The 9-step content marketing workflow that gets results
Published May 8, 2025
I absolutely love organization and clarity (it’s in my name, after all). But I’ve noticed that a lot of business owners disagree. I get it–especially if you have a million other tasks on your plate, you’re definitely not thinking about your content marketing workflow or your SOPs.
But just like any other aspect of your business, marketing processes are crucial to stay consistent, grow, and scale. Without them, it’s hard to execute a strategy or even put out enough work to see if that strategy is working.
That’s why I like to stick with a structured content marketing workflow so I can feel less overwhelmed and measure my results. There are nine steps in mine, which sounds like a lot, but the full process is super easy to implement as a routine every month or every quarter.
Let’s dive in!
Jump to:
Strategy
In marketing, you always have to start with strategy. That doesn’t mean you can’t be creative–it actually makes it easier to come up with new ideas.
I keep it easy, and once a quarter I sit down to look at my analytics and refine (it’s not a coincidence that the last step of this workflow is to review your work). This is what I do to create my content marketing strategy:
I set new goals, whether I’m focusing on one part of my sales funnel (like growing awareness), or I set a goal for each stage
I determine which channels I should lean into for the next quarter in order to reach those goals (SEO, Pinterest, Threads, etc.)
I establish a cadence I want to commit to based on what’s worked before and my bandwidth (I am a one-woman show!)
I set realistic KPIs that align with my goals and don’t stress me out too much (website visits, keyword rankings, followers, engagement, etc.)
There’s a bit more research in there, but that’s the gist of it! Not too hard nor a ton of work.
2. Ideation
Once I have my strategy in place, I can start ideating. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I definitely have a love-hate relationship with this stage. It’s fun to come up with content ideas, but it can also burn me out really quickly.
My advice for this stage of your content marketing workflow: Spread it out as much as possible. Trying to ideate and batch-create content in one or two days is way too hard.
Here’s what I think about to make this step easier:
Pillars: Based on my goals, I create priority content pillars (branded content, SEO content, social proof, lead gen, etc.).
Seasonality: I consider the topics that I need to cover at certain times of the year, like leaning into planning content in the new year.
Themes: I develop my content themes, which might be content marketing tips, business organization, or website strategy.
Topics: Once you have your themes, you can dive into the topics that you want to talk about within them. At this stage, I like to see what topics make sense for SEO as well.
Content types: The last step is figuring out what content types you need to create to communicate about your topics and reach your goals.
“My advice for this stage of your content marketing workflow: Spread it out as much as possible. Trying to ideate and batch-create content in one or two days is way too hard. ”
3. Planning
Now you know what content you create, you just need to plan it out!
Choose where you want to maintain your content calendar–it could be in a tool like Clickup or Notion (there are a lot of great templates you can use), or in a simple spreadsheet.
Then, plan out exactly what content needs to be created and when, as well as what the production workflow should look like for your business. That means thinking through the content that needs to be published at specific times (seasonal content) as well as the cornerstone content that you want to prioritize.
If you’re a one-person team like me, you’ll want to consider spacing everything out so you have a smooth publishing pipeline. Otherwise, if you already have existing writers, you can plan when to create the content briefs and templates that they need.
4. Copywriting
Now it’s time for content creation! This is the part where I know a lot of business owners just don’t have the time. If you don’t have existing writers, I can provide content writing services to move your plan forward–you and your team don’t have to lift a finger!
If it’s all up to you, don’t sweat. Just make sure your content calendar is designed for you. If you overload yourself and have to deprioritize, it’s harder to catch up. Instead, make sure your cadence makes sense and is manageable.
I recommend establishing a deadline for writing as well as a deadline for publishing, so you’re not leaving everything down to the last minute.
And, let’s be real–ChatGPT is a great starting point if you’re doing your own copywriting.
5. Design
Copywriting and design sometimes go hand-in-hand, so they might not necessarily be step-by-step in your content marketing workflow.
In fact, sometimes I like to create a content outline for a blog post, design an infographic for Pinterest, and then write the full content.
It all just depends on the way you like to work, but it’s important to build this step in and give yourself a separate deadline as well. That could mean a reminder to send a brief to a designer, or your deadline for creating a quick design in Canva.
6. Editing
The editing step: Crucial, but often overlooked or under-prioritized. Especially if you’re creating your own content, you might not want to take the extra time to read through everything again. But trust me, writing is my job, and I still catch mistakes every time I create content.
Be sure to add an editing task to your content marketing workflow. With a project management tool, you can even set up an automation to automatically assign this step to a team member as soon as the copywriting is marked complete.
Working for yourself? No worries–don’t be afraid to ask a friend to review! Just make sure you’re holding yourself accountable to ask for that support. You can also lean on tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and the Hemingway App. Just make sure everything is getting some kind of review before it goes out into the world.
7. Scheduling and publishing
This step takes the least amount of time, so it’s easy to neglect it as part of your content marketing workflow. But if you want to stay accountable to the content calendar you created, you need to stick to your publishing dates!
My tip: Assign your writing, editing, and design work with enough wiggle room to schedule your content in advance or take advantage of that buffer if you absolutely need to reprioritize.
“Assign your writing, editing, and design work with enough wiggle room to schedule your content in advance or take advantage of that buffer if you absolutely need to reprioritize. ”
8. Promotion
Once your content is out in the world, you still need to get eyeballs on it! For me, I consider promotion during the ideation stage of my content marketing workflow. But, I still like to add it in case new ideas pop up.
It’s also a good idea to set up a task for yourself (or your team) to remember to repurpose and promote your content across other channels.
9. Review
At the review stage, it’s time for reporting and tracking. If you’re not a numbers person, don’t hesitate to reach out! I can maintain a content dashboard for you so you can keep track of progress and performance as we publish your content.
By intentionally reviewing your performance, you can see what your progress looks like in terms of reaching your goals and KPIs. Continually looking back at your content and optimizing where needed is a huge part of any content marketing workflow as well.
Get help managing your content marketing workflow
Get ongoing support to create your content calendar and manage your content marketing workflow from start to finish!
Whether you’re looking for help with landing pages, blog posts, email marketing, and more, I’ll work with you to develop custom pricing based on your needs.
If you don’t have a strategy yet, I recommend starting with the Content Strategy package first!
