How To Maximise The Effectiveness Of A Content Marketing Strategy Workshop
Want long-term success from your content marketing campaigns? There are a lot of ways to do it, but it’s key that you boost their shot at effectiveness from the off. This is precisely why a content marketing strategy workshop is so invaluable.
The Making You Content team has delivered these workshops for clients for over a decade, so we know exactly how to maximise their results. Read on to learn about the benefits of a content marketing strategy workshop and how to successfully prepare for one.
What is a content marketing strategy workshop?
These workshops involve key stakeholders coming together (often with content experts) to consider and plan content. The main aim is to align them on this form of marketing so that they can brainstorm approaches and produce an effective schedule.
Why are content marketing strategy workshops good practice?
Get into the habit of arranging a workshop on a periodic basis, and you’ll have the opportunity to reassess relevant aspects of your content marketing. Specific things might change over time, such as your audience, which will have a knock-on effect on how you promote yourself.
If you’re growing rapidly, we recommend hosting one every six months to a year. Some opt for longer – every two or three years. Whatever you decide, it’s important that they’re at periodic, relevant intervals, and that people come to the session with plenty to add. The follow-up sessions will likely be shorter as there may be some parts of your content marketing that stay the same.
What are the benefits of a content marketing strategy workshop?
The four main benefits of a content marketing strategy workshop are:
- Clarity – While you should go into the session with some idea of what you want your content to achieve, the workshop will allow for a discussion to crystallise its objectives.
- Perspective – The people you bring together will have different perspectives to support brainstorming and provide a more well-rounded view of your marketing.
- Ideas – You’re digging deep into your content, audience and brand on one of these workshops, so expect plenty of ideas and lightbulb moments.
- A content calendar – After the session, you’ll have a document with more fleshed-out ideas and outlines, as well as an approximate (or exact) date to post them. These are typically centred around themes or ‘pillars’ relevant to you and your industry’s schedules, helping you to build a more effective roadmap.
How do you organise a content marketing strategy workshop?
It might be that you use a content agency to host and organise your workshop, or you’ll arrange it internally. Either way, it pays to know what will happen and how to successfully prepare.
1. Decide discussion topics
Conversations should revolve around specific subject matters so that you maximise output and stay on-topic. Ultimately, this will depend on your specific goals, but some key discussion points we suggest are:
- Company offering and positioning, including any USPs
- Overview of target audience, including customer pain points
- The sales and marketing funnel
- Competitor content analysis
- Company content audit
- Brainstorming session
- Content planning, including formats and calendar
2. Invite the right people
Make sure you know who you want in the room – whether in person or virtually. Depending on the size of your business, you may want someone from each department. Ideally, they will be the stakeholders who would be affected by the outcome of the workshop and can contribute a relevant and needed perspective. These can include:
- A director or founder
- Lead team members from the sales, marketing, and customer service departments
- Someone who understands the marketing budget
- Executors of the content marketing plan
3. Know what you want to get out of it
You should be clear on your specific content goals – for example, maybe you need to increase awareness, boost engagement, or convert leads. You’ll also need to consider your overall business objectives and how your content marketing strategy will help achieve them.
4. Get people engaged
To get buy-in, it helps to go to the top. Make sure people at senior levels are invested in the workshop, and this will then cascade down the organisation. This is especially helpful if, for example, a lead team member can’t attend but they send someone else in their place. It’s also a good idea to ensure that they know the purpose and benefits of a content marketing workshop, as well as why their input is vital to its success.
5. Be efficient
Every workshop usually results in in-depth discussion and ideas – people have a lot to bring to the table! But to stay on track and ensure you cover everything in the allotted time, we recommend doing the following:
- Keep introductions short and sweet
- Be clear on the goal for each topic discussion
- Set a time limit for each section
- Have ground rules in place (including letting attendees know the discussion times)
- Don’t be afraid to interrupt, or give people time to speak to make sure everyone gets a chance to input
- Ensure the conversation keeps on topic – a workshop leader or moderator can help here
6. Set an agenda
If you’ve organised the workshop, set an agenda and send it ahead of time so that everyone is aware of the topics and timings. Outsourced it to a content agency? They should take care of this. If not, request one so you know what to expect, or let them know specific topics you’d like to see.
Circulating an agenda a week or so ahead of the workshop means you can effectively collate any information before, such as an overview of your audience, their customer journey, and their needs and wants from content. This will help determine key messages, communication channels, and ultimately the content schedule or calendar, setting you up for long-term success.
Discover content marketing strategy workshops with Making You Content
Looking for experts to guide the discussion and collate the workshop findings into a bulletproof plan? At Making You Content, we focus our workshops around determining your content goals and enabling you to reach them. We can help with workshops, campaigns, strategies, content creation, and much more.
To learn more about MYC and our content marketing services, get in touch with our team today.
