Today, content is more important than ever – and by extension – so is content workflow software. Some of the largest publishers in the world have doubled down on their content efforts and are reaping the rewards. The Washington Post ramped up their content creation efforts in 2015 to more than 1,200 pieces of content per day and saw themselves catch New York Times in online readership toward the end of the year.
Content workflows help to remove the common pitfalls when it comes to producing content. It doesn’t matter how big the task is; from planning and publishing a simple Facebook post to a multi-channel campaign spread over numerous online channels, a defined workflow will help.Mat Murray
It just goes to show how important it is that you have an effective, established workflow for your content production effort. For large-scale operations, this can only be managed with a content workflow software solution that is flexible and consistent. At Tallyfy, we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure that our software is as flexible as possible, serving as the premier content workflow software available today.
There are many reasons why content workflow software is an excellent choice for any business that is looking to scale their content production rapidly with large teams. Consider whether these benefits would apply to your business:
Smaller Workloads for Managing Large Teams
When you are producing content at scale, one of the first problems that you will run into is finding a way for a small team of project managers to handle all of the incoming content. Between working with the creators, editors, quality assurance staff and delegating all of the work to the appropriate person, it can be very difficult to manage the workload.
Task management and workflow software make it easier for small management teams to handle large teams of production talent. Those smaller workloads allow them to have more attention to fine details and produce a better product overall.
Easily Defined Content Workflows
One of the major issues that many companies run into when attempting to produce content at scale is the ability to easily define workflows and assign them to the correct people.
Content workflow software that allows you to build out each step individually, define the data that needs to be captured during the step (including file uploads for content production) and then pass that particular task to the next person in line is important. It seems simple but it’s a feature that most project management software is missing. Many still require some sort of manual input in order to keep the tasks moving along correctly.
The ability to define workflows and have the flexibility to add conditional logic and data capture at each step is absolutely essential for long-term success in large-scale content production.
Tracking Content Workflow Execution
Having all of the workflows built out is the first step, but you have to make sure that you are executing smoothly. You must make sure that your content workflow software has execution tracking built-in so that you can quickly analyze what steps are causing hangups and which steps are working as intended.
It is important that your lowest level users are able to see an interface that can mark each step as done, see what steps are left to complete, and report any issues that they are running into.
Managers need the ability to track the progress of all steps within the system and be automatically alerted when there are delays.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a key component of the content production process. Being able to share the content production process between writers, designers, editors, and other creative staff is imperative for delivering your best possible product. The ideal content workflow software will allow for you to have direct conversions about steps within the workflow so that you do not need to figure out the context of the conversation. This eliminates the hundreds of emails that you may otherwise receive to handle all of these individual tasks.
Conditional Logic
Not every project has the same requirements. When one piece of content requires a graphic designer, another may not. Great content workflow software has conditional logic built-in, properly pushing assignments and tasks down the workflow as required. At Tallyfy, we have conditional and decision-making logic built into each individual task to ensure that your workflow is never interrupted or tasks moved out of order.
Integrations with Popular Software
Although many project management software solutions will claim that they are an all-in-one business software, the truth is that all businesses will have dozens of apps that they use on a daily basis. Apps like document management, billing solutions, CRM software, social media and virtual phone systems are all a real, relevant part of daily operations for most businesses. It is absolutely imperative that your content workflow management solution is able to not only connect with these software solutions but intuitively share the data that needs to be shared.
Collect Feedback
There is no one that will have more insight into the individual workflow tasks and their effect on your overall system than the people who are working on it.Find a content production software solution that allows your writers, designers, and other creative workers to leave important feedback for improvement. Most businesses present their teams with the project management software and never receive adequate feedback on where they could improve. Tallyfy allows your teams to leave necessary feedback on individual tasks within the system to give you deeper insight into where your workflow could improve.
Advanced Permissions
Security is a very real concern for any business. If you are able to produce hundreds or thousands of pieces of content per month, it is important that you have confidence that the right person is going to have access to the right data at all times. Your content workflow software should have advanced permissions that allow you to carefully spell out who will have access to what. For large groups, you need a solution that can model your existing content workflow and hierarchies and the customization options to make changes at a later date. The more that you can fine-tune your permissions, the less of a chance that you will ever have a data breach.
Metrics and Reporting
The ability to audit your efforts is extremely important for large-scale content production. Are steps being completed in a timely fashion? Are compliance workflows being taken into account and being optimally used throughout the content production process?
You need your content workflow software to provide deep analytics for all stages of the process. This will help you to identify problem areas and make corrections to your workflow that will not only speed up production time but allow you to better tailor your employee training procedures to ensure that you get the most out of every member of your team. With in-depth reporting, you will be able to see inefficiencies and delays and brainstorm ways in which you can improve.
Conclusion on Content Workflows
When you are working on large-scale content production projects, it is vitally important that you are able to not only have a solid content workflow but evaluate your operations as a whole to find inefficiencies that could be slowing you down. At Tallyfy, our software offers all of these features and more. Our software is perfect for large-scale content production operations, allowing you to easily employ and manage hundreds of workers, without thousands of inbox messages piling up. If you would like to learn more, please check out our features page for an in-depth listing of how we can help you improve your content production efforts through the content workflow.
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