Why Aren't My Creative Workshops Selling Out? 6 Things to Check

13 Aug

You've planned a brilliant creative workshop, found a lovely venue, put the tickets online and shared it on Instagram. And then... hardly anyone books.

I've been there. I've run hundreds of creative workshops over the years and, while I've had workshops sell out incredibly quickly, I've also had workshops where I've wondered if anyone was going to turn up at all.

A workshop not selling out doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad workshop or that people aren't interested in what you're teaching. Usually, I'd look at six things: your marketing, your venue, how you're communicating the workshop, your pricing, your booking process and whether you're giving it enough time.

Before you cancel the workshop or slash the price, here's what I'd check.

1. Are you expecting one Instagram post to sell your workshop?

This is a mistake I made a lot when I first started running workshops. I'd announce a new date on Instagram and then wonder why it hadn't immediately sold out. Occasionally, that did happen. But it definitely wasn't the norm.

People need reminding. Someone might see your workshop while they're making dinner and forget about it. Someone else might love the idea but need to check whether their friend is free. Another person might intend to book when they get paid. Don't assume that because someone didn't book the first time they saw your workshop, they're not interested. Keep talking about it.

Share the finished project. Show people what happens during the workshop. Answer common questions. Share testimonials from previous attendees. Talk about the venue. Send an email to your mailing list. Share when places start filling up.

You don't need to post about it every day, but you do need to give people more than one opportunity to notice it.

2. Is your venue helping you sell tickets?

This is something I feel quite strongly about. A good workshop venue isn't just a room with some tables and chairs. A good venue gives you access to a community.

Some of my most successful workshops have been with venues that already had loyal local customers who trusted them and regularly attended their events. That meant I wasn't relying entirely on my own audience to sell every ticket.

Working with good venues also allowed me to take my workshops into completely new areas. I'd run a successful workshop in one town, another venue nearby would see it and get in touch, and gradually my workshops spread much further than my existing audience.

So if you're struggling to fill your workshops, ask yourself what your venue is bringing to the partnership. Are they emailing their customers? Sharing your workshop on social media? Talking about it in the venue? Do they already have an audience who would genuinely want to attend?

If you're paying to hire a room and doing all the work to find the customers, there might be a better partnership out there.

3. Is it really clear what people are booking?

Sometimes the problem isn't the workshop. It's how you're talking about it. Imagine someone has never heard of you before and lands on your booking page.

Can they immediately understand:

What they're going to make or learn?
What the finished result looks like?
How long the workshop lasts?
What's included in the ticket price?
Whether materials are provided?
Whether it's suitable for complete beginners?
Where it's happening?
What they need to bring?
What the experience itself will be like?

Good photographs make a huge difference here too. Don't just show your materials. Show the finished piece, people making it and, if you can, the atmosphere of previous workshops.

You're not only selling the thing they'll make. You're selling a few hours spent learning something new, meeting people, having a chat, enjoying a cup of tea and doing something creative. Make sure your marketing shows that.

4. Is your workshop priced correctly?

When tickets aren't selling, it's tempting to immediately assume:

I'm charging too much.

Maybe. But don't automatically reduce your price. Your workshop needs to cover your materials, venue costs, travel, payment fees and all the other costs involved in running it. It also needs to pay you properly for your time.

If you've worked out that you need to charge £60 to make the workshop worthwhile, dropping the price to £40 just to fill the room doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Instead, ask whether you've communicated why the workshop is worth £60.

What are people getting for their money? Are all their materials included? Will they leave with something beautiful? Are you providing refreshments? Are they learning a skill they can use again?

Sometimes you don't need to lower the price. You need to communicate the value better.

5. Is it easy to book your workshop?

This sounds incredibly simple, but go through your booking process as though you've never visited your website before. How many steps does it take? If someone sees your workshop on Instagram, can they get from there to buying a ticket easily? Or do they need to hunt through your website, send you a message, wait for your bank details and then remember to transfer the money? Every extra step gives someone another opportunity to change their mind or get distracted.

Make your dates easy to find, your booking button obvious and the checkout process as simple as possible and make sure it works properly on a phone. That's probably where a lot of your customers will be booking.

6. Have you given up on it too quickly?

A workshop that doesn't immediately sell out isn't necessarily a failure. Sometimes tickets sell slowly. Sometimes you need to talk about the workshop differently. Sometimes the date is wrong. Sometimes the venue is wrong. Sometimes you need better photographs. Sometimes people simply haven't seen it enough yet.

This is where I think running a creative business requires a bit of experimentation.

Instead of thinking:

Nobody wants my workshop.

Try asking:

Why aren't people booking this workshop yet?

That's a much more useful question.

How can I get more people to book my creative workshops?

If your workshop isn't selling, don't immediately change everything at once.

Start by working through these questions:

Have enough of the right people actually seen it?
Is my venue promoting it to its community?
Is it obvious what people will get from the experience?
Does the price make sense, and have I communicated the value?
Is booking quick and easy?
Have I given people enough time and reminders to book?

Then change one or two things and see what happens. That's how I've learned most things in my own business. I've made plenty of mistakes, tried things that didn't work and had workshops that didn't sell in the way I expected them to. But every one gives you information. The important thing is working out what that information is telling you.

Do creative workshops have to sell out to be successful?

No!! A sold-out workshop feels brilliant, but sold out isn't the same thing as profitable.

I'd rather run a workshop for ten people at a price that properly covers my costs and pays me for my time than squeeze twenty people into a room just so I can put "SOLD OUT!" on Instagram. Decide what success actually looks like for your business. That might be selling every ticket. Or it might be reaching your minimum profitable number of attendees, giving everyone a brilliant experience and having several of them book another workshop afterwards.

Your goal isn't necessarily to have the busiest workshop business. It's to build one that actually works for you.

Still not sure why your workshops aren't filling?

Sometimes it's much easier to spot what's going on when someone else looks at your business with you. If you're already running creative workshops but struggling with bookings, marketing, pricing or working out what to do next, these are exactly the things we can look at during a Workshop Business Strategy Session.

We can start with a free 15 minute Virtual Cuppa. Tell me what's happening with your workshops, and we'll see whether I'm the right person to help.

Adrienne McMurdo