Designing a content material workflow will 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 job at any given second, all whereas making certain the content material is correct, in alignment along 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 sequence of steps by which you set up your content material in order that it strikes seamlessly via the manufacturing course of. Naturally, your workflow will rely upon many elements—together with the related events concerned within the content material creation course of, the scale of your workforce or firm, and the scope of the mission.

As a content material marketer, chances are you’ll be juggling a number of tasks directly, so workflows will help preserve you on observe. They’ll additionally align expectations between contributors and assist overcome widespread content material roadblocks, like a prolonged stakeholder overview.

However to craft workflows successfully, you want the fitting instruments and other people in place, plus an understanding of how totally different dependencies will have an effect on the general course of. It’s best 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 will help improve accountability and eradicate course of redundancies. What’s extra, they permit you to solidify and doc content material workflows, giving full transparency into the processes wanted to get tasks from ideation to distribution.

Constructing Environment friendly Workflows

Workflows are on the core of assembly your content material technique targets, whether or not that be driving visitors from natural search, producing income, or something in between. General, purpose for consistency and construction amongst workflows for various belongings, with some flexibility relying in your content material targets.

When constructing environment friendly workflows, begin with these 5 steps:

1. Select the fitting author for the job.

An excellent content material author will produce work developed with well-defined targets. Contemplating your finances, determine someone in your workforce or exterior to your organization who understands your viewers, targets, and model’s wants. It’s possible you’ll wish to discover a freelancer or contributor with a background in your trade or rent a author with a powerful background in a particular format or channel. Bear in mind: Excessive-quality, audience-driven content material will assist drive effectivity.

Instruments like Contently will help you construct your inventive dream workforce. Our Clever Expertise Suggestions characteristic matches content material entrepreneurs with award-winning freelancers who’re proper for any job primarily based in your content material technique. Contently additionally assists with contributor staffing, administration, invoicing, and fee, so you may focus your consideration on telling nice tales.

2. Incorporate 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 overview from a topic knowledgeable (SME) to make sure accuracy, which builds model credibility.

In my very own expertise, I’ve discovered that involving an inside knowledgeable presents a way of consolation when publishing content material on a very advanced or delicate subject. SMEs will also 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 inside SMEs is a wonderful technique to construct cross-departmental relationships and rapport throughout the group.

However SMEs who don’t give you the results you want immediately or acknowledge the worth of content material might hesitate to take a position time in content material creation. That is the place solidifying a workflow, establishing clear deadlines, and articulating your targets from the get-go will help.

With Contently, you will get inside or exterior SMEs to overview content material, whether or not they’re a person on the platform or not. With the usual or off-platform tabs, you may e-mail the Contently hyperlink to an SME for overview contained in the platform. Without having for a login, this off-platform step allows your entire edits to stay secure in a single place. This gives a transparent deadline, allows you to observe a mission’s progress, and maintains model management of your deliverable.

3. Embrace consistency and accuracy.

For readers to view your model as a thought chief, that you must create factually sound content material. Offering incorrect or outdated data can harm your credibility. One resolution is to embrace fact-checking as a typical observe in your workflow, ideally within the early levels of overview.

Consistency inside the overview cycle itself can also be important. It confirms that voice, tone, and model type throughout your content material belongings are aligned. Instruments or supplies like type guides could make this simpler, too.

Contently’s integration with IBM-Watson helps our shoppers preserve a constant model voice all through the content material they create. Utilizing this machine studying algorithm, you may assess how carefully your content material aligns along with your model’s tone. Illustrated above, you’ll see the targets of The Content material Strategist, rating a bit for the publication’s very best tones of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness.

4. Get your authorized workforce on board.

Establish upfront what tasks will want a further layer of overview past the SMEs concerned. Together with your authorized workforce in your workflow as an additional precaution will help defend you from authorized hurdles chances are you’ll face by publishing sure content material belongings.

A senior govt or your PR workforce might must overview content material the place, for 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 characteristic can come in useful, particularly in case your authorized or PR workforce is working outdoors of the Contently platform. Within the screenshot above, you’ll see a spot to pick out the off-platform approver. You possibly can even add this contingent overview to a workflow template if it’s a repeatable job to save lots of 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 may 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 enhancing 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 tasks.

Leverage mission administration software program or different instruments to set deadlines, create duties for key gamers, and notify workers of missed deadlines. For instance, Contently allows you to create workflow templates that auto-populate dates primarily based on the beginning date of a mission.

Content material Planning and Workflows With Contently

To drive ends in advertising and marketing, you want nice content material. Nevertheless it’s laborious 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 may construct “good workflows” that guarantee compliance and course of adherence, with automated notifications to maintain writers on observe. It’s also possible to create an individualized workflow for every mission you create, with clear visibility for everybody concerned in editorial processes and procedures.

With our expertise and freelancer community, you may 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 will help you create a content material workflow that drives effectivity.