Over the past few week - creatives have been given insights into the pros and cons of running workshop to bolster your income, and tips on how to design and present a workshop.

This article offers the next vital key to successful workshops – marketing them. 

Let’s face it, it is a competitive landscape today and, regardless of how good your offering is, unless people know about it – and can book easily – then all your hard work is not going to pay off.

ArtsHub has listed 10 easy ways to get your workshop visible, and in people’s diaries. And remember, when you use these in tandem, you increase your chances.

Marketing is visual so choose the right images

Choose images that talk about your workshop experience – aka happy people at tables making stuff or sharing in a group. You may also want to include a picture of yourself instructing, or participants with their finished objects. These all sell the ‘experience’, and today everyone is looking for experiences.

But, that said, you also don’t want your marketing to come off like a community scrapbook. Be sure to have the object created (or theme of the workshop) captured in a professional looking image. Programs like Canva can help you make your images look less amateur.

While workshops are largely targeted to those with a low skill level, most participants are wanting to make their own ceramic bowls on a par with those made by designers, such as MUD or Dinosaur Designs. So photograph the result to meet their dream, and increase your chances of a sign-up.

Don’t underestimate the old-fashioned flyer

You can do this pretty cheaply today, and with companies like Vistaprint, Canva and Officeworks, it’s simple to turn out flyers really quickly to distribute. We’d suggest holding off your bulk printing until you have run your first workshop and made any necessary tweaks.

Assume that people may only see one piece of your promotion, so tell them everything they need to know on that flyer – it needs to be a call to action. Jeweller Corinne Snare (A Silver Circle Design) explains her preference: “I have evergreen ads running that keep [the workshop] reaching new people.” She uses the same design across local listings and a flyer to double up on her workshop branding.

Like Snare, some creatives choose to leave the price off their flyers, so they don’t need to reprint with price changes. If that’s the case, then make it easy to find out the cost – maybe consider a QR code to a quick landing page with all the details.

Social media is marketing today

If you are not on social media, then you are only reaching a fraction of your potential audience. For the arts, Facebook and Instagram are your best bets. While Facebook has the widest net, Instagram works particularly well for visual media. Videos and reels are especially popular at the moment, so get yourself in front of the camera (and behind it) to boost your marketing. And, don’t forget to join Facebook groups and promote there.

Also, if you are appealing to a young audience for your workshop, you may also consider TikTok. 

And, just like your flyer, you want to make this a one-stop for information. People are less likely to click through if they have to work for details. Remember to add:

• how people can sign up
• cost and payment methods
• details of what they will do in the class – and take home
• how long it lasts and group size
• accessibility details, and
• where it is located.

The key to using any social media for marketing is to offer clear pathways to book. You may want to consider adding Linktree to your bio to easily drive traffic to your booking page.

Managing ticketing

OK, thanks to your marketing, they’re sold on the idea – but how do they pay? You’d be amazed how often it’s hard to find how to pay. The best way is to use a ‘book here’ button that is linked to payment service, such as PayPal, Stripe or Square. This mean you are less likely to lose people in the process.

The great way to sell your tickets is via an app, such as Eventbrite, ClassBento or Humanitix, which help manage your bookings, but also allow you to create an event on their websites to boost your marketing catchment.

And don’t forget to publish your cancellation and refund terms – such as, do they get a full refund up to the date (at your cost), or a voucher to use at a later date?

Personal follow-up on booking

A huge part of marketing today is customer service related – it is all about personalising our digital world. So when your students are booked in – thanks to your savvy marketing – follow up with an email and start the journey with them prior to the day.

This is also a good opportunity to run through some of the finer details, such as location and access, food, what is provided, what they need to bring or wear, and that cancellation policy.

A good tip by workshop regular, Gloria Rozario, is: “Give us your social handles in the email when we sign up, and we will read up about you before the workshop if we are interested. Little snippets of your workshops around the world etc can be mentioned and made into interesting conversations during the workshop.” 

That personal touch is part of the bigger picture for your business, and word of mouth of a good workshop experience is perhaps your best marketing tool, so cultivate it from the moment they book.

Creative writing teacher, and author Dr Sian Prior adds, “Word quickly gets around if your course isn’t well-organised and useful. Make sure your communication with your students is timely, clear and respectful.”

She adds, “There is a lot of competition for students in this area and those potential students are understandably looking for something professional, well-organised and worth the cost.”

Cultural tourism includes you

Remember Airbnb experiences? Well, while they may have dwindled as a platform, your local tourism office is always hungry for bespoke, authentic, local offerings.

Today, people want to parcel up their weekend away with things to do – whether in the city or off on a rural roadie. Workshops are perfect because they offer something unique, and you get to take a memento home.

Snare tells ArtsHub, “When I moved to the Southern Highlands [NSW], I thought the workshops would fade out, but I found that they increased as more people wanted an excuse to get out of Sydney and do something new.”

Consider sites like RedBalloon, and tap into your local tourism office and arts organisations to cross-promote. And remember to use destination hashtags on your socials – this is one way to capture an audience that is soon to visit #mittagong, for example, and to know what’s cool and fun to add to their itinerary.

Look to others

As with any marketing, you want to know your competition, so look to other creative businesses that are offering workshops and see what is included in their offer, and how they promote it.

If there is a workshop you particularly admire, then run an eye over its ’followers’ on social media – this can sometimes trigger you off to marketing avenues you may have overlooked.

Another way to increase your exposure is to consider combining your workshop with a bigger event, such as an open studio, arts trail, local market or writer’s festival. You may be able to get listed on a satellite program or included in their marketing or, at least, use hashtags to capture the audience searching for these events.

And don’t forget the power community radio, local noticeboards and free papers. They are most often listened to or read by people looking for something to do.

Incentivise and bundle

If bookings are slow, you may want to think of how you can incentivise your workshop. Bundling is the easiest option, such as offering a discount when you ‘bring a friend’ – doubling your bookings – or ‘sibling prices’ for kids’ classes.

Another incentive to consider is rewarding return students. ‘Get 20% off your third workshop’ or ‘book four workshops and get one free’.

Consider other options also. Sometimes people would love to do your workshop, but life has got in the way for the advertised date. Why not invite them to reach out and offer one-to-one classes or even classes for private couples.

Along this line, you may consider marketing that you are open to wedding and corporate groups – this is a huge market share if you are up for building your creative business this way. On top of hands-on making activities, creative business are becoming increasingly popular for corporate group coaching to ‘think outside the box’. This can be highly profitable.

Another way to bolster your workshop offering is to partner with a local winemaker or wine shop and do a tasting with your workshop.

For more technical workshops, another incentive that can prove attractive is to advertise that you include downloadable resources and takeaways, so attendees can continue their new skills post-workshop. And for those skills-heavy workshops, you may consider offering a completion certificate. This can be done at a minimal cost to you and will appeal to a certain audience.

These are all offerings that you can promote in your marketing to give you the edge.

Key bonus tip

Once your workshop is full – because your marketing campaign has been fabulous – be sure to start a waiting list. This is twofold: if people pull out, you can fill quickly and, second, you have a go-to list for your next workshop.

Marketing round 2 – carrying it forward

Ask your group if they are OK for you to take photos and use them on your socials and website. And, once you have wrapped up your class, be sure to share them. You may want to also ask each of your participants to spare a quick five minutes at the end of the class over a drink, to answer three quick questions (have a printout ready) to build your testimonials.  We suggest asking:

• What did you enjoy most about this class?
• Did it meet your expectations, or do you have any recommendations?
• If you were to recommend this workshop, what would you say?
• Then add a checkbox to ensure if they are OK for you to use.

Testimonials are king for building workshops, as is word of mouth, so be proactive in encouraging this commentary.

This article was originally published by our friends at ArtsHub Australia.

Written by Gina Fairley.