What’s the difference between a workshop and a webinar?

There are a lot of different names out there for online classes — webinars, workshops, masterclasses, teleseminars — especially now that so many more are available with companies largely moving business online.

The first two are the ones we hear most often. You might be wondering if there’s actually a difference, or if all of these terms mean the same thing.

Yes, there is a difference!

A lot of people use the terms interchangeably, but they are actually not the same. The difference is in the purpose.

A webinar and the way it’s structured is intended for sales. Typically, you offer some education and give more of the what than of the how, because at the end, you pitch your paid offering as the how.

For example, maybe you have a paid offering on meal planning that you’d like to sell. You could get in front of interested people with a free webinar on The Life-Changing Magic of Meal Planning, talking all about the benefits of incorporating this practice in your life. At the end, after you’ve told them all about what meal planning is and why it’s so great, you’ll then pitch the how — your paid program showing them the way.

A workshop is traditionally more focused on training and education, not selling. In an ideal situation, you’re being paid to deliver the workshop, rather than delivering a webinar for free hoping to be paid at the end. Either audience members pay you directly for access to your workshop, or a company has paid you to deliver it to their employees or their community at no cost to them.

Keeping with the example above, it’s a workshop on How to Save Time and Money With Meal Planning. You’re showing them how to do it now, and there’s no pressure to sell or be sold to. There’s also usually more interaction involved than in a webinar, as you’re hopefully trying to keep participants engaged with questions or other activities.

Recap

Webinars are for sales, workshops are for training and education.

Want to take the fast-track route to getting paid to speak? Our done-for-you workshops are beautifully designed for you to download and go — complete with customizable slides, scripts, promotional graphics and more.