How to Write a Great Workshop

Below are recommendations on how to write each section to most effectively draw in learners. Facilitators who use this attract significantly more learners, scale their audience faster, and have their workshops automatically approved by Klatch.

TIP: You can find some of these examples in the embedded links on the "Add Workshop" page - "Title Criteria", "Headline Criteria", "Description Criteria", "Audience". This article provides additional examples and best practice tips.

1. Workshop Title - Title is the first impression of your workshop and will determine will the prospect read on to find out more about your workshop.

Winning Title Formula: Action verb with outcome focus + specific keyword + clear audience

Good Example 1: Land a six-figure job in UXR for PhDs

“Land a six figure job” is a clear outcome with solid action verb
“UXR” is a specific keyword
“For PhDs” clearly defines audience

Good Example 2: Master the Beatles on Guitar for Beginners

“Master the Beatles” clearly demonstrates outcome & topic
“Guitar” is a specific keyword to target the right learners
“Beginners” clearly defines audience & say who your learner is & is not (yes this means you will turn away some learners so you can convert the right ones)

Bad Example 1: Grandparents Raising Teen Grandkids: Parenting Teens

No clear action verb or outcome
Has a clear audience but because no outcome exists, it’s not clear the problem the audience is trying to overcome.
If your title lacks what problem you will solve for your audience, it will not convert learners.
Learners attend a workshop when they can envision your workshop with a solution to their problem, concern, or want they have.

How would we rewrite the above bad example to be a good example title?

Assuming that there’s actually proven willingness to pay (always the first step before you launch a workshop) in the market above, we’d hone into a specific problem that the learner would “hire” you to solve for them. Let’s take college prep for example. We’d write something like this:

Rewritten Example 1: How to Help Your Grandkids Land Their Dream College

“How to Help... Land” is a clear action verb phrase
“College” is the specific keyword (which further clearly defines the problem the learner is hiring you to solve)
Grandkids clearly defines the audience inherently as “grandparents”

Bad Example 1: Start Coding Now!

Keyword is not specific enough - “coding” is very general and could be Python, Javascript, PHP, CSS, visual basic, etc. so the right learner might not bother to click in.
Outcome is not clearly defined - “Start” is an input, not an outcome.
Audience is somewhat implied as this is clearly for beginners but because it doesn't have a clear keyword, the audience is unclear.
Being too emphatic tries to oversell & can lead to mistrust (e.g. the “Now!”)

How would we rewrite the above bad example to be a good example title?

Rewritten Example 2: Python Bootcamp: Master the fundamentals in 2 weeks

“Master the fundamentals” is a clear action verb phrase
“Python” is a clear keyword
The audience is implied by “Bootcamp” and further “in 2 weeks” as the target learner might be someone looking for bootcamps to learn the basics in Python & by titling it this way we’re strategically positioning ourselves.

2. Workshop Headline

Formula to follow- introduces you as the credible facilitator, summarizes what outcome for who, and sparks interest for the intended audience.

Good Example 1:

Create a jaw-dropping resume with Dale Carnegie–a wordsmith and certified career coach who has helped over 1,000 early-career professionals land their dream job!”

Poor Example 1:

Create a jaw-dropping resume with Dale to land a job. (missing why should we trust the facilitator as the expert, and you could probably get a job without attending this workshop so why attend).

Rewritten 1:

Create a jaw-dropping resume with Dale Carnegie–a wordsmith and certified career coach who has helped over 1,000 early-career professionals land their dream job!”

Poor Example 2:

Basics of coding with John a master coder who has taught coding and can help you reach your coding goals.

Rewritten 2:

Master the basics of python in no time with Tony, a seasoned software developer who has helped 100s of developers launch their first python projects.

3. Workshop Description

Formula to follow - Have a hook, state objectives to be covered, what learners will do in the workshop, outcomes from the workshop.

What is a hook- Language that grabs the reader’s attention right away.
What are objectives- clearly stating what will be covered in the workshop making sure your objectives are sufficient for the length of your workshop. 1 objective doesn’t make sense for a 90 minute workshop.
What will learners do in the workshop- giving a description of what learner activities and interaction will look like. Nobody wants to sit through a 90 minute lecture with zero learner interaction.
Outcomes- What will I take away from the workshop material, new knowledge, techniques, and think of what positive change will I experience because of the workshop.

Good Example:

6 Seconds. On average, that’s how long you have to make a jaw-dropping impression on a hiring manager before they toss your resume aside.”
“Learn the 4 questions every resume bullet must cover”
During the workshop learners will build out the answers and receive feedback.
“This is NOT a boring, passive webinar. Completely give your resume a makeover from beginning to end! Top resume consultants cost over $500-1,000+ but Dr. Careerly is massively discounting her professional services on Klatch to help reach thousands more.”

Bad Example:

Make an impression on a hiring manager.
- These words wouldn’t grab the reader's attention right away. I bet you have heard something like this before.
Learn resume skills.
- What skills will I learn how might I learn them, lacks objective and outcome
This workshop will cover resume building to impress a hiring manager.
- What will I (the learner) do in the workshop? Lacks giving specific information about what I (the learner) will do other than listening to a 90 minute lecture on resume building skills. I could probably YouTube that.

Rewritten:

Are you tired of analyzing what makes a fantastic resume to land your dream job?
Learn the four characteristics recruiters look for in a resume.
Bring your resume see if you have the characteristics and collaborate with other learners on how to bring those characteristics to life in your resume.
Walk away knowing what your next step is in making your resume fantastic.

4. Audience

Formula to follow- Be specific on the target audience, elaborate on the audience that is stated in the title.

Good Examples:

Individuals looking to land a dream job
Crack the code to resume building
Abraham Hicks Fans
Individuals interested in the Law of Attraction

Poor Examples:

Adults (Any adult not specific enough)
Interested in learning resume skills (learning resume skills for what purpose?).
Sports Fans (how about a more specific subset of sports fans?)
Improve your athletic skills (to do what)

5. Workshop Category

Think about which drop down choices suits the topic the best.

6. Workshop Featured Image

Do not use a headshot. Recommended size: 940px wide by 768px tall. Image is displayed at the top of your workshop page and in link previews (sharing). Check out Klatch's top 10 sites for free workshop images.

Your workshop image should be a reflection of the content you will facilitate and creative to attract learners.

Good Image: Because the workshop is about financial planning

Poor Image: Self-Portrait doesn’t match the content of what you are teaching

7. Number of Sessions to Add-

If this is your first workshop on Klatch, it is recommended that you have 1-3 sessions in your first workshop. More importantly is to break your content into 90 minute sections. Workshops that go over 90 minutes tend to have a lower retention rate and learners lose interest.

8 Workshop Price

Price of the Whole experience (includes price for all the live sessions you will create). If you are pricing your first workshop on Klatch it is recommended that you price the workshop between $35-80 per session. Example if you have 3 sessions in a workshop at $35.00 per session then you should price the entire workshop at $105.00.

9. When to create a duplicate workshop

If you are going to have 3 sessions back to back in a workshop and want to have the same workshop just days after completing the workshop, then create a duplicate so you will have time to market both time offerings that are close together in dates. If you are going to create a workshop that is an extension of another workshop or totally different content, then it is best to add a new workshop.