When the article has been published and the email received, the editor can check off the final task to complete the checklist. The record ID of the Airtable record was inserted into the Process Street checklist at the very beginning of the process. Everyone on the team has this view. How do you do yours? The last task the writer is faced with in the checklist is called Submit for Review. Moving around data like IDs allows you to use extra search steps later on in your flow. A typical content workflow includes tasks like these: When documented, a workflow often takes a visual form showing the progression of tasks. The blog pre-publish acts as the content creation section of the workflow. All the work done by the content promotion team will now be stored on that very same original Airtable record. The next step is to find a good keyword for the article and then to hash out a structure or basic plan. Does Airtable automatically create the record ID for use in Process Street? CONTENT WORKFLOW Build efficient and scalable content production system Ensure everything gets created and signed off on time with our automated content approval workflow. Define each task thoroughly enough so that the person in each role knows what they need to do to complete their tasks satisfactorily and keep the project moving. Enter workflow documentation Similar in importance to a documented content marketing strategy is a documented workflow. In her book, Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson says a content workflow determines “how content is requested, sourced, created, reviewed, approved, and delivered.”. If you have any further questions about the specifics of our system or setting it up, then feel free to shoot them at me here in the comments and I’d be more than willing to answer them for you. You also select to ignore any messages posted by bots, only humans. We have some simple zaps like this one, for taking new ideas from Slack and using them to create new records in Airtable, which are pretty self explanatory: Within the Edit Options section of the Trigger, you define the Slack channel which these post ideas will go into. How to Document Your Content Marketing Workflow, 5 Brands Share Their Content Marketing Process, When defining #workflow, use terms your team uses, says @RobertMills via @cmicontent. The writer only needs to work from a single checklist at any point, making their lives easier and providing them with more guidance and steps to increase quality consistently. Whoever said workflows can’t be fun? If you’re thinking about using workflow technology to mature your content marketing, this blog has 5 tips to help you design your content creation workflows. There have been a number of different approaches to supporting workflow processes in content management systems. This blog pre-publish checklist means that you run your necessary SEO checks and it ensures you don’t publish content which is riddled with errors. People on the content team may be unsure of their responsibilities or unaware of the amount of effort required to complete the content. Using a simple 750-word page as the example, let’s say the average time it takes to get from brief to publication is 12 hours. Schedule demo. This is like choosing the specific sheet or section of the database you want this data to be entered into. But it isn’t always that straightforward. This means that the scope is the final checks and edits you need to do on your blog before you hit the Publish button. “ASAP” isn’t a deadline. Lots of data is being transferred throughout the process and the work is being done automatically. The default workflow will depend upon the project type that was selected when the project was created. You may show this visually, talk through the workflow, or use a tool to manage this. This is why a clear workflow can help teams keep projects on track. We used the calendar view on Trello to get an overview of when each article would be published, ordered according to due date. Introduce several feedback loops (marketing, HR, legal) and you’ve added several layers of complexity to the workflow. Whenever you have a new idea, you put it into that channel. Voice and tone? Informa PLC’s registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Once you’ve selected your Base and Table, you will see all the available fields for a record in that Table show up as options for you in Zapier. I’ve worked in both agencies and corporate setting… Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used). TruEdit is for all content creators. As such, those two tasks comprise the first tasks in this new checklist. For example, if you know a certain subject-matter expert is away every Thursday, don’t set the sign-off date for a Thursday as that will thwart success and set things up to be late from the beginning. It can also record the performance of that article over time. For example, tell writers where to find the content’s purpose, audience, word-count goals, style guidelines (for voice, tone, and format, etc. To define a content workflow is to identify who does what when. Content production can be a communication challenge in any environment. Your email address will not be published. Find out how to master your content production workflow in 2018 with this definitive guidebook. The workflow also helps the project manager recognize bottlenecks so they can take measures to keep content moving toward production. I will recommend this to the team of our platform, to know what they think, because we are beginning to scale up. Content Production Workflows. So you have a card for Write Article and it’s currently in the Upcoming column, then you start it and move it into the Doing column. Your list of columns for your content creation board hit me like a ton of bricks! We used to use Trello. There is no room for excuses such as “I didn’t know it was my responsibility” or “That’s not my job” – things I’ve heard many times when working with clients. Even if you haven’t defined your workflows, your team has them. We also have a view for all blog posts. Since implementing our new content creation workflow we jumped from 20k weekly visits from Google to 75k. The process doesn’t run itself. Then you choose which Table you want to use. Workflow is the set of statuses that can be applied to items in your project to communicate their progress. For example, when defining the task “approve a draft,” you might spell out exactly which aspects of the content need approval. Our old system utilized Process Street and Trello. No one will be able to see that Record ID while completing the checklist (well, unless you choose to make it visible by adding a variable for it into a text box) but it will remain in there for you to use later on in another zap. "Content Strategy for the Web" author Kristina Halvorson says a content workflow determines "how content is requested, sourced, created, reviewed, approved, and delivered." Rob is a journalism graduate, ex-BBC audience researcher, and former head of content and project manager at a branding and design agency. Our blog writing process used to look very similar to the template embed you can see below. Marcia Riefer Johnston tells the story of how this workflow came to be: I was part of a team that was having a devil of a time getting clear about the Q-and-A part of our workflow. Streamline creation and collaboration that delivers efficiency and better creativity. As this person will understand the workflow in terms of who is doing what and when, they can easily identify the bottlenecks, unblock the projects, and keep them moving. We took this experience and applied it again when we built out our newer larger content creation workflow. Informa UK Limited is part of Informa PLC. When we plan our sprints we will go through the post-ideas view in Airtable and assign dates to ideas we want to use that month. You have the idea assigned to you. Tools for defining and communicating about your workflows can be basic or sophisticated. If it saves 10 minutes, it’s paid off in 12 weeks. H… Content workflows help to remove the common pitfalls when it comes to producing content. It was a smooth and simple process for a small team. Kingston’s Workflow Station and Readers give users the freedom to create and customize a file offload setup that fits their needs allowing them to transfer video, photos, and audio from multiple sources at once 1 . It also meant that the Trello card contained an accurate record of when the formatting stage began. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! VIDEO EDITING WORKFLOW 3. Our cloud-based content workflow and production platforms are designed to streamline digital publishing, from content creation to delivery, with workflow management and tracking automation. Thanks! Use the terms your team uses. It will record who posted it into Slack. Blog Image Design Process 5. A content workflow is a set of tasks that a team needs to complete for a given client or content type — a web page, a blog post, a white paper, an email, or any other kind of content that the group needs to deliver. Optimize your marketing production. The Workflow Station connects to your computer with the included USB-C … All the important information entered into the checklist, including: … etc, is imported back into the relevant fields in the original Airtable record. Fig. Start free trial No credit card required. The editor performs their checks on the article and publishes accordingly. If it saves each writer 30 minutes per post and you publish 3 posts a week, then a 6 hour time investment is paid back to the team after 4 weeks. Workflow in Content Management. This example, which shows each role in a “swimlane,” conveys the progression of tasks across roles (vertically) and over time (horizontally). Everyone was confused. @adam_h_h on Twitter. You’ve covered who, what, and when. 4. Do you have trouble getting it signed off? Experiment to see which tools best support your team. Animation Design Process 7. Whatever you like. To provide you with the best possible user experience, we and our trusted partners use cookies on this website for personalization and analytics. Once the final header image has been decided upon and is stored in the checklist, it passes back over to the writer. Process Street was used to shape the content itself and Trello was used to organize the team and provide clarity over what was being worked on, by whom, and what the progress was. That’s pretty much our internal mantra. If you leave your workflows undefined, it’s difficult to keep track of a large number of projects, and projects can get stuck. Content Production Workflow. September 25, 2020. That’s why you need a sole person who is responsible for overseeing the project, including keeping each piece of content moving through each stage of the workflow. Build efficient and scalable content production system with Content Workflow. Social Media Influencer Outreach Checklist 4. The publishing calendar can be planned a month or more in advance, not just because of calendar software but because the editors now have more time to carefully manage future output. Check out this article from a few years ago. Aptly named, the dock enhances content creators’ post-production workflow. Make Your Strategy Visual, 7 Content Marketing Tasks to Automate Right Now, Online collaboration #tools like @Trello can help teams track their #workflows, says @RobertMills via @cmicontent. This embed is a pre-publish checklist. With your strategy as a guide, you can build a video production workflow that outlines when and where to distribute your video and assign who is responsible for each task. Identify and stick to a content workflow. Setting up a strong production workflow can save endless headaches down the road, so make sure you set up a solid foundation right from the start and use it consistently going forward. From here, the checklist covers the pre-publish process and does so with a hell of a lot of detail. If not, does the user have to create one based on a letter and/or number combination? What experiences have you had with defining content workflows? Others use project-management software, which enables them to plug in start dates, task duration, and dependencies so that date changes ripple through automatically. This is further enhanced by a set of tools that helps maintain consistency of the manuscript, automates mundane tasks, … Scale that up to a website with dozens or hundreds of pages, and it becomes evident how time-consuming content is. Using the third party automation app Zapier, this would then run a pre-publish checklist and post a link to it into the Trello card. By selecting "Accept & Continue" you are consenting to the use of this technology. With an automated workflow, teams can ensure that everything gets created and signed off on in time. The new workflow has given us the consistency to keep breaking those numbers. This triggers a zap which takes that idea and creates a new record in Airtable. Then, in the Edit Options section of the Action, you choose which Airtable Base you want to use. We change the Status of the record from Idea to Confirmed to Start. To begin to discover ways to streamline your workflow, start by looking at the processes like the one defined above and identify ways to remove any redundancies and reduce the time taken for each step. After everyone included in the workflow has been allocated their responsibilities, you have reached the place where you can define the phases the content will pass through. If the task definitions are left vague, prepare to hear things like “I didn’t know I had to do that” or “That’s not my job” or “I thought Peter was taking care of that.”. This varies greatly with the scope of the project and how many people are involved. In general, t… This made it easy to move things around understand which tasks were priority items. The first step in defining a content workflow is to understand who will be involved. This effort alone doesn’t protect you from pitfalls. ), and anything else they need to know. In this Process Street post, I’m going to explain to you: I’m going to jump straight into the nitty gritty. For the first, moving a card to a particular column was the trigger and running the checklist was the action. What We Do. Your content projects probably involve a lot of people who have distinct responsibilities at distinct project stages. Once the writer has done this, the next section of the checklist is assigned, via Process Street’s task assignments feature, to the designer. Blog pre-publish acts as the content of the Airtable database for the out... You can use these tools for any tasks that need more details than will fit in the type blog-post. Manager, a workflow often takes a visual form showing the progression of tasks teams can ensure that gets! Hasn ’ t just update Airtable content production workflow allows us to the writer the hang of this kind small! To send the article has been decided content production workflow and is stored in the edit Options of... 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