A simple marketing workflow might look like this:
- Create content
- Review content
- Implement edits
- Publish on the website
- Promote content on various channels
Now, this needs to happen for every single piece of content. And that's not to mention if you have multiple review stages or changes coming from multiple stakeholders. Suddenly this simple 5-step process takes on a life of its own, tanking your productivity.
But we don't really have to tell you about that, right? Marketers are well aware of the time content spends in the limbo that is an inefficient workflow.
Streamlined marketing workflows allow for fewer fixes and more efficiency. A content management system (CMS) can do just that. Check out how a CMS can improve your marketing workflows at every stage of content.
Creating Content
How many times have you or one of your writers begun a content piece only to discover there's already content on the same exact topic? A CMS gives your editorial team one unified place to see all the content rather than sifting through files, webpages, and past content calendars. Search through all the content to find inspiration for future content, to supplement current content, or to ensure your messaging is consistent.
With a CMS like Sitefinity, you can also take advantage of inline editing to edit content quickly. See a small typo that needs correcting? No problem, just switch to editor mode and update.
Editing and Revisions
Here is where workflows really shine; all the background stuff that makes your content fantastic.
Choose from prebuilt workflows with various levels of review to ensure that your content looks, sounds, and designed
just how you want it. You can customize what you review levels look like. For example, you might need to run your content by the legal team or your point person at headquarters. Here's a common use case:
- First level of review: grammar, syntax, and tone
- Second level of review: formatting and design
- Third level of review: sign off from the corporate office
All reviewers will get an email when a piece of content is ready for their level of approval. With granular CMS user permissions, you can designate who can do what so each person can use their area of expertise. Perhaps your designer shouldn't be changing the text on a page.
But don't worry if a change happens that you want to roll back. Many platforms offer version history. With this feature, every time content is updated, the system saves a new version. That way you can revert to a previous version if needed. Or compare versions of content side by side to see what potential changes would look like.
Create individual workflows for each multisite you use or use different workflows based on content type. Whether you need a simple create-review workflow or something more complicated, a CMS can help you get it right every time.
Some content management systems, like Sitefinity, will let you upload your custom workflow. Need even more customization? Work with a company like InGen to make your marketing workflows exactly what you need in your CMS.
Publication
After you have the content exactly how you want it, a CMS with a drag-and-drop editor lets you build pages quickly and without the need to call your IT department. A content block here, an RSS feed there, a dash of images, and top it off with a promotional video. All that and more is quick and easy to put together. And if you really like the look of the layout, save it as a template to save even more time in your marketing workflows.
Another great benefit of building a webpage with a CMS editor is that it keeps your website from becoming Frankenstein's monster of formatting and configuration issues. No more funky pages that don't match the rest of the site or inconsistent font type and size from site to site.
The same way formatting templates help save time and ensure consistency, you can duplicate and share content and content libraries across multisites. When you share content to another site or page, they are linked together in the platform. That means that when you change it in one place, it changes on all the other pages. Think of the time and frustrations that saves! You could essentially eliminate the entire workflow that would entail finding, updating, and reviewing a piece of content on every single page of every single multisite.
Another workflow that a CMS can streamline is publishing and unpublishing your content. Have a deal that expires at midnight? No need to stay up past your bedtime to take the page down. Set it and forget it with timed content. And with the help of a custom software developer, you can even set parameters that will manage your content for you. For example, to keep your content the most relevant and fresh, our developers could make it so that content would be automatically unpublished after six months if the content hasn't been updated.
If you're interested in a workflow like that one or want more complicated layout elements that don't come standard with your CMS, InGen can help with that. Don't hesitate to reach out.
Distribution and Analytics
Alight, so you've created your content and it's live on your site. Now it's time to distribute and promote it. Many content management systems have email capabilities built right in so you can use all the information in your system to create, manage, and inform your email campaigns.
Use your CMS for a workflow that builds in continuous improvement with analytics and reporting. See the performance of all the content your organization has worked so hard to create and publish. See what's performing best, where people are entering and exiting your site or where they're coming from. Use all that data to continually refine and improve your content.
A CMS gives you a single place to create, edit, review, publish, and manage your website content. No more jumping from a project management tool to a text document to email and back to the project management software. Everything is exactly where you need it and offers you the control to create the workflow that works best for you and your team.