Intro offers are the gold standard for yoga studios! Ideally, they provide the BEST value for your clients enticing them to give your studio a try. But if you’ve had the same sales strategy for a couple of years and it seems to be working, why should you change things up?
Is it better to keep your offer the same or change things up a little? These are all incredibly hard decisions to make, especially when your business’ profitability is at stake. In this post, you’ll learn how to figure out whether or not your intro offer is working and what needs to change if it’s not.
Best practices for yoga studio intro offers
Your intro offer should sell itself! It should be a no-brainer, offering far more value for money than any of your other offers. If it’s not selling itself and you are still getting a lot of drop-ins, then it’s important to figure out why so you can optimize your intro offer further.
You should also know what you are optimizing this offer for. Knowing what you are trying to achieve with your intro offer is a big part of making it successful. These are a couple of goals that your intro offer could solve:
- Increase intro sales rate
- Increase intro conversion rate
- Increase value of intro sales
- Market differentiation
- Create a different type of intro experience
Audit your current intro offer
In order to audit how your current intro offer is performing, there are a couple of key metrics that you need to take into consideration. You’ll need to know:
- Intro purchase rate – your goal should be around 70% (slightly less if you are providing a direct-to-membership offer)
- Total intros purchased
- Intro conversion rate – On average it takes 5 sales contact points to make a sale. Intro conversion rates generally average 20 – 25% but your goal should be at least 30%.
- The average number of classes taken on the intro
- Primary drop-off point during the intro – most clients quit after 3 classes and before day 15.
- Retail purchases during the intro – When clients spend $50 or more on retail during an intro they’re 60% more likely to join a membership.
- Average LTV of intro clients – If clients take 13 classes or more they are 80% more likely to be retained.
These are metrics you should look at twice a year, if not quarterly to closely monitor how your intro offer is performing throughout the year.
Intro offers for yoga studios
Yoga studio intro offers come in all different shapes and sizes. But if your intro offer is not yielding the results you hoped for after auditing the metrics, it’s time to change your game plan. Here are a couple of the standard intro offers that could work for your business.
- Standard intro
- 30 days of unlimited access to your yoga studio
- Cost = 2x single classes
These should be easy to sell and allow for plenty of follow-up time. It also helps to create a regular practice, and getting your clients into the habit of practicing more often is half the battle won. This does require an upsell to membership and an elaborate sales funnel so it is ideal for new studios or studios that are still developing their sales team.
- Standard short intro
- 1 – 2 weeks of membership
- Cost = 2x single classes
This speeds up the sales timeline by making the offer short in length and appeals to clients who are making their purchase in the romance phase. These offers would be completely dissociated from monthly pricing so they might be a harder sell. They often require more aggressive contact frequency in order to hook the client.
The standard short intro would work for studios that already have a proven sales process and are trying to increase their intro conversions, or for studios that seem to be losing their clients early on in the sales process.
- Standard long intro
- 60 – 90 days of unlimited access to the yoga studio
- Cost = 50 – 100% of the membership price
This longer intro allows for plenty of nurture time and increases the number of classes attended quite significantly. It provides the opportunity to make other sales to the client, and for them to refer other potential clients to the studio. This is often an easy sell as it gives the client great value for money.
This is ideal for studios that are trying to increase the average purchase value of intro clients (which is generally higher volume studios). It also works for studios with long average practice retention and studios that offer many different types of classes. Bear in mind that this will require a higher volume of content for marketing and nurture. But the pay-off is that you can sell clients directly to membership far more easily once their intro has come to an end.
- Limited intro
- 3 – 5 classes in X amount of time
- Cost = 2x single classes
The limited intro allows you to have intermittent contact points and allows for an almost immediate upsell. However, it could be incongruent with the membership offer and may seem less valuable in the marketplace. It also restricts practice and promotes a less frequent practice.
This offer works best for limited-capacity studios that want a highly controlled sales funnel. It also tends to be ideal for studios with a great sales team and a limited-practice goal membership. If your sales team still needs some practice, it may be time to train your team to sell in order to land more membership clients.
You can also have two types of intro offers running at the same time, which can provide you with more insight into which one will perform best. Just remember that it is better to do one flawlessly than run two half-heartedly.
- Direct to membership
- Primary membership with 50% off the 1st month
This increases your conversion rate and means that a client has to actually opt out in order to leave the membership. This takes the pressure off your teams, leaving them with fewer sales to do further down the line. It is often harder to sell this intro upfront (especially online) but tends to retain clients longer than other intros.
This is a good option for studios looking to improve their intro conversion rate and those looking to differentiate themselves in the market. It also creates a stronger action message that many students are inclined to follow.
Final thoughts on intro offerings that convert
Intro offerings act as an introduction to your studio for many newbies wanting to test the waters. So you want to ensure that your new yogis are having a curated experience during their intro period. This will encourage them to purchase a membership later down the line.
While there are many different types of intro offers that you can try, it’s important to make sure you are implementing an intro offer that works for your kind of studio. That’s why auditing your intro offer is so important off the bat.
Are you ready to turn introductory students into full-time members? Work some of these tactics into your intro offer to make the most of every sales opportunity.
Still have questions about which Intro is best for your studio? Connect with us in the Yogapreneur Collective, free!
