Source: Anthropic Academy — Claude 101 — “Expanding Claude’s Reach” and “Working with Skills” sections + wiki synthesis: marketing-skills-bundle, agent-skills-overview

Time: Read 3 min | Watch/click-through 15 min | Practice 5 min

Watch / Click-Through First

Claude 101 — “Expanding Claude’s Reach” + “Working with Skills” sections (~15 min)

Direct: anthropic.skilljar.com/claude-101

What’s in these sections:

  • Working with Skills — Skills are reusable packaged capabilities Claude can load on demand (e.g., “produce dental marketing content following WEO conventions”). Anthropic covers what they are and how to install them.
  • Connecting your tools — how Claude connects to your Google Drive, Gmail, Notion, Slack, etc. via the built-in connectors.
  • Enterprise search — search across your organization’s knowledge with Claude.
  • Research mode — deep research that runs for minutes, produces a sourced report.

Anthropic teaches the mechanics of each. The WEO-specific overlay below names the ones most relevant to marketing work.

Why It Matters at WEO

Skills, tools, and connectors are the difference between “Claude is a better writing assistant” and “Claude plugs into my actual workflow.” A Claude that can pull the client’s current ad copy from Google Drive, compare it to a skill-trained dental marketing voice guide, produce 10 variants, and export back to Drive — that’s where the productivity lift compounds.

Most team members will get value from just the first piece (Skills) for months before needing connectors. Don’t feel pressure to set up everything on day one.

WEO-Specific Overlay — Skills Relevant to WEO Work

There are hundreds of Skills in the community. These are the ones most relevant to marketing work. Marketing Skills Bundle by Corey Haines (21.8k stars on GitHub) is the single most relevant external collection — 36+ marketing-specific skills curated for Claude Code / Claude.ai / Codex / Cursor / Windsurf.

See the wiki reference: Marketing Skills Bundle (full breakdown)

Skills that pay off fastest for WEO roles:

  • Copywriting skill — enforces the RCTF pattern and common direct-response structures (PAS, AIDA, 4Ps).
  • Ad creative skill — specialized for headlines/primary text variant generation.
  • SEO audit skill — structured page-by-page or site-wide SEO review.
  • Competitor intelligence skill — teardown framework applied consistently.
  • Email sequence skill — for nurture flows and newsletter planning.
  • Landing page / CRO skill — structured diagnosis + recommendations.

Skills do not need to be installed to start — the default Claude behavior is good. Install them as you identify specific repeated tasks where you want more consistent output.

WEO-Specific Overlay — Connectors (50+ and counting)

Claude.ai’s connector directory grew from a handful to 50+ native connectors through early 2026. Rather than memorize a fixed list (it keeps expanding), know which categories exist and check your settings pane for what’s currently available.

Categories most useful at WEO

  • Documents / storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive.
  • Email + calendar: Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook.
  • Communication: Slack, Teams.
  • Project + issue tracking: Linear, Jira, Asana, Monday.com, Notion.
  • CRM + customer data: HubSpot, Salesforce.
  • Dev / engineering-adjacent: GitHub, Vercel (mostly for WEO’s product/eng team, not marketing).
  • Data + analytics: Snowflake, Amplitude, Stripe.
  • Design: Figma, Canva.
  • Web CMS: WordPress.

The five most relevant for daily WEO marketing work

  1. Google Drive — read client briefs/assets, save outputs back. Table-stakes.
  2. Gmail — draft and summarize client email threads. Big win for account managers.
  3. Google Calendar — schedule-aware prompting.
  4. Slack — search history, summarize long threads, draft messages.
  5. HubSpot or Salesforce (if WEO’s CRM) — pull campaign/contact context without copy-pasting.

Before enabling any connector: review Module 7 and check with the AI council. Connectors grant Claude significant read access — we’re deliberate about each one. Do not enable connectors on your own; the 5-person connector-review team handles that.

WEO-Specific Overlay — Research Mode (Deep Research)

Research mode (a.k.a. Deep Research) is Claude running a long-form, sourced investigation on a topic over several minutes — it searches, reads, cross-references, and produces a structured report with citations. The single most-underused Claude.ai feature at most agencies.

How to invoke: In the chat box, click the tools/paperclip icon (exact placement shifts by UI version) and pick “Research.” Or just prompt something that clearly requires a multi-step investigation and Claude will offer it.

When to use it: tasks that would genuinely take you 30+ minutes of manual searching and note-taking. NOT for quick lookups.

Five WEO Research prompts worth copying

  1. Competitor content teardown.

    “Research [COMPETITOR AGENCY NAME]‘s content output for the last 6 months. What themes do they publish? What formats work well (views / engagement / shares if visible)? What topics are they avoiding? Produce a structured briefing with sources.”

  2. Keyword landscape mapping.

    “Map the search landscape around ‘[SERVICE]’ for patients aged [AGE RANGE] in the US. Which informational-intent queries have the most volume? What’s the current ranking competitor pattern — is it local practices, third-party sites, or ADA/consumer education sites? What’s a gap a local practice content program could fill?”

  3. Trend monitoring for a specific sub-niche.

    “What has the dental industry press and AI industry press said about [TOPIC — e.g. ‘AI patient intake,’ ‘digital treatment planning’] in the last 90 days? Summarize the story arc, major players, and any measurable adoption data.”

  4. Regulatory / compliance research for a new service.

    “Research the current 2026 regulatory and ADA marketing-ethics guidance around promoting [NEW SERVICE — e.g. clear aligner bundles, AI-assisted diagnosis disclosure]. What are the risk areas a practice marketing team should watch?”

  5. Client vertical briefing (new business).

    “Research the [CITY] dental market — practice density, major competitors, patient demographics, any local regulatory specifics. Produce a pitch-ready one-pager for a practice considering entering this market.”

Usage limits (watch these)

  • Research mode consumes significantly more compute per query than a normal chat. Heavy Research users can hit plan limits faster than they expect.
  • On the Team plan, one or two Research runs per day per seat is typical before you notice throttling. Pace yourself on high-value runs.
  • Each run takes 3–15 minutes. Launch it and context-switch to other work — don’t sit and watch.

See the wiki reference Claude AI topic for deeper Research mode patterns after you’ve done a few runs.

Community Deep-Dives

Curated videos from four creators already cited elsewhere in this wiki. Mix of beginner-friendly Skills overviews (fine for any role) and engineering-adjacent Claude Code walkthroughs (optional for marketing/account/content staff). Full channel profiles in Module 8.

Claude Skills — start here (all roles, beginner-friendly)

VideoCreatorWhy it’s worth watching
Claude Skills, Clearly Explained in 15 MinutesPeter YangShortest conceptual explainer — “what are Skills, why do they matter.” Start here if the Anthropic course section felt abstract.
5 Mind-Blowing Use Cases of Claude SkillsRick MulreadyBusiness-user framing (135k views). Each use case is something a marketing/ops person actually does.
Every Claude Code Concept Explained for Normal PeopleSimon ScrapesThe conceptual mental model before you touch anything. 583k views.
The Claude Code Skills Trap (Most People Fall For This)Simon ScrapesAnti-patterns. Watch before you install 20 Skills you’ll never use.

Claude Cowork (Module 6 mentions it, these show what it looks like)

VideoCreatorWhy it’s worth watching
Claude Cowork Tutorial from Cowork’s Design Lead (40 Min)Peter Yang (w/ Jenny Wen, Anthropic)Cowork’s own design lead walking through the product. Authoritative.
Full Claude Cowork Tutorial: The AI That Replaces Your AssistantFuturepediaBroad feature tour (95k views) — shorter than Peter Yang’s, good starting point.
5 Claude Cowork Use Cases You Haven’t Seen BeforeRick MulreadyPractical business-user use cases.
Claude Cowork Just Changed How You Do MarketingRick MulreadyMarketing-agency framing — closest to WEO’s actual use case.

Connectors + MCPs (the other half of Module 6)

VideoCreatorWhy it’s worth watching
Full Tutorial: Connect Claude Code to Google, Slack, and Reddit in 40 Min (Skills + MCPs)Peter YangPractical walkthrough of connecting the exact tools Module 6 names. Skills + MCP in context.
Claude Plugins Give You Superpowers, Here’s How to Unlock ThemRick MulreadyPlugin ecosystem overview (122k views).

Engineering-Adjacent — Skills / Agents / Routines / Managed Agents (optional, for power users)

Optional unless your role is engineering-adjacent. These show the full ceiling of what Claude Code can do at scale.

VideoCreatorWhy it’s worth watching
Master 95% of Claude Code Skills in 28 MinutesNate HerkMost-watched Skills walkthrough on YouTube. After Anthropic’s “Working with Skills” section.
Claude Code Skills Just Got Even BetterNate HerkFollow-up covering Skills UI + discoverability improvements.
Every Claude Code Workflow Explained (& When to Use Each)Simon ScrapesWorkflow taxonomy — when to use what pattern.
How to Build Claude Agent Teams Better Than 99% of PeopleNate HerkMulti-subagent coordination. See also Agent Teams wiki reference.
Claude Code Just Dropped Routines. 24/7 Agents.Nate HerkScheduled / webhook-triggered Claude Code. Direct companion to Routines wiki reference.
I Tested Claude’s New Managed Agents… What You Need To KnowNate HerkManaged Agents (hosted on Anthropic infra). Pair with Managed Agents wiki reference.

Brand new to Claude Code? Start with Nate Herk’s Master 95% of Claude Code in 36 Mins (as a beginner) or Simon Scrapes’ 200+ Hours of Claude Code Lessons in 14 Minutes (for business owners) — both are under 40 minutes and assume no prior Claude Code exposure.

Model Selection — Opus 4.7 Tips

How to Use Opus 4.7 Better Than 99% of People (from Claude Code’s Founder) — RoboNuggets interviews Claude Code’s founder on how to actually get value from Opus 4.7 (vs Sonnet/Haiku). Short. Worth watching before you default to Opus for everything and burn weekly usage.

WEO-Specific Overlay — What This Course Does NOT Cover

Three powerful Claude surfaces are out of scope for this course:

  1. Claude Code — Anthropic’s terminal-based developer assistant. If your role is engineering-adjacent, see Module 8 for the Claude Code 101 course.
  2. Claude Cowork — Claude working directly with files and apps on your machine. Powerful but a bigger mental model shift. Module 8 links the Cowork course.
  3. Claude API — for programmatic / product-integration use. For WEO engineering, the API is handled via the Claude AI reference topic.

Key Takeaways

  • Claude 101’s “Expanding Claude’s Reach” + “Working with Skills” is the source of truth.
  • You don’t need Skills to start being productive. Install them when you identify a repeated task where output consistency matters.
  • Connectors (Google Drive / Gmail / Notion / Slack) are powerful — review Module 7 governance before enabling.
  • Research mode is for 30+ min investigations, not quick lookups.
  • Claude Code, Cowork, and the API are out of scope for this course — Module 8 has the next-step links.

Try It (5 min, hands-on)

  1. Finish “Expanding Claude’s Reach” + “Working with Skills” on Claude 101.
  2. Browse the Marketing Skills Bundle repo. Pick one skill whose description matches a task you do weekly.
  3. Do NOT install yet. Just know where to find it. When you next hit that task, come back and install the skill. This is “know where the toolbox is,” not “load every tool.”
  4. Check your claude.ai connectors pane (in settings). Note which ones are already enabled for your Team account. If Google Drive isn’t available and you want it, ping WEO IT.

Done? Move on to Module 7 — mandatory before you use Claude on real client work.