Making your marketing accessible FOR YOU
By Tristan Katz
Marketing, like yoga, is a practice. We can engage in it mindfully or we can check out and go through the motions. When we lean into mindful marketing, we can find flow—we can tune into our individual needs, our creative energies, and our values and capacities. We can create content that truly resonates with our communities—content that supports our students and clients; content that goes beyond a simple weekly class schedule share (more on that soon!).
And, just like a physical yoga practice, when it comes to cultivating impactful digital marketing strategies, each of us will need to find our own expressions, our own pathways. Some systems might work well for our unique creative style, and some might not resonate with what we need. It’s really a matter of experimenting, listening to ourselves, and honoring what we hear...sounds a lot like yoga, doesn’t it?
Some basic tips to exploring what you need to make your marketing accessible for you:
- Notes: Come up with a system to track content ideas. This might be as simple as using a notes app on your phone. I recommend something that syncs across devices so you can open the same notes whether you’re on the go or at your desk.
- Reflection: Reflect after teaching a class and update your notes with relevant thoughts and themes. Did you say something that really landed with your students? Did you share a dharma talk or philosophical teaching that you might want to expand on? Was there a theme you explored that feels resonant and like something you might want to share with those who weren’t in class? Keep track of these thoughts, themes, and teachings; add them to your notes list so you can come back to them later.
- Creation: Carve out time for the creation process. This will look different for each of us—some might prefer to create and post based on what’s alive in the moment. You might wake up one day, feel inclined to share, write something based on your existing list of ideas, and then boom, post it. Alternatively, you might decide that you’ll devote time each weekend to writing posts, selecting images, and putting drafts together to be shared at a later date (some refer to this as “batchworking”). Tune in to what feels easiest for your flow and ask yourself what you need to stay engaged with creating content.
- Showing up: In spite of the dominant marketing narrative that we need to “post every day to be successful,” the truth is that more isn’t necessarily better. Think quality over quantity. How can you engage your creative process and capacity to create meaningful content rather than simply posting to post? What’s your intention behind what you’re sharing and how does it align with your work as a teacher? You might decide to post two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or maybe you simply post when you feel like it. The goal should be to post regularly enough that folks get a sense of who you are with some degree of consistency.
- Re-sourcing: Always, always, always repurpose your content. When you write something meaningful, ask yourself, “Where else can I share this?” Is there a blog section on your website (good for SEO boosting!)? Are you planning to share a newsletter sometime soon? Or, alternatively, if you know that it’s time to promote an upcoming class, workshop, or event, have you written something in the past that also applies to this offering? Can you pull from that writing to create something new without a lot of labor or time on your part? Or can you completely copy your past content and offer it again with a little bit of refreshing? Remember, we repeat ourselves all the time as yoga teachers. Repetition isn’t necessarily a bad thing! We often need to hear something multiple times in order for it to sink in. What’s more, your community might not have seen or read it the first time!
Ultimately, in cultivating marketing strategies that feel accessible for your time and energy, invite in the themes and teachings of svadhyaya, or self-study—observe what lights you up, what inspires you, what feels alive for you as a student or teacher of the practice; then explore how you might share that with your community through your marketing content.
And, how can you stay committed to the process of taking up space and sharing your work on the digital plane?
How might your tapas or dedication practice serve you creating content that truly serves your community—content that offers value, rather than simply relying on posts about your workshop or upcoming classes with the hopes that someone sees them and decides to join.
Because when it comes to marketing, we need to do more than just promote our work. We need to cultivate an intention of building relationships and building community.
We can bring our yoga practice into our marketing—yoga is all about connection, with ourselves and with others. Consider how you might center that connection as you seek to grow your work.
About The Author
Tristan Katz (they/them) is a writer, educator, and digital strategist based on the ancestral land of the Cowlitz and Clackamas peoples, now known as Portland, OR. Tristan offers business and marketing individual and group mentorship programs, web and graphic design services, and workshops and trainings centered around queer identity and transgender awareness with an anti-oppression and intersectional lens. Through their podcast, articles, digital resources, and workshops, Tristan supports those who seek to grow their work while staying aligned with the practices of yoga, equity, diversity, and inclusivity.
Interested in learning more?
Join Tristan Katz for their upcoming FREE mini-workshop, Marketing Beyond Your Weekly Class Schedule. In this virtual offering, we'll explore how to bring the themes we’re already teaching in our classes into our marketing. Participants will also learn about Tristan's Conscious Marketing: Justice-Focused Digital Strategies for Yoga Teachers course, which begins July 27th!
The Marketing Beyond Your Weekly Class Schedule mini-workshop will be held
Tuesday, July 20th, 2021
4-5:30pm pacific / 7-8:30pm eastern
Recordings will be available for those who register but are unable to attend live!
