Tag Archives: Templates

About the Templates feature in Kerika.

How to Manage a Product Announcement

We have a new template that is a very comprehensive checklist of all the activities that a product marketing manager needs to consider, when launching a new product:

Screenshot of template for a Product Announcement
Click to view this template

The tasks are grouped into stages, represented by columns:

  1. Pre-Launch Prep: this includes tasks like finalizing the product name and starting outreach to media and analysts.
  2. Creating Internal Prep Documents: tasks in this include creating a competitive analysis and jobs-to-be-done matrix.
  3. Creating Internal Content: demo materials, talking points for sales team.
  4. Creating External Content: prepping (but not launching!) the product video, website landing pages, etc.
  5. Pre-launch Internal Training & Communications: training the sales  and customer support teams.
  6. Launch Day Execution: the big day! Pushing all the materials you had prepared to production.

To give credit where credit is due, this template is inspired by a blog post by Chris Orlob.

Check out this template and let us know how we can improve it!

How to Plan your Social Media Content

Another Marketing template for our users: this time, for folks that need to plan and execute on a social media content strategy.

Screenshot of the Social Media Content Planner template
Click to view this template

You can use this advance your marketing goals using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This template comes with a bunch of useful resources, like this card on listing your Call-To-Actions (CTAs):

An example of a resource card
An example of a resource card

We have also provided sample task cards for managing your posts, like this one for posting on Facebook:

Screenshot of Task for Facebook Post
Task for Facebook Post

This task, like the others, also comes complete with a checklist of subtasks so you don’t miss anything:

Screenshot of Checklist for Facebook Post
Checklist for Facebook Post

These sample task cards can be easily duplicated as you move through your social media content strategy.

Check out this template and let us know what you think!

How to Plan your SEO Blog Content

We have a new template to help folks plan their blog content to maximize their blog’s SEO effectiveness, and thereby drive more inbound traffic:

Screenshot showing template for creating blog content
Click to view this template

As with other Marketing Templates we have been creating for our users, there’s a column with useful resources for folks that are new to incorporating their blogs within their marketing activities.

The workflow itself is fairly simple: To DoResearchingDraftingDesigningScheduled → Done.

There’s a sample task in the To Do column that you can duplicate for each blog post; it contains a complete checklist of subtasks to make sure you don’t miss anything:

Screenshot showing an example of blog post task
An example of blog post task

Check out this template and let us know if we can improve it!

How to plan a Virtual Marketing Event

Marketing events look like they will be virtual, rather than in-person, for a very long time, and to help our users we have a template that can set you up in just seconds with a complete Task Board:

Screenshot of template for planning a virtual marketing event
Click to view this template

This is a more elaborate template, with over 20 separate cards organized into a smooth workflow: Pre-PlanningLaunch PreparationPromotionsOperations.

Each card, representing a significant task, comes with helpful resources (as attachments) and detailed subtasks.  Here’s an example:

Screenshot of an example task
An example task from this template

We have been preparing a number of templates for our users. Most recently we have been focusing on our Marketing and Nonprofit users, but we will also be launching templates for many more jobs, to reflect the broad spread of our users around the world.

Check out the template and let us know if we can improve it!

How to manage a Fundraising Pipeline for Nonprofits

We had previously mentioned our Grant Pipeline for nonprofits; here’s a similar version that our nonprofit users can use to track their fundraising in general.

Screenshot showing Fundraising Profile template
Click to view this template

This simple template lets your nonprofit team track all the fundraising opportunities that are out there, and make sure they get attended to as they go through the process: ProspectContactedPitch PreparationAwait Response.

As the possible opportunities move through the process, for each opportunity you need to track at least this information:

  1. Name and contact details for donor.
  2. Organization (include specific department or program office if you are dealing with a foundation).
  3. Key motivations: what’s the donor’s known mission, and how does your nonprofit fit within that vision.
  4. Likelihood of donation: this is something that you update as the task moves through the process.
  5. Pitch process: smaller donors may have an information process, but larger donors are likely to have intermediaries like foundations or family offices that have a specific process they like to follow before they will commit to a donation. Make sure you follow their process!
  6. Expected Date: when you think the donor might make a decision.
  7. Fiscal Year: which fiscal year the grant will come in, for your nonprofit.

Check it out and let us know if we can improve it.

How to manage your YouTube video production

For folks that need to manage production of YouTube videos, we have a helpful template that will set up your Task Board in minutes:

Screenshot showing template for YouTube video production
Click to view this Template

The workflow itself is simple: To DoResearchingRecordingEditingDesigning GraphicsScheduledDone.

We have included useful links and suggestions in the first column to help you if you are new to YouTube video production.  Here’s an example, on how to produce a video description:

Screenshot showing example resource card
YouTube Resources Example

Check it out and let us know if we can improve it.

How to create a Branding Framework, Netflix-style

For our marketing users we have created a new template: how to create a Branding Framework for your company or product, in the way that Netflix does.

Screenshot showing template for creating a Branding Framework
Click to view this template

To give credit where it’s due, this template has been adapted from The Three Tools Netflix Used to Build Its World-Class Brand | First Round Review, where Gibson Biddle talks about how this framework was used at Netflix for their branding strategy.

What do you need to achieve for branding? Well, Gibson believes it requires answering three questions about your company:

  1. What is it? Be descriptive.
  2. What are the customer benefits? How does it improve customers’ lives?
  3. What is its personality? If your product, company or service was human and you met at a cocktail party, how would you describe him/her?
When using this template to answer these three questions, make sure you:
  1. Bring in as many people from across the company when you do your positioning, to get as many perspective as possible.
  2. Be succinct and clear, to the point where a middle-school student could understand what you are saying.
  3. Limit yourself to three words.
  4. Avoid fuzzy words.
  5. Create a personality for your company.
  6. Own a specific word in your company’s mind.
The first three steps, identified as tasks in the Getting Started column on this template, are:
  1. Understanding what is a brand.

    A brand is the unique story that consumers recall when they think of you.

  2. Understanding what is a branding pyramid

    Screenshot showing the Branding Pyramid

  3. Understanding the concept summary

    The concept summary takes all of the thinking from your positioning model, branding pyramid and internal discussions about what your company wants to be when it grows up — and reduces it to one paragraph.

The template walks you through the process, step-by-step:

Screenshot showing details of Branding Framework

The next time you need to do a branding exercise for your company or product, use this template. And let us know if we need to improve it.

How to manage a Grant Pipeline for Nonprofits

A large number of our users are from small nonprofits (and they get free use of Kerika under our Academic & Nonprofit Plan!) and to help these folks manage their grant pipeline better we have create a new template that’s available to everyone:

Screenshot showing Grant Pipeline template
Click to view this template

This simple, yet very flexible, template lets your nonprofit team track all the grant opportunities that are out there, and make sure they get attended to as they go through the process: ProspectQualified LeadPrepare Grant ApplicationAwait Response.

As the possible grants move through the process, for each opportunity you need to track at least this information:

  1. Name and contact details for donor.
  2. Organization (include specific department or program office if you are dealing with a foundation).
  3. Key motivations: what’s the donor’s known mission, and how does your nonprofit fit within that vision.
  4. Likelihood of donation: this is something that you update as the task moves through the process.
  5. Pitch process: smaller donors may have an information process, but larger donors are likely to have intermediaries like foundations or family offices that have a specific process they like to follow before they will commit to a donation. Make sure you follow their process!
  6. Expected Date: when you think the donor might make a decision.
  7. Fiscal Year: which fiscal year the grant will come in, for your nonprofit.

Not all of this will be available in the Prospect stage, but it needs to be gathered in the Qualified Lead stage for sure: otherwise, your lead isn’t really qualified, and you are not going to be in a good position to win that grant.

Creating this, and other templates for nonprofits, are all part of our “social good” mission.

Check it out and let us know if we can improve it.

How to organize a Campaign Photoshoot

We have a new template for folks that need to organize a marketing campaign photoshoot, or any other professional business photoshoot:

Screenshot showing the Campaign Photoshoot template
Click to view the template

The template contains a step-by-step guide, with each task laid out as a separate card on a Task Board. Here’s an example of a task:

Screenshot showing an example task from this template
Example Task

As you can see, this template contains not just a list of tasks, but also useful links for folks who are doing this for the first time.

Cards also contain a checklist of subtasks, where appropriate:

Screenshot showing the checklist of subtasks
Example Checklist

Check this out, and let us know if it needs improving!