Developing Content Management Process for a Training Company

Situation

As a freelancer, I worked with a company to improve engagement, attract more visitors, and convert more leads using their successful blog. They saw content marketing as a way to gain a competitive advantage and establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry. To achieve this, they decided to turbocharge their content marketing efforts, but first had to address organizational and technological challenges.

Challenges

• Expensive process. Creating good content was not a problem, but it was often expensive and time-consuming due to the lack of a common content creation, distribution, and marketing process.
• Outdated CMS. The content management system (CMS) was custom-built and almost a decade old, making it cumbersome and nuanced.

Business Impact

• High content creation costs. The cost of creating content was higher than necessary due to a disjointed workflow that included unnecessary steps, making it unsustainable.
• Limited focus on content promotion. Teams focused on content creation rather than content marketing, resulting in multiple pieces of content being published with little time devoted to promotion.
• Weak content performance. Some of the content underperformed due to a lack of adequate content strategy, editorial standards, and content optimization .

Actions

To address these challenges, I performed the following activities:

1. Current State Analysis: Analyzed existing people, processes, technology, and design to understand the current state.
2. Foundational Tools and Guidance: Created and evangelized essential tools and documents, including content principles, a content style guide, and templates.
3. Revamped Processes: Overhauled content creation, publishing, marketing, and optimization processes to streamline workflows.
4. Experience Design: Reimagined experience design to support the desired user experience and ensure consistency across content.
5. Updated CMS: Updated the content management system to support the new workflow, authoring needs, and user experience improvements.

Results

The implementation of a streamlined content management process and supporting technologies led to significant improvements:

1. Reduced Resource Requirements: Fewer people were needed to manage routine parts of content creation, and involvement was limited to appropriate stages.
2. Increased Content Performance: Enhanced performance and effectiveness of content generated better engagement and higher conversions.
3. Refocused Efforts: Teams could redirect time and budget savings towards content promotion and optimization, leading to more impactful content marketing.