When you are just starting your business, a great way to get new clients and create more awareness is simply by putting your skills out there. It can seem terrifying to do this for the first time, but the payoff is essential for the growth of your business. No matter what your business is, there’s a great chance that you can sell your products or services by giving away some of your most vital information for free at the start.
Below, learn how to launch your startup’s new product or service with a free, five-day online workshop or webinar, which will lead customers down a sales funnel to your paid product or service.
Step 1: Pick a niche topic
First, you need to stand out by identifying your ideal client and further establishing your niche. You also need to make what you’re going to teach your audience during the five days very specific, so that you’re not just any other product or service.
A few questions to ask when deciding on your free workshop topic:
- How can you be the go-to expert in your niche?
- What can you teach during those five days that will lead naturally into your pre-established program?
- What problems do you solve for your ideal client?
- What results/benefits do you help them get?
One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make is picking a very general topic, like “5 Day Free Health Workshop.”
What does that even mean? Think about this from your client’s perspective. It’s far too general, so it will likely confuse your audience, since there’s not a specific target or topic. They need to know what to expect from you and your workshop. Do not be vague.
Your messaging is important, but your audience should also be able to tell a lot about your workshop simply by the title. If it’s too general, then you’ve already lost their interest. Keep in mind that the title and topic should naturally lead into your paid offer.
Related: 3 Ways to Generate Passive Income as an Entrepreneur
Step 2: Set up your group
After you decide on a topic, you need to have a few things set up before you can start promoting your workshop the right way.
If you don’t already have one, now is the time to set up your free Facebook group. This is where you’ll run your workshop. Be sure to use your important keywords in your Facebook Group title. Using keywords in your title will allow your group to be searched on Facebook, and exposes you to more people organically searching for these topics on the platform, as well.
Use imagery to tell a story and describe your workshop: make your group look as professional as possible with a logo and matching cover photo.
Step 3: Set up your landing page and email list
There are plenty of software out there that you can use to create a landing page for your free workshop.
Mailchimp has a free version, and plenty of people use Click Funnels as well, which is a paid software. The software you choose depends on your budget, but the important thing is, you need to have a landing page for your workshop.
Tips for creating your landing page:
- Make it clear who the workshop is for, i.e. “This workshop is for you if you struggle with XYZ”
- Make it clear what the results/benefits are that users will receive by participating in the workshop
- Give logistics (day/time/what they’re learning)
- Give multiple places to opt-in with an email address
Be sure to set up a separate list on your email server specifically for this workshop; you’re going to send daily emails and you don’t want to send them to your entire list
Step 4: Promote your workshop
These days, marketing is everything. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when running a free workshop is that they don’t promote it enough.
You want to treat this campaign just like any other launch. I recommend promoting it for two weeks prior to launch.
Even if it’s free, you want to get the word out multiple times in order to get your target audience to take action. Remember, the whole point of the free workshop is to lead your users down the funnel to your paid product or service.
Promote your workshop anywhere and everywhere, including:
- Instagram Stories
- IG Live/IGTV
- Facebook groups
- Your blog
- Your email list
Remember:
- Promote for at least two weeks
- Write a nurture sequence for your email list
- Keep the focus of your promotions on the result or benefit that participants will get
- Speak clearly to your ideal client who will benefit most from this challenge
Step 5: Run your workshop
Now comes the fun part…actually running the free workshop.
This will be the easiest part because this is your zone of genius. You’re teaching something that is second nature to you that you know will impact your audience and lead naturally into your paid offer.
Keep the following tips in mind when running your free workshop:
- Be involved; comment/like every single post within your Facebook challenge group
- Go “live” every single day
- Direct message those who participate the most in the workshop
- Give a prize out at the end
- Encourage participants to share content on social media and tag your business
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Step 6: Launch into your paid program
This is what you’ve been waiting for.
It’s the last day of your free workshop, and you’ve been planting the seed about your paid program all week. Your customers have seen results from your free workshop. You’ve established trust, and they now want to invest more in you and your business, so they can keep the momentum and the results going that they’re seeing from the challenge.
Tips for promoting your paid program:
- On the fifth and final day of your free workshop, launch into an offering of your paid program
- The offering should naturally lead into your paid program, and should further help your customers with the issue you’re solving for them
- Send an email newsletter and share social posts to your workshop list and group announcing your paid program
The real key to a successful free workshop is all in preparation. When you’re prepared, your workshop launch will be easier than you imagined, and will naturally lead your customers into your paid program.
