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1. Align: Content marketing (20 min)

How do you define content marketing?

What do you want it to achieve for your business?

2. Your Offering (15 min)

What, functional benefit, emotional benefit, unlike...

What's the hardest part of your offering for prospects to *click* with?

3. Target Customers (30 min)

What does our most successful customer look like?

How do they use our offering?

Brainstorm as many prospect pain points as you can. Pick your top 3.

4. The sales funnel (30 min)

What does the sales funnel look like today?

What does a perfectly qualified lead look like?

Our best customers find us via…

Brainstorm all the questions prospects ask. Pick your top 3.

5. Our perspective (30 min)

I joined this company because…

I’m most proud of our impact on…

If I gave a TED Talk, it would be…

Industry changes that are top of mind include...

6. Brainstorm: Content (30 min)

What are all the types of content we could create?

What works? What doesn’t?

What don’t we create that we want to?

7. Brainstorm: Channels (30 min)

What are all the types of channels we could launch?

What works? What doesn’t?

What don’t we launch that we should?

NOTES

This template includes the below sections. Remove whatever clients are 100% solid on.
These times are based off having ~3-5 people in the workshop.
The times are aggressive! Even with 3 hours, it will be up to you to both facilitate unrushed discussion and keep to your agenda.

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CONTENT WORKSHOP

[CLIENT]

[YOUR NAME]

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SCOPE

RESEARCH We’re here

Uncover our areas of opportunity and audience needs.

STRATEGY

Define what our most successful content looks like and how we’ll use it.

PROCESS

Build the ideas, roadmap, and tools to activate our strategy as quickly as possible.

3

We’re setting your content strategy across the funnel.

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AGENDA

Today is about informing our strategy.

# ALIGN: CONTENT MARKETING 20 minutes

# YOUR OFFERING 15 minutes

# OUR CUSTOMERS 30 minutes

# THE SALES FUNNEL 30 minutes

# OUR PERSPECTIVE 30 minutes

# BRAINSTORM: CONTENT 30 minutes

# BRAINSTORM: CHANNELS 30 minutes

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5

HOUSEKEEPING

We’ll take two 5- or 10-minute breaks.

For all workshop prompts, please write your answers in a Google Doc or in the printout of this workshop. Your notes will be a huge reference for me down the road.

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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ALIGN

ON CONTENT MARKETING

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How do you define content marketing?

What do you want content marketing to achieve for your business?

What constitutes content?

[Answer in workbook]

ALIGN

15 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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ALIGN

Strategic content marketing means creating any material that helps converts visitors to customers...

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BRAND AWARENESS TOP OF THE FUNNEL Content introduces your expertise and your brand to new visitors by educating on a topic they’re interested in.	CONSIDERATION MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL Content builds a relationship with prospective customers, by introducing your offering at key points and/or by starting a conversation.	DECISION BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL Content converts leads into customers with targeted information about your value prop and your offering. (sales enablement) RETENTION BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL Customer retention and engagement

My definition

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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ALIGN

...with a process that is repeatable and scalable...

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GOALS AND KPIs

PILLARS

FORMATS

CREATION

(VERSUS)

My definition

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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ALIGN

10

...and with effective use of content across marketing channels. When done strategically, content can help generate 3x more leads than outbound marketing, while costing 62% less.

62%

My definition

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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OUR OFFERING

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WHAT

Our company is…

FUNCTIONAL BENEFIT

That offers…

EMOTIONAL BENEFIT

To make customers feel…

COMPETITORS

Unlike...

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OUR OFFERING

8 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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OUR OFFERING

THE SALES FUNNEL

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[Discuss]

From start to finish, what does the sales funnel look like today? What works? What doesn’t?

ACQUISITION

5 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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[Answer in workbook]

What does a perfectly qualified lead look like for your company?

ACQUISITION

5 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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Our best customers found us via…

[Answer in workbook]

Prospects mostly find us via...

[Answer in workbook]

I wish prospects also found us via...

[Answer in workbook]

ACQUISITION

7 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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[Answer in workbook]

Brainstorm all the questions prospects typically ask.

ACQUISITION

3 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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[Answer in workbook]

CONTENT

BRAINSTORM

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BRAINSTORM

All content falls into 1 of 3 buckets.

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BRAND AWARENESS TOP OF THE FUNNEL Content introduces your expertise and your brand to new visitors by educating on a topic they’re interested in.	CONSIDERATION MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL Content builds a relationship with prospective customers, by introducing your offering at key points and/or by starting a conversation.	DECISION BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL Content converts leads into customers with targeted information about your value prop and your offering. (sales enablement) RETENTION BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL Customer retention and engagement

CONTENT

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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BRAINSTORM

What are all the types of content we could (or do) create?

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TOP OF THE FUNNEL AWARENESS	MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL CONSIDERATION	BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL DECISION + RETENTION

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BRAINSTORM

Your marketing channels are the ways you can connect with prospective customers and share your surfaces.

For example:

Promoting landing pages in paid LinkedIn campaigns
Emailing helpful material to prospects
Sending direct mail to offices

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CHANNELS

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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BRAINSTORM

What are all the ways we can use our content?

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TOP OF THE FUNNEL AWARENESS	MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL CONSIDERATION	BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL DECISION + RETENTION

CHANNELS

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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CHANNELS

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Top 1-3 existing channels.

[Discuss]

Why do they work?

[Discuss]

What would you improve?

[Discuss]

5 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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CHANNELS

40

Which existing channels don’t work?

[Discuss]

Why not?

[Discuss]

5 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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CHANNELS

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Which 1-3 new channels would you like to launch?

[Discuss]

Why?

[Discuss]

5 minutes

CONTENT WORKSHOP

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THANK YOU

[your contact info]