Successful Content Development Process

by Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp — all-in-one help authoring tool

Having an organized process in place is always a good idea. And if your goal is to build a connection with your target audience and facilitate growth, you definitely gonna need to set up a content development process!

Content development is a full-cycle process of creating, distributing, and testing content for a website to be more efficient and achieve your business goals. As a technical writer, you may be underestimating this process. But it concerns your fruits of labor because no matter how great the content you make, it can only get you so far — without the right strategy, no one will see the technical documentation you spent weeks creating.

So let’s go through all the content development steps:

1. Perform research. Collect as much information as possible. Learn about target demographics, your key competitors, past site performance, and any other information unique to the individual customer. The more information you gather, the better.
2. Set goals. After you have all the information, you need you can build out the content strategy and create an editorial calendar. Think about what you want your content to accomplish. The best way is to set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Anchored) goals for your content development process.
3. Write. Focus on readability and sharing helpful information, and make your content actionable using visuals. Remember to collaborate with multiple team members to make the most of your written content. For example, the content strategist creates the brief, the writer creates the content, and the editor reviews and fact-checks your pieces. Everyone should know when to step in, so use a tool that supports seamless collaboration.
4. Promote. There are many ways to promote quality content, but the most obvious is social media. Also, look upon republishing platforms, influencers in your industry, and email outreach.
5. Analyze. Content development is a continuous process that starts as soon as it ends. Take time to review the performance of your content, gather feedback and improve it. This will help to make sure your content is engaging and working for your users as expected. Use these data for revision.
6. Optimize. After the analysis, you can optimize your content for people and search engines. Make sure that your content covers all the questions your readers may possibly have on this topic. Try out unconventional formats to keep your audience engaged. Structure and improve your content: balance the length, headings, and keywords against your top-ranking competitors. Make sure that all the pieces are up to date and aligned in terms of brand tone and messaging.

The following roles demand knowledge of content development:

• Content strategists: As those chiefly responsible for brainstorming ideal content formats, planning briefs, and analyzing content success, content strategists are at the forefront of content development.
• Head of content: Heads of content often have a broader role than strategists but are also involved in strategizing and executing content plans.
• Project managers: Project managers oversee the content workflow and ensure that all involved parties work efficiently.
• Content creators: Anyone steeped in content creation is involved in the content development process.
• Social media marketers: Social media marketers also engage in content marketing. They, too, must understand the process.
• Bloggers: Lastly, bloggers regularly interact with their audience via comments and feedback–priceless audience research that can help them nail the content development process.

Sometimes the failure of your content marketing lies in poor content development. This process requires consistency to be successful. Regardless of your role — whether you’re a writer, marketer, or content creator — you will benefit from improving your content workflow. So spare the time and effort required to structure the process and focus on your audience’s needs, and you’ll get positive business results in the long term.

Have a nice day!

Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors