I know how big of a struggle selling out your retreats can feel.
When I work with my Retreat Strategy clients, this is the number one thing I hear from them:
“I just want to know how to best promote my retreat, how to sell it out.”
And I get it because I’ve been there too.
Today I bring you the 4th article in my blog series called “Sold Out Retreats.”
My goal with this series is to help you understand how to promote and fill up your yoga retreats in a fun and effective way.
Without feeling pushy or sales-ey.
Without the stress and overwhelm.
It all goes back to having strategy and intention.
In the last blog called “A Tried and True Strategy to Sell Out Your Retreats,” I shared what I believe is the most effective retreat marketing strategy for your retreats.
If you haven’t read that post yet, I recommend jumping to it first and then returning to this one.
In today’s blog, I want to continue this conversation with you and share some practical ways you can use email marketing to sell your retreats.
Remember to go back to the last blog post before you read this so that you can get the whole picture and be able to implement the tips I share here.
When I teach email marketing as a strategy to my clients, I underline how important it is that they start building their email list early on.
You don’t want to start building an email list the day you are ready to launch your retreat. It won’t be effective. Make sure to start months before.
Maybe you've already incorporated email marketing as one of the main ways to grow your yoga, wellness, or retreat business. High-five to you!
But if you haven’t, it’s not too late. You can start now.
Ok, let me give you some fun ideas on how to build a retreat email marketing campaign.
You can look at your email marketing in three ways, or three phases if you will:
Phase 1: Pre-marketing
Phase 2: Waitlist or VIP launch
Phase 3: Official Launch
Phase 1:Pre-retreat Email Campaign
When:
2-3 months before you are going to launch your retreat to the public - aka Official Retreat Launch)
Email Focus:
Connect and build trust months before you start selling your retreat.
Share more about who you are, your mission, message and WHY behind wanting to lead retreats.
Invite people to join your retreat interest list/waitlist/VIP list and share sneak-peeks with them as you are planning it.
Involve them in the process of dreaming up your next retreat with questions, surveys, highlights, and pictures.
Attract new ideal retreat clients to join your email list by sharing value (give before you ask).
Phase 2: Waitlist or VIP Email Campaign
When:
1-2 weeks before your Official Retreat Launch
Email Focus:
Give your waitlist (highly interested people!) early access to your retreat.
Offer an additional bonus and discount to incentivize people to register and take advantage of that now.
Have a limited early enrollment period to make this campaign more effective. I recommend 7-10 days max.
Focus on sharing the value you are offering and the transformation you are promising your ideal retreat clients - this is key!
Phase 3: Official Retreat Launch Email Campaign
When:
4-6 month before your retreat start date.
Email Focus:
Invite people to your retreats by focusing on the transformation you are promising (value trumps features - I talk about this all the time!).
Send emails highlighting different parts of your retreat -get creative with images and videos.
Share testimonials from past retreaters or clients.
Address any obstacles or barriers people may have when it comes to attending your retreat.
Add a FAQ to help minimize questions and concerns from your potential retreaters.
Add a sense of urgency to your pricing strategy to encourage your students to sign up sooner than later.
Add a call to action to all of your emails and make sure your online payment and registration is set up and working so that your students can sign up with the click of a button. Make it seamless for them!
Tips to make your campaign smooth and easy;
Batch write your emails for each campaign in advance so that there is consistency and a clear idea of what to share in each email.
Source the images and videos to have your marketing material handy when you are ready with your email content.
Create beautiful graphics and images for your marketing material using my fave tool, Canva.
Make sure that your marketing material is aligned with your brand.
More is less - think about concisely writing your emails - people don’t like to read long essays. Keep it short, sweet, and interesting.
Have your registration and payment links ready to go (and test the process a few times to make sure it’s working).
Get help editing your emails! Having someone else look over your emails is always a good idea.
Make sure you are implementing best practices for email deliverability (making sure your emails pass the spam folder and go straight to the primary inbox of your subscribers). Here is an excellent article about deliverability from Convertkit to learn more about how to do this.