5 Pillars of a Winning Content Workflow

While the idea of a content workflow certainly isn’t new – TechPubs folks have been using them for decades to create all kinds of product documentation – it’s only in the last few years that the sales and marketing world (outside of large enterprises and media companies) have started paying serious attention to them.

This is primarily because on today’s landscape, virtually every business needs to regularly create quality content – and without the right systems, technology and processes, the effort invariably costs too much, takes too long, and the end product isn’t as good as it needs to be. As noted by Business.com “When you don’t have a plan or a clearly defined workflow and content production management system, your content may lack consistency, but you’ll also find that your marketing and sales teams spend far too much time re-creating content that already exists.”

While each business needs to develop a customized content workflow that wraps around their specific variables, there are nevertheless a set of 5 core pillars that should be part of the approach. We outline these below:

1. Buyer Personas

Some marketing experts such as Rebecca Lieb believe that an editorial calendar is the hub of a successful content workflow. And while that’s certainly a valid argument, in our experience the essence of a content workflow – i.e. the raw building blocks upon which it’s built – is something else: buyer personas.

This is simply because all of the assets generated by the content workflow – we’re talking blog posts, ebooks, white papers, videos, Infographics, social media stuff, and the list goes on – must keep customers (both prospective and current) in mind at all times. Otherwise, the content workflow itself can be elegant and efficient, but it won’t fulfill its purpose, which is to help businesses get and stay close to their customer communities.

2. Role Identification

Improper role identification is probably responsible for more content workflow pitfalls and headaches than anything else!

Here’s why: even a relatively simple content asset – such as a blog post – requires contributions from a few roles, such as a researcher, writer, editor, graphic designer, publisher and project manager. Now, it’s common for the same individual to provide more than one role. For example, the researching, writing and editing may be handled by one person, and the graphic design and publishing may be handled by another (of course, we’re assuming here that these people are qualified to perform all of these roles!).

It’s vital for a business to understand who’s doing what — and just as importantly, who isn’t doing what because they don’t have the time and/or don’t have the skills – before they map out a content workflow. Otherwise, the flow won’t and can’t work. It will break down immediately. Another way to say all of this is that content workflows have to wrap around reality, rather than trying (and failing) to have reality wrap around content workflows. Reality always wins this battle, and businesses always lose!

3. Assignments and Approvals

Once roles are properly identified – and for many businesses, this means outsourcing to fill gaps – it’s necessary to factor in how assignments will be handled, and how draft content will be approved on a variety of levels as required (e.g. coverage, style, consistency, technical, editorial, compliance, legal, etc). All of this needs to be captured by the content workflow in an efficient a linear way.

4. Editorial Calendar

As noted above, an editorial calendar is a must-have for any winning content workflow. This document maps out individual content assets so people know what’s they’re doing and what’s coming down the pipeline. At the same time, it provides a broader perspective so that content aligns with overall strategic objectives. For example, an editorial calendar helps a business determine if it needs to adjust course in terms of messaging, medium, media, target market, frequency, and so on.

5. Lock it Down!

Last but not least, a content workflow should be locked down so that it is consistency applied. Otherwise, instead of a legitimate process, it’ll be a “suggestion” that most people frankly won’t use when things get hectic.

This doesn’t mean that deviations from the workflow can’t or shouldn’t occur. There may be times when it’s necessary or beneficial to temporary alter the process. That’s perfectly OK and not a red flag. However, these should be exceptions – not the norm. If there are too many of them in a short period of time, it’s probably a symptom that the content workflow itself needs to be adjusted, or that staff need to reminded that it exists and has to be followed.

Learn More

To learn more about creating a winning content workflow – and how an inbound marketing program fits perfectly with this approach – contact the Leap Clixx team today. Your consultation with us is free.

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