How to Grow Your Audience Using Online Workshops: Part One

Growing your audience can seem like an uphill battle. Hosting online workshops will help you reach your goal faster.  

Step ONE: Decide On Your Offer

Choose Your Offer: Some would suggest choosing your topic first. That’s logical. But you’ll have more attendees if you begin with the practical result your audience will receive. Everything should revolve around them. What will they be able to DO after your workshop that they couldn’t do BEFORE? And do they want that new result? If not, redirect immediately.

Let’s pretend your topic is ice fishing. What can you teach your audience about ice fishing that they can put to practical use on their next outing? Teach that. Market that. Deliver that.

Based upon that criterion, I’ve selected catch more fish. This is more than a topic. It’s a result.

A Concrete Marketing Promise

Join my workshop and you’ll be able to CATCH MORE FISH. Don’t promise that they’ll catch more fish (which you cannot control) but that they’ll be able to catch more fish. They’ll have the necessary knowledge and skills to do so. What they do with that newfound knowledge and skill set is up to them.

During your workshop, forget about sharing the history of ice fishing. Don’t spend time highlighting the many types of ice fishing rods on the market and the intricacies of each. Omit an in-depth discussion on the remaining essential gear, the best places to get it, and how to use it.

All that information is valuable, but it will draw attention away from the promised result.  Our singular focus is to teach ice fishermen (or those interested in ice fishing) how to catch more fish. Bada-bing, bada-boom!

You might choose to teach them a different skill instead.

Be careful not to add unrelated information to make your workshop more interesting. Information doesn’t get results. You can’t market information alone (well, you can, but who wants another lecture)?

Choose a skill that will require a change in your attendees’ behavior. Results change when behavior patterns change. Should they start earlier in the morning or stay out on the ice later? Purchase new, updated equipment and learn how to use it? Return to the old ways? Research the location where they go ice fishing, looking for information about the water’s non-winter flow (which will affect the water flow in winter, too)?

Notice that these are topics. Information. Didn’t I just suggest you not focus on information? Yep. Here’s the key difference.

This information is directly tied to your promised result.

It moves viewers one step closer to catching more fish–which is what you promised they’d be able to do–while unrelated information does not.

This is the first of 8 steps to grow your audience using online workshops. Next month we’ll discuss how to title your workshop so that it attracts the attention of your ideal audience. Bland or confusing titles are worthless, as are “cutesy” titles. Our audience wants to catch more fish.

We can use that title. It’s simple, direct, and easy to understand, but let’s wait. As we continue developing the workshop, we may discover an even better choice.

Until next month. 

Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.

Website: marketersonamission.com
Facebook: MarketersOnAMission