Hi there wellprenuer, welcome back!
Today, we’re going to talk about how to write a yoga class description that boosts class attendance. Now this is for if you’re a yoga teacher, a personal trainer, a fitness professional health coach, a physical therapist offering classes along with your practice, or part of your program.
Class Description Gets You People in the Door
If you’re looking to fill your classes, writing your class description is the key way to get people in the door. And often, it’s the thing that’s left for last, the three sentences that are done quickly on the fly.
Today after reading this blog, you will want to do something differently. And you’ll know exactly how to write your class description.
The quickest way to have a student come in for a drop-in, to experience, to try one of your classes, is if your class description doesn’t meet the expectation of what they have for the class and then what they actually experience for the class. So you want to make sure your class description really meets, matches, and even excels to what their expectation is for that particular class.
Making Sure Your Description Matches The Experience in Your Class
Think about it yourself. Have you ever read the class description, and then you showed up for the studio expecting one thing, and the class was something else entirely?
I remember one of the things that I liked about teaching and also taking classes from one of the corporate yoga studios here in town is that when you went to a deep stretch class, you knew exactly what you were getting. Most of the time, it was going to be on your back and on the floor, doing long holds with no flows. And I can look forward to relaxing, replenishing, recovering from a busy day of being on my feet and doing a lot of body work, for example. Or some days if I sit on the computer and have a lot of my business coaching people, I want a class where I move and stretch my body and reverse the sittings.
So a slow-flow class or a Vinyasa-type class would be more appropriate. And when I’m reading the classes to choose the day and time of a class that I want to go to, I want to make sure that my experience meets what the class description says, because I have a particular purpose as to why I’m signing up for the class.
Your students are the same way. They’re signing up for your class, looking for a specific outcome, whether it is to feel stronger, whether it is to reverse sitting or relax and decompress or restore themselves and nourish. And you really want to highlight that in your class description.
So that’s why it’s important to spend a lot of time thinking about and writing that class description. And you may go through several editions of that class description. It’s not something that should be taken lightly. And you’ll know it’s working because you’ll be having more people come to the class and stay in the class.
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Your Class Description Is An Opportunity To Highlight Why Your Class is Different Among Others
Those three sentences are also an opportunity to highlight why your class is different than all the other classes out there. And this is especially important if you offer your own classes in a park, or maybe you rent space from a yoga studio, or again, you’re a health care provider and you offer classes in your clinic.
Why should students come to your classes in a clinic versus going to the yoga studio down the street? Well, it’s probably because of your expertise, your knowledge, all your certifications, maybe it’s the specific staff you hired to teach, you had a very rigorous hiring process, and you only hire people that are knowledgeable about women’s health, for example, or back pain and sciatica.
You want to highlight all of that in your class description so it really stands out and students understand the difference of going to your clinic for a yoga class versus going to the studio next door. And when you really stand out and own your expertise and differentiate yourself in the marketplace, and you’re the only one offering that particular thing, especially in your town or city and people drive for a long way, then you can really pay, engage your classes and charge a higher rate and charge bigger package prices and they are great value adds to your one-to-one sessions.
You can even record those classes and put them online in a portal and reuse that class description and offer a membership or an ongoing program. There are so many ideas that you can do with classes once you fill them. That is the key, you have to get momentum first, and it starts with people reading your class description and desiring a certain result for attending that class in the first place.
What To Do: Avoid Being Generic
So first off, you really want to avoid being generic. It’s important to be specific and avoid generic words like, “This fluid moving Vinyasa class that challenges your body and builds your strength.”
Highlight how you excel. How is that Vinyasa class even if it is fluidly moving? Even if it does challenge our body? How are you different, and why highlight that in those sentences? What makes you different as a Vinyasa teacher? Maybe you have some other certifications and trainings (https://igniteurwellness.com/yoga-teacher-training/) that you can highlight in that, or again, maybe you specialize in a certain area like cancer recovery, or women’s health or nervous system regulation.
There are so many different facets where you can weave that in and have a very specialized class. Not to say that you have to have a specialized class, again, your classes can be general, for the average Vinyasa student, right? Many people want just a Vinyasa class, but how can you use specific words to highlight how your class is different and give the experience of your class before a student even steps foot in the door and stay away from professional lingo like posture?
For example, here’s the truth. Students don’t necessarily want perfect posture. They want what perfect posture gets them. Maybe they stand taller, maybe their shoulders feel more relaxed, and their neck feels better. Take it as couple seven layers deeper where you really think about that ideal student that comes to your class consistently, and what they want. Stay away from lingo like hypermobility and hypo-mobility. And think about, “Okay, if they want to get stronger, what will that get them in their life? What will that bring them?” And highlight those specifics in their language, in their world.
For your class, you will be able to fill classes even like breath work and meditation (https://igniteurwellness.com/root-chakra-meditation-for-the-wellness-practitioner/) if you speak to the result of doing breath work and meditation consistently. What are the tangible results they’ll feel in their body that they’ll feel in their mind? How about their emotions? What will the mornings be like if they go to your class consistently, the evenings, what might their husband or significant other, or partner might say, when they noticed that they’re going to yoga consistently? Their significant other, spouse, partner, might say, “Wow, you seem to be like you’re in a better mood and less stressed.” Bring those words into your class descriptions. And then make sure the teacher teaching that class follows through.
For example, if the class says that breathwork is going to be included, make sure the teacher teaches breathwork. Or if it is a restorative class, make sure the teacher is teaching restorative. I’ve gotten two restorative labeled classes and ended up in down dog and flows. And I’m like, “Well, what the heck is happening?”
So a way to increase trust and reliability that your students will want to come back again and again and again, is making sure that the experience of the class follows through with what the class description says and highlights. And just because your class description talks about a very specific type of class, a specific type of experience, a specific type of result a student will get for attending the class, it doesn’t mean that you have to do the same sequence over and over and over again.
Of course, you can, there are some styles of yoga and fitness classes where that is done. And that can be part of the class description, and you can highlight why and the benefits of that. But regardless, you just have to remember that your students are blocking off their day, sometimes midday if they feel that they will get a certain value for their class, if they know what to expect. And they walk into the class, and the class delivers on that expectation, they will make the time to block off your class at an inconvenient time for them because of that trust, because you fulfill those expectations, and they leave with those results.
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I know personally, I do that for myself. I go to the teachers and the classes that I love, even though they might not necessarily fit into my schedule exactly perfectly, but I just love the results that I get for that specific type of class. And I go again and again and again. And the only reason why I would do that is because initially, when I read that first class description, and I showed up to class, there was consistency, they equal each other, and I was blown away by the results, or I love the results.
Your students will also block off time for your class, if they feel that they can’t get it anywhere else, coming back to that specialist situation and highlighting your expertise and how you really are the specialist in whatever you’re teaching, and they can’t get a class like that anywhere else in town.
Bringing A Special Type Of Sequence to Your Class and Including it in Your Class Description
Or maybe it’s a special type of sequence or formula you created that you bring into your class. Of course, if you created it, no one else can do it exactly like you do, even if there are other classes or types of sequencing that are similar.
For example, maybe you have certifications, and trainings and TRX, and MEL and yoga, and strength training. And you combine that into all what a specific type of class or you have a restorative yoga certification, and you just love to add in breathwork and meditation and metaphysics and philosophy sprinkled into those classes.
You want to highlight that in your class description. This is because there are so many different types of fitness classes in every city in every town. And there are so many different types of restorative classes, and you just want to highlight how you are different and talk to that ideal student that you want to teach.
And yes, often, the fear with this is that you will turn off some students, and that is true. But in every yoga studio, in every fitness studio, there’s only a certain amount of room for a certain number of students. And so you want to speak to those students that you want to teach, not the ones that don’t really value what you have to teach and show up and do their own thing or don’t listen to you or disrupt the class. You want to talk to the people that do value and look forward to your classes and turn off those that don’t, because they’ll go to other studios, and that’s fine, they’ll find the teacher, that’s the best fit for them.
And when you fill up your class, and you have a waitlist for your class, now that’s a different problem to solve. And that means that your class description was working, it worked wonderfully.
So for example, for a long time, I taught a healthy back class at a yoga studio. And it was a very specialized type of class that worked with the nervous system, we use the yoga wall, we highlighted and utilized my physical therapy background and all my yoga and yoga therapy (https://igniteurwellness.com/on-demand-yoga-therapy-programs/) trainings and all my trainings throughout all my years. And I combined it all into one class. And it highlighted movement and strength and flexibility and nervous system and breath work and meditation and thoughts about one’s own body and a healthy spine. And all this in the class description highlighted that coming in that students were to be prepared that the yoga wall was to be used to complement yoga poses on the mat. It highlighted that the class was for beginners, and it was even appropriate for advanced students as well and how advanced students would even be challenged.
Coming into this type of class highlighted specific injuries that would be addressed when coming to class and highlighted when not to come to class if someone was in acute pain. So the students could really identify with themselves, “Okay, I’m having this injury even though I’ve been practicing yoga for 20 years, this class is still appropriate for me, I’ll still be challenged. I’ll learn more about myself and I’ll learn more about my body or the beginner student,” or, “My doctor told me to start practicing yoga, I’ve never been to yoga before. I think I can do this class, it says that she’s going to take class slowly. There’s modifications for postures, I don’t have to be in pain during the class. In fact, this class can help me to heal.”
And so a student learned a lot in that description. And when they came to class, I followed up on that description. In fact, the biggest complaint that the studio got was when I had a sub, if they didn’t utilize the yoga wall enough, for example, because it was highlighted in the class description and my regulars were used to it, that was the expectation that the yoga wall was utilized in every class. And if a sub did fill in, and sometimes it’s difficult to find yoga wall teachers who can teach in the wall and that very specific type of class, which is why it was filled a good percentage of the time, then students would be disappointed. And you know, that’s the difficult part for a yoga studio with those specialized classes.
However, when you do have a specialized class, it does leave to a higher likelihood of filling it, because it can’t be offered and fulfilled anywhere else.
Things to Keep in Mind When Designing Your Class Description
So here are some questions to think about when designing your class description:
- How will it benefit their day-to-day?
- What is the result they will achieve after attending your class? Will they feel stronger? How so? How will this be accomplished?
- Will the poses be accessible to all level? How will props be used? Like the yoga wall or chairs? Or will there be other modalities used such as TRX?
- Will a room be heated or not?
- Is it a fluid-moving class with a lot of Chaturanga? Or, are poses held a little bit longer? Why? How does that benefit them? What will they get out of a fluid-moving class? Or some more static postures? Is it vigorous?
- Will there be breathwork? Will there be meditation? Why? For what reason? Because again, students might not necessarily want breathwork, or meditation, or static postures or a fluid moving class.
But as a yoga teacher, as a wellness professional, or health care provider, you know the benefits of all that or whatever specific modality you’re teaching. So it’s up to you to explain that so a student clearly understands the benefit of investing their time and their money to show up to class. That is the goal of the class description to an all-levels class. What do beginners get for showing up to class? How about advanced students? Do you have a special sequence or formula that you create it and you offer and bring into the class? How can you highlight your expertise, your knowledge, utilize all your certifications, your trainings, your years of teaching, and bring that into the class and highlight the results students will get from participating and utilizing all that knowledge?
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Knowing What To Prioritize To Be Able to Create Your Class Description
When you write out the answers to all these questions, do a giant brain dump. Get it all out on paper, and of course, it’s going to be too long. But you need to edit it down. But start there and start to prioritize what’s most important to highlight in your class.
How can your class description really accompany all of that the answers to those questions in a simplified, concise, clear, and direct manner in three to four sentences. That’s the goal. And then you got to play around with it a bit.
Conclusion
Now, this is the art of experimentation, is that you pick a class description, put it out there in the world, see what type of students show up to your class. Are they the ideal type of student that you want to attract? Or are no students showing up? Then it comes back to your marketing message.
And if you’re doing enough marketing, and that’s a whole other conversation, and the class description, then you change it, if you’re not getting the type of students that you want in the class or the number of students that you want in the class, then you change the class description.
However, you don’t want to change it too much, because that can lead to inconsistency, and then the students don’t know what they’re going to get. So make a class description and stick with it for at least 60 to 90 days, and then track the results. Track the type of students showing up to your class, track the type of comments made in the class because students will tell you thinks like, “I saw in the class description it says this and this,” or, “I remember going to a class, and it was a gentle style class, I think the class title said, and the description highlighted how it was a gentle moving class to nourish and restore and replenish. And we did some chair poses and warrior twos, quite a few of them in that class. And it was in a slow nourishing way.”
However, if a student commented at the end of the class to the teacher something like, “I thought this was a gentle class, I didn’t think a lot of chair poses in Warrior Two and strengthening poses were really considered gentle.” Now, that’s up to interpretation, but part of your job as the teacher of the class and holding the space for the type of students that you want to call in, and the type of class that you want to teach. You have to clearly define what does gentle mean, and you can say, “A gentle class is nourishing to the body. We might do challenging poses such as cherub opposing warrior to which are strengthening for the body. But in a gentle and nourishing way, with many modifications and uses of props, you see how that can work.”
Or you can say, “This gentle yoga class will be mostly on your back and stomach, there’ll be little bit of time on the feet. Most poses are held for long periods of time and very comfortable positions using many props, it is a slow style of class that is very restorative to the nervous system. You see, there are two different types of class with the same title.”
And so you just want to be clear when designing that. So when a student walks in, they do get what they thought they were going to receive for that class. And it doesn’t lead to that awkward conversation at the end of class where a teacher is caught off guard, where they thought they taught this great class, and they are getting excellent feedback, and then a couple of students come up and was like, “Oh, well, I didn’t. This really wasn’t what I was expecting.”
You can even get down to the details of talking about the style of cueing you use and why you use that. Or maybe you don’t use a lot of cueing and why that is or if you use music or don’t use music. Just imagine yourself in your students’ shoes who never have come to your class before. What is the experience that they will get from the minute they walk into the door? How will they feel walking into the door? And how will they feel leaving? And what is that experience in the middle? Write that out.
And it’s possible to do in a three or four-sentence little paragraph to really highlight why your students should invest their time and money and block off their schedule to show up for your class. And I promise if you do it well, they will show up again and again and again. And if you want to get feedback on your class descriptions, or have other people, like-minded thinkers and other fitness professionals and wellness professionals and yoga teachers comment and look at your class descriptions, then I highly encourage you to join the free Facebook group. It’s the Grow Your Wellness Business Facebook group, run by me, and you can drop your class description in there and get feedback from me and get feedback from all your peers. It’s a lovely community. And I highly encourage you to come and take advantage of that. It will be so worth your time. And I applaud those of you who do that for being vulnerable and courageous for doing that. You will be highly rewarded.
Okay, there you have it. I will see you next week. Bye for now!
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