Optimizing your content supply chain: Strategies to enhance team productivity

Tony Messam

Optimizing your content supply chain: Strategies to enhance team productivity

In this omnichannel world, the creation of vast amounts of content has become a critical aspect of digital marketing. A systematic approach to creating, producing, optimizing, and distributing content across different channels—a content supply chain—can be your key to success. But obstacles can get in the way of implementing that kind of streamlined approach and make it hard for your teams to work together efficiently, slowing time-to-market and keeping your organization from hitting its goals.

These obstacles can be caused by a variety of things, but many common culprits can be eliminated with integrated tools and refined processes. Here are a few ways to help your teams work better together and achieve your content production goals.

1. Facilitate collaboration and communication

According to a study by McKinsey, companies with highly effective communication and collaboration practices are up to 25% more profitable than their peers. In a content supply chain, tools like Adobe Workfront can enable real-time collaboration and the sharing of assets, but it’s crucial that clear communication channels also be established to ensure that everyone is in the loop and things go smoothly.

For example, setting up regular team check-ins and using messaging platforms, such as Microsoft Teams, can help team members stay in touch and up to date. It’s also essential to establish a protocol for making team members aware of any relevant changes or developments.

2. Automate repetitive tasks

Automating repetitive tasks is an effective way to save time and reduce errors. For instance, you might automate the process of content scheduling and distribution by using social media management tools, like Sprout Social or Publer, and email marketing platforms, like Adobe Marketo Engage or Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Eliminating the need to manually carry out these tasks again and again frees up valuable time that can be used on other important tasks.

3. Ensure quality assurance

To help your content creators consistently produce high-quality content, it’s important to establish quality standards and guidelines around such aspects as accuracy, relevance, consistency, style, and tone and to implement clear approval processes. These processes should include reviewers who assess the content against the established quality standards and provide feedback to the creators.

4. Manage resource allocation

Optimizing resource allocation involves defining the skill sets needed and scheduling requirements for each project and aligning the appropriate resources based on those requirements. This may involve prioritizing certain projects over others, allocating resources to projects with higher impact or ROI, or identifying areas where resources can be reduced or reallocated.

An editorial calendar can be a useful tool in planning your content and making sure you maintain a consistent flow that aligns with your overall strategy. It is also essential to balance workload distribution to avoid burnout and bottlenecks that can negatively impact employee morale and project outcomes.

5. Monitor performance and KPIs

Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound let you track content creation and delivery times and develop strategies to optimize the workflow and increase productivity. For example, KPIs for a content creation team might be the number of articles published per month or the percentage of articles completed by deadline.

6. Continuously improve and adapt

This requires establishing a culture that values learning, growth, and innovation, and always looking for ways to improve the quality of the content produced and optimize the processes used to create it.

To achieve this, you’ll need to create an environment that fosters open communication and constructive feedback. Team members should feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas and be receptive to feedback from others. This can be facilitated through regular team meetings, one-on-one sessions between team members and their supervisors, and anonymous feedback surveys.

Soliciting feedback from team members will help you identify areas of strength and areas that need improvement so you can adjust processes, improve collaboration, and optimize the use of resources. It can also help identify opportunities for innovation and experimentation, which can lead to breakthroughs in content quality and effectiveness.

The bottom line

Optimizing your content supply chain is an ongoing process that’s necessary for long-term success. Through the strategies outlined here, you can ensure that your team works efficiently and effectively, ultimately resulting in high-quality content that resonates with your target audience and drives business growth.

Schedule a call with our specialists to talk about ways to help your teams work better together.