Most editorial leaders today are running multiple writers and corresponding subject matter experts, and sometimes even designers and/or SEO specialists. They often are also managing several projects at the same time (i.e., they are in the midst of a number of publication schedules all at once). In most cases, they use a bunch of different software programs to run their content teams. (In other words, most editorial leaders are running very disorganized content teams).
Administrative friction can be eliminated by creating a suitable software infrastructure, allowing content to be created, published, and analyzed as quickly as possible. In this article, 10 digital tools are explained in depth, step by step, which can be used to create, manage, and analyze content for high-performing content operations.
1. Project Management and Editorial Tracking
Asana
Centralized task tracking is at the core of any successful content operation. With Asana, editorial leads can create content calendars and track articles as they go through the different stages of development. Asana allows for customized fields to track relevant information for each task, for example, target keywords, word count, assigned writer, and publication date. This information can be viewed in different boards or list views.
Asana manages dependencies between different team members’ work effectively. Notifications can be set up so that, for example, a copywriter is alerted the moment a designer attaches featured graphics to a writer’s article, or an SEO lead is notified when a draft is ready for final optimization by the writer. In this way, articles can go through the appropriate quality control checks before being published in the staging environment for the actual publishing of the article.
Trello
Trello provides a simple approach for small teams or decentralized creative groups with its Kanban board (a simple board with cards that move from left to right). Here, articles move through stages such as ‘Pitch Approved’, ‘Drafting’, ‘Peer Review’, ‘Final Polish’, and ‘Scheduled’ for publication.
Trello allows you to add brief documents, references, images, etc. to the cards. This allows for easy access to the resources needed for each task. Trello Power-Ups can also integrate with calendar tools, allow for automated reminders for upcoming deadlines, and even keep track of activity on cards (great for remote workers).
2. Editing, Polish, and Tone Optimization
Grammarly
Grammarly automatically checks the content written by the authors for mechanical errors (e.g., grammar, punctuation, and spelling) and unclear wording. This way, the editor already has a filtered version of the content before he starts to read it.
Grammarly also helps your writers and contributors write in a correct, formal, and appropriate manner and use the right tone. You can even set up your own company style guide and check if your writers are using the right terminology and vocabulary in their online content. They can also check if the tone is appropriate for the reader of your online content.
Hemingway Editor
Skimmed by digital readers, writers need to make sure that their content is up to scratch. The Hemingway Editor’s text readability analysis, for example, highlights long, complex sentences that contain a passive voice or are written using unnecessary adverbs and gives users a clear grade-level scale score to see if they have written at too high a level for their target audience.
By scoring text on a readability grade level, the Hemingway Editor can warn writers of overly complex sentences and provide feedback to improve clarity, reduce complexity, and improve mobile readability, helping prevent high bounce rates.
3. Quality Control and Production Analytics
GPTZero
GPTZero helps content managers track and verify the work of human writers, research, and other work in order to verify original work. This diagnostic tool checks a manuscript for originality, structure, predictability, and more. It is very useful for editors to determine whether a manuscript contains original research or whether it was written by a genuine expert in the domain, rather than by a machine.
Editorial leads can use GPTZero in their quality control of manuscripts submitted for review. The diagnostic tool analyzes the structural composition of manuscripts submitted for publication. This allows for quality control in terms of whether or not the content of manuscripts contains original research and the appropriate narrative structure for expert authors in specific domains. The tool can help maintain the high standards of content published on search engines in highly competitive landscapes.
Google Analytics
Once content is published, it is in the middle of the content lifecycle, and tracking its performance will help to determine future content strategies. Google Analytics tracks how audiences find, read, and react to content published on the web.
By tracking key performance indicators for published content, such as how far people scroll, average time spent engaged per visitor, and how conversion paths and organic acquisition sources perform, content teams can gain insight into the most successful pieces of content. This, in turn, can provide valuable insights on which pieces of historical content would benefit from an update, which topics would generate the highest return on investment, and where content can be restructured to better convert casual visitors into paying subscribers or customers.
4. Research and Topic Discovery
BuzzSumo
Trend research provides the basis for producing high-impact content. High-impact content is not produced by ‘guessing’ and then seeing if it works. Rather, the most effective content is produced by finding the most effective topics, formats, and headlines through analysis of web pages and social media interactions. BuzzSumo provides these to content strategists.
BuzzSumo has far more value for a content team than simply discovering trends. With BuzzSumo, you can see brand mentions in real time and track the most up-to-date industry news that has gone viral. Based on this data, you can analyze the top content from the past year in a given industry, including average article length, where the content was distributed, and how backlinks were acquired for the most successful articles. Using this information, you can create the most in-depth editorial briefs yet, armed with historical data.
AnswerThePublic
Many studies have already found that AnswerThePublic is great for ranking and answering the questions of your potential customers. In short, AnswerThePublic helps you find the questions your target audience is searching for that you can rank for and answer.
Finally, for AnswerThePublic, we map out the search maps for writers to structure the subheadings for their content. Here, we can see who is searching for what, and we can publish content to rank in search, answer the questions of our target readers, and earn featured snippets to appear at the top of search results for our chosen keywords.
5. Writing and Real-Time Collaboration
Google Docs
Google Docs is the industry standard for real-time document processing. Here, authors, technical reviewers, and managing editors can work on the same document at the same time. It’s ideal for fast-paced editorial environments where documents are updated constantly, and conflicts over versions can occur.
In terms of commenting and suggesting changes, Google Docs is once again unparalleled. It allows for commenting, suggesting changes, and even makes track changes to the document that are later accepted by the author. The ability to view a document’s revision history and even revert to a previous version, should the author decide they don’t like where the document is going, is very powerful.
Notion
I would be able to work within Notion to create a single page/wiki that serves as a central hub of information for my team and for our content. On this page, I could create a number of linked content databases that hold information on, for example, authors, technical reviewers, managing editors, as well as linked information on buyer personas, and on a library of brand assets.
One of the biggest benefits of using a relational database like Notion is that every entry can link to other relevant entries. A single entry for a piece of content could link to the author’s bio, the relevant buyer persona, the relevant assets, and the overall marketing campaign for which the content was created.
Building a Unified Content Operations System
By using the right software for managing administrative tasks, tracking, and mechanical checks, creative professionals can devote more time to in-depth research, better writing, and successful publication of their work to generate lasting value for businesses.
