best way to do that is to tell your story, truthfully and generously.
How you ask?
To answer that, let me tell a story that I recently shared with our email readers (by the way, if you want to get emails from us full of tips and strategies just sign up for the free case study to the right)…
I remember once as a kid going to a birthday party and there was an older gentleman there telling some stories.
A real “grandfather” sort of guy…
I remember watching him and being absolutely captivated…
Because as he spoke, he paced around, waving his arms and changing the tone, volume and pitch of his voice, sometimes going down to a whisper so you actually found yourself leaning forward…
and then suddenly raising his voice and making you flinch…
It was powerful and as he told his story my mind was spinning a million pictures around what he said…
It was pure storytelling magic and something that I have never forgotten…
So, just how do you tell your story so that your website can “paint a picture” in your web visitor’s minds…
so that they can actually “see” themselves learning yoga at your school?
Share information and be generous with your knowledge…
Try and answer these sorts of questions on your webiste…
Why did you get into yoga? What’s your background? Your passions? What do you believe in and what drives you? What hve your successes and failures been? How do they relate to what you do now?
Don’t forget to “showcase” your expertise as well…
Why did you become a teacher? What do you do for your students? What advice can you share (be very generous of your knowledge – you really can’t give too much away)?
It’s not all about you though!
Remember, your existing students are an integral part of your story as well. Do you have detailed case studies of their achievements on your website? Video testimonials? Pictures?
Don’t boast – show empathy
The key is not to boast of course, but
to relate yout story in a way that connects with your web visitors circumstances. Show your empathy so they can begin to imagine themselves becoming your student and learning from you.
Once they have done that they are far more likely to pick up the phone and call you or drop you an email.
Does that make sense?
Oh yes, and one other point. Don’t feel that you have to answer all these questions on one page, like some kinda book (lol).
Mix it up.
Use video, share some info on your blog. Use your newsletter extensively. Think of your website as an on-going feast you’re cooking, and at strategic times you drop in key ingredients, bits of your story…
You’ll find that as you begin to “wea
ve” your story into your website, something magical begins to happen…
your website visitors begin to get reassured that you know what you’re talking about and they’re not wasting their time on your site,
AND,
they begin to feel a small emotional connection to you (“hey, I like this yoga teacher. She seems really genuine you know…”)
Without them feeling these two emotions they will never get in touch with you, no matter how fancy your website looks…
Phew.
I know I said I was going to share 3 tips but as usual I’ve written way too much (note to self: brevity is good). What I’ll do instead is touch on them in future articles.
Just in case you’re dying to know and can’t wait, Tip 2 is about building a website that people enjoy using and Tip 3 will cover integrating social media into your website…
Have a look out for them and until then, thanks for your time and enjoy your storytelling!
Oh yeah, as usual, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below…
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Thanks for the kind words! We’ll be sharing some good stuff through this blog so make sure you check up once in a while.
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