Content Production Template
Developing a robust marketing plan is a must when you’re trying to court new customers, and a major aspect of that plan is your approach to content. No matter how much you produce or who it’s intended for, without a solid roadmap and a specific timeline, it’s easy for content to get lost in the shuffle. In addition to a timeline, your content needs to be striking, resonate with your target market, and create a bond between them and your brand or product. Doing this reliably time and time again is definitely of a tall order, and that’s where this template comes in — it will offer all of the tools you need to produce meaningful content and promote it successfully.
With this template, you’ll be able to establish a long term plan of action, perfect for content that is a key point in your overall marketing campaign. What’s more, this allows you to factor in third party time constraints like freelancers on a deadline. You can start out by mapping these points on the calendar to give you a firm foothold to work from, as it will offer you a sense of how long you have, how much time you can afford to devote to certain projects, and how flexible you can be with your budget needs.
Once you have the bare bones of your project mapped out on the bigger timeline, you can divide the overall objective into smaller pieces that can be tackled on an individual basis. Whether that’s specific projects you want to tackle as part of a larger content plan, budget guidelines to make sure you’re not veering off track, or simply just timeline milestones you can log them and track them so they will show up in your daily and weekly views later. Similarly, you can develop tasks from your content projects to assign to team members, to give you a sense of who you want doing what ahead of time. Whatever detail it is you want to track, you’ll be able to with proper use of custom tasks and fields.
Quite often in a paid content marketing campaign you’re going to need to rely on outside help to get the job done right. Whether you’re employing outside authors, requesting purpose built graphics, or having someone build an email chain from scratch, you’ll still need to make sure it adheres to the same timeline so you don’t lose track of your goals. Because of this, we’ve made sure that sorting tasks into easily searchable and organizable sections is easy and quick, so you can tell at a glance what is in the pipeline, what is waiting to be approved, and what the due date is for the outsourced material. Whatever organizational restraints you encounter when running a project of this nature we’re sure that this template has you covered.
It’s also important to talk about the value of actively collaborating with your team on content projects, as consistent, creative output is not only great for morale but it can be a fantastic source of ideas also. Be sure to put Hive Chat to good use to encourage ongoing collaboration and creative expression. Making good use of these tools is key to your ongoing success, and here are some more tips to help you make the most of this template:
- The Gantt Chart is your ideal wide-angle view on the overall campaign. From here you’ll be able to get a sense of the full timeline, and where you need to make your adjustments. This is where you’ll want to establish your long term dependencies, due dates and any deliverables that are time sensitive. It’s also great for when you need to keep to a budget, as you’ll be able to plot out any expenses so you’ll never have to worry about misattributing your resources. If you’re looking for the long term tactical view, you will get a lot of good use out of Gantt view.
- The Kanban Board will serve as a weekly roundup of sorts. Here, you’ll be able to see in a quick and clear way what tasks, deadlines and other notable points you have to consider for the week. You’ll also be able to see when the bigger milestones are just around the corner so it’s perfect for making sure you’re ahead of schedule. This is the view you’ll want to use to get a sense of how every part of the project is progressing day to day, a truly essential tool for any savvy manager.
- The Table View is more of an analytical take on the short term status of a project. Here, you’ll get the days data roundup listed for your convenience, so you can tell at a quick glance what is going on. It’s also an ideal way to gather information if you need to make any kind of ongoing to-do list as you’ll be able to easily see what areas are lagging in the project.
Remember that as part of the Hive suite you also have access to Hive Analytics, which offer a number of useful tools for gauging the long term success and productivity of your team. You can also monitor your team in the Team View to get a real-time sense of what everyone has been assigned to — perfect for if you need to speak to a specific team member about an element of the project you’re interested in. Combine this with Hive Chat and working becomes quick, efficient and productive — exactly what you need to help you consistently deliver on your content goals, and help drive your marketing to the next level.
Check out some other project templates here:
Paid Marketing Campaign Template
