Free workshops to sell your course: a step-by-step guide

Step 1

Pick a small, specific topic

The best workshop topic solves one part of what your course teaches, in 60 to 90 minutes, with a result people walk away with. For example, “Your first AI agent in the terminal” and not “Everything about artificial intelligence”. Make the topic lead naturally to your course: if the workshop solves the first step, your course solves the rest.

In Wislab: You create the workshop with its title, date, time and time zone. You can link a free course to it as its material, which can be read without an account even when your academy asks for sign-in on other lessons.

Step 2

Open sign-ups with a clear page

The workshop page says in one sentence what people will achieve, who it's for, when it is and how long it lasts. Ask for the minimum to sign up, name and email, and confirm the sign-up by email right away. The fewer fields you ask for, the more people finish signing up.

In Wislab: Each workshop has its own page, which you edit section by section, and a form with name, email and acceptance of the privacy notice; WhatsApp too, if you want it. The form stops bots, catches misspelled emails and sends a confirmation with a link to cancel. If you use the CRM, each sign-up lands there as a contact.

Our own data: the first two free workshops NIEVA ran on Wislab added up to 113 sign-ups from 107 different people (86 for the first and 27 for the second). We counted them in the production database on October 27, 2026. We don't publish attendance or sales: that data isn't complete yet.

Step 3

Send reminders

Between signing up and the workshop, people forget. Send reminders a few days before, the night before and shortly before you start, each one with the date, the time and the link. If you change the date, tell everyone who signed up in a single email.

In Wislab: You turn on the automatic emails per workshop: a reminder 5 days before, 3 days before, the night before at 8 p.m. and 30 minutes before. You can edit the text of each email. If you move the date, one button notifies the people who signed up before the change.

Step 4

Run the live workshop

Start on time, say in the first minute what people will achieve and have them do the exercise with you, not just watch. Save the last 10 minutes for questions and for what comes next. Record the session: many people who sign up don't make it and will watch it later.

In Wislab: You generate the Zoom link from the dashboard with your academy's Zoom account, or paste the link of the tool you use. One button sends the link to the people who signed up through the form. After the workshop you can pull attendance from Zoom and, if you use the CRM, move the people who attended to a stage of your pipeline.

Step 5

Follow up the same day

Interest peaks right after the workshop. That same day, send a thank-you with the material and, once you have it, the recording. Write to everyone who signed up, not only the people who attended: whoever couldn't make it is interested too.

In Wislab: If you turn it on, the thank-you goes out on its own 2 hours after the end. When the recording is ready, you send it once to everyone who signed up, and it also reaches anyone who signs up in the following 14 days. And you can create a draft campaign with everyone from the workshop, respecting unsubscribes.

Step 6

Make your offer

At the end of the workshop and in the follow-up emails, invite people to your course or bootcamp with a clear offer: what it includes, when it starts, what it costs and until when it's valid. One offer and one button. Then measure how many people from the workshop took the next step.

In Wislab: You set a “next step” per workshop, a button with its own text and link, for example to your bootcamp's page, that goes in the thank-you and in the recording email. In the workshop's dashboard you see how many people who signed up created an account and how many bought something afterward.