When you hire architects to design a house, they don’t just hand over the interior and exterior drawings to the construction team and call the project complete. To ensure the finished product meets all expectations, they provide the team with comprehensive specifications.
So why do many content marketers expect a content strategy to do all the heavy lifting on its own?
While a detailed content strategy is the foundation of a successful content marketing program, it is only the starting point. Putting the strategy into action to achieve your business goals requires building a governance framework that supports it.
What is Content Governance?
Content governance is the collection of processes, workflows, templates, frameworks, and policies that an organization uses to manage its content. At its core, all of the must-dos internalized by your content leader are transformed into content consistency tools.
It helps you deliver more seamless customer experiences across all channels. It also frees the content team from the content police business.
Some content creators are reluctant to limit their creativity if they have to adhere to governance standards. However, content governance puts content strategy into action. Without this framework, there is a lot of random content.
Every content team has different needs. However, any content governance toolkit requires these documents.
Documented content workflows and processes
Detailing content marketing workflows clarifies team roles, responsibilities, and task progression from ideation to publication. The goal is to streamline content production while ensuring that the content reflects the content strategy and meets your quality standards. Two of the most common workflows relate to content requests and editing.
Editorial workflows
A documented editorial workflow can be as simple as a flowchart showing the people and tasks in the content lifecycle. It should cover every step from ideation to drafting, editing, approval, and publication. The average time for each step should also be noted.
Content request workflows
A content request workflow allows you to have a unified approach to organizational requests. A document template, sometimes called an intake form, can manage this workflow. It ensures that you receive all the information to evaluate an incoming request. It can also help thwart last-minute requests while ensuring that all new content aligns with the overarching content strategy.
Following this flowchart, the idea is shared in an intake form that is forwarded to an editorial team for review. If they choose yes, the idea should be added to the content calendar and assigned to the content creator and workflow. If the editorial review results in “No,” the applicant will be notified by email and will be able to revise the idea on the intake form so the editorial team can review it again.
Content templates: your blueprints for quality
Content templates are not the enemy of creativity. These are not fill-in-the-blank recipes for boring, simple content. Content templates serve as reusable blueprints for creating high-quality content consistently. They detail all the elements for publishing and promoting each content project.
Table of contents template
A comprehensive content briefing includes the goal, the target group, the key messages and the call-to-action. This can be a standalone template submitted as part of the ingestion workflow, or you can include it as a component of other content submission templates.
Content submission templates
Publishing content requires more than just securing the image, video, or copy. The elements also vary depending on the channel. Create content submission templates for each of your most common formats (e.g. blog posts, webinars, emails, eBooks).
Content distribution templates
The best way to avoid forgetting an important content distribution opportunity is to have a template that outlines the possibilities. It should detail the prioritization criteria and assign content formats to each channel.
Strategic supporting documents promote alignment
In addition to templates and workflows, reference materials and resources can help align content with strategy. Evidence includes:
A content style guide
Even if you use a third-party guide like AP Style, you should still design your brand’s content style guide. In addition to identifying brand-specific style, it can also share your brand voice chart and how to apply it. Think of the style guide as a basic operations manual for your content organization.
An editorial calendar
A built-in editorial calendar not only helps you plan the team’s workload, but also gives everyone in the organization insight into your priorities. It aligns the content team’s work with the content strategy, maps activities to business cycles, and highlights important dates.
Implementing content governance
You can start content governance with the same tools your organization already uses for collaboration and document sharing. As your content team grows and performs better, consider adopting technology platforms designed specifically for content teams.
With your governance frameworks in place, you can also leverage generative AI to scale your efforts. Generative AI is particularly well-suited to applying templates for repurposing content and comparing content against your policies.
The final step in implementing content governance is identifying and tracking meaningful content metrics. Your governance activities should drive content engagement and key conversion performance indicators.
Content governance can seem intimidating, but it’s a great way to democratize content creation. A common governance toolkit helps your company create good content that aligns with your brand and strategy. It allows you to unlock a range of perspectives and expertise across the organization, increasing the potential of the content program.
For a deeper dive into aligning metrics with business goals and demonstrating the value of content to stakeholders, as well as examples of the governance documentation mentioned in this article, check out Erika’s latest book CMI webinar on content strategy.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute