Creativity plays a primary role in coming up with great content to further your company’s goals. <\/p>\n
Yet, if left alone, that creativity can be all over the map, and not meeting those goals and strengthening your brand.<\/p>\n
In addition, content marketing<\/a> is getting increasingly complex as more platforms are available and more stakeholders are becoming involved in the process. <\/p>\n And when it comes to the best content marketing strategies, it’s no longer just about quality vs. quantity.<\/p>\n The creative content, it turns out, needs a framework to advance and do the job you need it to. <\/strong>It needs content governance.<\/p>\n No matter how talented and creative your writers and editors are, content governance is a way to ensure a consistent message and increase your chances of making every piece of content positively count.<\/p>\n This is what we will cover in this blog post: <\/p>\n With the increase in the differing types of content distribution channels, organizations must learn to adapt. <\/p>\n Marketing teams are finding it time-consuming to keep up with what goes where when it comes to content release.<\/p>\n Not only will content governance make your marketing team more efficient and effective<\/strong>, but it’s also important for several more reasons, including:<\/p>\n Content governance protects your business from inconsistent messaging across channels. <\/p>\n In other words, it helps you to formulate a unique, identifying message for all content.<\/p>\n It also shields you from delays in releasing content or accomplishing important campaigns. Such delays are often the result of inconsistent approval workflows.<\/p>\n Besides that, content governance guarantees that you won’t stray away from following established brand guidelines.<\/p>\n When this happens, customers along the buyer’s journey<\/a> recognize you quicker and know what you stand for and how you promote yourself.<\/p>\n Taking the time to create and develop a solid content governance model for your business will save you time and resources going forward. <\/p>\n It will also help you successfully reach your intended audience.<\/p>\n Having said that, all businesses are unique, so adopting a common format is not the best way<\/strong> to achieve results. <\/p>\n \u27a4 Instead, start with your particular business type, resources, and goals. <\/p>\n \u27a4 Find your own way to adopt content government measures.<\/p>\n \u27a4 Go simple or expand your content governance model based on your needs.<\/p>\n So, let’s get down to the essential details of how to build a content governance model for your business.<\/p>\n Consider what you already have in place to create and manage content and what is working so far. <\/p>\n In other words, audit yourself<\/a>. <\/p>\n Find out what types of content you use, where it’s located, and if it matches your organization’s current needs.<\/p>\n Once you establish your organization’s overall goals, it’s time to develop a content strategy. <\/p>\n To do so, start out with the following:<\/p>\n It\u2019s kind of surprising how often teams underestimate the importance of setting clear, realistic goals at this stage. Without well-defined targets, even the most passionate group can get sidetracked by shiny new tactics or end up producing a lot of content that just doesn\u2019t move the needle anywhere meaningful. Don\u2019t be afraid to actually write down, as plainly as you can, what success is supposed to look like for a given channel\u2014be it increased newsletter signups, more comments on your blog, or just stronger brand recognition in the wild. That bit of honesty up front has saved more than a few teams from months of wheel-spinning.<\/p>\n Plus, once those goals are in place, reviewing them with everyone involved (not just the marketing folks) can surface blind spots you didn\u2019t catch alone. Someone from support or sales might notice where content falls flat with real users, or maybe your copy gets lost on a technical platform because nobody flagged it soon enough. These informal check-ins are rarely glamorous, but they can nip headaches in the bud before they turn into real messes down the road.<\/p>\n We’re talking about writers, editors, videographers, and content approvers.<\/p>\n Or document your existing processes.<\/p>\n State all goals and objectives clearly for each type of content and each communication channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Design processes to reach each one. With clear objectives, all campaigns will be designed to work towards the organization’s larger overall goals.<\/p>\n All involved team members will need to understand the purpose and needs of each content channel and how to uniformly guide content in a certain direction to meet your organization’s goals. <\/p>\n There are many content governance tools you can create to help with this, including:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Workflows will prioritize tasks, assign team members, establish approval process, and identify deadlines and due dates.<\/p>\n It will lay out the steps content providers need to follow. Answer such questions as who writes what, who edits, who approves before publication. Build accountability into your content governance model.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Develop a guide that outlines expectations each piece of content must meet. <\/p>\n These may include such things as capitalization, spelling, grammar, design, and so forth. This is meant to keep content consistent and set clear standards for team members to follow.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Establish editorial guidelines, including what voice or tone you wish all your messages to convey and who the intended audience is.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Centralize everything possible, including key dates, such as product launches, and organize efforts around those key dates.<\/p>\n For example, visualize a timeline for the release of a new product two months from now, and set up a calendar<\/a> for tasks (such as posting on social media or sending out an email to your email list in advance).<\/p>\n Automate as much as possible to ensure higher consistency rates.<\/p>\nWhy is Content Governance Important?<\/h2>\n
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What you avoid with the help of content governance<\/h3>\n
Building a Content Governance Model for Your Business<\/h2>\n
1. Review Current Content Workflows and Processes<\/h3>\n
2. Establish Goals and Develop a Content Strategy<\/h3>\n
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3. Identify Team Roles and their Responsibilities<\/h3>\n
4. Design Concise Processes<\/h3>\n
5. Create Guidelines and Editorial Standards for All Content<\/h3>\n
Content workflows<\/h4>\n
Content Style Guide<\/h4>\n
Editorial Guidelines<\/h4>\n
Editorial Calendar<\/h4>\n
6. Automate Processes Whenever Possible<\/h3>\n
7. Add a Content Management System or Other Platform<\/h3>\n