5 tips to running profitable retreats
Introduction: The Hidden Risk of Running Retreats
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth!
One of the easiest things in the world to do is to lose money running retreats!
Why Most Retreats Fail to Turn a Profit
Why would I say that at the start of a blog aimed at getting you interested in running a retreat?
Because I’m saddened by hearing tales of people failing in their retreat dreams at the first hurdle when, with a little help, advice and retreat planning, they could have succeeded.
This article is aimed at those considering running their first retreat and those who have run retreats that didn’t reach their full potential.
I know well the excitement and enthusiasm of planning that first retreat!
Wanting to get your knowledge and skills in front of the people who it’s going to help most.
Wanting to give your attendees the benefit of your experiences, knowing that you have the answers to so many people’s questions!
Therein lies the problem; the reason why so many novice retreat leaders lose money and lose the chance to achieve their retreat goals.
To run a successful retreat, or retreats, you’ll need to have a very clearly defined subset niche within your total audience to target a specific promise of what you’ll deliver.
Let’s dive in and look at the 5 top tips that’ll guide you to retreat success!
Tip 1: Focus on YOU - Your Uniqueness is Your Strength
We talk to so many potential retreat leaders who have a very broad idea of who they want to attract to their retreats – it’s usually everyone!
What’s the old marketeers saying? ‘If you sell to everyone, you’re selling to no one’. That’s as true today as it ever was, perhaps more so.
People need to feel that you’re talking direct to them, addressing their hopes, fears, problems.
They need to feel that not only do you understand them, but that you’ve been where they are now, you’ve walked in their shoes.
Every ideal client that you are trying to sell to has to have a bit of you in them!
So, in order to identify them you need to look at yourself first.
Understanding Your Unique Value as a Retreat Leader
Discover your uniqueness.
This isn’t just the things you’ve been taught. It’s how your experiences and life story interprets and brings together all you’ve learned and been taught into the specific, individual way that you’ll help your clients.
It’s the way that you’ve taken what you know and shape that into the solution you offer to others’ problems. The answers you have to their questions, fears, blocks.
Wow, that’s a bit deep, isn’t it?
It is. But look at it this way.
Always remember that people are being bombarded with information and adverts 24/7, non-stop.
What’s going to make them stop and listen to you amid all this chatter?
YOU are!
By being you (not whoever you think your business/marketing self should be) people will catch a glimpse of themselves, they’ll realise you’re talking their language direct to them! A connection has been made.
This is why trying to sell to everyone fails so often – no one is making a personal connection to what you’re saying.
This scares so many people because they think if they’re targeting such a specific subset of their audience, the rest will have to be ignored for ever.
But here’s a thing ; we’re complex multi-faceted creatures with skills, experiences and knowledge that enable us to help many different subsets of our audience. As you already know from the members or followers you already have.
For retreat success though, it’s best to target the smaller subsets than try to appeal to all of your audience.
The promise that you’ll make regarding the retreat outcome needs to be very specific to that particular subset.
Tip 2: WHO is Your Ideal Audience?
Above we looked at YOU and found the uniqueness of your solutions and answers.
Now it’s WHO.
In other words, the subset, the niche, within your followers, or the broader population, that you’re going to target as the perfect audience for your planned retreat.
The Power of Niching Down Your Audience
The more specific this audience is, the more they’ll feel that you’re talking directly to them.
This means that they’ll respond and bond with you and your solution quicker.
Once you know exactly who you want to attract onto your retreat. you must craft your retreat promise. This going to be the end result of the time they spend with you on the retreat.
TIP 3: WHAT'S in it for Them? Crafting Your Retreat Promise
Now it’s time to set out your stall and unveil to your targeted audience exactly what they will achieve by attending your retreat.
This is where so many retreat leaders have problems because they haven’t done the work above.
They’re not sure of their specific skill set, the solutions that these skills can help or the audience that they want to attract.
Is it any wonder they struggle to attract paying clients?
One of the reasons we’re now trying to work more closely with coaches and mentors is years of having to deal with potential retreat leaders in other fields, mostly the more holistic/yoga areas.
This is mine and Jane’s background (the owners of Casa Torreta Blanca Retreat Venue) so in no way am I knocking these wonderful people!
Because of their empathic nature, they naturally want to help everyone so have a fairly woolly idea of their niched audience.
Tie this to a normally fairly small audience, and a bias towards charging only what they think their audience can afford, you can see why they can struggle to get retreats of the ground and to make money!
The problem here is not the small audience per se, but the fact that it’s hard to grow an audience without a specific target audience in mind, rather than a more generic one.
The reason why we like coaches and mentors is that (usually) a warmish audience is in place already and they are well aware of their own skillset.
Let’s have a look at a couple of retreat promises so you see what’s good and not so good.
Retreat Promise 1: ‘These retreats offer a unique opportunity for deep personal growth’
Retreat Promise 2: ‘These 2 - 3 day performance coaching retreats are tailored to you and produce outcomes such as:
- Confidence and clarity over your life, career, business, or other personal matter having made…
- ... firm decisions about what you are going to do, when, how, and why, with full commitment.
- Keener identification with who you want to be.
- Renewed sense of purpose, motivation, and empowerment.
- How you can stop holding yourself back.
- Mind, body, and spirit restored by having some nourishing time away in a supportive environment.’
Retreat Number 1 is making a promise that practically 100% of retreats could claim!
It’s very generic, not targeted at any particular audience and lacks anything to tell you why you should choose them.
Retreat Number 2 is much better! It gives a very clear, concise list of what you’ll achieve on this retreat.
Personally, I think it might be a bit over ambitious in its promise!
I know it’s for a series of retreats rather than a single one, but I think if they split the content into Retreat 1, 2, etc, it wouldn’t look quite so overpowering!
How to Clearly Define Your Retreat’s Promise
Let’s shorten number 2 a little so it’s not quite so scary!
This is so much better….
‘These 3 day performance coaching retreats are tailored to you and will produce these outcomes:
- Confidence and clarity over your life, career, business, or other personal matter having made…
- ... firm decisions about what you are going to do, when, how, and why, with full commitment.’
Now it exactly addresses their audiences concerns and makes them the promise of what they’ll achieve.
Tip 4: FIND and Attract Your Audience
How do you now get your promise in front of the niched audience you’re targeting?
The broader audiences we’ve talked about so far are what I’d classify as ‘warm’ or ‘hot’.
Marketing to a Warm vs. Cold Audience
A warm audience is aware of who you are and what you do. They probably follow you on social media. They might be on your mailing list.
Importantly, they’re aware of the problems, issues or blocks that are holding them back, and are actively looking for a solution.
A hot audience is all of the above but a step further on. Not only are they aware of you but they know, like and trust you. They’ve probably already bought at least one of your offerings and may well be in memberships or programmes you have.
They actively support and interact with you on social media and email.
If you have an engaged warm and/or hot audience congratulations!
I know how much hard work goes into building an audience like that.
When it comes to promoting your retreat, you’re talking to the converted.
With an audience like this I’d recommend a ‘teaser’ campaign during the planning stages of your retreat. Dropping clues about what you’re planning and asking them to join a waiting list if they’re interested.
These can be the first people you contact with full details and you can expect immediate sales from this crowd.
After that initial flurry of activity, keep the momentum going with posts and emails, not only about the content and promise of your retreat, but also the venue, the activities you’ve planned for them, things to build the excitement.
If, however, you’re still building your audience, we need to look at talking to a cold audience.
As you can probably guess, a cold audience doesn’t have the foggiest idea who you are!
It’s also fairly certain that, while they may be aware of some of the symptoms of what’s holding them back, they’re not aware of the cause, and they certainly aren’t actively searching for a solution!
The key to both introducing yourself and identifying their problem to them is educational posting.
This is, as the name suggests, informative posting about not only what it is that’s holding them back, but the possible solutions as well.
By showing them what may be their problem, and offering them a solution, you’re not only introducing yourself, but also positioning yourself as an expert; someone who can show them the way.
Only once you’ve done this can you begin mentioning your retreat, programme or mentorship and start the selling process.
Tip 5: PLAN for Long-Term Success
Always have the next step in mind!
Even while you’re in the planning/promoting stage for your retreat, keep half an eye on the future.
The Importance of Planning Beyond Your First Retreat
The secret to long term financial gain from each retreat is having something more to sell at the end of it.
This might sound like sleazy ‘marketeering’, but it’s not (honestly!).
The amount of knowledge, skill and experience you have is far too much to get over in a single retreat. If you tried you would completely overwhelm your attendees.
Think of your retreat as a first step into your world.
You’re getting to know each other, and they’re getting that first taste of what you can offer. They will feel the benefit of what they learn on the retreat and will want to carry on working with you.
To leave them after the retreat without a plan in place is not only terrible business, but is doing them a massive disservice!
Always have the next steps in place for them, whether it’s a membership or programme to join, or working 1-2-1 with you, masterminds, etc.
If they’re already on a programme with you, offer them the next level. If they’re at the top level create a super duper new higher level!
And never forget the power of the community that has formed between the attendees of your retreat,
They’ve started a journey together and are eager to continue working as a group, so have details of the next retreat to offer them before they leave your current one.
So, there you have it. 5 not only top but essential tips to bear in mind when beginning the retreat creation process.
You probably notice that one tip is missing – pricing.
Pricing is such a super important subject that it gets a blog all to itself, and we will shortly be writing an article on that.
If you can’t wait that long, you can download our ‘Pricing your Retreat for Profit eBook’.
I hope you found this informative and as always I’m very happy to answer any questions this blog may have raised, either by
