Can we be honest for a minute…
When we first started content marketing back in 2016, we didn’t really have a plan. We came up with some ideas that we thought were interesting and started writing whenever we had the time.
No strategy! No process! And if we’re really honest…no real results.
But when we started developing a content strategy, and a process that we could replicate over and over – that’s when the magic happened.
And it’s a formula we’ve used with ourselves and our clients, and how we managed to help ScoreApp get an increase of 187% in paying customers.
So we are huge believers in a documented workflow and the impact it can have on content production and delivering ROI. And we’ve seen first-hand how the lack of content production processes can cause content marketing efforts to tank.
But how do you create an efficient content production workflow that actually works?
We’re here to share our proven process for creating structure around your content production to give you direction, clarity and most of all…results.
Remember…Strategy First, Workflow Second!
Wow! Hold up right there…
Before you go diving into the content production flow it’s important to first get the fundamentals right…a.k.a the strategy.
It’s the foundation of your content marketing and you need it to build your operational workflow from.
So, if you are reading this and you haven’t yet had a chance to read our blog on the three things that can make or break your content marketing, we strongly recommend checking it out to nail your strategy (and find out why it’s so important).
But here’s a quick refresh in case that’s what you’re after…
A content marketing strategy is essentially your top-level plan that outlines how you are going to create, implement and distribute content that will help you reach your business goals.
There are three main things you need to think about to nail your content marketing strategy:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What do you buyers need to know to make a good buying decision?
- What do you know that no one else does?
We’ve gone into these in a lot more detail here, so we recommend that you check it out before you go any further if you don’t have a strategy,
What is a content workflow?
The content workflow is the O part of the S.O.S framework, and it’s essentially the operations of the content process.
It’s a meticulously crafted roadmap that outlines the step-by-step process of creating content, from generating ideas to publishing.
A comprehensive workflow defines the specific roles and responsibilities of team members at every stage of the content planning, production, and publishing process. As well as detailed information on the tools and resources that will be utilised by team members, and timeframes for each stage of content creation.
By dividing the content creation process into distinct stages, these workflows serve as invaluable guides that ensure your content marketing strategy stays on course.
Plus, they offer transparency and clear direction to your team, enabling them to produce high-quality content efficiently.
Basically, they ensure that everyone knows what they need to do at each stage so that you can keep your content marketing efforts on track.
Do you need a content workflow?
Can you just wing it?
A content process and workflow is a core part of our SOS framework, which takes people from aimless content to high-performing, lead-generating, revenue-driving content.
So, yes – we think it’s an essential part of making your content marketing successful.
Why?
Well, there is a bit of psychology coming up, so get your lab coat ready…
It all comes down to something called the fundamental attribution error.
Simply put, it’s the tendency to overemphasise personal characteristics and underestimate situational factors.
But what does this mean in business terms?
It means that if something isn’t working (in this case content marketing), it’s common to blame the people involved in the project. And while this could be the case, the impact of situational factors (ie. processes) is likely being ignored or downplayed.
So before you proclaim that content marketing doesn’t work, we’d suggest examining whether or not you have the right factors in place to facilitate success. And if you don’t have a strategy and content workflow then it very well might be the situational factors holding you back from success.
Of course, it could also be the people (or both), and in that case, you might want to get the right people, a.k.a someone like us involved to write your content.
Ultimately, a content workflow allows you to prioritise people and processes, making the project manageable and enabling consistency – so you produce amazing content over and over again.
What should you include within a content marketing workflow?
Okay, by this point we’re assuming you have a solid content marketing strategy sorted, know what at content production process is and are now ready to get cracking with a workflow that will take you to the next level.
Three major things should be covered in your production flow to ensure everything runs smoothly:
- Processes (how it’s done)
- People (who is doing it)
- Project Management System (the glue that holds it all together)
Let’s look into these a little more…
1. What’s the ‘process’ part of content production?
A good content marketing process will make the whole thing look easy…like it’s nothing more than pushing the publish button and letting the returns and revenue roll in.
But in reality, there is a lot that goes on in the background, and the process will detail each step you need to take from idea to promotion, and everything that goes on in between.
For example, the process for creating blog content for our clients looks a little like this:
- Firstly we (Martin & Lyndsay), and our content manager Meghan will create a content strategy following extensive audience, competitor and keyword research
- Next, our content manager will create an in-depth brief for the blog (including guidance on tone of voice, key points, stories, content goal and keywords)
- The writer will then write the article
- The graphic designer will create the featured image and any other imagery
- Our content manager will then check it all over and make amendments
- The technical operator will upload to the site and optimise it
- One final check and then it’s published.
But it doesn’t stop there!
We then break that content up, repurpose it and share it across social media to amplify the content that we’ve spent time creating.
Phew! That’s a lot of steps, and our process includes a task for each of these to ensure that no critical step is missed.
It’s not the most creative, engaging part of creating content, but it’s essential to ensure that your team can take themselves out of the “day-to-day” and focus on the more creative fun parts of the job that actually drive impact.
Find out more about our content writing service here.
2. Assigning people to the process
Sure, one person could juggle everything, but realistically speaking, it’s a lot of work that requires specialists at each stage.
With Jammy Digital, each piece of content goes through six different people before we hit the publish button, including:
- Content Strategists x2
- Content Manager
- Writer
- Graphic Designer
- Technical Operator
And we know that the right people getting involved at the right time doesn’t just happen by magic. It relies on assigning the work to the relevant person in the process to ensure that it’s done.
We even have a person who oversees this whole process, ensuring the right people are involved as and when they need to be. It’s Meghan, our content manager, and among other things, she manages the content process – ensuring everything is running smoothly. It’s a critical role, that ties together everyone in the team and ensures people are involved at the right point of the process.
And to do this, communication is required – we use Slack to allow our remote team to chat from opposite ends of the country. Regardless of what you use, communication is essential.
At this point, it’s worth highlighting that the more content you create, the more people you are going to need to keep the process flowing smoothly. This is especially true if you have different platforms in the mix – blogging, video, podcast, social media – all needing content, all overlapping in some way but all needing specialist creators too. It can get pretty messy fast if you don’t have a workflow in place.
That’s why outsourcing to a content marketing agency such as Jammy Digital can open up resources for your business, and ensure that a specialist person is taking care of your content management at each stage of the process.
3. Project Management System
Now, don’t get us wrong – it’s totally possible to run a content marketing workflow on spreadsheets and docs. This is how we started out, and it worked for a time when our content production was on a smaller scale. But trust us when we tell you, that the more content you create, and the more people involved in the process, the more confusing it becomes.
Spreadsheet overload incoming…
Plus as soon as one person forgets to update the doc – pandemonium ensues.
This is why we recommend using a project management system such as ClickUp, Monday.com or Notion.
It’s the final piece of the content puzzle that is essential if you really want to nail and scale your content marketing workflow.
It’s accessible by multiple people, both in-house and externally, allowing your team to collaborate and track in a way that’s just not possible without one.
It’s the glue that holds everyone together and most systems will allow you to:
- Assign deadlines
- Assign people
- Track progress
- View content calendar
- Share notes
- Gain approval
It’s basically a personal assistant dedicated solely to managing the content workflow, and once it’s in place you can easily scale it as your content marketing efforts do.
The most common workflow challenges…
We’d love to say that putting a content management workflow in place will solve all your problems, but sadly that’s not the case.
There are still some common challenges and problems that you need to be aware of to ensure you get the most from your content production processes including:
- Lack of strategy
- Not having the right team
- Lack of buy-in
Lack of strategy…
As we said earlier, a solid strategy is key to the success of your content marketing efforts. Without it, you won’t be able to build out a content workflow.
So if you’ve not yet done that we suggest taking a step back and creating a strategy before jumping ahead to the process.
Trust us, it’s worth doing right and will make the rest of the process run more smoothly.
Not having the right team…
We’ve highlighted just how important the right people are to the success of your content marketing, but we really want to drive this point home.
At one point in our business, we thought we could do it all….
From content planning, creation, publication, and promotion – as well as all the day-to-day things that business owners find themself getting drawn into.
But guess what…we couldn’t, at least not with the level of motivation and focus required to do each part of the process really, really well. It became all-consuming, and we knew that something had to give.
That’s why we’ve now hired a team of amazing experts who each take accountability for a specific portion of the content creation workflow. And like we said, within Jammy, there are six people that see a blog post or video before it goes live.
So be realistic about what you need at each stage and whether you have the right people in place. Overestimating what your team can do can lead to the content process falling off track and team members feeling deflated.
Remember if you need help we’re on hand for your content marketing planning and operations.
Lack of buy-in…
Just because you have the right team in place, doesn’t mean that you are going to automatically get results, especially if you are relying on project management tools that require the entire team to be bought in to see success.
This is where people problems come into the equation!
Imagine you have a project management tool (such as Notion), but nobody is using it.
Would make all that hard work you put into the process pointless, right?
It’s common for businesses to install software and then fail to train the staff on it, leading to it flopping.
It’s not that the process or tools aren’t right but that the people aren’t being taught how to get the most from them.
So, make sure if you are using tools that you train the team on them, or outsource to a team who already know what they are doing.
Optimising your Content Workflow with AI
We love to talk about how AI can help you optimise and scale your content marketing process to make it work for you.
It’s definitely not about using AI to write your long-form content from scratch – we still don’t think it’s quite there yet, and quite honestly we don’t know that it will ever manage to get there.
But once you understand the process you can begin to see where AI can help speed things up!
Content operations are one of the places that we use AI within our agency to enable amazing content creation. ClickUp, our project management tool, integrates AI to help automate, rinse and repeat.
It’s all about using AI, well…intelligently.
Read more: How we are using AI in our Content Marketing Agency
Need help with your content marketing production…
If you’re thinking: “this sounds like a lot of work”…then you’d be right!
While in theory, it’s all pretty straightforward, in practice, it takes a lot of work, and the drive to be consistent to do it right, over and over again.
That’s where we come in!
Not only do we have a proven process, but we have a team of experts who know exactly what to do to ensure your content marketing production flourishes and drives home the results and revenue.
If you want a team that knows how to take your content marketing to the next level then check out our blog and SEO management packages.
Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.
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