Compelling Intro Offers for Studios

In this article, Yoga Australia’s industry partner, Punchpass, shares a collection of practical tips and proven ideas around creating and delivering introductory offers that really work for new students looking to join your studio. This handy guide will help you think strategically about your introductory offers and consider what makes them appealing, and how you can promote them effectively.

One of the best things you can do to grow your yoga business is to have a strong new customer offer.  We see a lot of approaches from our clients at Punchpass – some are great! Some, not so great.  

This guide is designed to help you think through:

• Why you should have a new customer offer
• What makes a good new customer offer
• How you should promote it
• What works or needs improvement and why it should be considered just the first step in bringing your new customers into your yoga studio (or joining you online).

We’ll show you some real-life examples of what we consider to be best practices that you can use to create or improve your offers. Every business needs new customers – including yours!  Here’s how to make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Why have a New Customer offer?

It seems obvious, but we still see lots of yoga studios who don’t have a good compelling new customer offer. There are two main reasons we think they are really important and both reasons have to do with reducing the commitment required to give your studio a try.

First, they reduce the financial commitment. New customers might have a feeling that your classes will be a good fit, but they aren’t completely sure. Helping reduce the financial burden moves the decision to more of a ‘why not?’ – you want your prospective customers to feel like even if it doesn’t work out, it just wasn’t that big of a deal. Almost every new customer offer incorporates some sort of discount.

Second is the mental commitment, which is just as important as the financial. Signing up at a new yoga studio can be intimidating. Where do you park, when should you get there, what do you need to bring, what’s the studio vibe like etc. Lots of questions….and any one of them can cause a prospective customer to delay in purchasing your offer or not come at all.

We’ll go into more detail below, but you want to make sure your new customer offer puts potential students at ease, and makes it simple and rewarding for anyone to give your classes a try.  

How should your New Customer offer work?

The biggest question is – what should the offer be?

A certain number of classes, or unlimited access for a specific period of time? How long should the pass or offer be good for? How much of a discount are you going to give? This is all going to depend on the type of classes you teach, how many classes you think it takes for someone to get a good feel for what you offer and want more, how much space you have in your studio to accommodate new students and how much you are willing to give up or invest (financially and logistically) in order to win a new client. You’ll also want to consider the new customer offer pricing in relation to your existing passes – you want to offer an attractive discount but also not make your ‘regular’ pricing seem outrageous.

Remember that not everyone who buys your new client special will actually become a new client – some will just do some trial classes and never come back. So, you need to think through what you are willing to give up for a new customer. It can also help to review what other local studios are offering – for example if everyone offers an unlimited number of classes within a specific period of time then you might want to be sure to at least match that.

We think an equally interesting question is the mechanics of the offer; What is the workflow a prospective student should go through in order to claim the offer?  

We’ve primarily seen two different approaches:

The first is to send the customer right to the new customer pass purchase page. For example – if they click on the banner on your website, you would send them directly to the pass purchase page.  This has some obvious advantages – the purchase form is right there so it’s easy to buy and this option has the least amount of friction or steps for the customer to take. But the downside is that most pass purchase pages have limited customization options and feel more transactional than welcoming. If your prospect isn’t quite ready to buy, sending them right to purchase might not be the best idea. They still need to be sold that your studio is potentially the right fit for them, and that they should take the chance and find out.

The second option is to send the customer to a page on your studio’s website that specifically promotes your new customer offer. This page can be crafted to help your prospective customer understand the vibe of your studio, what you are (and are not!) and what they can expect when taking classes. If possible, we think this is the best option – it gives customers who are intrigued, but unsure, more opportunity to decide if your studio is right for them and more information to use when making that decision.

Having a dedicated page on your website is also the best option if you are posting the link on a flyer, online or outside your business. It can feel off-putting to click on a link and just be immediately asked to pay money with little context – sending interested people to a dedicated “for new students” page on your studio website will let you convince them why they should take you up on your intro offer. 

Where should you display and promote your New Customer offer?

Sometimes we see clients create a really compelling offer… and then don’t do much to promote it. You’re proud of your studio and how you help your customers….so make it easy for new ones to find you!

Here are a few places we recommend you promote your offer (we’ve included some examples at the end of the article):

1. On a banner at the top of your website

This is pretty common – just a simple banner that new customers can click on for more details. 

2. Other callouts on your website

Put a link in your footer, maybe have a section partway through your homepage with the offer. While you don’t want to go overboard, you should make sure that your offer is promoted in a few different places.

3. In a pop-up on your website (maybe)

Some advice will recommend that you create a pop-up with the new customer offer. While a pop-up does grab the viewers’ attention, it can also be pretty annoying (if your regular customers frequently come to your website for any reason, then bombarding them with a new customer pop-up every time won’t be appreciated!) So this is something to maybe try and test and check in with some of your current customers so see if they’re put off by it. You could also try putting the popup on a page on your website dedicated to information for new students (we love seeing that option!).

4. In your LinkTree or other social media links page

If you use any of the social media link programs like Linktree, we recommend creating a separate section (near the top) highlighting your new customer offer.  

5. On a flyer (with a QR code!) outside your studio and/or on other promotional material

You already have a flyer to promote your studio to anyone walking by, right? Have your new customer offer front and center too! If you already promote your studio by putting up flyers, you should definitely also be promoting your new customer offer loud and proud.

6. In your email newsletter 

Some clients are hesitant to promote their offer in their email newsletter because they presume most of their readers are current customers. Don’t be shy! Encourage your current customers to forward your email on to their curious friends (especially if they’re eligible for a discounted offer!). Or have a ‘bring a friend to yoga for free’ day or week… and then be sure to let those visitors know about your new customer offer.

How should you ask your customers to secure the offer?

Now we’re getting into the nitty gritty! But that’s how you make sure your offer is a good one. Once a customer has decided they want to take advantage of your offer, there are a few ways you can have them proceed. The first is to have them purchase the new offer pass. The second would be to have them simply provide their email address or phone number so you can reach out with more information. And finally, some yoga studios have a lot of success asking their new students to come to the studio to buy an intro offer.

Here are some pros and cons of those approaches:

Send ‘em right to purchase!

The advantage of this one is clear – you get paid! It also reduces some of the friction in the process, which can be helpful if the customer really does just want to purchase the pass and get on with things. The downside is what we mentioned earlier – most purchase pages have limited customisation options, so you don’t get as much of an opportunity to ‘sell’ the offer and explain the vibe of your studio.

Just the email or phone number to start

Just asking for an email address to start the process has a few advantages. First, it’s the simplest and requires the least amount of commitment from your potential student. Second, it gives you an opportunity to personally follow up with information about the offer and because you have their email, you can continue to market to them should they fail to respond or purchase the offer. (But be sure to remove them from that campaign if the DO purchase the offer!) This gives the prospect the opportunity to ask more questions before committing.

Similar to collecting an email address, you could ask for their phone number and message them that way.  That’s faster than email and allows for more of a back-and-forth conversation (we also find a lot of new students still like to have a quick chat on the phone before trying their first class).

Visit the studio to claim

This is the easiest of all the options – no technology to configure. Just tell the customer to come into the studio and see you to learn about and claim the offer. The downside here is that you don’t have any information about the customer until they actually visit and there is no spontaneity here – the customer has to plan on a time to visit (and you need to make sure you’re available!). And we all know how that works….the studio visit continues to get pushed to the next week, and the next week until the enthusiasm has died. For this reason we don’t recommend this approach, though we DO recommend a red carpet process for your new customers when they get to your studio. More information on that below!

Some additional thoughts…

Make sure you contact them with details about what they should expect!!

Make their first visit a smooth one. If they need to show up early to fill out paperwork, tell them that.  Where do they park? Is there a Google/Apple maps link? Are there showers? Do they need to bring their own yoga mat? You want to make sure you provide them all the information they need to make their visit as straightforward as possible.

Tell them twice

It’s unfortunately true – people probably don’t read your emails. So make sure you tell them the same thing in a follow-up reminder email. And be patient when they arrive and STILL haven’t filled out the online waiver you sent them earlier.

Book their next class before they leave

You should know who the new customer is in your class, because of course you want to personally welcome them and thank them for trying your classes. It’s also important to follow up with them after the class is over – make a point to get their feedback and find out how it went. They may not know anyone, so it can be easy for them to sometimes slip out while you are chatting with your regulars. The ideal situation is to make sure they have booked their next class before they leave. It’s also crucial to make sure all of your instructors are on the same page so your studio has a consistent process for welcoming and nurturing new students.

What’s your next offer?

Yep – you need another one! Now that your customer has seen success after a few classes, it’s time to make them another offer they can’t refuse and help them transition into a longer-term relationship. Ideally that means getting them onto a recurring membership plan. Offer them a discount for the first month to make it an easier decision. If you don’t have the ability to offer memberships (and you really should!) then discounting your 10 visit pass or some other longer term pass will be your best option.

And the big question – is your offer working?

Usually we see clients tracking activity on a monthly basis, but if your studio is larger you may want to track things weekly. One important tip… have a section of the spreadsheet where you jot down any changes or improvements you have made to your marketing efforts. For example – let’s say in March you decide to start advertising on Facebook. Jot that down in the spreadsheet, along with the date the ads started. That way when you are reviewing your stats later in the year, you’ll be able to see if any marketing efforts had an impact on the new customer offer.

Spend the time to create a compelling offer for new students, and plan out their journey to becoming a successful long-term customer. Investing that time and effort now will pay off in the future as your business continues to grow!

New Customer Offer Examples

These are some great New Customer offers & promotions created by Punchpass clients who are also members with Yoga Australia. These are the sort of best practices you should be looking to emulate as you craft your own unique offer.

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