How do you manage and organize your content assets and workflows efficiently and effectively?

You need to be clear about what you want. This is the first step before you can even consider strategy. If it helps, try to define just one goal – your bottomline.

For a clear vision, follow these 3 steps - 1. Define your goals for content marketing. 2. Define which KPI will align with your goals to track results. 3. Create a strategy with the alignment of goals and KPIs.

Don’t create this plan in a silo. Be sure to invite the stakeholder to the table and ask them for their business goals and objectives as these need to be taken into account before creating a content marketing plan.

If at all possible, make a clear link in your plan to objectives outside of the marketing organisation that leaders across the business will care about. While content is a key driver of brand development, challenge yourself to look at KPIs closer to the other commercial teams. Impressions and social media engagements are important, but you'll earn more respect if you can tie your content marketing efforts into growth of organic sales qualified pipeline or customer retention. This doesn't mean that brand-building content for higher in the funnel has to deliver sales-ready leads (that's not what it's for), but you should look to demonstrate how the investments support longer term commercial performance.

Specific Goals: Be precise, e.g., "20% organic traffic increase in 6 months." Measurable KPIs: Track with tools like Google Analytics. Achievable Targets: Set realistic, resource-based goals. Relevance to Audience: Align with audience needs. Time-Bound Objectives: Set clear deadlines, like "3-month, 10% subscriber increase."

Top tip: before creating a content calendar you need an editorial calendar for your brand. This editorial calendar will show when content needs to be delivered to the marketing team; when do the videos need to be edited by, when does the blog article need to be in the hands of the editor etc. This calendar is for the content creation team.

One thing I've found helpful is building a brand personality. Once you know what your brand personality is, it's easy to identify the key topical days that can be leveraged to drive branded or non-branded conversations for the brand. It will also be easier to create and publish content.

A content calendar isn't just a schedule; it's a strategic guide. It keeps your content production on track, preventing gaps and repetition while ensuring every piece hits the mark.

Incorporate awareness of seasonal trends, holidays, and events that are relevant to your industry or audience, and celebrate it with them. Plan your content to align with these timing opportunities, as it can boost engagement and relevance. For example, if you're in the fashion industry, plan content around seasonal fashion trends or major events like fashion weeks. If you're in the fitness industry, leverage New Year's resolutions for fitness-related content. Incorporating seasonality into your content calendar ensures that your content remains fresh, topical, and resonates with your audience during specific periods of heightened interest.

If you're having trouble organizing your content calendar, here's a question to discuss with your team: What are the top 3 ways we talk about our content? Is it the format we're creating? (i.e. blog, white paper, social, infographic, etc.) Is it the audience we're trying to reach? (i.e. customer segments, buyer personas, etc.) Is it the goal of the content? (i.e. thought leadership, lead generation, etc.) And so on. Once you've outlined the top 3 things, add each of them as columns, tags, or fields in your content calendar. This helps ensure your calendar reflects and enforces your content strategy, and has enough baseline information (beyond the obvious of topic + publish dates) to be a useful snapshot to a variety of stakeholders.

Whether it's ideation, publishing, or analysis, each stage is a crucial checkpoint that shapes your content's journey. You need to establish it beforehand.

^^^ a content workflow highly depends on the number or team members and the volume of Oct ent to be created. The more people on the team - the more likely you are to need a project management tool Monday, Basecamp, Slack, Notion or Asana .

Establishing a content workflow is crucial, and adopting agile methodologies can greatly enhance its effectiveness. Agile content workflows offer the benefit of adaptability, allowing teams to swiftly respond to shifting priorities and evolving audience requirements. It results in a more responsive and efficient content production process, ensuring that content remains aligned with current goals and resonates with the audience's dynamic interests. It helps content teams to embrace change, optimize strategies, and deliver high-quality content consistently.

Establish a content workflow, the backbone of content success. Beyond the known steps, consider adding a stage for audience feedback. Engaging your audience for insights and reactions can refine your content, making it more resonant and impactful. This iterative loop can be a game-changer in content quality and audience engagement.

Foster ownership and accountability within your content team by assigning clear roles and responsibilities for each stage of the workflow.

Top tip: ask your social team, sales team and executive team to add to this content library with raw footage and images they take behind the scenes! It will make the content so much more authentic then having to rely on stock photos!

Implementing a content audit involves examining the performance and quality of your content assets. A crucial aspect often overlooked is competitor content analysis. By evaluating what your competitors excel at and where they fall short, you gain valuable insights. It helps identify content strategy gaps and presents opportunities for enhancement. By learning from your competitors, you can refine your approach and stay ahead in the content marketing game.

Harness the power of a content library, but infuse it with your unique twist. Consider making it a dynamic hub where not only your team but also your audience can contribute ideas and content. Empowering your community to co-create content can lead to fresh perspectives, foster engagement, and create a sense of ownership among your audience. This collaborative content library becomes a living, breathing ecosystem, teeming with creativity and connections. Whether it's blog posts, videos, or user-generated content, this inclusive approach can set you apart in the content game.

Content audits are a great way to get an overview of your content and identify areas for improvement. It's also a great way to ensure that your content is up-to-date and relevant to your audience. Additionally, it's important to remember that content audits are not a one-time thing - they should be done regularly to ensure that your content is always up-to-date and effective.

Elevate your content audit from a mere review to a strategic exploration. Instead of focusing solely on performance metrics, infuse it with a narrative perspective. Dive deep into your content's stories, assessing their resonance with your audience and alignment with your brand's values. Consider the emotional impact and the connections your content forms. This approach allows you to unearth hidden gems within your content library – the stories that truly resonate. It's not just about quantitative analysis; it's about understanding the qualitative aspects that make your content authentic and compelling. By blending storytelling into your content audit, you're not just optimizing; you're crafting a narrative that captivates and converts.

While content marketing platforms play an essential role in collaborating on and scheduling content, it is also important to remember that social media platforms are built on trends. Scheduling content too far in advance often hinders the relatability and vitality of that content. Therefore, it’s important to find the right balance; plan and schedule your more routine content with content marketing platforms, while also leave time and flexibility for your team to work creatively and sporadically off trending topics and sounds that your audience can relate strongly with.

Don't rely on just "a" platform; build a whole system. Ensure you make a toolkit encompassing social listening, research, writing, editing tools, CMS, distribution, analytics, and more. Pick the best tool in every arena and connect them using Zapier or similar devices to sync up the process. Doing this ensures you get the best from every offering that suits your needs and helps you scale faster!

Everyday go on a relevant platform your brand uses as communication and distribution channel. Scan your feed, the moment you stopped scrolling take a screenshot of the content and put into Notion. E.g Youtube - (Title, Thumbnail, Copy, Links used, Hashtag,) Linkedin - First liner, the flow of copy, CTA, images used, hashtags and so on. Do this 15mins a day and look out for peers, competitors, other industry segment they're doing and you'll eventually find pattern that work and doesn't. Invite stakeholders internal and external to get their business goals and make sure everybody is saying the same thing.

Creating a content strategy document is our roadmap to efficient and effective content asset organization and workflows. It's not just a document; it's our efficiency engine. This strategic guide lays out how we categorize, store, and manage our content assets. It streamlines workflows, ensuring everyone is on the same page. It's about eliminating chaos, optimizing processes, and delivering content with precision. With this guide, our content operation becomes a well-oiled machine, making the most of our resources and driving stellar results. 📜🗂️🚀