Content Creation Workflow: How To Make It Effective

Content creation workflow planning is setting up a clear structure for producing a piece that will perform well and benefit your business. If you haven’t built a strategy about all processes involved, you simply miss out on the opportunity to monitor and drive results with it.

In business, productivity and efficiency are at the core of operations. Any failure to meet deadlines may bring about an unhappy customer or a disappointed team member.

Therefore, it is best to avoid such complications in your content creation process. Try to make it as structured and mistake-free as possible. A CMS like WordPress allows you to streamline your content processes and submit drafts for review, edit and schedule in a simple, transparent way. 

As a business, you also want to meet your clients’ expectations of the quality of content you create. WP-CRM is a plugin that lets you manage your clients’ database. Have all their details and requirements right on your WordPress dashboard! No need to flip through spreadsheets and documents to look this information up – focus on the results and how to max them out.

Why Is Content Creation Workflow Important?

Building a streamlined content creation workflow is essential for projects to succeed. If you are responsible for managing content in your company, make sure you consider both people and processes. Failing to do so, or paying more attention to operations as opposed to the roles involved, may lead to a waste of resources and unsatisfactory results.

Why Is Content Creation Workflow Important

The stages of the content creation process need to be clearly defined. Divide each project into specific tasks and assign them to a particular team member.  This way, there won’t be confusion about who is responsible for what and the process will be smooth and predictable. For example, if a writer doesn’t know who to report to once their draft is completed and doesn’t inform anyone, then the publish date will be delayed.

Apart from poor organization and delays, another problem in a vague content creation workflow is waste of resources. If you have several people editing the same draft without collaborating within the team, then this leads to a lot of hours spent on the same task. This essentially means poor productivity, a waste of money, high employee turnover and even loss of clients.

6 Steps For An Effective Content Creation Workflow

6 Steps For An Effective Content Creation Workflow

We already shed some light on why a clear structure of content creation workflows is important for a business and satisfying client expectations. However, in order to make sure you build a consistent, simple and clear set of processes, you need to carefully think it through. Here are 6 steps to organize content creation in your team:

Determine your Goals

Having set goals and targets is fundamental to lay the bricks of a successful content creation process. Break them down as much as you can and be specific so you determine the key results your content has to achieve. However, be mindful of the limited resources you have in terms of writers, graphic designers, fact checkers, editors, overall team schedule and work hours allocation.

Ideating

Ideating

Ideating is also a very important step in the content creation process. Once you’ve determined achievable targets, it’s time to generate some good content ideas. Make sure you and your team know the keywords, volume and search traffic to go for. Also, constantly monitor and outdo your competitors. In addition, encourage the content team to source ideas on a regular basis, for example every other week, or depending on your clients’ needs.

Research and Understand Your Audience

Once you’ve set clear goals and brainstormed some content ideas, it is time to tweak the specific angle to go for in the draft itself. Do your research on your (or your client’s) audience and how it differs from your competition. What is your unique selling point, what is the product/service/message that sets you apart from the rest?

Blog Topic Analysis

So, you’ve tailored your approach to the specific audience/readership you target; it’s time to analyze the blog topics your team got together and sift through the suitable ones. Take into account the type of content that you need to produce. Many sites have different blog categories and each has a specific format you need to abide by. For example, if it is a news section, you need to choose topics that cover recent trends. On the other hand, if it’s tutorials, the topics need to be more technical and extensive.

Define The Roles In The Content Creation Workflow

Define The Roles In The Content Creation Workflow

After you have gone through the title suggestions and selected the suitable ones, it is task assignment time! Break down each content creation project into well-defined tasks and put a name on each one unless you are doing it all by yourself. At this stage,it is very important to be aware of your team’s availability and workload. Keep in mind that everyone involved needs to be ok with the process in place. If several people take part in the same task, look into ways to specify each team member’s duties into subtasks. 

Analyze, Iterate, Refine

Publishing a piece of content is not the end of the process yet. Constantly analyze the performance of your content and update it if necessary. Watch out for broken links and statistics that are not relevant anymore so your content stays on top of the competition.

Final Words

Building an effective content creation workflow is key for the success of your website and business. Hence, you need to have a strategic mind and set your goals and expectations straight before you take action on it. Make sure you analyze your competitors and audience. Get your content team involved in the ideation process and contribute title ideas on a regular basis. Make every stage of the workflow structured and clear for the team members that take part in it. Also, don’t stop with your efforts once the content is live.

Marketing Team