How to host an effective marketing strategy workshop

No matter if you are a team leader, a marketing manager, or a participant, running a marketing strategy workshop can be quite daunting – especially if you’re not prepared.

Hosting a marketing strategy workshop allows those around you to understand the rationale behind marketing operations as well as the benefit it can have on your business and how it influences on key stakeholders. It’s a great opportunity to bring your team together and understand the various goals of your management, sales, and marketing team, and how each of these apply to your product or service development strategy.

By implementing a checklist, your team can provide structure for your team and get them motivated which will help your business achieve goals.

When running your marketing strategy workshop, ensure you are prepared.

No one wants to attend a poorly prepared strategy session. As marketers, we face a constant battle of fighting for our budgets and position in the company, as the less tangible nature of our work makes it hard to communicate our value.

A workshop is an opportunity that seldom comes around, so take advantage of using this event to showcase to other departments within your company, just how important marketing is to your business’ success.

How to best prepare for a marketing strategy workshop

1. Offer stakeholders a clear agenda to provide them with an expectation of what will take place throughout the rest of the strategy workshop
2. Utilise media formats such as a promotional piece or short video to excite the team about what to expect
3. Use technology to simplify the presentation. We use Robotic Marketer so that we not only have the questions to ask in front of us, but also develop a strategy by the end of the session (without any extra work!)
4. Set regular reminders to the team so that there is no confusion on when, where and why.
5. Encourage a positive mindset and go the extra mile. Ensure that everyone attending the workshop knows it will be engaging, fun and critical towards business growth.

Implementing Robotic Marketer allows you as marketing strategy consultant to achieve the best results in the delivery of your workshops and strategy facilitation.

1. Adopt suitable framework for your marketing strategy workshop
   1. Ensure that the framework covers all aspects from business and sales goals through to marketing objectives, unique value proposition, website, brand, SWOT, and various marketing tactics.
   2. Don’t forget to include key messages as part of the strategy workshop
   3. Use technology that helps prompt you to ask the right questions but also gives you a report without delay to then hand out to the team participating in the workshop.

2. Make your audience excited
   1. Provide a promotional video or short video
   2. Implement team building exercises
   3. Leave a lasting impression and something they want to come back to each year.

3. Choose between a professional marketing strategy workshop facilitator or do it yourself
   1. Professional marketing strategy workshop facilitators can provide an enhanced experience for your crowd and should know their ‘stuff’ making them capable of answering any question that may pop up.
   2. Hosting the workshop, yourself isn’t a bad idea either. It’s an opportunity for you to step up, practice team engagement and strengthen relationships with your fellow team members.

4. Select an appropriate setting to conduct the workshop in
   1. Don’t settle with your office
   2. External room hire is always great
   3. Creative experiences are even better!

5. Keep to a strict schedule
   1. Don’t give people excuses to turn up late
   2. Start on-time and finish on-time
   3. Adopt regularly scheduled breaks, making them short and sharp

6. Provide an experience that extends beyond the workshop
   1. People are more engaged when they have a result from the marketing workshop – so using platforms like Robotic Marketer won’t give you extra work but will give the stakeholders the ‘benefits’ from the workshop