How To Use Online Webinars And Workshops To Promote Your Coaching Business

Learn how to host and promote engaging and memorable online coaching workshops and webinars to promote your coaching business online.

Becoming an expert in your community isn’t as hard as it might seem. One way to break into the small business scene is to host online or business-oriented workshops.

You can host free or paid events depending upon the demand for the subject matter. Either way, hosting online workshops and group coaching events is a great way to become known as the go-to expert in your niche.

Here are some tips to host and promote engaging and memorable webinars and workshops online:

1. Identify your target audience

Everything starts with your target audience. Even though you likely already have an audience in mind when you are planning online events, you need to double down and laser-focus your audience on a whole new level so that your materials are meaningful to the audience.

2. Choose your event topic & theme

Before you get started with your event planning, it’s important to know what the topic and theme of your event will be. This will help you determine the size of the event, the cost, and many other factors related to planning and promoting your event.

3. Decide which webinar software you’ll use

Once you have set your budget, decide which software you plan to use to host your event. The webinar software you use will depend on how many attendees you plan to have and whether you plan to have a free or paid event.

There are many excellent software options to host group coaching events, from free and low-cost options like YouTube and Facebook Lives to Zoom.

You can even find professional group coaching software options that offer advanced features like replays and can even help you turn your event into an online course.

4. Determine your budget

Now that you know your topic and which software you plan to use, it’s important to set a budget for the event.

You will likely have to pay a fee for the group coaching software that you choose for the event. You’ll also have to set aside a budget for event advertising and promotions.

5. Set the date of your workshop

When it comes to online webinars and workshops, you don’t really need a lot of time to plan. It’s better to keep the marketing and advertising for the event short and start promoting your webinar not more than a month in advance.

6. Use Facebook Groups

You can also learn how to brand yourself as a coach and promote your online events on Facebook. Start a temporary Facebook group and host a free challenge based on the topic of your workshop.

Whether you prefer to join other people's Facebook groups or start your own, you can find some useful marketing tips for event marketing on Facebook.

7. Create a Meetup Group

For coaches who based their business model on local in-person workshops and events, Meetup.com was a great way to promote a local business by building a local community of prospects that will turn into loyal customers.

Ever since the pandemic made local workshops impossible, most Meetup groups have gone online and started online meetups.

So Meetup.com is still a pretty decent way to keep in touch with local clients and nurture relationships online, especially if you hope to return to in-person workshops and events soon.

8. Create your marketing materials

Before you start promoting your online workshop or webinar, you'll need to create marketing materials.

Ideally, you should outsource your social media marketing to an expert who can create an event website, online event sign-up, social media pages, and any other marketing materials that you need to run ads online and offline.

9. Promote your event online

Run ads a few weeks before the event to get signups. Using Facebook Ads, you can target your audience precisely, but you can also look to other avenues for getting the word out about your event.

While you’re working on your marketing, stay active on the social platforms that you’ve created to educate, inform, and engage your audience and let your audience know about your workshop.

How to Deliver Memorable Workshops and Training Seminars

Workshops and training may be very popular, but often they’re not very memorable, even when your audience is learning new things. And the pandemic has brought with it an epidemic of Zoom fatigue.

Listening to other people drone on can be hard for many people. But thankfully, with just a little knowledge you can deliver memorable workshops and training seminars.

Here are some tips to deliver engaging and memorable workshops and training seminars:

1. Refine your message

Once you know who your audience will be, you can refine the message you want to deliver. This will be the overarching theme of your event that informs the topic.

Try writing in two or three sentences what you want attendees to learn, think and feel when they attend your event. Then make sure that everything you do fits that goal.

2. Get to know your group

Network and get to know your attendees before the event. Send out a survey along with the event signup form asking them what questions they need answers to.

That way when they show up for your event, you’ll know more about them and can adjust your talk to fit their needs audience better.

3. Tell a story, don’t lecture

If you really want people to remember your workshop, training, or seminars, you must understand your audience, know your topic, and then focus on building relationships and sharing your story and their story.

Instead of approaching the event like a teacher, approach it as someone who is telling a story and setting the stage for your audience.

When you can weave a story into what you want them to learn, they’re going to be more likely to remember it - especially if you make them part of it.

4. Encourage & facilitate discussion

Don’t just have a monologue. Make it a two-way discussion. When you increase your interaction with your audience, they tend to remember more.

Ask them questions, let them answer, and draw them through your story and the lessons you want them to learn from your presentation with encouragement and back-and-forth participation.

5. Account for different learning styles

When you plan your presentation, remember that there are going to be several different learning styles. Some people learn well by listening to a lecture, but most people need some form of stimulation and demonstration.

Making the event more hands-on will help include all learning types. You can sharpen your coaching skills and learn how to start an online coaching business with ICF-accredited coach certification programs.

6. Don’t forget to have fun

Don’t forget that workshops, training, and seminars can also be fun. Everything doesn’t have to be serious all the time.

You can have fun while you're speaking, even at business events. Of course, you want to maintain a level of professionalism depending on your audience, but you don’t have to be all business all the time.

7. Follow up with your attendees

The one thing that makes any event memorable is the follow-up. How do you continue to engage the people who attended your event over time?

You can set up a follow-up email sequence with the date for pre-sign-up for the next event or send them an offer to purchase your online course or 1-on-1 coaching packages.

Building those long-term relationships will go far in helping you host memorable events and increasing your profits from events.

8. Don’t try to be perfect

Don’t worry if everything doesn’t go perfectly, especially the first time. The important thing is to provide value to your audience.

Even if only five people show up, that’s five people who are going to tell their friends about what they learned and from whom.