Content creation is not all the time so simple as we might prefer it to be. It might be great if marketers could just snap their fingers to launch a successful email campaign, YouTube series, or blog.
Nevertheless, all content requires extensive planning, team effort, and a consistent content workflow to maintain all the pieces and everybody on target.
In this text, we’ll explore what a content workflow is, why your team needs one, and the steps to craft the proper content workflow to achieve your marketing goals.
Why Marketers Need a Content Workflow
Content Creation Workflow: Task-based Workflows vs. Status-based Workflows
Content Strategy Workflow: How to Build One
What’s a content workflow?
A content workflow is a series of tasks your team performs to take your content from ideation to delivery as efficiently as possible. Even though it outlines the processes, a content workflow relies heavily on the people, tools, and resources needed for content creation.
Key to an efficient content workflow is clearly defining the people’s roles, the documents and materials at each stage, and the timeline by which all the pieces should be accomplished. Your content workflow may change depending on the content type.
It’s normal for the materials, people, and timelines defined in a single workflow to vary depending on the content you are creating, comparable to a blog, video, live stream, or web copy.
Why Marketers Need a Content Workflow
Content workflows ensure a project launches successfully with none hiccups. With a content workflow, you may:
- Create content that’s consistent, timely, and accurate.
- Guarantee realistic deadlines and outcomes.
- Proactively plan for common roadblocks in content planning and launches
- Clearly establish how every team member matches in the large picture of making the content
Essentially, a content workflow keeps you and your team on target to a seamless launch. And not using a content workflow, you and your team are likelier to miss deadlines, make errors, and experience difficulty working toward your common goal.
Content Creation Workflow: Task-based Workflows vs. Status-based Workflows
Before learning find out how to construct a content creation workflow, you need to understand which might profit your team probably the most — task- or status-based workflow.
Knowing the difference between the 2 will make it easier to strategize the proper workflow for you next project.
Task-based Workflows
Each stage of a task-based workflow is a task that should be carried out before moving on to the subsequent step. In a task-based workflow, each step is described intimately, and everybody working on the project knows what is predicted of them.
Task-based workflows are especially useful for brand spanking new content teams because whoever is assigned to the duty gets a transparent idea of what must be done and what happens next.
Status-based Workflows
Status-based workflows are most frequently preferred by more experienced teams. In a status-based workflow, each stage is defined by status, and the stages don’t include detailed descriptions of what must be done like in task-based workflows.
Status-based workflows may be easier to trace and may be utilized in a wide range of content type. Nevertheless, it’s crucial your team understands the content creation process and their roles inside it.
Content Strategy Workflow: Find out how to Construct One
Follow these steps to craft a content workflow for you and your team.
1. Establish your content goals and audience.
Your goals will inform the content you must create and the audience you are trying to achieve.
Is your goal to create brand awareness? In that case, you will probably need to create product-led blogs or engaging social media posts. If you happen to’re working to thrill and retain your current customers, an efficient email campaign could be the very best fit.
2. Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of everyone in your team.
Once you already know your content goals and who your audience is, you are ready to come to a decision who in your marketing team might be involved within the project.
For content creation workflows, you will need content creators (bloggers, YouTubers, videographers, etc.), editors, type, and other stakeholders involved in content creation.
Whether your team is using a a task-based workflow or a status-based workflow, everyone involved should have a transparent definition of their role, duties, and where they fit inside the process.
For instance, your workflow is for a YouTube content series — the content creators might be accountable for crafting the content. The editors might be tasked with ensuring the content is of the very best quality and incorporates no errors.
Senior editors or project managers will give the ultimate approval to launch each episode within the series.
This can be the time to determine the tools and materials your team might want to create and launch the content.
For instance, content management systems like CMS Hub are essential for publishing blog posts. Canva and Adobe Photoshop are great tools for design.
You will may additionally need to contemplate things like mics and cameras for videos, or email automation software for email campaigns.
3. Resolve the content types and frequency of output.
Work out the sort of content you must create and the way often you must put this content out. For instance, you may determine you must put out YouTube videos once every week or Instagram Reels every other day.
Now can be an awesome time to create a content calendar to plan your projects upfront and to make sure you content is launched on time.
4. Develop the content creation process.
Brainstorm together with your team the several steps that must happen on your brand’s content to launch successfully. These steps will vary depending on the sort of content you are creating.
For instance, the method to craft and launch a blog post may seem like:
- Strategizing
- Planning
- Creating
- Editing
- Publishing
- Analyzing
These tasks could seem broad, but that is where you must expand. For instance, strategizing typically means performing content audits, creating buyer personas, and conducting keyword research.
Editing might involve implementing website positioning techniques or adding images and links.
Every step in the method must be accounted for thus it might probably be assigned to the suitable team member.
5. Document and automate your workflow.
Firms typically use standard operating procedures (SOPs) to maintain their teams aligned with the method. Marketing Hub, Trello, and Evernote are examples of systems that give teams easy accessibility to documents like SOPs.
HubSpot also has an all-in-one workflow automated software that permits user to align all of their teams’ processes so there isn’t any confusion or hiccups from task to task.
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We provide templates or you may create your workflow from scratch to simply hand leads from marketing to sales.
Content workflows are essential if you must create content commonly and efficiently together with your team informed every step of the way in which. With a content workflow, you may increase productivity, reduce errors, and boost workplace engagement.
Consider your workflow as a roadmap for a seamless content launch that takes you to your goals.