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Welcome to another episode of 7 Minute Marketing with Pam. My name is Pam Didner and I am all about B2B, digital and content marketing. That’s what I do. And thank you for listening.

Every week, I’ll pick one marketing question and attempt to address it with actionable takeaways in 7 minutes or less.  So send me your questions. I want to help you take on your marketing challenges.

I got the following e-mail from one of my students, Laura.

Hi Professor,

I had you in class a few months ago and I was wondering if you had any examples of a content strategy that you could share with me? I have to create one for work and I’m just overwhelmed by the format. So I thought I would reach out to see if you had anything to share.

Hope all is well.

Thanks,
Laura

Here is my email back to Laura

Laura,

Good to hear from you. I totally understand that it can be overwhelming.

Here are a couple steps to get you started

I’d recommend that you sit back and have a cup of coffee or tea.  Write down 1-3 bullet points on why you’re creating the plan and who is it for. Are you creating this as part of the overall marketing plan? As part of a sales plan? Or as part of a product launch plan? Is this a stand-alone presentation or part of the bigger marketing plan?

Who will see your presentation? A marketing manager? A sales manager? Subject matter experts or a product team?  Why do they need to care about the content?  How can they benefit?  Are you asking for support, resources or budget?

Have a crisp understanding of why you’re creating the plan, whom it is for and what they want to see and that will guide you on what to add to your deck and how to flow your presentation.

Once you understand why and what they want to see in your deck, then it’s easier to structure your information.

Laura, as a rule of thumb, several elements will need to be included in your deck

  • Content marketing strategy and high-level tactics or deliverables
  • Status updates and content usage
  • Marketing or sales challenges and how content helps
  • Content roadmap
  • Content ownership and delivery timeline
  • Next steps

Content marketing strategy and high-level tactics: Nothing too complicated.  Start by showing your overall content marketing strategy and key deliverables.  Refresh everyone’s memory on your overall plan.

Then, provide a quick status update.  Show what you have done and the results, if there are any.

Next, share how content addresses some of the marketing challenges. It’s about providing value to the marketing and sales team.

In addition to the plan, it’s nice to show a content roadmap by quarter, by purchase cycle or by sales process.  The roadmap complements your plan.  With your content roadmap, it will be beneficial to showcase the owners and the delivery timeline.

It doesn’t hurt to have a slide to describe “help needed” or “next steps”.

You can add or delete these elements as you see fit.

The bottom line

Management wants to know what you have done for them lately and what you can do to support the marketing and sales team to grow business.

Laura, I hope that this helps and good luck with your plan.

That is this week’s 7-minute Marketing with Pam.  If you have a question for me, you can schedule a call or reach out to me on social media.

Thank you for listening, until next week.

What can Pam Didner do for you?

Being in the corporate world for 20+ years and having held various positions from accounting and supply chain management, and marketing to sales enablement, she knows how corporations work. She can make you and your team a rock star by identifying areas to shine and do better. She does that through private coaching, keynote speaking, workshop training, and hands-on consulting. Contact her or find her on LinkedIn and Twitter. A quick note: Check out her new 90-Day Revenue Reboot, if you are struggling with marketing.