Business aspects of being a Teacher of Stretch Therapy or any other ‘new’ training method

[AndeL]

Tones I agree with your point, but I believe showing can absolutely happen in talking and behaviour. A lot of people in my area know me (be the weirdo), they know my feet, movement, training, play, interactions with others & kids etc. As humans we take all this in. Basically all the kids at my kid's schools/kindies know of me as well, because I am pretty uninhibited in a sea of uptight rigidity. People want to lose their inhibition, is my belief. I know it is also easily achievable & it feels amazing. How much stretching (limbering/range of movement) do we see in public for instance?

Sent PM Nathan, anyway http://zenthaishiatsu.com/therapists/, this is what I would be looking at if I were up that way again. 

Thanks Kit, not seeking virality yet lol, staying underground at the moment.

[MarkTN]

Building any kind of healing practice takes time and patience. If it's a "brand" like Pilates then potential clients may get the inspiration to look for nearby Pilates studios. A Pilates teacher knows there's various approaches to Pilates and tries to distinguish what makes their work appealing to clients, such as philosophy, teaching lineage, scheduling convenience, affordability. This is true for yoga, massage, personal training. Anything where the public may have a "sort of idea" about what you might do. After that it's up to the teacher to "close the deal" and attract clients.

Things get more complicated when you're teaching something that doesn't have popular brand recognition. People tend to get confused when they hear stretching and they think yoga. I use a lot ST ideas when I teach or demonstrate therapeutic stretching (but I'm not offering them Stretch Therapy). Key among the ST ideas I communicate is permission to feel sensations in the body and allowing these sensations to guide your movements as opposed to moving your body to a achieving a particular pose or asana. This is often particularly beneficial for people who've really gotten into yoga but have jammed themselves up with repetitive stress or simply hammering away at postures that aren't available.

Kit has done a masterful job of worldwide brand creation for Stretch Therapy. IMHO, Kit and ST are inseparable. And this may contribute to the growing pains of second generation practitioners teaching ST.
I know there is a practitioner directory on the Stretch Therapy website so linking your individual website is an essential step.

[Olga]

Here is my website - actually it is the hub of my business and is the first thing I created before I opened the doors to the studio:

corepilates.at (http://corepilates.at)

The idea was to make it as easy and seamless as possible for clients to inform themselves about classes and to book online (with an online payment option and possibility to buy packages). This is a novel idea for a European Pilates studio which are still taking bookings on the phone or by email and almost 'screen' every client before accepting them to a class. I wanted to make Pilates on equipment as accessible as possible to all interested.

The website developed over months through feedback and questions that I got from clients: how do I find this and that. Some (lots) of the info is repetitive but this is for everyone to find what they are looking for.

ANY FEEDBACK on the website IS WELCOME! I ask the same my clients.

[Tones]

2 hours ago, Olga said:

ANY FEEDBACK on the website IS WELCOME! I ask the same my clients.

http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/product/boomerang-effect-book/

This book outlines how to maximise google's hummingbird update to generate traffic and raise your profile. I touched on it briefly on my linkedin article but the book goes into much more actionable detail.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-hack-content-creation-anthony-albert-schweitzer-ducusin

 

[Nathan]

3 hours ago, Olga said:

ANY FEEDBACK on the website IS WELCOME! I ask the same my clients.

The first thing that I notice is that multiple languages are jumbled together. Personally, this makes it a bit confusing for me and I'd probably give up looking for interesting content pretty quickly. It seems like you've built the site on WordPress, and there just happens to be a plugin for WordPress called Polylang that will allow you to implement multiple languages more elegantly. I am sure there are much better examples, but you can look at my website: www.linguasmith.com. The website is available in English and Japanese, and it will detect which to display based on your browser settings. If you prefer a different language, you can still change the display language using the icons at the top right. Just a possibility to consider!

[SwissDanny]

4 minutes ago, Nathan said:

The first thing that I notice is that multiple languages are jumbled together.

I second this. The English will be a massive turn-off for many Austrians who will assume you have the whole expat thing going on; I have observed that very explicitly here in Switzerland between CrossFit boxes that communicate in English vs German.  I would say nowadays an active FB and IG account (you can feed both (probably all three) at once with the right tools) and google presence is essential too (perhaps more so than the website actually).  Good luck!

  

 

 

[Olga]

I will look up your recommendations! The language issue is a big thing because my target audience is both English and German speaking, I need to make a website that allows a switch via a button click but so far I had no skill to do it myself (and no spare money).

The Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/corepilateswien/

The Google Maps - under Core Pilates (search in Vienna, Austria)

I am listed in many places from the Austrian Yellow Pages (herold.at) to Vienna Official Tourist Guide and even Vienna Government Info site :-) When it is possible to get listed in two languages I do that, otherwise I chose the most appropriate language for the listing. I get some good traffic from those.

But of course the main issue, as I pointed in my first post, is converting interest (looking up ino) into action (booking a class and then another).

[Olga]

On 27/03/2017 at 1:52 PM, SwissDanny said:

I second this. The English will be a massive turn-off for many Austrians who will assume you have the whole expat thing going on; I have observed that very explicitly here in Switzerland between CrossFit boxes that communicate in English vs German.  I would say nowadays an active FB and IG account (you can feed both (probably all three) at once with the right tools) and google presence is essential too (perhaps more so than the website actually).  Good luck!

  

 

 

What is IG?

[Nathan]

2 hours ago, Olga said:

I need to make a website that allows a switch via a button click but so far I had no skill to do it myself (and no spare money).

The plugin that I mentioned does exactly that  It is both free and fairly easy to implement. I think you would be able to do it on your own using the documentation. And I would be glad to (try to) help if you have any problems.

2 hours ago, Olga said:

What is IG?

Instagram

[SwissDanny]

14 hours ago, Olga said:

I will look up your recommendations! The language issue is a big thing because my target audience is both English and German speaking, I need to make a website that allows a switch via a button click but so far I had no skill to do it myself (and no spare money).

The Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/corepilateswien/

The Google Maps - under Core Pilates (search in Vienna, Austria)

As @Nathan say re IG and the language plug-in. Sites like fiverr.com offer very cheap ways of outsourcing such relatively simple and low security requirement tasks.

You do appear on google maps... I checked before, but there are a lot of pilates places in Vienna, you are lost in the crowd.  Being on the map and having a page is just a start. Im no expert but just being there is not enough, you need regular content posts, that get traffic, and likes and reviews.

Sad but true, you must consider actively encouraging (however) people to post positive reviews, like etc. Your items eg "pilates is for guys too" are great material, but I think you could leverage them more if you consider the internet as an important marketing resource. 

Sadly google is interested in selling sponsored links so only posts your content to a few of your followers. Most people get around this by using mailing lists to make sure everyone is aware of new content. But it is a fine balance, too much becomes tacky/pushy and ends up in the bin.

 

[Kit_L]

On 3/27/2017 at 10:52 PM, SwissDanny said:

I would say nowadays an active FB and IG account (you can feed both (probably all three) at once with the right tools) and google presence is essential too (perhaps more so than the website actually).

Liv and I disagree with this assertion and have deliberately taken the other road (detailed website; my blog, dense and complex, sometimes, and LOTS of words, and the Forums) just because FB and the other platforms work explicitly against complexity and subtlety. Our work is both complex and subtle, and explaining "what we do" is far from easy.

But the chunking of information exercise we went through to create the latest site catered to all levels of attention span: those for whom a one-sentence description is sufficient; those who can handle a paragraph is seen at the second level in; and (in the case of an article, for example) the full article if desired if one digs to the third level. Many do. This allows a new user to skim the entire contents of a large site, and only drill deeper when interested. WordPress allows this chunking to be done easily.

@SwissDanny and @Nathan's comments re. language mixing: in your environment, being able to switch your site between both (so 100% English or 100% German) is crucial, I feel (thinking SD's comments re. the 'expat. thing). 

Last suggestion is that if you are offering our work, or even simply saying that our work has influenced yours, please link to our site: with the books in print, Vimeo on Demand presence, over 100 useful clips on YouTube, the blog, and these Forums, a few minutes' browsing shows the potential customer that this stuff has weight, depth, and breadth. In the Trump era of "alternative facts" this can be a welcome relief.

A further point: we are two-person company; Olga is a one-person company. We work seven days a week (tragic) so simply can't feed FB and IG (and Trump uses Twitter, so that's a no go!). @SwissDanny: how many staff does your company employ to feed social media? The art of the possible, here, I am thinking about.

[Nathan]

45 minutes ago, Kit_L said:

(and Trump uses Twitter, so that's a no go!)

Regarding feeding social media, there are tools and tricks that can mostly automate this task and many one-person gigs do exactly this. Personally, I don't like this low-effort approach - it feels very superficial to me - so I avoid it. I would rather lack a social media presence and have less (but higher "quality") clients/followers.

[SwissDanny]

5 hours ago, Kit_L said:

Liv and I disagree with this assertion and have deliberately taken the other road (detailed website; my blog, dense and complex, sometimes, and LOTS of words, and the Forums) just because FB and the other platforms work explicitly against complexity and subtlety. Our work is both complex and subtle, and explaining "what we do" is far from easy.

My business uses old fashioned networking to originate projects Im happy to say!  I also agree that neither FB nor IG offer a suitable platform to convey concepts of any complexity whatsoever, and online this has to be via a website/blog.  But they cant really be avoided to generate traffic unless you want to mostly just preach to the choir.

My comment re websites being only part of the equation also focused more on Olga's exisiting pilates business, which like yoga, or CrossFit is now a word that is meaningful to prospective customers (even if you are serving up one of a million different interpretations of it).  If you have to explain eg Stretch Therapy, then of course it's a different matter.

My point is really that a relatively static website is not going to be high in the page rankings, and likewise FB will only share content from active business pages (unless you pay) that have lots of likes etc, and ditto FB search rankings.

[AlexanderEgebak]

I agree with SD. I believe that IG and FB that prove to be an excellent appetizer for the "real thing" here on this website. Some people will simply never end up here. While it is impossible to present complex knowledge simply showing a stretching exercise with the most important key points will work just fine. It will have people wondering if there is more to it, and this is where they will find this site.

I also agree that regularly using IG and FB can be quite time consuming, but, as already stated, tools have been invented to automate and ease the process.

[Olga]

Hi all, sorry I was out for a week, attending to the business and catching up on the uni work (yes, I am a one-person business AND i am still a masters student even though distance-learning... but this takes time too).

On the use of Social Media, I'd say one size does not fit all. There are some businesses, cultures and locations where it is great (many US Pilates studios swear by it), in some it might be not as useful. I offer personal services, and word of mouth is the primary advertising for me, as well as my own appearance and ways of living - because I walk the talk. I use do social media but in my own way. I joined virtually all relevant Facebook groups for Vienna (those that fit the profile of my ideal customer) and I do post there from time to time, giving advice and inviting to events. What works most, I find, is going to live meet ups, introducing myself and what I do and why. Personal contact is IMHO much more valuable than my internet profile - I want the prospective client to know that I am not a psycho ))) before coming to visit my studio.

My motto in the past months has been: ALWAYS BE MARKETING. I feel that I've tried every page in the book as concerns advertising - I have done all that you mentioned above EXCEPT Instagram. I have not posted any photos on IG simply because I have noone to take it for me; I am a one-person team. I do run a Facebook Page, I post regular articles on the website and promote them via FB, I do send out emails to clients asking for reviews or informing of special offers, I have listed myself in all possible official (!) Vienna websites - from Yellow Pages to Vienna Local Government - sports section - and Official Vienna Tourism site - all of which bring me regular traffic.

Still, there are clicks and clicks-through, but out of 100 clicks there are 10 click-throughs to my Booking page, and only one person out of these 10 would contact me - and this would someone who is a friend of a friend on the Facebook or an existing client referral. Ours is personal business. It's all about getting out there in the masses and giving a good face to what you do. Social media may help to get invitations and opportunties to show up, but they won't bring us clients. That's my real-life experience after 3 months working flat out on building up a client base from the scratch. And I am still trying out new methods and channels, every day.

[Olga]

I am very grateful for the feedback on the website, a small follow up question. I find that wordpress.com only allow a limited range of plug-ins, would those language plug-ins be available for Wordpress.com sites? I do hate the idea of moving to Wordpress.org with more time spent on the computer than I ever wanted. (sigh)!!

[Olga]

On 30/03/2017 at 1:13 PM, SwissDanny said:

My comment re websites being only part of the equation also focused more on Olga's exisiting pilates business, which like yoga, or CrossFit is now a word that is meaningful to prospective customers (even if you are serving up one of a million different interpretations of it).  If you have to explain eg Stretch Therapy, then of course it's a different matter.

Just wanted to point out that, where i am now, out of 100 people 99 have heard of yoga, 40 out of 100 have heard of Pilates, but only 1 out of these 40 have an idea that Pilates is not only done on the Mat but is much more than the Mat. Those would mostly be expats or Austrians with overseas experience. I do not teach Mat classes (as most of the local Pilates studios do, exclusively Mat), but only equipment - that's my USP. So 1% of the market understands what I do, I am trying to let this market know that I am there at this address - and explain the remaining 99% what I do and how it can benefit them. That was the reasons for my original post (how to explain a new exercise method not easy to understand based on the existing knowledge).

Also, I could say that a class of stretching exercises is easier to understand and imagine for a newbie than a Pilates class on equipment such as Reformer that most people have never seen before. That is, before getting into the details of the methods.

[Nathan]

5 hours ago, Olga said:

I am very grateful for the feedback on the website, a small follow up question. I find that wordpress.com only allow a limited range of plug-ins, would those language plug-ins be available for Wordpress.com sites? I do hate the idea of moving to Wordpress.org with more time spent on the computer than I ever wanted. (sigh)!!

Sorry! When I see WordPress, I immediately think of the software (i.e. using WordPress on your own web host) and not the hosting aspect (i.e. building a website on the wordpress.com site). I just took a quick look, and apparently it's not possible to use the plugin I mentioned with a (free) wordpress.com site. It may be possible with one of the paid packages, but I'm not sure. Here is their (unfortunately subpar) proposed solution(s): https://en.support.wordpress.com/set-up-a-multilingual-blog/

[Jim Pickles]

I've just had a look at your website. I really like the nice, clean, informative layout; especially once the dual language issue is sorted out. Also I really liked being able to book online. So often, after seeing something interesting online, we dont get over that little hurdle of actually doing anything about it (getting on the phone to a stranger, maybe just getting an answering machine because they are - of course - busy teaching, then after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing managing to make a booking), and the online booking system makes that much easier.

Just a couple of points: 1. The pic of Heidi Klum in high heels - and tits flopping up - sticks out like a sore thumb - I dont know about the demographic you are trying to appeal to (or local standards), but to me this looked inappropriate for an exercise site.

2. If you say most people know Pilates as a mat class, why not start off my saying the advantages of the Reformer compared to the mat? I cant see it spelled out clearly in a basic way early on (even though the information is probably there somewhere). The introductory paragraph in German (it's not in English though; so I skipped it at first, thinking that the next one would be the English translation, but it's not) says what it says well, but does not justify the (more expensive) Reformer over a presumably cheaper group mat class.

3. If I look at the description of the Reformer 1 group class (presumably the most basic entry point for new readers) I see "This essential level class is perfect for those with no prior Reformer class experience. The class will take you through some of the most important Pilates Reformer exercises and positions. You will increase your body awareness, strengthen the core, increase range of motion, and balance the muscles around the joints to create a better posture". To me, that starts with something off-putting: "for those with no prior Reformer experience" (it makes it sound like a hurdle to be got over). Why not start with what the class gives you (body awareness, core, range etc) and then say how it is done?

Anyway, many of these points are a matter of taste, and maybe your taste sends you in a different direction, and I dont know your local social situation. And it is a lot nicer than my own web page! (which is confused, crowded, old-fashioned etc, but I'm not going to do anything about it!).

Jim.

[Olga]

4 hours ago, Nathan said:

Sorry! When I see WordPress, I immediately think of the software (i.e. using WordPress on your own web host) and not the hosting aspect (i.e. building a website on the wordpress.com site). I just took a quick look, and apparently it's not possible to use the plugin I mentioned with a (free) wordpress.com site. It may be possible with one of the paid packages, but I'm not sure. Here is their (unfortunately subpar) proposed solution(s): https://en.support.wordpress.com/set-up-a-multilingual-blog/

Nathan, I am pretty sure I have looked into it before launching the site - I lived in Hong Kong which is also dual language city and have encountered those issues (and expensive solutions) before. I have seen that solution and I opted for a mixture of 1 and 2. When I have a Page, it is in 2 languages. When I have a post (eg an article), there is one post in English and another in German. I even chose different photos and promote those posts / articles separately in separate FB groups! That Heidi Klum photo is quite allright for a German-speaking market but Jennifer Aniston in a plank pose is more appropriate for the English-speaking one (as Jim has confirmed in his post :D).

[Nathan]

20 minutes ago, Olga said:

(and expensive solutions)

The plugin is free, but I mistakenly assumed you were running WordPress on your own site. Personally, I would look to move the site to a proper (?) web host sometime in the future, as opposed to hosting the site on something like Wordpress.com. A conventional hosting plan will offer much more flexibility (e.g. easily implementing this free plugin), and can be similar in price depending on features chosen.

I realize it is a matter of effort vs. reward, though, and since you already have an operating site the reward is much less considering the effort required. I suppose it goes both ways, though - already having your Wordpress.com site means that the data is already there, making it a matter of simple migration rather than building a new site. Still, if you are relatively content with your current site then it's likely not worth it to you. Still something to keep in mind for the future, though!

[Jim Pickles]

Olga: - about 2 languages, is it possible to have two separate sites - and at the top of the German one is a link (with a label in English) that you can click to get to the English site, and on the English one, a link to the German one? This should be simple, surely - at the expense of doubling everything up.

As for the Heidi Klum picture - that is an interesting point you make. As you may possibly know, I am a fan and follower or contortion, and one of my friends runs a contortion promotion business in Germany, and this has aspects which fit into the the pattern that I have identified from your comment.

[SwissDanny]

47 minutes ago, Nathan said:

The plugin is free, but I mistakenly assumed you were running WordPress on your own site. Personally, I would look to move the site to a proper (?) web host sometime in the future, as opposed to hosting the site on something like Wordpress.com. A conventional hosting plan will offer much more flexibility (e.g. easily implementing this free plugin), and can be similar in price depending on features chosen.

I think my hosting is 60usd a year with namecheap and includes automatic installation and update of apps including Wordpress...  but we digress...

Olga's OP has been slightly hijacked by us well-intended do-gooders!....  she wanted to talk about reaching people to get them to try out complicated/unknown things like ST or reformer based Pilates.

Social media approach is going to lead to the sort of 1% conversion rate Olga is experiencing (actually a pretty solid rate...). It's a very broad net and time consuming to do with the requisite intensity. Word of mouth, say, on the other hand is very targeted.  You need both of course, but the emphasis may indeed depend strongly on what your goal is...

Kit and Olivia's objective is to make as many people as possible around the world aware of ST and its benefits, and they are able and willing to bring their workshops to us, but are not I believe actively seeking to fill weekly workshops.  Awareness of ST is very low still, there are not so many teachers out there.  It is quite hard to convey the magic elements of ST by word, picture or even video (the experience of the workshop was very different from diligently following the great videos).  There are many schools of stretching out there, how to differentiate from the pack?

Olga's marketing challenge is a somewhat different one, to get adequate utilization of her time and expensive equipment and location, week in week out, to a local crowd (equipment cant easily be moved, people only travel so far for regular classes). Awareness of Pilates as a segment (even if it is a "lesser" form) is relatively high, and even if the awareness of reformer Pilates is low. I assume reformer Pilates is more expensive given the fixed costs... but offers more advantages, so in fact this is an "up-selling" challenge. So I want to do Pilates, but which school do I go to in central Vienna?

I worked for a few years at the watch company TAG Heuer, who had an extremely effective product and marketing campaign... they pretty much invented the sports watch segment and came up with a very famous  "Dont Crack Under Pressure" campaign.  I think the expensive marketing team thinking would have been along the following lines....

TAG Heuer's solution to the "make ST standout from other methods" challenge was to define six characteristics of a sports watch (water resistant, unidirectional bezel, screw in crown etc)... which guess what...only TAG Heuer watches had all of back then.  The ST equivalent of this is "cat like movement"... grace, tension free, strength etc and then to link the practice to these goals.

TAG Heuer's approach to the "why should I buy a TAG Heuer vs an Omega" was "Dont Crack Under Pressure" with eg swimmer racing sharks in other lanes ie the buyers of these watches are strong resilient people.  Aspirational.  This would lead towards something like "Take you Pilates to the next level..." and "The only machine based Pilates in Vienna..." as the recurring theme of the communication and focus.

I think the geographical differences probably point towards a stronger bias for a local business towards direct marketing.

[michaelsamsel]

On 4/5/2017 at 9:13 PM, Jim Pickles said:

Just a couple of points: 1. The pic of Heidi Klum in high heels - and tits flopping up - sticks out like a sore thumb - I dont know about the demographic you are trying to appeal to (or local standards), but to me this looked inappropriate for an exercise site.

 

Jim, by 'inappropriate' do you mean it is inadvisable in a business sense, or are you referencing a moral standard

Mike

[Olga]

On 3/29/2017 at 12:27 PM, Nathan said:

Instagram

Guess what? I finally started my Instagram channel and am loving it! in the beginning I was too shy to post anyone than myself, now my clients are there too and are happy to be the windows into my studio business. And in the two weeks since I started I already got two new clients entirely from IG.

http://www.instagram.com/corepilateswien/