When you’re building and maintaining a company, you know you need a content strategy. But you also need a way to make that strategy flow seamlessly, from one person to the next. That can mean faster processing times from the initial conception of the idea to the published content, along with higher quality content and a better readership base.
So, how do you get your content strategy workflow down to a science? What makes it tick, in a way that’s going to be beneficial for everyone involved? Here are some questions (and answers) to consider about who to include, and how best to include them, for a proper content strategy workflow.
Who should be involved in content creation?
Ideally, the more people involved in content creation the more ideas you can get about what to say and how to say it. But there’s a caveat to that, because too many people having hands in something can make it confusing and difficult, too. It’s hard to get anything done when you don’t have any help, and even harder to get anything done when you have too much help!
If people in your company work directly with the customers and know what they want, or they work directly with the product and know all the specs by heart, or they know just how to get things seen on the internet, they’re the kind of people you want involved in your content strategy. Once you pick your team, you just have to get the workflow adjusted.
Who’s reviewing and in what order?
From the moment your first piece of content is written – and you should hire a professional writer to do that, by the way – it needs to be reviewed and approved before heading out to the internet to work its magic and bring in customers. But you don’t want just one person looking at it. You also don’t need 10 people looking at it.
They’ll all want to make changes, and those changes will all be different from what another person said, and pretty soon you’ll have a real mess. And possibly an argument. Have an editor catch mistakes and fix them. Then have the people who handle the products make sure the technical aspects are accurate. Then have the people who work with the customers make sure the pain points are hit properly. Once that’s done, a final approval from the boss or their designated rep should do the trick.
How do you divvy up the work?
Divvying up the work in a fair way matters. That’s why it’s good to hire a writer or a team of writers, depending on how many pieces of content you’re putting out into the world and how quickly you need them. You’ll also want to make sure you’re getting the editing done, as well. Then when it hits the desk of the first person at your company, it can move down the line rapidly. The first person’s just looking for accurate product info. The second is looking for accurate “customer needs” info, and the third is making any small fixes the first two found and approving it for publishing. Fast, easy, and simple.
Do you assign certain people to check accuracy?
Accuracy is really something that should be checked at each step, by people who know what they’re looking for. It’s why you don’t ask the customer relations team to review the product specs, or ask those who focus on the product to make adjustments to what they think the customer wants or needs. They may not know for sure, so their beliefs may make the piece inaccurate.
Do other people consider brand alignment?
Ideally, those who are customer-facing should consider brand alignment to some extent. They need to make sure the article touches on the pain points that the customer has, allowing that customer to see why they need the product they’re reading about. But if the creative brief that went to the writer was done well, and was complete, brand alignment should be something the content already has.
Who gets the final approval, and what are they really looking for?
Final approval really should either come from the person running the company or the content strategy, or from someone they have trusted and appointed to that task. Not only do they generally know the most about what they’re looking for, but they also have a very good idea of what they want to say about their company and how they should present themselves. Allowing them to be the last link in the content strategy workflow chain can make things better, easier, and less stressful when getting the company’s message out to customers. And that means more sales, more recognition, and a better overall experience.
Michelle B writes web content, articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and more, and has created thousands of pieces of content for companies all over the world. She holds an associate’s degree in business management and a bachelor’s degree in legal administration.
