The 2026 Messaging Rule: If It Could Be About Any Studio, Delete It

Here's something I want you to do right now. Pull up your Instagram bio. Look at your most recent post. Maybe look at your website homepage while you're at it. 

Now swap your studio name for the studio down the street. Or the one across town. Or the one that just opened three months ago. 

Does it still make sense? 

If the answer is yes — if you could swap the name and no one would notice — that is not messaging. That is filler. And in 2026, vague messaging is expensive. It will cost you new students, new members, and it will make your organic marketing — and your ads — work a whole lot harder than they need to.

I know that might sting a little. But here's what I also know: this is fixable. And you're not alone in it. This is one of the most common things I see across the studio industry right now, and there are very real reasons it happened. Let's get into it. 

Why Studio Marketing Became Generic (And Why It's Not Your Fault)

When you look at three new Pilates studios on Instagram right now, there's a good chance you'll find the same caption across all three of them. Something like: "Transform your body and mind in our welcoming community with expert instructors." 

How did we all end up saying the same thing? A few reasons. 

Before business education was widely available in this industry, the best option most studio owners had was looking at the studio down the street. What are they charging? What are they saying? And so we started borrowing from each other — phrases like "welcoming community" and "transform your body" made their way into everyone's marketing because they seemed safe. They sounded professional. And honestly, back then, they worked okay. 

But there's another layer to this. There is a real fear of being specific. I hear it all the time: "Jackie, if I speak just to busy moms, won't I exclude everyone else?" And the answer has always been no. But I understand why that fear feels real. It feels like narrowing your reach. It feels risky. So you keep the language broad, and the marketing stays generic. 

And then there's a newer problem: AI. ChatGPT and other tools have made it easier than ever to generate content quickly — and easier than ever to sound exactly like everyone else. When studio owners ask AI to write their captions, they get the same generic output their competitors are getting. The result is an industry-wide content problem where everyone is posting beautifully aesthetic feeds that say absolutely nothing specific. 

If your messaging could describe any business in the wellness industry, that is not messaging — that is filler words. 

Why This Matters More in 2026 Than It Ever Has

Here's the thing: vague messaging has always been a problem. But in 2026, it's a bigger problem than it used to be. Attention spans are shorter — it used to be three seconds to stop the scroll, and now you have two. The online landscape is noisier. There are more studios, more options, more content competing for your potential student's attention. 

People are also more skeptical. They've been around. They've tried a few studios. They know that everyone claims to be welcoming, everyone claims to have expert instructors, everyone says all levels are welcome. Those phrases don't land the way they once did because they've heard them before — and they've walked into studios that didn't live up to the promise. 

When a potential client Googles "Pilates near me" and clicks on the first five results, and each one says "welcoming community, transform your mind and body, expert instructors, all levels welcome" — all with beautiful, aesthetic feeds — she really can't tell the difference. So she picks based on price, or based on what's closest to her. She picks you like she'd pick any commodity. And you are not a commodity business. 

Your organic marketing should be generating at least 30% of your leads. If it's not doing that right now, there's a good chance your messaging is why.

The 2026 Messaging Rule

The rule is simple: if any studio could post it, delete it. 

Every time you're creating organic marketing, ask yourself three questions. Is this specific? Am I speaking to one person? Does this showcase my expertise — not just claim it? 

Let's break that down. 

Be specific about who and what.

The words that need to go — or at least need to work a lot harder — are the ones that have become meaningless through overuse. "Welcoming community." "Transform your body, life, and practice." "Expert instructors." "All levels welcome." "Holistic approach." "Mind-body connection." "State of the art." "Journey." "Empower." 

These aren't bad words. They're just empty without specificity behind them. Instead of saying "welcoming community," say something like: "Sarah is going to text you the night before class to let you know what to expect when you walk in. We can't wait to see you here." Do you see how that's different? It means something. It's real. Instead of "transform your body," try: "Build enough core strength to carry all the groceries in in one trip without hurting your back." That's a specific outcome for a specific person. 

Show your expertise. Don't just claim it.

Instead of "expert instructors," try something like: "Lindsay worked as a PT assistant for five years and now teaches Pilates — which means she knows how to work around your knee issue." That's a credential that means something. That's trust built in one sentence, not through a vague label. 

You can also show expertise through video. Behind the scenes studying. Real client stories. Your own experience and history in the industry. The goal is to demonstrate what you know, not just announce it. 

Talk to one person at a time — not one person forever.

This is where the fear of specificity gets it wrong. Talking to one person at a time does not mean you're locked into one audience for the rest of your life. It means each piece of content speaks clearly to one specific person. You can do a reel for busy parents. Your next one for pregnant moms. The one after that for weekend warriors who want to work out without injury. You rotate your audiences across your content strategy — you just never try to talk to all of them at once in a single post. 

The more specific you get, the more the right people will see your marketing and think: this is for me. 

What This Actually Looks Like: Two Real Examples

Let me show you exactly what this shift looks like in practice. 

Example One: Filling your morning classes.

Old hook: "Benefits of yoga for moms." That's the caption. That's the hook. Is it interesting? Kind of. Will it stop a busy mom mid-scroll in two seconds? Almost certainly not. 

New hook: "I snapped at my kid when they forgot to pick up their book bag for the millionth time. Here's how we're creating peace at home." 

That hook does five things. It names a specific moment — one that a lot of moms have actually lived. It names the real feeling without stating it outright; "I snapped" implies stress, overwhelm, being at the end of your rope. It shows the outcome through story rather than listing benefits. It speaks directly to one person — the mom who is touched out and running on empty. And it sounds like a human, not a business. That is the reel that stops the scroll. That is the reel that gets shared, gets DMs, gets people coming in — because the content is not about yoga. It's about being a better mom. And yoga is how you get there. 

Example Two: Prenatal yoga.

Old hook: "Prenatal yoga flow." That's it. Just the logistics, nothing more. 

New hook: "POV: You're a pregnant mom who almost booked an all-levels yoga class on ClassPass — but then you learned that yoga can feature moves that are unsafe for you and your baby." 

That hook names a specific fear. It calls out a real problem that exists in the industry — that all-levels classes may not be safe for pregnant students, and that many pregnant women don't know this. It positions the instructor as the person who gets it, who understands both what this student wants (to take a class) and what she actually needs (a class that's safe for her). It creates urgency — after reading that, she is not about to book a random class on an app. She's going to find a teacher who clearly understands prenatal practice. 

This is the shift. Old messaging is generic, listing benefits and features, talking at people. New messaging is specific, story-driven, human, and it talks with people — like a friend who happens to understand exactly what they're going through. 

The Gen Z and Millennial Factor

Here's one more piece of this worth understanding. Gen Z and Millennials are filling the yoga and Pilates industry right now. And Gen Z in particular deeply cares about the values and the human connection and the people behind the brand. They want to know who is running the studio. They want to see the real humans behind the business, the real expertise, the real story. They're not going to trust a studio just because it says "expert instructors" in the bio. They've grown up with marketing. They know what it looks and sounds like. 

When your content sounds like a person — a specific, real, knowledgeable person who genuinely sees them — that's when trust gets built. And trust is what turns a follower into a student. 

Your Next Step: Audit Your Messaging Today

Go do this right now. Pull up your website. Your Instagram bio. Your last three posts. Ask yourself: if I swapped my studio name for a competitor's, would anyone notice? If the answer is no — if the content would still make sense for any studio — that's your sign that it's time to make it more specific. 

Ask yourself: Is this specific? Am I speaking to one person? Does it showcase my expertise instead of just claiming it? Could this describe any business — or does it clearly describe mine?

If you want help making this shift — if you want specific messaging that works for your studio, your brand values, and the people you're actually trying to reach — that's exactly what we do inside the Studio CEO Program. Every single week, I write four plug-and-play reel hooks that studio owners can customize for their own business. No guessing. No generic AI output. Just specific, strategic messaging built for this industry.