Four foolproof content creation workflows

Would you believe that only 55% of marketing teams can keep up with the demand for content? Maybe it’s not even too surprising when you think about how much work goes into producing just one piece of content (and how much content businesses need to deliver).

Anyway, to make sure you’re on the right side of that stat, you need a reliable content creation workflow to help your team glide through every kind of project. Today, I’m going to show you how to build workflows that take the chaos out of content creation.

By the time you reach the end of this article, you’ll have a step-by-step guide on how to build content creation workflows for different content types:

• Blog posts 
• Social media campaigns
• Animated videos
• Packaging design 

But before we get into each content workflow, we need to outline the difference between task-based and status-based workflows. So let’s crack that first.

Task-based vs. status-based workflows

When it comes to building out your content creation process, there are two popular approaches: task-based workflows and status-based workflows. 

Let’s take a closer look at each type of content creation workflow. 

Task-based workflows

A task-based workflow is all about who does what. By this, I mean each stage of the process is tied to a specific responsibility or role. 

Here’s an example of how a typical task-based workflow operates:

Writer drafts → Editor revises → Legal reviews → Designer formats → Marketing manager approves

This kind of content creation process is great when accountability is important (it’s always important, but you know what I mean), since it helps make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Essentially, this workflow makes sure that each collaborator is responsible for their part of the process. The flipside of this is that the entire workflow can stall if just one person falls behind, because continuous progress depends on the previous task being completed.

Status-based workflows

A status-based workflow focuses on where the content is in its lifecycle rather than who’s handling it. 

For example, these might be the key stages of a status-based workflow:

Draft → In Review → Feedback Collected → Approved → Published

Status-based content creation workflows give stakeholders a bird’s-eye view of progress across multiple projects, helping managers quickly spot bottlenecks. For this reason, this kind of workflow works best if you need to manage large volumes of content at once, like blogs or social posts. 

But watch out … this approach doesn’t assign tasks directly, you’ll need to establish clear ownership of who’s responsible for moving content from one stage to the next. Project management tools and content workflow software can help a lot!

Tip: Many marketing teams combine both approaches when creating content. For example, you might set up statuses like Draft → In Review → Approved. Then, within the review stage, you could assign specific tasks to reviewers (brand, legal, design, etc.). 

As you’ll see in the next section of this article, a hybrid content creation workflow (task-based plus status-based) can be very effective. Why? Because it gives you the best of both worlds: accountability and visibility.

Now, let’s look at some different content creation workflows!

Blog post workflow

Blog posts are the backbone of many quality inbound content marketing strategies, but they can really eat into your team’s resources if the process isn’t well thought out ahead of time. The challenge is balancing creativity, accuracy, and speed, while making sure each post reflects your brand voice and maintains high-quality content that complies with industry rules.

Here’s an effective content marketing workflow to help you produce high-quality blog posts as quickly as possible. 

Step one – Create a brief

While some teams might take a more free-flowing approach to creating blog posts, I highly recommend starting with a brief that outlines your content creation objectives. Trust me, it will help your content creation team in the long run! 

At this stage, the content strategist prepares a detailed content marketing strategy that sets the direction for the article. Some key things to highlight in the brief include: 

• Target audience
• Primary and secondary SEO keywords
• Content goals
• Any specific references or tone of voice requirements

Step two – Research the topic

Now it’s time for the writer to get to work by gathering the information they need to produce a credible, high-quality article. This stage might include looking at competitor content, internal resources (case studies, product sheets), industry statistics, keyword research, and insights from subject-matter experts.

Step three – Write the post and optimize for SEO

Using the brief and research gathered, the writer should be about ready to draft the article. The focus here is on the following:

• Structure – Does the blog use logical headlines and sections to make the content readable?
• Clarity – Is the content clear and easy to understand?
• Visibility – Have you incorporated SEO keywords naturally throughout the article?

Tip: You can use specialized tools like Surfer SEO to help optimize your articles, either as you write or after creating the first draft. 

And if you want to dive deeper into strategy, be sure to check out our recent interview with Content Strategist Tyler Hawkes on all things SEO and GEO.

Step four – Review and approve your blog posts with Filestage

This is arguably the most important stage of your content creation process. Before publishing blog posts, you need to share them with the relevant teammates to collect feedback and fine-tune the content. 

Of course, you don’t want reviews to hold up your content creation workflow. So the easiest and most thorough way to manage feedback is with an online proofing software like Filestage. 

Filestage brings all your review and approval tasks into one platform, so your marketing team can manage the entire feedback cycle without juggling emails or docs. 

Here’s how it works:

• Upload the draft – Start by creating a project. Then share your blog post in Filestage to kick off the review process (you can set automated deadlines to nudge stakeholders and speed up the feedback process).
• Assign reviewer groups – Map out who should review content at each stage of the approval process. You can create your own custom groups in Filestage and automatically invite those reviewers to start leaving their feedback.
• Run the AI Reviewer – Use Filestage’s AI feature to automatically flag brand guideline issues, forbidden words, or compliance risks in your content.
• Collect stakeholder feedback – Marketing, product, or compliance teams leave comments directly on the content, keeping all feedback in one place and everyone on the same page. Reviewers can annotate assets directly on the file for extra clarity.
• Get final approval – Once revisions are made and everyone’s happy, stakeholders can approve the content with a single click.

Step five – Publish your blog post 

Once you have approval, your blog post is ready to go live. At this stage of the content creation process, the content marketing team needs to upload the final version to their CMS. From there, it can either be scheduled or published directly. 

Social media campaign workflow

The best social media campaigns combine fresh concepts,  snappy copy, and scroll-stopping visual content creation. And we can’t forget that they need to be posted, like, yesterday. So the pressure is on!

With so many moving parts and stakeholders, it’s easy for feedback to get messy and deadlines to slip. That’s why you need a solid content creation process to keep your campaigns on track. 

Let’s take a look at an effective content workflow for social media campaigns!

Step one – Plan and ideate your social media campaign

This is where you define the fundamentals, like:

• Your target audience
• Key messages
• Which social media platforms you’ll use for your campaign

A solid content strategy at this stage makes sure every post supports the bigger picture as you move through the entire content process.  

Once you have a plan, your creative team is all set to brainstorm campaign concepts that align with your business objectives and audience insights. I’d suggest getting as many ideas as possible to start with, then narrowing down by thinking more about how each idea could come to life. You can even use Filestage to quickly share initial ideas with the wider team if you need some fresh eyes.

Step two – Create your campaign content

Now it’s all hands on deck! This stage of your content creation workflow is where writers, designers, and video creators develop the assets for your social media campaign. Those assets can include everything from carousels to graphics to reels. Consistency in tone and visual style is critical here. So, everyone should be working from the same brief or campaign plan that was laid out in step one. 

Step three – Review and approve content with Filestage

Now it’s time to upload your campaign assets to Filestage to begin the review process. Here’s where task-based and status-based content creation workflows can intersect: 

Stakeholders (marketing, brand, compliance) leave feedback directly, while the campaign moves through different stages like Draft → In Review → Approved.

AI Reviewers also step in here to automatically flag: 

• Compliance risks (things like missing disclaimers, for example)
• Off-brand messaging
• Forbidden terms
• Design issues

This reduces time spent on manual checks and allows marketing team members to focus on the overall quality of the campaign content. As soon as all your feedback is in, you can make amends, upload new versions, and click approved once everyone’s happy.

Step four – Schedule or publish content

Once your campaign is approved, it’s over to the social media manager who will usually schedule posts in a social media tool (like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social) or post them directly on each platform. This step of your content management workflow ensures the campaign goes live at the right time to maximize impact.

Step five – Track campaign performance

A successful workflow isn’t complete without measuring your content’s performance. After publishing your social media posts, you should track key campaign metrics, including: 

• Engagement
• Impressions
• Click-throughs
• Conversions

That way, you can adapt current and future campaigns, and measure ROI. Sharing a report with stakeholders closes the loop on your content creation workflow and allows for continuous optimization while building accountability going forward.

Animated video workflow

Video animation is resource-heavy, to say the least. It requires careful planning, collaboration, and continuous feedback. With that said, I’d recommend using Filestage throughout this kind of content workflow. It works for all the file types (videos, designs, documents), making it easier for collaborators to leave comments, track revisions, and approve assets at every stage of the content creation process.

Let’s see how this kind of video content workflow comes to life! 

Step one – Ideate and script your video

This content production process begins by writing a script that defines the story, key messages, and pacing. Copywriters or content strategists focus on clear, engaging language while choosing the tone e.g. playful, serious, inspiring, or infographic-style. Initial ideas and skeleton scripts can be uploaded to Filestage for stakeholder feedback throughout this stage of the content creation workflow.

Step two – Storyboard your video

Here, storyboard artists or motion designers create rough stills for each scene, showing camera movements and key animation points. These sketches can be combined into an animatic to test pacing and flow. 

I’d suggest collecting feedback directly in Filestage, so the motion design team is able to make adjustments to the storyboard before the design stage of your content creation workflow. 

Step three – Design for motion

Now it’s time for art directors and designers to develop style frames. The goal here is to define color palettes, typography, characters, and overall design. 

These frames will then expand into the full design universe. Again, you can share your style frames in Filestage for continuous stakeholder feedback. This will save you wasting time on any backtracking later down the line. 

Step four – Animate and add sound

This is where things really get moving! Animators bring the approved designs to life, while sound designers layer voiceover, music, and effects. AI content creation tools are changing the game for this kind of work! 

You’ll likely want to set aside time for two or three rounds of feedback at this stage. (work-in-progress versions can be uploaded to Filestage for ongoing feedback). Audio is mastered to balance all elements, ensuring the final animation is polished and aligned with the original vision.

Step five – Review video content and approve

Before your video content goes live, you’ll need to make sure that the right people review it and sign off. If you’ve ever tried to give feedback on video content via email, you probably know how time-consuming it is to take screenshots and jot down time codes.

To speed this process up and make things a lot more transparent, I’d suggest managing video reviews in Filestage. Stakeholders can leave comments and annotations directly on the video file, so your editors can clearly see what changes need to be made.

Here’s a quick overview of how it works:

Step six – Distribute and promote

Once you have final approval, the video is ready to be exported and formatted for each platform. Social media or content managers will often optimize with metadata, captions, and thumbnails, then publish or schedule according to the campaign plan. 

You can track performance through views, engagement, and conversions, using these insights to inform future animations that can help boost brand awareness.

Packaging design workflow

Packaging design is more than just creating something that looks pretty on the shelves. It needs to protect the product, communicate key information, and reflect the brand, all while complying with strict legal requirements. 

Let’s take a look at how to build out a packaging design workflow! 

Step one – Define your requirements

Before you do any design work, your team needs a clear creative brief that outlines goals, target audience, regulatory requirements, and technical specifications for your packaging (e.g., dielines, materials, sustainability considerations). 

Tip: Upload your design brief to Filestage, where stakeholders can quickly align on expectations before you get into the nitty-gritty. 

Step two – Develop initial concepts

Once your brief is locked in, your design team can start exploring different creative directions. This is the brainstorming stage, where you look at how to balance creativity with function. 

Think about how the packaging will stand out, whether it reflects your brand identity, and how clearly it communicates what’s inside. At this stage, it’s not about polishing every detail, it’s about finding the strongest idea to build on.

Step three – Finalize design assets

Once you’ve chosen a clear direction, it’s time to bring the design to life. Your designers will refine typography, imagery, and color palettes, and add essential elements like barcodes and regulatory text. 

This is where precision matters most: a missing ingredient, a misaligned barcode, or even a font that doesn’t print clearly can create major delays and costs later on. The goal is to have a complete, production-ready design by the end of this stage! 

Step four – Review and approve

The stakes are incredibly high when it comes to creating packaging designs, so this stage is critical. 

By uploading your files to Filestage, you can centralize everyone’s feedback, track comments directly on the design, and move through versions without messy email threads. This way, you know the final sign-off is thorough and nothing gets missed.

Tip: For faster results, use Filestage’s AI Reviewer to check for things like brand consistency and legal compliance before sharing your designs with the relevant stakeholders. 

Step five – Print and distribute

Once you’ve got final approval, you can prepare your files for print. Be sure to collaborate closely with your printing partner to confirm color accuracy, material quality, and barcode functionality with test prints before committing to a full run. 

After production, your packaging moves into distribution. This might mean sending your packaging straight to retail shelves, shipping to e-commerce warehouses, or stocking it in fulfillment centers.

Final thoughts

Content creation workflows come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the type of project. What matters most is having a clear, reliable content workflow template that your marketing team can follow and perfect over time. Then, you’re onto a winner! 

I hope this article helps you master your content workflow management! And if you’d like to speed up your content creation workflows with Filestage, start your free trial now.