If you are considering organizing an online workshop as part of your marketing and promotion strategy or simply just as part of your business, here you will learn the essential elements you need to do it. But first things first…
¿What is an online workshop?
An online workshop can be defined as a course available on a digital platform, to offer specific knowledge through videos, texts, images and infographics.
To clear doubts, unlike training, an online workshop seeks to delve into a topic objectively and interactively. Besides, the participants do practical activities that help them solve the problems addressed.
This type of content is typically 2 to 5 hours long, as it focuses on productivity and knowledge absorption.
For you to have a successful workshop, it is necessary to complete certain steps:
1. Define the topic
The choice of topic is crucial. It must be relevant, innovative, and pique people’s interest. In the market, some topics that are very saturated and are addressed repeatedly. We aren’t saying it has to be the most ingenious topic either, just try to think outside the box when deciding how to explain it.
2. Identify the target audience
With the topic decided, it’s time to see who is the main target audience for this event. It’s not going to work out if someone who is not going to take advantage of the teachings that you are going to share attends the workshop. So it is time to be selective and specific.
Moreover, defining the target it’s very important to create specific content. So ask yourself: Which are their main characteristics? Are they amateurs or professionals? Where do they live, what stories could resonate with them? The answers will help you both in the construction of content and in the workshop’s communication and online promotion.
3. Free or paid?
Now that you have identified your audience, do you think they are willing to pay for it or not? It’s important to think about this, but there is a bigger thing to consider to make the decision:
Establishing whether it will be a free or paid online workshop is directly related to the purpose of creating the course. If you intend to offer technical and exclusive knowledge, it may be a good idea to charge a participation fee.
However, if you are looking to consolidate your name in the market and attract an audience to your brand, you should offer the workshop for free. This way, people can get to know your work and your business and, in the future, hire your service or consume your product.
4. Choose the right instructors
There is no point in having good preparation and incredible content if the instructors don’t meet the expectations of the users. The obvious thing is to choose someone from your own company to lead the workshop, but you can also hire a third party to do it. It doesn’t matter because what’s really important is for the person to be a good instructor.
And what do we mean by “good” instructor? Let’s just put it this way: some people are qualified and very educated on a subject but do not have enough charisma to teach a class. So make sure the expert or experts you choose are capable of generating interest and encouragement in people. What’s more, if they are a little fun, it is always a plus.
Choosing the right instructors is key for your workshop to be successful.
5. Content planning
This is essential. You have to define how long each video will last and how many blocks the course will have, among other details. The information must follow a logical structure and must be connected. At this stage, besides thinking about the logistics of course structuring, it is also necessary to create a script.
Also, if there is more than one instructor, time and content limits must be set. That way one doesn’t overlap the subject matter that will be presented by the other.
6. Customize it
If your workshop consists of a person speaking to a camera and nothing else, you will probably lose your audience’s interest. Watchity allows you to customize your live video connecting cameras and smartphones, sharing your screen or webcam, adding lower-thirds, overlays, brand logos and pre-recorded videos. This way, you can create great-looking online workshops with an amazing brand image that makes you have a more professional look. Stand out from the rest!
7. Communicate and promote the workshop
Last but not least: communication. The more you publicize your workshop, the more attendees you’ll have.
When you have an incoming online workshop, announce it on all your own social media networks as well as on your corporate website. Watchity not only allows you to create your online workshop, but also set it up and promote it.
Our platform allows you to control the event lifecycle by letting you create registration forms, define protected access, manage attendees lists, add calendar alerts and send email reminders.
If you want to know about creating workshops with Watchity, send us a message or request a demo.