Content workflow is a project management process of turning an idea into a piece of content that brings value to consumers. Content marketing teams use it to streamline the content creation process, increase productivity and efficiency, and ensure the highest quality of the final product.
This form of automation involves several phases and tools designed to streamline specific processes. It is widely applied in numerous fields and industries, especially among businesses and content creators seeking to optimize their operations.
In this article, we’ll discuss content workflow in detail, emphasizing its benefits and outlining its stages. Additionally, we’ll introduce several content workflow software tools for different content types.
What Is Content Workflow?
Content workflow is a series of tasks that need to be completed to deliver a high-quality piece of content on time. It entails a content team (or content creator), planning tools, and resources, starting with a content marketing strategy and ending with publishing.
In addition to outlining the phases needed to complete the content production process, an effective content workflow includes the following:
- Roles within the team
- Documentation for every stage
- Timeframes and deadlines
A well-defined content workflow improves the overall productivity within a team and reduces the risk of bottlenecks.
However, there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to defining content workflow. To achieve the best results, content teams need to tailor the process according to their goals, size, and the type of content they intend to create.
Importance of Content Workflow
The importance of a solid content workflow is threefold—it increases efficiency, allows for consistent quality of the finished product, and can scale with the team’s growth.
Let’s review all these benefits in detail:
- Efficiency: Thanks to a clear division of roles within a team and streamlined communication among its members, time and other resources are used more efficiently. Transparency of everyone’s responsibilities, from providing content briefs to approving blog posts, allows for immediate reaction and quick problem-solving in case of any issues along the way.
- Consistency: A well-defined content workflow enables timely deliveries of each piece of content. With constant communication, planning, and scheduling, the content creation process runs smoothly, publishing is consistent, and so is the quality of the final result. Additionally, the status of every content piece can be tracked so that every task can be completed within the predefined time frame.
- Scalability: Automating repetitive tasks, improving collaboration among team members, and streamlining the tasks involved in content production allow for seamless scalability of content workflow as the company grows. The increased workload that comes with it is manageable thanks to quality control, consistency, and efficiency, so there’s no need to sacrifice deadlines, goals, or content standards.
5 Stages of Content Workflow
As previously mentioned, a content workflow entails several stages. In this section, we’ll go through all of them and see how an idea becomes a published piece of content.
#1. Ideation
The ideation stage, or concept development, typically begins with brainstorming. Different methods, such as mind mapping, collaborative discussions, and free writing, can help spark creativity within a team.
Afterward comes the target audience research, with data on demographics, preferences, and behaviors guiding topic selection.
Lastly, there’s a content gap analysis, which determines where competitors are lacking and identifies areas where the existing content needs improvement.
Combining creative brainstorming, data, and analytics helps businesses and content teams come up with ideas to resonate with their audience.
#2. Planning
Planning involves outlining content and scheduling. The former serves to organize ideas, ensure clarity, and maintain a logical flow throughout a particular piece of content. It helps writers not to stray off-topic and meet the predefined content goals.
Scheduling is best done with a content calendar, which is important for staying on track, managing deadlines, and publishing consistently and efficiently. A well-structured calendar also helps with managing workloads, planning key events, and anticipating content requirements, ensuring both timely deliveries and content quality.
#3. Production
Content production is the creation of written, visual, and multimedia materials that resonate with the target audience with the goal of engaging them. Depending on the type of content, this process may involve writing the core message, designing visuals, and adding audio and video elements.
Branding, formatting, and determining the tone of voice are crucial in this stage, as they ensure content quality and consistency. Moreover, given the spectrum of elements a piece of content may entail, constant open communication among team members is essential for aligning it with strategic goals.
#4. Review
The review stage starts with one or more rounds of editing, with a focus on structure, grammar, spelling, clarity, and accuracy. Any gaps, errors, or inconsistencies are then addressed through constructive feedback that may come from editors or content managers. Its purpose is to polish the piece of content before publishing so that it aligns with brand and quality standards.
After the implementation of feedback come revisions to ensure all the issues have been addressed and resolved. If so, the piece of content is approved and ready for publishing.
#5. Publishing
In the publishing stage, the finished piece of content is distributed across platforms to maximize visibility so that it reaches the target audience. However, before the actual publishing comes SEO optimization. It ensures the keywords, meta description, and formatting meet the predefined requirements set to boost search engine ranking.
An optimized piece of content is then published on websites or blogs and promoted through social media, emails, and newsletters to enhance reach, engagement, traffic, and conversion rates.
2 Main Types of Content Workflows
There are two types of content workflows—task-based and status-based workflows. Let’s review them both, highlighting the differences between them.
#1. Task-Based Workflow
A task-based workflow focuses on task management, breaking the process down into a linear series of concrete tasks. Each step of content creation and distribution has a detailed description, a due date, and a specific team member working on it. That way, it’s ensured each task is completed before moving on to the next one.
This type of content workflow is best suited for newly formed teams with little experience since every member knows exactly what their role and responsibilities are.
#2. Status-Based Workflow
A status-based workflow is about progress-tracking, defining each phase by status (assigned, in progress, editing, in review, and published) rather than focusing on individual tasks. Phases don’t include detailed descriptions of the work they entail but rather offer a flexible approach to the project in question.
This type of workflow is usually easier to track, ensuring the completion of projects within the predefined time frame. It’s more suitable for experienced content teams whose members are already familiar with the process.
3 Major Risks of Poor Content Workflow
Now that we’ve explained the importance of streamlining the process of content development, let’s look into the risks of poor content workflow:
#1. Inefficiency
A poor content workflow lacks several aspects, most prominently communication within a team and a clear division of roles and responsibilities.
These issues directly influence the team’s efficiency in several ways. They can lead to doubling efforts (two or more people may take on the same task), misunderstandings, wasted time (a piece of content may be in line for editing without an editor noticing it), and, ultimately, missed deadlines.
#2. Inconsistency
Lack of coordination within a content team that stems from a poor workflow can result in inconsistent content quality and brand voice. It’s a chain of events that begins with miscommunication, which leads to confusion over task assignments, roles within a team, and deadlines.
Consequently, the content can be hastily created and unaligned with the end goal, lacking important elements and information. As such, it can negatively affect the final metrics and brand reputation.
#3. Burnout
An unclear content workflow or its complete absence creates bottlenecks along the way that could be avoided with a proper content marketing strategy and good organization. These bottlenecks are time- and energy-consuming, leaving little space for creativity.
In such circumstances, the team’s morale declines, and so does its productivity. With no clearly defined tasks, team members are at risk of burnout, which further lowers their output and contributes to poor end results.
Developing an Effective Content Workflow: 4 Fundamental Steps
In this section, we’ll break down the process of developing an effective content workflow step by step, from setting the objective to automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
Let’s begin.
#1. Defining Goals
A solid content workflow begins with a well-defined goal based on broader business objectives. Without it, the process is like a house without a solid foundation—unstable and prone to collapse.
Outlining the requirements, such as word count, tone of voice, and topic coverage, is crucial for deciding on the type of content and distributing the resources without wasting precious time and energy.
For example, if your goal is brand awareness, a captivating social media post may be the way to go. Conversely, for retaining current clients, an email campaign will likely be a better approach.
#2. Segmenting Tasks
Breaking the process down into tasks helps you streamline it and determine the time needed for its completion with higher accuracy.
You can start by listing all the tasks the project entails as follows:
- Creating an outline
- Gathering all the elements, including text and media
- Writing the first draft
- Creating video content or visuals
- Proofreading the written part
- Implementing feedback
- Approving the finished piece
- Scheduling the posting time
- Publishing the finished material
#3. Assigning Roles
Now that the tasks are defined, you need to assign each of them to the right person, ensuring transparency throughout the process.
Let’s review a common division of roles within a content team:
- Content strategists: planning and overall content strategy
- SEO specialists: developing content briefs and ensuring SEO alignment
- Content writer: drafting the first version of the content
- Editor: proofreading, editing, and giving feedback
- Designers: creating visuals and graphics to enhance the content
- Content manager: monitoring the editorial calendar, analyzing performance, and managing publishing
#4. Automating Processes
Automating repetitive tasks using various tools will further help you streamline the content creation and publishing processes. It allows the team members to focus their energy on their tasks without wasting time, increasing team efficiency and ensuring timely content delivery.
One such tool is Publer, which is primarily designed to automate content scheduling and distribution. However, it can do much more than that, as it allows you to manage all your social media accounts and track their performance from the same place, among many other features.
More on this in the next section.
3 Powerful Tools for Optimizing Content Workflow
Content marketing tools are plenty, so you need to determine which ones are best suited for your needs, depending on the type of content and tasks you want to automate. Let’s see some of the most widely used ones for different stages of a content workflow.
#1. Trello
Trello is an excellent tool for task management. It improves collaboration within a team, helping its members complete their tasks in an organized manner. Trello uses cards, lists, and boards to help teams monitor their progress and facilitate task and deadline assignments. Additionally, it has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate.
#2. Grammarly
Grammarly is an optimal AI assistant for improving written content. Content writers and copywriters can add the extension to their browsers and have it scan their text for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in real time. In addition to correctness, Grammarly also monitors clarity, engagement, and delivery, helping you optimize your piece of content as you write it.
#3. Publer
Publer is one of the best social media scheduling tools available today. It allows you to automate your social media posts by choosing the date, time, and time zone for each of them. That way, you can reach your target audiences during the peak hours of their activity, regardless of their location.
Publer also offers:
- Bulk scheduling
- Media integrations
- Analytics and reporting
- Post-customization
All of these features and many more can be helpful in the context of boosting your content workflow, so make sure to check out this tool.
Final Thoughts
A solid content workflow with well-defined tasks and roles is crucial for maintaining efficiency within a content team and ensuring timely deliveries of high-quality content in alignment with brand voice and goals.
It’s a long way from ideation to publishing, so you should break it down into phases and ensure every team member plays their role with clear responsibilities. Consistency in communication is essential for this to happen, as it reduces the risk of redundant work, missed deadlines, and potential burnout.
Luckily, there are content marketing tools that can help you automate different parts of the process, such as task management, content review, and social media promotion—the icing on the cake of a successful content piece.
FAQs
#1. What are the 5 stages of workflow?
The five stages of workflow are ideation, planning, production, review, and publishing.
#2. What are the 3 basic components of workflow?
The three basic components of workflow are process, tasks, and people.
#3. What is the workflow in a content management system?
The workflow in a content management system is a sequence of tasks whose completion leads to publishing a piece of content. It includes team members, resources, and tools needed to turn an idea into a high-quality piece of content within a predefined time frame.
Ervin Kalemi
