How to Create a Content Management Workflow
These days, you’re probably well aware of the importance of creating content as a brand. Your customers expect you to be active on social media and to have a web presence, which means that you’ll need to be producing content on a regular basis. The backbone of any digital marketing strategy is content creation — it’s important to get the process right.
Creating a content workflow entails outlining your content creation process in a systematic way so that you are able to produce content with consistency and reliability, as well as giving your audience a coherent experience from your brand even if you’re working with multiple writers.
What is a content workflow?
A content workflow is a defined pipeline of tasks carried out by your team to move content from ideation to delivery as quickly as possible. You can use documentation to explain the roles and requirements involved in each step of the process, as well as a digital task management software to easily organize these tasks.
Free tools that allow you to create a content workflow include Notion and Trello. Hubspot offers a freemium marketing automation option, as well. It’s important to find a tool that gives you flexibility and enables you to change deadlines and task descriptions on the fly. You’ll also likely need features such as the ability to assign a person on your team to a task and the ability to set a deadline.
How do I create a content workflow for my business?
Decide what content to create. The type of content you’re creating will vastly change the content workflow required to make it. If you’re not sure what type of content you should be creating, think about your audience. What social media platforms do they use? What type of content do they love seeing from you? If your audience is on TikTok, for example, you should be creating a content management workflow that enables you to create short-form video content.
Create a breakdown of actionable tasks. Depending on the type of content you’re making, there will be several different steps that need to be taken to get the content completed. Ask yourself, what is involved in the process of creating this type of content? In general, most types of content will require a “creating” step, a “reviewing” step, and a “promotion” step (don’t forget this one!).
Assign roles. The next step is to select someone from your team to be responsible for ensuring the next task is completed.
Set deadlines for each step. Ask yourself, how long should each part of the process take, if everything is going according to plan? Clear expectations are key here! If you’re not sure where to start, think about how often you’d like to be putting out new content. If you want to produce content twice a week, you’ll need to set deadlines that will ensure you are able to produce enough content to do this!
Example of a content workflow
Here is an example of what a content workflow could look like if a business wanted to focus on publishing blog content on their website.
Content manager chooses the topic of the blog post and assigns the blog post to a writer on your team
Writer outlines the blog post
Writer researches the blog post
Writer makes first draft
Editor reviews draft and sends back to writer with feedback
Writer revises their piece
Editor proofreads and makes final edits
Graphic designer creates cover image and infographics for the post
Content manager publishes the post
Social media manager creates promotional posts
The key to a successful workflow is to assign only one task to each step, and only one person who is in charge of seeing it through, even if there is a team of people involved in that step — that way, it’s always clear exactly where a piece of content is at any point in the process and who is in charge of getting it to the next phase.
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The benefits of creating content are huge for your business — it gives you a chance to humanize your brand and connect more deeply with your customers so that they can trust you enough to invest their time and money into your product or service. A content workflow makes it possible for your business to stay on top of content creation, maintain freshness and relevance in your internet presence, and avoid logistical issues that waste time.
But designing and managing a content workflow can be a ton of work — and as a business owner, you’ve got a full plate as it is!
If you want to create consistent content that engages your audience, you don’t have to juggle all the plates yourself. An agency like Cre8tives.co can handle this content workflow for you — from strategizing, to content creation, to editing — so you can focus on providing the best product or service to your customers as possible.
