OK, so if you’ve been reading our case studies, you’ll know that we start all our projects with discovery workshops. And to be honest, they’re a pretty non-negotiable part of a project for us. That’s a bold statement right? But there’s a reason for this! They help set us all up for the best possible chance of success – and who doesn’t want that?

Want to know what a discovery workshop is? Well, first let’s talk about what they’re not.

Not a discovery call 

Don’t get a discovery workshop confused with a discovery call. You may see other agencies offer a free discovery call and that’s ace, but it’s not the same thing as a workshop.

We do discovery calls when we first meet with you to discuss your goals and how we can help. This initial call is what we use to develop a proposal for you, as they help us know a bit about what you want and allows us to tell you how we think we can achieve it.

Guess what the first thing we suggest doing in the proposal is – a discovery workshop! 😂

The discovery call is just so we can get to know you and the top-level stuff – a discovery workshop is where we go under the hood and get all the juicy details.

What’s a discovery workshop?

We’ve refined our discovery workshops over the years and know how to make them as effective as possible.

We get all the key stakeholders together (in a room or on a video call) so we can really get to grips with your organisation. You live and breathe it, but we’re coming in cold. We need to really get to know you to make our project a success.

So, in Kraken Marketing discovery sessions we split the call into a few sections. All tailored to your specific business and project – but here’s an example of what you might expect:

Business goals 

First, we ask you to summarise your business, what problems you’re trying to solve, and any issues you’re struggling with. We’ll also cover some financial bits like price points, average sale values, and revenue goals. Don’t be nervous about this, we’re not trying to count your money – we just need to understand scale and growth targets as this will affect the strategies we put in place. We will also discuss your goals and what you do that no one else can. Fun right?

Your team

It’s important for us to know your team and understand who is responsible for what, and whom you want us to be liaising with. Do you want us to get approval from one key stakeholder? Or are we liaising with a wider team?

Do you have people in-house doing marketing already? Are we helping them with extra capacity or guiding them? Or will we be your sole marketing resource?

This just helps us understand your internal landscape better.

Industry analysis 

We’ll ask you about your competitors and why someone would choose you over them. We want to know how your pricing differs from them and where you sit in the marketplace.

We’ll discuss the content that your competitors create that you like and dislike. What your value proposition is and if there are any opportunities you’re not taking advantage of yet.

What’s important to your brand 

We want to know what your brand stands for and we want to know your mission.

This may not be defined anywhere yet, and might just be in your heads – so it’s helpful to get it all out there for everyone to see.

We’ll also ask if you’re political – this one often provokes excellent conversations! You may initially think no, you’re not political – but I bet you probably are! It’s important to discover the issues that are important to you, and how you want to be speaking about them publicly.

For instance, Kraken Marketing really cares about diversity and inclusivity in tech – so we speak about this regularly and try to educate others on this subject. Because it’s authentically important to us.

Your current marketing 

Now, this one may be more obvious, but we need to know what marketing tactics you’re currently doing. What’s working well, what isn’t, and what tactics do you want to be doing in the future. We’ll also drill down into conversion rates, ad spend, and about the tools you’re currently using.

If you have any existing strategy docs or monthly reporting to show us, that would be amazing! We love making data-driven decisions!

Your audience 

We’ll talk about your audience and target customers.

You may have documented personas already – or this may be locked in your brains still so it’s good to explore these. We can always flesh them out more after the workshop – but a top-level understanding of whom you want to attract is key.

Sound great right? And a lot of fun?

We really enjoy these sessions and they’re really invaluable. These workshops are what make our marketing projects so successful. And we’ve just given away our secret formula for free! 🤣

Sometimes, clients are reluctant to have the key stakeholders on a call for 3 hours while we do this – but we promise it is worth it! In fact, we’re always told afterwards how valuable these sessions are for the team. It’s great to have a shared understanding – internally and externally!

Want to get in on this action? 

Get in touch with us for a discovery call – then who knows! Maybe we’ll be seeing you for a discovery workshop soon!