2022 is proving to be a special year for Social Media SMEs: we are making many changes, working with incredible clients, and expanding our team. From the projects I have worked on, I have learned an invaluable vital lesson: you can have a large budget, a great team, and all the attention of your bosses, but without a digital marketing flow that allows you to move forward, the projects do not come out.
In the new blog post, I want to share with you the techniques we use at the agency, how we deal with projects, and some good advice on how to manage content.
What is a digital content marketing flow?
A digital content workflow means taking into account everything that a content marketing strategy entails :
- Your broadcast channels.
- Your team of professionals.
- The content tools.
- The actions and tasks to be carried out.
- The content formats are to be created.
- The tools to be used, etc.
Ultimately, a workflow is a process or system. It refers to a series of steps you must follow that guarantee that the project advances and that the tasks are fulfilled on time and in a specified way.
How a digital marketing flow impacts your content
According to a recent survey, 70% of marketers trust content more than PPC ads.
Why?
A good flow of digital content marketing allows you to:
- Generate more content faster.
- Have a cohesive team that works.
- Fewer communication problems and lack of coordination.
- A more satisfied team.
- A clearer process that allows you to scale your actions.
- Document your content marketing projects.
How to create a digital content marketing flow
It is clear that working with a system is better than improvising. I’ve experienced it myself, and you end up angry, frustrated, and tired at the end of the day.
To save yourself trouble and headaches, follow this digital content marketing flow. It is the one we use in Social Media SMEs to end the day with happy customers and a happy team.
Includes the following:
- Definition of the strategy.
- Assignment of tasks and responsibilities.
- Design of an information flow.
- Definition of collaboration tools.
- Analysis and monitoring.
- Let’s see it in more detail.
Strategy Definition
As you undoubtedly know, in the strategy phase, you must define everything necessary for the content to emerge. It’s important for the project as a whole, but it’s also essential that everyone on your team knows about the strategy, understands it, and follows it.
Don’t forget to include:
- The criteria that the content must meet.
- The specific objectives of each piece of content.
- The measurement indicators that you must follow.
- The tone of voice that the different pieces of content should follow.
Tips for creating strategies
Your content strategy allows you to develop a content plan that you can assign to editors, designers, community managers, etc.
- To make your strategy bomb-proof, follow these tips:
- It includes the people who must make the important decisions, such as marketing directors, product managers, etc.
- Always seek feedback from those responsible for sales and customer service.
- Create an editorial calendar to plan quarterly or monthly.
- Also, plan between one and three pieces of content in advance; it will allow you to get out of the way when problems arise, or you do not meet the schedule for whatever reason.
Assignment of tasks and responsibilities
A team that works in content is a team with the right knowledge, the attitude to carry out the tasks, and the tools they need to achieve it.
Don’t forget to include :
- What skills should those involve in each piece of content?
- The tools to achieve the objectives.
- The tasks you are going to assign them, along with what you expect (punctuality, creativity, initiative)
Tips for assigning content
Assigning content is much more than just telling your team what to do. Assigning tasks is an art because you must provide everything they need to fulfill their objectives and tasks.
Also, follow these tips:
- Use a collaboration tool not only to help other people keep up but also to help you remember what work you’ve assigned and what’s due.
- Organize your collaboration tool into columns with the following structure: role (person’s name), ongoing, to review, and complete.
Design of an information flow
One of the most frustrating things about content projects without a defined digital workflow, especially if it’s a big one, is that the information doesn’t flow as it should.
Suppose you have five people involved: a project manager, a developer, an Ads specialist, a copywriter, and a community manager.
At the end of the day, pieces of content go through a series of marketing actions in which many people are involved in their creation. If the information does not flow properly, problems will soon arise.
How to avoid information problems
As I have lived many projects and I have suffered with uncohesive teams, follow these tips that I have learned the hard way to avoid headaches:
- Use a single collaborative tool, better if it is specific to online marketing. If you are going to use email as a form of communication, do not open more “melons”: do not send information through Slack, Trello, etc. You will drive everyone crazy, and people will be frustrated.
- Centralize the information: There is no way forward if the information is not in one place. Avoid opening documents and documents for every little task and define who can access the information by defining roles, especially in inbound marketing projects where many people need to review a lot of material.
- Order plus counterorder, disorder: Nothing is more frustrating than being told one thing today and the opposite tomorrow. Often, something as simple as “do next week’s social media” is a massive workload, which comes to nothing when the response is cancelled. It is better to stop for a moment to reflect.
- Understand what facilitative leadership is: A good leader does not give orders but provides tools and means for others to do their job. He also doesn’t force user interactions, forcing people to comply with endless forms and reports.
Definition of collaboration tools
Do not believe those who tell you that all tools are the same. Using Trello is not the same as using Asana. In fact, I dare to say that the tool is an essential part of a good digital content workflow, especially if there are advanced tasks that include lead nurturing projects, databases, or buyer persona management.
Keep these details in mind when choosing your collaboration tool:
- Must be able to define tasks and subtasks. The publication of a post is much more than writing; it is preparing the images, layout of the text in WordPress, preparing the metadata, programming it, defining the distribution, etc.
- Define due dates and reminders when due dates are missed or approaching. You should also be able to define delivery dates. The Internet never stops, and it will not wait for you.
- You must be able to add documents. Thus, the information will be centralized, and no one will be lost.
- If you can assign roles and tasks , all the better.
Analysis and monitoring
Content projects, like all others, must be monitored. If no one cares, no one will care about meeting tasks and deadlines.
Be that as it may, you cannot manage your content project efficiently if you do not have some form of monitoring and analysis to improve the errors that you may find.
Tips for analyzing content
Analyzing the results of your workflow is essential for you to move towards a good port. Here are some of the tips I recommend:
- Open a spreadsheet with each large, high-value piece of content. Quarterly reviews its evolution, both from the point of view of creation and performance.
- Look for trends across top traffic sources, channels, audience segments, and topics, including customer goals and issues.
- Once you’ve gotten used to a quarterly review, review recent projects at the end of the month. Why wait to know the results? If you’ve invested heavily in a piece of content, you’ll want to know if you’re gaining traction or shifting dedicated resources elsewhere.
Final Tips
Creating content is more than writing, much more, in fact. There are a thousand tasks, responsibilities, and people involved, so you must define a digital content workflow. If you know the steps to follow, you and your team will work more efficiently and responsibly.
Chaos only creates problems and frustrations, so you must have a system. The digital workflow we have seen in this article can be helpful if you want to stop running around like a headless chicken and start working in an orderly and systematic way. You can contact any respective agency, and they will help you begin creating an effective process.
