Does managing your marketing workflow feel like trying to organize a parade of squirrels? Disorganized workflows top the list of marketing team pain points, and it’s easy to see why. Operational chaos leads to missed deadlines, forgotten tasks, and siloed communication. No one can do their best work in this environment. It, of course, can be quite frustrating to work like this.
Fortunately, when marketing workflows are well-defined, creatives don’t have to. Teams can reclaim control over projects so tasks no longer feel like a game of hot potato. They can execute marketing initiatives with precision and collaborate to drive better results.
Sound like a dream? With strategy and planning, optimized marketing workflows can be a reality for your organization.
What we'll cover
Table of contents
What is workflow management in marketing?
If you think of marketing as a powerful vehicle for your brand, workflow management is the assembly line. Without a clear workflow, the process would be madness. You’d have parts (ideas, content, and visuals) scattered everywhere. Team members wouldn’t know what to do next.
Marketing workflow management is simply a process for organizing the chaos. It gives teams a defined sequence of steps to follow when working on marketing tasks. Whether they’re creating an entire marketing campaign or a single asset, teams rely on workflows to steer them in the right direction.
Benefits of effective marketing workflow management
Now that we’ve defined marketing workflow management, let’s talk about the benefits.
Increased efficiency and productivity
How many hours does your team spend on repetitive manual tasks every day? The actual number would probably shock you. Tasks like scheduling social media posts and sending email blasts are core to your marketing efforts, but they take away from more important tasks like analyzing customer behavior and developing long-term marketing strategies.
Streamlined workflows and automated tasks allow teams to escape the drudgery. Automation tools like CRM systems and marketing automation platforms handle repetitive tasks, enabling teams to focus on contributing more effectively to their organization’s big-picture goals.
Improved collaboration and communication
Marketing shouldn’t feel like a game of telephone. Everyone should understand their role in a task or project and when it’s due. When lines of communication get crossed, missed deadlines are imminent.
But when team members know their responsibilities from the start, they can communicate openly and work together to deliver quality work.
Reduced errors and omissions
Imagine trying to run a social media campaign for a new product launch without a defined marketing workflow. The copywriter doesn’t know the graphic designer has already created the visuals, so they end up crafting copy that’s vastly different from the design. Meanwhile, the product owner is unaware that campaign creative is already in motion. The key product selling points and audience insights live in a PDF on their desktop.
When tasks aren’t properly documented or communicated, deliverables can seriously go awry. In this scenario, teams would likely spend hours reworking assets to ensure they included the right information in the marketing campaign.
Enhanced visibility and tracking
Despite the best planning, problems will pop up. But not every issue has to derail a project or campaign. When marketing managers can see where projects stand, they can take steps to get things back on track if needed. Maybe there’s a specific area where tasks pile up and the project stalls. Managers can see these bottlenecks early on and adjust resources to prevent delays.
Marketing workflow types for different teams
Marketing workflows will likely look different depending on the team. They vary based on the team’s role in the organization and how team members work together and with other teams. Here are a few examples.
Creative teams
Since creative teams handle a range of assets, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to establishing a workflow. However, a creative team workflow should be customized to how the team naturally completes tasks and gives feedback. Team members need enough structure to keep projects on track, balanced with the flexibility to accommodate unique styles.
Unlike many processes, the creative process is rarely linear. As ideas evolve, revisions are essential. The creative team workflow must have space for feedback loops and adjustments throughout the process.
Content marketing teams
Content marketers are master jugglers. They may produce blog posts, social media content, email marketing campaigns, or landing pages. Each format might require a distinct workflow with different phases and considerations. For example, content written for SEO should include keyword research and content promotion strategies as key steps in the workflow.
Content calendars are also a driving force for content marketing teams. Integrating content calendars into the workflow ensures a consistent flow of content and empowers content marketers to plan and assign resources.
Social media teams
Social media thrives on immediacy. Workflows must allow for quick responses to trending topics and real-time interactions with audiences. Planning is important, but over-scheduling can impact a social media manager’s ability to be present in the moment.
Like content marketers, no day looks the same for social media teams. The social media workflow should include steps for creating a diverse mix of content, from images and videos to text posts and stories. Many social teams have multiple workflows that might include basic workflows, posting workflows, content workflows, and approval workflows.
Email marketing
Email compliance wields the power to make or break an email campaign. Embedded compliance measures must be part of any email marketing workflow. This includes maintaining compliance with email regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM and managing subscriber permissions.
Email campaign success hinges on delivering targeted messages and testing multiple strategies to hit the mark. Email marketing workflows should factor in segmentation, dynamic content, and personalized triggers for email sequences. They should also integrate with A/B testing tools so marketers can test subject lines, layouts, calls to action, and other factors that impact performance.
How to build your marketing workflows step-by-step
Armed with the benefits of workflow management and a few examples, you’re ready to begin building a workflow to fit your organization’s needs!
1. Identify key processes and goals
Ask your marketing team what areas your workflow should address. This might include content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, or a combination, depending on your goals. Then define your marketing objectives. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Generate leads or sales?
Next, identify the marketing initiatives that will help you achieve them. Outline the key processes needed to execute these initiatives.
2. Define roles and responsibilities
Decide who will be responsible for each task in the workflow. You’ll want to assign owners for content creation, editing, approvals, and execution. Consider the stakeholders you want to involve in the marketing approval process.
By ensuring everyone understands their role, you can prevent confusion and ensure tasks move through the workflow smoothly.
3. Map out your activities
For each marketing objective, map out the specific tasks involved. If you’re launching a product on social media, you’ll want broad goals like ‘create social media content.’ But you’ll also want smaller tasks like ‘research trending topics,’ ‘develop a content calendar,’ ‘design visuals,’ and ‘schedule posts.’
4. Choose your workflow management tool
There are many project management and marketing automation tools to choose from. These tools can help you visualize workflows, assign tasks, track progress, and automate repetitive actions.
What tools do you need for workflow management?
- Collaboration tools: With an online proofing platform like Ziflow, teams can work together to review marketing assets, get approvals, and create templates for all of their workflows.
- Project management tools: Tools like Asana and Trello are great for helping teams organize, track, and collaborate on tasks and projects. Trello’s Kanban board system makes it easy to visualize tasks, and Asana offers more features for tackling complex projects. Jira is another strong option, especially for marketing and creative teams.
- Marketing automation tools: Your workflow should automate as many repetitive tasks as possible to save your team time. HubSpot, Marketo, and ActiveCampaign are marketing automation platforms that offer various features to streamline key marketing tasks.
- Communication tools: Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom are widely used tools that enable teams to communicate in real time on marketing projects.
5. Plan, create, and review
After you’ve chosen your tool(s), it’s time to plan out your workflow. You’ll want to include deadlines, task dependencies, and any resources needed to complete tasks. You can create templates for recurring tasks like developing content briefs or social media posts. You should establish a review and approval process that includes the core members of your marketing operations team to ensure visibility and quality control.
Most tools will allow you to create boards, lists, and cards to represent different stages of your workflow, tasks, and deadlines.
6. Measure and optimize
No workflow is perfect. You need to put your workflows to the test to see what works. Monitor the metrics that are relevant to your goals. This might include website traffic, lead generation, or social media engagement. Analyze the data to identify bottlenecks or areas for improvement.
Don’t be afraid to adapt and refine your workflows as needed. New technologies emerge, marketing strategies evolve, and customer demands change. Your workflows should adapt alongside them.
You should also measure the impact of your workflow rollout internally. Metrics like version reduction, speed to market, and quality of work can tell you how a workflow is performing. It’s always good to check in with your team and stakeholders to find out how the process has improved their day-to-day responsibilities.
Discover actionable ways to optimize your marketing workflows
Streamlined marketing workflows eliminate wasted time and effort because your team will spend less time on administrative tasks. With greater visibility into what others are working on, they’ll be able to share information seamlessly and support other project team members.
There are many tools available that can support your workflow process. Every tool offers its own diverse functionalities, but you want to choose the tools that offer what your team needs most. Ultimately, organizing your workflow should help maximize the time you spend on high-value, impactful activities.
