5 Steps to Building a Streamlined and Successful Marketing Workflow

What are marketing workflows?

Managing any process or team requires a streamlined workflow. The marketing process is no exception to that. A marketing workflow is a tool used by marketing managers to create consistent steps for building a marketing campaign or project.

A marketing workflow is common across various marketing projects, it outlines the steps typically taken when any campaign or project is started. By following these steps, marketing teams can complete the marketing tasks assigned to them without any repetition or duplication of effort. 

A streamlined marketing workflow not only helps teams save time and effort but also helps produce high-quality work. The chances of missing steps or duplicating effort are eliminated in a marketing workflow.

Marketing workflows are also helpful in keeping all the team members on the same page and in providing deep visibility into the status of tasks. Teams would experience a significant reduction in status check-in emails or queries on task deadlines by following a digital marketing workflow. 

As per the latest report, marketers who use automation are 46% more likely to report having an effective marketing strategy. A digital agency workflow includes all the tasks and activities that help marketing teams achieve their project goals. A marketing campaign workflow could have several goals, ranging from scheduling a social media post to publishing a blog post to creating a lead capture eBook. The marketing agency workflow helps teams achieve their goals faster and more efficiently. 

To achieve success, the marketing campaign workflow must be –

Logical

The main aim of a marketing workflow is to streamline all the marketing efforts into an easy and comprehendible stepwise flow. The flow of tasks must be in a logical sequence and must be aligned with overall business goals. 

Transparent

All the steps in the digital marketing workflow must be clear, documented and communicated clearly to the team. 

Flexible

Marketing workflows are dynamic, they change as and when new tools are introduced. Flexibility of the digital marketing agency workflow is a must for creating workflows that align with changing functionalities and requirements. 

Need for Optimized Marketing Workflows

Although building a spot-on marketing workflow may be challenging, successful marketing teams know very well how a structured marketing workflow can improve campaign outcomes.  So, why do you need to streamline your marketing workflow? It is practically impossible to overstate the importance of marketing workflows, there are several ways in which a marketing agency process can be enhanced with an agency workflow. 

Drives consensus among team members –

Having a marketing workflow process harmonizes the team and ensures that everyone is on the same page. The marketing workflow process brings structure and orderliness into the marketing tasks, which in turn boosts efficiency and collaboration among the team members. Having a good marketing workflow ensures that everyone is on the same page and are working towards the same goals. A well defined marketing workflow process enables optimal assignment of tasks and efficient tracking of tasks. Team members can understand their roles and responsibilities clearly when assigned through the marketing workflow. 

Improves output quality –

A digital agency process workflow provides the team with clear instructions and guidance required for churning out perfect outputs each time. Guided by the marketing workflow, teams work in a deliberate and skillful manner that encourages close collaboration. When teams work in synergy, the quality of the end product is high, as a result the client is happier with the results. 

Incorporates new efficiencies –

Marketing workflows can be adjusted to incorporate new techniques and strategies that arise as new business requirements arise or changes occur within the team. For example, when a person “A” in the team does the final review of blog posts, the quality of posts is much better. You can tweak the workflow such that “A” performs the final step in blog post creation. The flexibility in making such adjustments, incorporates new efficiencies into the marketing process. Marketing workflows provide teams with the ability to act on your learning, which helps them build a predictable method for constantly improving the way work is executed. 

Enhances profitability of projects –

In order to reduce the amount of time spent on your projects, marketing workflows provide transparency and accountability. Improved accountability and transparency in turn boosts collaboration among team members. These attributes enable teams to do more with less and improve productivity of the marketing function. 

Streamlines execution –

A well-defined marketing workflow brings consistency into marketing operations and allows you to streamline the processes. You are relieved of mundane tasks, and get time to focus on value adding tasks and creative executions. Clear steps and guidelines outlined in the workflow ensure that marketing efforts are channelized and aligned with the brand identity. Streamlined agency workflows also help in strengthening the brand image and build trust and loyalty among the target audience. A solid marketing automation workflow enables marketing managers to delegate tasks more efficiently and spend more time on exploring innovative and creative marketing approaches. 

Brings strategic agility –

A good marketing workflow allows greater agility and flexibility. A well-designed marketing workflow creates a strong foundation for core tasks and processes to ensure high quality of work. The marketing team can adapt more quickly to changes and capitalize on new opportunities without compromising on work quality. A streamlined workflow clearly defines roles and responsibilities, which enables the team to work together seamlessly, eliminating bottlenecks, and improving productivity. The agility provided by the workflow enables teams to respond quickly and effectively to evolving market demands. 

Improves productivity –

When roles and responsibilities in the marketing team are clearly established by the workflow, tasks are completed more efficiently. The communication and collaboration within the marketing team bring everyone on the same page and work towards the same goals. The team is relieved from mundane tasks by the marketing automation workflow, so that they can focus on tasks that add value to the business. The overall productivity of the marketing function is greatly improved by a streamlined workflow. 

Creating a Marketing Workflow

Creating a marketing workflow needs to be done based on 2 factors – overall marketing efforts and individual level responsibilities. Here are 7 steps to creating a marketing workflow –

Identify key areas –

The first step in creating a marketing workflow is to establish key areas that need to be monitored to keep the brand healthy and support business goals. For B2B SaaS organizations content and email marketing is at the core of marketing operations. For real-estate companies, events and meetings may be at the core of marketing operations. So, selecting areas that might create maximum impact on the business and customers is the first step in creating the marketing workflow. The focus of marketing workflows must be to ensure that your efforts are helping you achieve maximum impact. 

Establish accountability –

Once focus areas have been identified, you need to watch to make the team successful. For that you need to establish a clear line of accountability within the team by identifying and assigning individuals responsible for keeping each area in check. This way we create a sense of ownership and ensure that tasks are completed on time and produce accurate results. Establishing a clear sense of accountability and ownership helps prevent mistakes or oversights as there is someone specifically designated to monitor and evaluate the progress in each area. Ownership fosters a culture of transparency and trust, where everyone knows who is responsible for what. 

Plan projects and delivery routines –

Once clear lines of responsibility have been established within the team, the next step is to bring everyone together and create a road map to success. Marketing initiatives are time-bound projects aiming to support key areas. Routine tasks are repeated to keep the area in check. Take for instance, a project for the creative team could revolve around building brand guidelines. The corresponding routine would be the quarterly of your company brand materials to ensure that the guidelines are being applied. 

Time should be spent on idea brainstorming, goal setting, and objective defining for each project and the routines that support their effectiveness. Open communication and collaboration among team members must be encouraged to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. It is important to involve the marketing team in the planning process, to not only empower them but also to foster a sense of ownership and accountability for the outcomes.

Identify the process –

Once the “what to do” part is clear, it is time to go over the steps that help achieve it. Teams will need to conceptualize, create, refine, publish, promote, and evaluate, and establish approver checkpoints appropriately. Routine updates need to be given to stakeholders at appropriate times.

For example, content marketing initiatives would include the following steps – 

Conceptualize –

Brainstorming on ideas based on relevant keywords

Create –

Creating articles

Refine –

Proofreading and editing

Publish –

Publishing content on company’s blog or website

Promote –

Sharing content across different channels

Evaluate –

Measuring results and identifying areas of improvement

The order in which these steps are carried out varies according to the marketing process. The sequence in which conceptualization to evaluate steps should occur must be defined uniquely for each process. 

Document the process –

Establishing a process for doing things should include accurate documentation as well. By documenting the process, you create a valuable resource for the team. New members can grasp the process workflow with accurate documentation and also use it as a reference in case of any doubt in the future. It is not enough to create documentation, you also need to make it visible and accessible to the team by posting it on a shared drive or project management tool, or a physical board. This empowers the team to work independently and confidently with the assurance of a reliable guide. 

Execute and monitor –

After documenting the marketing workflow, you have set a solid foundation for success. Now, it is time to implement the workflow and evaluate the results. Once the new marketing workflow is implemented, you need to track the progress closely. Data-based decisions can be made based on the effectiveness of the strategies. It is important to stay focused and proactive and make necessary adjustments along the way. Proactive evaluation and tracking helps in identifying areas of improvement and leverage growth opportunities. 

Evaluate and iterate –

The manner in which the team has taken to the new marketing workflow must be evaluated and measured. Holding monthly check-ins is one way of evaluating progress. Regular check in meetings pave the way for open and honest communication within the team, and allows team members to voice their thoughts and concerns. Marketing managers too can gather valuable insights into how the new process is working. By continuously reviewing and adapting the process based on the team’s feedback, you can ensure a smoother transition and enhance overall efficiency. 

Marketing Workflow Examples and Templates

Marketing automation workflows vary according to the task which you want to automate. There is no single unified approach to marketing workflows, there are multiple types of marketing workflows to suit teams of different types and sizes for solving issues or improving performance. 

A workflow automation solution like Cflow provides marketing workflow templates that can be used for automating marketing tasks that are routine and labor-intensive. Let us look at some of the marketing workflows that can be automated. 

Content Marketing Workflow –

Content marketing workflows focus on producing quality content for various marketing initiatives. The primary intent of the content marketing workflow is to simplify the content creation process and eliminate any bottlenecks in the process. Content creation workflows ensure a smooth and uninterrupted content creation, review, and publishing process. A successful content workflow ensures that the final content finds its audience. A content workflow can be quite massive, especially when it is based on SEO blog creation. A whole SEO workflow needs to be incorporated when the content workflow is blog oriented. The following steps need to be included in the SEO workflow –

• Performing keyword research – This step is concerned with the identification of relevant keywords and topics that are explored in the blog. 
• Choosing keywords – The keywords that are targeted in the blog are chosen based on search intent and keyword difficulty.
• Identifying the internal links – Internal links can be added to the article related to pieces in your blog, landing pieces, ebooks, or whitepapers. 
• Adding on-page optimizations – The article needs to be checked for meta title and meta descriptions, alt texts for the images, and keywords in the headings. 

Content Writing Workflow – The marketing content needs to be reviewed before publishing. The first thing someone will need to do is to choose items to prioritize in your newsletter or email. Blog posts, company news, social media posts, upcoming events or sales, new product launches, or contests, are some examples of content that is published for marketing. The steps for content creation to publishing vary according to the type of content being created and published. 

Given below is the screenshot of a sample content review workflow that has been created in Cflow. 

The steps in a content writing workflow are listed below- 

Keyword research –

The most important thing in the blog strategy is to make sure you are developing content around keywords that are relevant to your business and those that you can compete and rank on. 

Content creation –

The next step is to assign the blog creation to a resource in the content team. The resource for developing content could also be a subject matter expert too. The content needs to be developed based on the keywords and references given by the SEO team. 

Content review –

Once the content is created, it should be reviewed and proofread by the content manager. In some cases, peer review precedes the review by the content manager or marketing manager. 

Visual design –

Once the content review is done, the blog post is turned over to the designer to create some custom graphics for the post. In case there are no design resources available, then the content writer or the SEO team takes care of adding visuals to the content from stock images, screenshots, as necessary. When adding images, ensure they are high quality. For product images, ensure the background is clean, or use a background remover tool to tidy it up.

Final review –

Once relevant images are added to the content, it needs to be reviewed by a senior designer or blog manager. The content along with the visuals need to be reviewed to ensure that it is aligned with trending keywords. 

Social sharing schedule –

The social strategist in the marketing team is in charge of creating a custom sharing schedule for social media channels. Workflow automation software like Cflow provides marketing workflow templates that help in setting up the social sharing schedule. 

Social media posts –

Once the marketing workflow template has been applied or the social sharing schedule coordinated, the social media executive will make the actual copy for each social media message. Before posting social media messages, someone should review and approve the messages. The review step is often assigned to the marketing manager or someone responsible for the entire marketing strategy. In the final step, the SEO manager will review the post one last time and add meta tags and title tags.

Email marketing workflow –

Email marketing is one of the oldest and most commonly used marketing processes. This type of marketing is not as simple as writing an email and sending it. There are several tasks that go into the entire process of sending a marketing email. Here are the steps in an email marketing workflow –

Deciding the content –

In the email marketing process, the first step is to choose items to prioritize in the newsletter or email. Content that is usually shared in emails are recent blog posts, relevant company news, upcoming sales or contests. The decision on which content needs to be shared is usually taken by the marketing manager. 

Deciding email layout –

Once the team decides on the item to be promoted, the layout of the email needs to be decided. Tools like MailChimp or CampaignMonitor are used to create the email layout. 

Choosing design –

Relevant images are added to the email layout by the designer or email marketer. If the organization requires a more branded feel to email campaigns, a specialized designer can be assigned. 

Writing the email copy –

Depending on the size of the team, it may be necessary to assign a dedicated content writer to develop email content. Workflow automation software like Cflow provides process templates to choose from to create content for various types of marketing. 

Writing the test email subject line –

Some marketing automation software provide subject line testing tools that validate the effectiveness of the subject line. You can tweak the subject line as needed, based on the recommendations from the tool. 

Sending the test email –

Irrespective of how confident you are about the effectiveness of the subject line, you should still include sending test emails in the email marketing workflow. 

Review test email –

A special task needs to be set up to remind the email marketing specialist to review the test email. It would be better if this task is assigned to a specific individual. It might be a challenge to spot mistakes in your own projects, so a specific person away from the project should be reviewing it. The review process must confirm the layout, and formatting for desktop and mobile devices. 

Schedule or hit Send –

An email that has been proofread and reviewed thoroughly, you can send the email to the intended recipient or schedule it to be sent at a given time. 

The email marketing workflow involves the roles like email marketing specialist, graphic designer, content writer, and analytics specialist. 

Social Media Workflow –

Social media is widely used by organizations to expand the reach of their marketing initiatives. The posts on social media need to be published in a strategic manner, rather than posting them randomly. The following steps are part of the social media marketing workflow. 

Sourcing Internal/External Content to Promote –

Social media strategist is in charge of finding internal blogs, videos, and other content to promote the brand. Simultaneously, the strategist may also spend time to pursue influencer’s content to find relevant things to share. There are several online tools like AI video generator tools, available to find external content that the audience may be interested in. 

Building a sharing schedule –

Once a content item has been identified, a social sharing schedule should be built or a social template must be applied. The schedule must share the content more than one time on each channel over several weeks. 

Preparing the post –

Developing content for the social media post is taken care of by the social strategist or a copywriter assigned to this job. To make the social media post more impressive, relevant images need to be added to the content. For finding the right images, you need to get a designer involved. Some media platforms do not allow you to preview the image on the social post, others allow you to get more engagement if the image is unique. Adding statistics and infographics is a popular way of making social media posts more effective. 

Approving the message –

In some teams, an additional approval step from the client or manager is required before launching social media campaigns. 

Monitoring Reactions and Engagement –

Once the post is published, the social strategist must spend time on a daily basis to monitor and engage with posts on social media. 

Reporting and analytics –

Pulling together performance analytics of the social media can help fine-tune social media campaigns in future and the social media strategy. Answers to questions like what worked well or how the team responded, can be derived from the reports and analytics of social media campaign performances. 

5 Steps to Streamline Marketing Workflow Management 

There are several ways to streamline marketing workflow management. The best practices in marketing workflow management are listed below –

Identify the right time to update the workflow –

Small changes and updates could have a big impact on the marketing workflow. The workflow must be modified at the right time to get maximum impact on the marketing initiative. 

Guide the team –

The team needs to be in sync with the changes to the workflow. The team should understand why the marketing workflows exist and how to get the most out of them. 

Keep workflows simple –

The most effective marketing workflows are simple to follow. The roles and responsibilities of every team member is clearly outlined in the workflow. 

Mark the beginning of workflow –

Each part of the workflow is important, with steps naturally flowing into one another. But it is extremely important that the workflow is off to a great start. 

Control the workflow –

A well-created workflow can be a useful tool to the marketing team. It is best to control the workflow at all times. 

Top 5 Marketing Workflow Tools for 2024

1. Cflow 

Give your marketing strategy a big boost with a no-code workflow automation solution like Cflow. This is the perfect tool for optimizing your marketing workflows. Marketing workflows that have repetitive and redundant steps can be automated with the visual form builder in Cflow. 

2. Filestage 

This online proofing platform helps marketing operations managers and their teams to collect and clear precise feedback from internal and external stakeholders. This tool does not require any specialized knowledge to operate, and is very easy to access and use. 

3. HubSpot 

This is a highly useful marketing workflow tool for campaign automation. Hubspot offers a suite of powerful tools that will help sales and marketing teams to grow. 

4. Hootsuite 

This is a powerful marketing workflow tool for social media content. Social media professionals can use this tool to master the marketing workflow and manage all the social media campaigns. 

5. Mailchimp 

This tool is useful for email marketing campaigns. Mailchimp started out as an email marketing platform. 

How Cflow Fits into the Marketing Workflow?

Cflow is a powerful automation tool that can automate any workflow within minutes with the visual workflow builder. The drag-and-drop form builder can be used to create workflows for various business processes. The insane levels of customization that Cflow brings to the marketing workflow, make it one of the most preferred tools for automating the marketing process. 

Reports and analytics from Cflow enables marketing teams to stay informed about the status of marketing tasks. Everything related to the workflow is provided in the form of compelling dashboards and reports. The refreshingly clear interface in Cflow allows business users to visualize the data. The auto-approval feature in Cflow allows marketing proposals to be approved without any delay. The latest Kanban feature addition in Cflow improves workflow efficiency by prioritization of tasks. You can acquire a simplified framework for visualizing multiple tasks with Kanban in Cflow. 

Conclusion

Engaging target audiences effectively is the primary focus of the marketing team. This is a challenging task that requires collaboration within the team. All types of marketing workflows – email marketing, social media marketing, content writing workflow, and marketing analytics and reporting workflows can be automated to improve efficiency and speed. A latest statistic reveals that the Global Automation Market is expected to reach $ 13.71 billion by 2030. Also, marketers who use automation are 46% more likely to report having an effective marketing strategy. A no code workflow automation software like Cflow can boost your marketing workflows. Try Cflow for free by signing up for the free trial. 

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