Greetings, I am Lus, the individual responsible for presenting Works. I’m certain my name is familiar to you by now.
Something you may not be aware of is that for the past 15 years, I’ve been supervising remote editing teams in the gaming industry.
It’s important to acknowledge that the efforts of numerous gaming enthusiasts frequently go uncompensated. This is due to the fact that they engage in game-related activities purely out of love for the hobby. As a result, ensuring that their work is completed on schedule can be a challenging task, often likened to attempting to herd cats.
Using this experience, I have devised an effective content marketing strategy for Works. I am now pleased to share this knowledge with you, so that you can apply it to your own dispersed content marketing team. Please allow me to elaborate further.
Absolutely, please don’t hesitate to modify the solution to suit your workflow more effectively. If you could kindly inform me of any significant alterations you make, I would greatly appreciate it. While the solution is tailored for the Trello Blogging Process, it can be utilised as a marketing calendar. Its design is highly adaptable, making it suitable for your individual requirements.
An Overview of Trello’s Basic Functions
In terms of managing workflows, I have found Trello to be the most valuable tool currently available.
Trello has been an ideal solution for me due to its capability to meet my requirements without necessitating a significant resource investment. By “overhead,” I am referring to the amount of time and effort required to maintain an organized and current workflow, a demand that necessitates active user participation. While there are more extensive alternatives available, Trello is an exceptional option in this regard.
At its core, Trello is a digital platform that enables users to generate virtual ‘post-it notes’, with the option to categorize them on a virtual ‘corkboard’. While users can add more information to each note at their discretion, minimal data is initially required.
Take a look at the Works Trello board for Content:
Generating excellent content can be challenging, yet it doesn’t necessarily have to be excessively complicated. If you’re searching for a tool that’s more robust or malleable, it’s crucial to re-evaluate your needs.
I have been using Trello’s Gold membership for the past year, but I discovered that I didn’t require all of its supplementary features. As a result, I reverted to the free version. If you’re a frequent Trello user who spends a significant amount of time revising cards and appending information, you may find the premium membership’s added benefits advantageous. Thus, investing in the premium version may be worth considering. However, it should be emphasized that a subscription is not required to follow the process outlined below.
Your Table Rows
Employ them as a basis for constructing your content marketing workflow.
On your Trello board, you can generate a limitless number of columns, which Trello refers to as “lists.” This term denotes a group of cards on the board.
To provide a step-by-step guide for product development, it’s more appropriate to refer to the workflow components as ‘columns’ rather than ‘task lists’. This is because the goal is not to describe the content, but to outline the process.
The indispensable sections for your Content Marketing board include:
- Resources
- Backlog
- Current Week/Month (1)
- Draft (2) (2)
- Editing/Quality Assurance (2)
- Scheduled/Delivered Content
- Published
To guarantee the efficacy of your content marketing strategy, it’s recommended to determine the optimal frequency for content publication. If you have a substantial and geographically dispersed content marketing team that must consistently generate a substantial amount of content, it’s advisable to publish at least once per week.
If you wish to undergo numerous review cycles and don’t want to relocate cards between columns, you can replicate the columns (which will be further elaborated on later). For instance, when dealing with content from the Works Marketing team, we must execute the process twice, comprising two significant phases: the initial draft and quality assurance (QA) #1, and the final draft and quality assurance (QA) #2.
Resources
Outlined below are extensive and generic instructions that your remote content marketing team may need to conform to, which could encompass the establishment of writing manuals, brand bibles, SEO keyword lists, style guides, and to-do lists (which we’ll cover in greater detail subsequently).
They’re grouped together on the left-hand side of the board to prevent interference with workflows.
Backlog
As a team, we should seize the opportunity to implement some of our ideas. Let’s consider it a group ‘bucket list’ of content marketing duties. Any team member is free to contribute their ideas whenever they deem it necessary. The content marketing timetable will be based on the ideas we generate here. When it’s time to flesh out the concept, we’ll move the task to the next column and include additional information. We’ll review the steps to achieve this shortly.
Current Week and Month
Your team will be utilizing this board throughout the production cycle. (Individuals who are eager to display their expertise may refer to it as a ‘sprint,’ but that’s only because they have had some involvement with Agile methodology at some point.)
Draft
At this stage, a card is selected and assigned to the team member who will be in charge of carrying it out.
Checking for Mistakes and Rectifying Content
When a task is finished or needs further feedback, the relevant card is relocated to this section.
Planned/Delivered
After a content piece is finalised, it is relocated to this area to prepare it for release or, if it was made for a third party, it will remain here until any additional steps are required.
Published
When the final product becomes ready for linking to external sources, a card must be shifted to this section. Utilise it for:
- Celebration
- Remarks posted post-facto
- Building customer engagement through social media is an excellent strategy to initiate discussions and establish connections. To achieve this, one can make a task list on the card itself or transfer the card to a board with a designated social media process. This helps to ensure that users interact with each other on a more intimate basis.
Visualize the Links in this Trello Workflow Chart
In the collection of unexecuted cards, a new one is generated, pure and unspoiled.
The Marketing Director or Manager has the authority to allocate tasks to be completed at a later time, or a team member can propose a suggestion to be assessed. At the conclusion of a production phase, the Manager evaluates the backlog and picks the duties that should be given priority during the subsequent phase.
In the section designated as “Current Month/Week,” they allocate assignments to team members, determine deadlines, and include additional information, as required.
After the onset of work on a task by a content creator, it is altered to ‘Draft’ status, thereby signalling that advancement is underway on the job.
After the responsible personnel has assessed the task and determined that it is either finished or requires additional input, they will send it to Quality Assurance and Editing for a meticulous analysis.
After concluding their assessment, the editor will determine whether the content is prepared for publishing (in which case they will designate the status as “Scheduled/Delivered” and alert relevant members) or if additional revisions are mandatory (in which case they will shift the card back to the “Draft” column, or the succeeding “Draft” stage if multiple columns are being utilised).
Once the content is validated and published, the CMS administrator will relocate the card to the “Published” section.
This is an opportune time to include the live link to the card and notify the appropriate promotional teams on social media accounts. Additionally, it would be advantageous to acknowledge the contributions of all participants and discuss what went well and what can be enhanced for future undertakings. At last, it is sensible to archive the card in a secure location upon its completion.
And there you have it, all done!
Using this technique, it is simple to grasp an insight into the accomplishments of your distributed content marketing team. It can facilitate the detection of areas that require enhancement; a valuable suggestion would be to study the columns that house the most cards.
To Managers: it is strongly suggested that you utilise the ‘Watch’ feature on each card routinely. This will empower you to receive alerts whenever the card is modified or updated. After becoming accustomed to monitoring your Trello notifications, you will swiftly realise how much more convenient it is to keep up with the information and how much lesser data you need to sift through.
Recommendations for Utilising Trello, the Content Management System
A card titled “Instructions” ought to be positioned at the head of every column.
The title of the column should provide a brief description of the content and the frequency of updates. This is particularly advantageous during the initial stages of a team or while recruiting freelance contributors.
Create a “Task Lists” card as a part of the “Resources.”
All types of to-do lists required for your process are consolidated on a single card.
For instance, I maintain a list of tasks associated with Social Media Marketing (SMM). Note that SMM represents ‘Social Media Marketing‘ and not ‘Sexually Explicit Shopping List’, which I presume you can appreciate why it may have been misunderstood.
This record comprises a detailed compilation of all the channels we employ to routinely release content, thereby enabling me to conveniently identify when a card has been marked as ‘Published’ by copying the list and tagging the Social Media Manager. In this regard, ‘SMM’ signifies an abbreviation for a particular job position. Advertising campaigns may involve numerous acronyms – not exactly the most user-friendly!
Tags: To Use or Not to Use?
Tagging cards on Trello is an advantageous method in concept and implementation. It enables you to leverage Trello’s filtering function to selectively locate specific projects and remove unnecessary cards. Nevertheless, while it can be an efficient tool, it also presents an additional element to contemplate when designing and arranging individual cards.
Having a dedicated heading for every type of content produced by your remote content marketing team (e.g. videos, audio, blogs, infographics, etc.) may prove advantageous. However, because of the cost implications, creating a restricted volume of this content would not be financially feasible.
Setting targets: When and how?
Diverse perspectives:
- You have determined the article’s publishing deadline.
- It is advised that the card recipient specifies a deadline for its fulfilment to advance to the subsequent stage of the process. The recipient will then revise this deadline when the card is next cycled.
Having a comprehensive overview of the timeline for content release is a valuable foundation. I personally generate a marketing or content calendar in Trello, but I cannot emphasize enough the significance of monitoring the board daily to spot any potential obstacles that might hinder meeting the deadlines. It is also prudent to be proactive in ensuring that all individuals are up-to-date with their designated tasks.
The second option clarifies the timeliness of duties, rendering them more practicable. The catch is that if you select this alternative, you must guarantee that:
A) Every team member is apprised of when they must aim to finish the current task.
We employ a unique method to determine the final deadline for a particular content. This can be incorporated into the card title, which might seem inconvenient but is still efficacious.
Go Ahead and Produce Exceptional Content
That’s the technique I’ve devised and refined for almost a decade of producing editorial articles. It has served me well; I hope it benefits you too.
In an online enterprise, content is fundamental to attaining success, as it is frequently asserted that exceptional content leads to the best SEO outcomes. However, to have an actuall triumphant content strategy, it is imperative to have a dedicated team that adheres to your protocols and comprehends your company’s ethos. A thorough comprehension of your organization and its principles ensures that your content aligns with your aims and aspirations.
Whenever we talk about the significance of building efficient remote teams, we always stress the importance of recruiting individuals of exceptional calibre who possess the ability to work autonomously. If you are seeking to expand your workforce or supplement your present team, please connect with us and we will provide you with the most fitting candidates.
