What is Content Operations? 2024 Guide

Let’s think of content performance as an actual performance.

Content assets are the actors; content strategy is the libretto, and content operations are the director, crew, rehearsal schedule, and everything in between.

Effective content operations make the show look effortless.

But looking effortless isn’t being effortless. Effective content operations require team members, tools, and different processes to work together.

In spite of this, marketing teams tend to sideline ops in their overall strategy.

Let’s talk about content operations, how they work, and why we need them to create content that resonates.

What are content operations?

Content operations (or “content ops”) are the people, processes, and tools that make a content strategy actionable.

Content production moves through a funnel—a creative team writes content, it goes through review, and outputs are published through various channels.

That funnel is managed by a set of players that make up our content operations framework.

Content operations framework

Our framework is made up by a combination of people, processes, and tools, including:

• Governance model: A framework for who does what, how it’s done, and how it’s measured.
• Team structure: The dedicated team members who oversee or implement different tactics.
• Brand guidelines: Voice and style guidelines to help you keep brand consistency and benefit your target audience.
• Content performance metrics: The key metrics that help you determine your content goals and benchmarks of success.
• Content operation software: The tools you use to create, manage, distribute, and measure content.

A content operations foundation fuses our strategies and tactics together, so we can act on them.

Content operations strategy

Your content operations strategy folds into your larger content strategy—which folds into bigger business objectives.

Think of it like a pyramid: Each content goal is a stepping stone to a larger business goal.

With our goal in mind, we can decide how robust our operations need to be.

Let’s look at this in action.

Content operations strategy example

Let’s break down a content strategy into the who, why, when, where, and how.

Who: A small content team in a B2B start-up.

Why: A bigger business goal is to increase sales by 25% this quarter. So we want to increase the qualified leads coming from content.

When: We want to hit our marketing and business goals by the end of Q1. Our key metrics are % of leads generated, % of leads converted to sales, and page traffic.

Where: We’ve chosen multiple channels and platforms to distribute our content: SEO blogs, social media, and guest posts on reputable publications.

How: This is the content lifecycle, which starts with a content production process:

• Assign 20 briefs a month to content writers based on keyword research for our target audience.
• Content manager reviews each article weekly and provide feedback for revisions.
• Content designer creates assets and thumbnails for each article
• Content manager ensures that the blog copy and graphic designs match brand guidelines.
• Content manager publishes 5 articles a week.
• Data analyst reviews content weekly for key performance indicators of content success.
• Content team holds a monthly meeting to analyze data-driven insights and plan future content efforts.

Our content operations system will tie all of these elements together.

How to implement content operations

Our content operations process helps us fill gaps to streamline content production.

Here are the steps we’ll take to flesh out our content operations framework.

1. Define your goals and governance model

Look at your goals from the top down. Then ask yourself:

• What is the content team trying to achieve in the short and longterm?
• What does success look like? How can we track it?
• Do we have the people and tools in place to create, manage, and track effective content?

With these answers in mind, you can outline your content governance:

• Roles and responsibilities;
• Quality standards;
• Metrics you care about;
• Clear content processes and version control;
• Communication breakdown;

2. Outline your team structure

Hire industry experts (content writers and SEO experts) to support your content team. These could be in-house team members or consultants.

If you’re working for a larger enterprise, you might want to build your own content operations team.

If you’re a smaller business, make sure you have a content operations manager or marketing manager who can enforce the process.

Lastly, make sure to define clear roles for all stakeholders involved.

3. Provide guidance

This supports the what and how of our content operations system with:

• A content governance model: Outlines the processes, stakeholders, and tools for content management.
• A brand guide: Articulates your brand voice, product information, and how to speak to your target audience.

4. Use the right tools

Now that your content team knows what to do and how to do it, what tech stack can streamline the process?

Think about every phase of the production workflow—from creation, content optimization, distribution, and analysis.

Here’s what to add to your technology stack for efficient content operations.

For keyword research: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a SEO tool that you can use to improve your search engine visibility.

Use Ahrefs to:

• Conduct keyword research;
• See your content’s search engine ranking;
• Monitor organic traffic and content performance;
• Conduct competitor research

For content creation: Wordbrew

Wordbrew is an AI platform that works with real subject matter experts to generate high-quality content.

The content creation tool is packed with features to help you:

• Access to industry experts to provide insight;
• Automate content creation;
• Incorporate data-driven insights;
• Build an editorial calendar;
• Provide guidance to ensure brand awareness.

Want to access a well of subject matter experts? Try Wordbrew today.

For content optimization: Letterdrop

Letterdrop is a content management tool that supports content creation, development, and publication.

It also boasts a powerful SEO tool that analyzes high-performing content to give you suggestions and outlines for:

• Target and secondary keywords;
• Audience preferences based on top results;
• How to optimize content to increase traffic;
• The content type that performs best (ig., a blog post or video).

For performance measurement: GA4

Once your content is live, use GA4 to conduct performance analysis.

This advanced analytic platform lets you customize from start to finish, so you can analyze across the content lifecycle.

Manage performance analysis on:

• Performance across different channels and platforms;
• Organic traffic;
• User engagement;
• Conversion rate;

… and other key performance indicators.

Conclusion

Content operations are the backbone of successful content marketing.

They give you the processes, quality standards, best practices, and tools to turn strategy into results.

Implement content operations to ensure your content creation efforts are strategic, consistent, and aligned with business objectives.

Treat your content performance like a well-orchestrated show, with content ops as your director and crew.

This way, you can create and deliver content that resonates with your target audience and leads to real benefits.

Wordbrew is a content development tool that uses the power of artificial intelligence and subject matter experts to build powerful content in seconds! Try today.