Designing a content material workflow might not be probably the most thrilling a part of content material advertising and marketing—however it’s crucial to success.
Content material workflows inform who wants to finish what process at any given second, all whereas guaranteeing the content material is correct, in alignment together with your technique, and optimized for distribution. Merely put, they’re the key to any high-performing content material program.
Let’s have a look at how one can create higher workflows in your group.
Why Efficient Content material Workflows Matter
A workflow is a collection of steps by which you arrange your content material in order that it strikes seamlessly via the manufacturing course of. Naturally, your workflow will rely on many elements—together with the related events concerned within the content material creation course of, the scale of your crew or firm, and the scope of the venture.
As a content material marketer, it’s possible you’ll be juggling a number of initiatives without delay, so workflows may help maintain you on monitor. They’ll additionally align expectations between contributors and assist overcome frequent content material roadblocks, like a prolonged stakeholder evaluation.
However to craft workflows successfully, you want the fitting instruments and other people in place, plus an understanding of how completely different dependencies will have an effect on the general course of. You need to proactively iron out a high-level workflow for all content material when constructing your technique after which a extra granular workflow for every particular content material asset.
Including workflow administration instruments to your MarTech stack may help improve accountability and eradicate course of redundancies. What’s extra, they allow you to solidify and doc content material workflows, giving full transparency into the processes wanted to get initiatives from ideation to distribution.
Constructing Environment friendly Workflows
Workflows are on the core of assembly your content material technique objectives, whether or not that be driving visitors from natural search, producing income, or something in between. Total, purpose for consistency and construction amongst workflows for various belongings, with some flexibility relying in your content material objectives.
When constructing environment friendly workflows, begin with these 5 steps:
1. Select the fitting author for the job.
content material author will produce work developed with well-defined objectives. Contemplating your price range, determine any person in your crew or exterior to your organization who understands your viewers, aims, and model’s wants. You could wish to discover a freelancer or contributor with a background in your business or rent a author with a robust background in a particular format or channel. Bear in mind: Excessive-quality, audience-driven content material will assist drive effectivity.
Instruments like Contently may help you construct your inventive dream crew. Our Clever Expertise Suggestions function matches content material entrepreneurs with award-winning freelancers who’re proper for any job based mostly in your content material technique. Contently additionally assists with contributor staffing, administration, invoicing, and cost, so you possibly can focus your consideration on telling nice tales.
2. Incorporate subject material specialists into your workflow.
Some content material belongings, particularly these written for extra skilled or educated goal audiences, ought to have a layer of evaluation from an issue skilled (SME) to make sure accuracy, which builds model credibility.
In my very own expertise, I’ve discovered that involving an inner skilled presents a way of consolation when publishing content material on a very complicated or delicate subject. SMEs can be useful in content material creation, whether or not you interview them for podcasts, flip a dialog right into a weblog submit, and even leverage them for influencer advertising and marketing. Plus, involving inner SMEs is a wonderful solution to construct cross-departmental relationships and rapport throughout the group.
However SMEs who don’t be just right for you straight or acknowledge the worth of content material could hesitate to speculate time in content material creation. That is the place solidifying a workflow, establishing clear deadlines, and articulating your objectives from the get-go may help.
With Contently, you may get inner or exterior SMEs to evaluation content material, whether or not they’re a person on the platform or not. With the usual or off-platform tabs, you possibly can e mail the Contently hyperlink to an SME for evaluation contained in the platform. Without having for a login, this off-platform step permits all your edits to stay protected in a single place. This supplies a transparent deadline, allows you to monitor a venture’s progress, and maintains model management of your deliverable.
3. Embrace consistency and accuracy.
For readers to view your model as a thought chief, you might want to create factually sound content material. Offering incorrect or outdated data can harm your credibility. One resolution is to embrace fact-checking as an ordinary follow in your workflow, ideally within the early levels of evaluation.
Consistency throughout the evaluation cycle itself can be important. It confirms that voice, tone, and model model throughout your content material belongings are aligned. Instruments or supplies like model guides could make this simpler, too.
Contently’s integration with IBM-Watson helps our purchasers preserve a constant model voice all through the content material they create. Utilizing this machine studying algorithm, you possibly can assess how carefully your content material aligns together with your model’s tone. Illustrated above, you’ll see the objectives of The Content material Strategist, rating a bit for the publication’s preferrred tones of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness.
4. Get your authorized crew on board.
Determine upfront what initiatives will want a further layer of evaluation past the SMEs concerned. Together with your authorized crew in your workflow as an additional precaution may help defend you from authorized hurdles it’s possible you’ll face by publishing sure content material belongings.
A senior govt or your PR crew could have to evaluation content material the place, as an example, your model is taking a stable stance on a delicate subject. Take into consideration the potential ramifications of publishing a bit of content material and work backward when establishing your workflow.
With Contently, that is the place the off-platform function can come in useful, particularly in case your authorized or PR crew is working outdoors of the Contently platform. Within the screenshot above, you’ll see a spot to pick the off-platform approver. You may even add this contingent evaluation to a workflow template if it’s a repeatable process to avoid wasting time on future deliverables.
5. Doc your workflow.
Keep organized by documenting the steps of your workflow earlier than the content material creation course of begins, so you possibly can focus extra on the standard of your content material and fewer on operations. The Contently platform allows you to create workflow templates for repeatable duties.
Workflow documentation additionally makes the modifying course of absolutely clear to all key stakeholders, who can then issue their particular duties into their to-do lists as they juggle a number of obligations.
Leverage venture administration software program or different instruments to set deadlines, create duties for key gamers, and notify staff of missed deadlines. For instance, Contently allows you to create workflow templates that auto-populate dates based mostly on the beginning date of a venture.
Content material Planning and Workflows With Contently
To drive leads to advertising and marketing, you want nice content material. Nevertheless it’s onerous to get there with out first establishing the fitting steps and processes. Efficient workflows can solely make your content material manufacturing that a lot stronger.
Within the Contently platform, you possibly can construct “sensible workflows” that guarantee compliance and course of adherence, with automated notifications to maintain writers on monitor. It’s also possible to create an individualized workflow for every venture you create, with clear visibility for everybody concerned in editorial processes and procedures.
With our know-how and freelancer community, you possibly can flip round content material rapidly and simply with the fitting instruments, dashboards, and stakeholders to drive measurable outcomes.
Request a demo to discover how Contently may help you create a content material workflow that drives effectivity.
