What is a Digital Marketing Workflow? (Complete Guide + Examples)

Digital Marketing — in all its forms — involves tons of moving parts. Even something seemingly simple, like sending a marketing email, is a product of teamwork and collaboration. 

All hands-on-deck projects, like a branded conference, take things a step further. They entail weeks (if not months) of coordinated effort before going live. 

So, a lot can go wrong without a step-by-step framework to guide the way. That's what a digital marketing workflow provides: a way to make success process-driven and repeatable.

What is a Digital Marketing Workflow

A digital marketing workflow is a series of actions or steps that you need to complete to achieve an outcome. 

For example, publishing a blog on your website is a goal or an outcome. Completing it involves several steps wherein multiple specialists work together. Zeroing down on those steps helps clear out dependencies from the get-go and addresses inefficiencies upfront. 

Four-Step Framework to Define Workflows 

1. Break the goal into tasks and sub-tasks
2. Pair tasks with the right team members
3. Determine how long the tasks will take
4. Map out dependencies

Of course, defining workflows is a lot simpler if you use a work management platform like SmartTask. 

Why is a Digital Marketing Workflow Useful? 

Workflows are more than a gimmick. They make your work lives flow (pun-intended) a little better. Here’s how:-

1. Success Becomes Repeatable

A workflow that survives several iterations helps everyone avoid common mistakes. Even new team members, who are taking on their first project, amplify their odds of success greatly when they follow a time-tested workflow. 

2. Consistency Breeds Quality

There's something magical about routine. No wonder even Haruki Murakami — the master of magical realism — sticks to a strict regimen, waking up at 4 a.m. every day. Following a workflow is the same thing. It's a commitment to staying consistent, which eventually translates into consistent quality. 

3. More Time Equals More Productivity

When a well-defined, well-vetted process governs how you exercise creativity, you waste zero brainpower on busy work. You save time and have more chances to be productive. 

4. Predictability Makes Activities Easier To Manage

Managing teams is a lot harder when each member does things too differently. Project Timelines for deliveries become too far apart, and following a schedule becomes impossible. A shared workflow — with clearly mapped out timelines — makes management predictable and thereby easier. 

5. Accountability Remains Clear Across the Board

Workflows define more than just the steps involved in producing an outcome. They also specify responsibilities from the get-go. 

Digital Marketing Workflow Examples 

Workflows, like shoe sizes, are not the same for everyone. Two teams can achieve the same result using different approaches. But, you need to know a wheel is round before reinventing it. So, here are some digital marketing workflow examples to give you a taste of what they look like:-

1. Content Marketing

According to Hubspot’s State of Content Marketing Report, 66% of marketers are hoping to spend more money on content marketing than they did last year. There you have it — proof that content marketing is only gaining more prominence with time. 

With that in mind, let's demystify workflows for creating three essential content marketing assets: videos, blogs, and podcasts. 

Video Content

The average person spends 100 minutes every day watching videos online. No wonder so many marketing dollars are going into producing video content, which takes quite a lot of effort to get right. 

How much effort, exactly? Well, here's a workflow to answer that:-

• Start with a brief detailing what you want to achieve with the video 
• Turn the brief into a script 
• Visualize the narrative you wrote by creating a storyboard 
• Make sure you have all the equipment you need
• Rally all collaborators and create a timeline for the shoot
• Record the footage you need
• Record voice-overs
• Pass along all video and sound assets to the post-production team 
• Wait for the edit to finish 
• Review the draft
• Record new footage if needed and repeat steps 4 to 9
• Publish and distribute the final product across the right channels 
• See how it performs (view count, watch time, click-through rate, conversions, etc).

How SmartTask improves this workflow

Planning shoots can turn into a nightmare when collaborators are split across platforms. SmartTask, Best Free Task Management Software enables you to map out accountability in a centralized space. That way, you don't risk wasting shoot days when someone in your team misses an email.

Blogs

Blogs are easily the backbone of most content marketing efforts. They pose a low barrier to entry and bear huge rewards when written well and published strategically. 

Here's a look into all that goes into getting blog marketing right:- 

• Research topics relevant to your audience
• Consult SEO and product teams to pick ideas with the most potential 
• Update the content calendar 
• Writers begin researching the topics
• The research turns into blog outlines
• Review outlines once submitted
• Writers start working on the first drafts
• Review drafts once submitted; check if they are SEO-optimized
• Writers make changes if necessary
• Request the design team to assist with graphics needed for the blogs
• Upload the final draft to the CMS
• Review one final time
• Hit publish and begin distribution work 
• Track performance (SERP ranking, page views, bounce rate, conversions, etc.) 

How SmartTask improves this workflow

Thanks to SmartTask's calendar view, you don't need to use spreadsheets to update the content calendar. It can exist within SmartTask — where you can also track your team's work.

Podcasts

From the outside, making podcasts seems like a walk in the park. Just hit record on your phone's recorder app and hit publish when you're done, right? Only if it were that easy. When you get down to business, publishing podcasts is just as challenging as running a radio station. 

Here's a workflow that paints that (very real) picture:- 

• Make a list of potential guests and topics you can cover
• Reach out to people from the list 
• Create a publication calendar 
• Secure the equipment you need to record episodes
• Finalize a date with a guest
• Go over the script and broad talking points, preferably a day before recording
• Record the audio for the podcast
• Collect feedback from guest to improve your craft, if possible
• Send the audio for post-production 
• Publish the podcast
• Promote on social media and other channels

How SmartTask improves this workflow?
For starters, SmartTask's calendar view can help you house the podcast's publication calendar. However, the real improvement lies elsewhere. Building a contacts database — which can be a pain for the podcast team — is handled seamlessly by SmartTask's in-built CRM.

2. Email Marketing 

Email is a marketing channel with 4200% ROI. Meaning what? Email is certainly not dead. On the contrary, it is your stairway to marketing heaven — lest you're a sinner with inefficient workflows. 

And even if you are, this example will redeem you:- 

• Pick from a list of ideas or brainstorm a new one
• Turn your idea into content 
• Decide what the email's layout will be like 
• Creative graphics to support the content & the layout
• Review content after the design
• Write a catchy subject for the email
• Map everything onto your email marketing tool (like MooSend)
• Send a test email to all team members whose input you seek
• Let everyone check the test email for errors or room for improvement
• Hit send if the test email remains unchallenged (make changes if not and repeat steps 7 to 9)
• Analyze performance data (open rate, clickthrough rate, conversion rate, etc.) 
• Learn what you can and discuss potential improvements with your team

How SmartTask improves this workflow

Team members go through several rounds of talking ideas and discussing feedback before a perfectly crafted email comes about. With SmartTask, such communication happens in the same platform where you're already tracking your efforts. 

3. Social Media

Social media — the twin-edged sword that presumably has rendered goldfishes more attentive than us — is vital for brand success. It gives both small businesses and enterprises a window to connect with their customers on a personal level. 

Want to cash in on this opportunity? This workflow example will help:- 

• Set goals for the week, month, and quarter
• Monitor social platforms to keep up with trends
• Brainstorms ideas for posts
• Turn ideas into content — enlist the help of copywriters, designers, and product experts
• Check if the content marketing team needs help with social promotion
• Map new content and promotional posts onto a calendar
• Schedule all posts for auto-upload (using a social media management tool)
• Monitor engagement on your posts — interact with the audience via comments, story mentions, live streams, etc.
• Check analytics to see if you’re meeting your goals

How SmartTask improves this workflow

It's easy to get lost in the noise when managing social media. So lost that you might lose track of the deadlines on your calendar. But with SmartTask, no need to blame your favorite influences for detracting you from the workflows you support. With timely reminders via email and phone/desktop notifications, you're always on top of all your responsibilities.

4. Webinar/Live Events 

Webinars carry insane value for attendees when done right. They're a high-effort, high-reward activity that turns even strangers into brand evangelists. 

On the flip side, they can also be an avalanche of bad PR when executed in poor taste. Want to evade that situation? Here's a workflow example for that:-

• Research your audience — identify outcomes they wish to achieve
• Select a webinar topic that you can do justice to as you help your audience achieve an intended outcome
• Send invites to any external collaborators you want on the webinar
• Confirm the final list of speakers
• Begin preparing webinar content (script + visual assets)
• Finalize details for the webinar (when to begin registration, what day to go live, what order will the speakers follow, when the QnA happen, etc.)
• Create promotional content to get your audience excited
• Distribute promotional content via social media, PR outlets, and email marketing
• Collect registrations from multiple sources
• Prepare for the big day — practice with all speakers
• Dazzle your audience when the time comes
• Celebrate your webinar’s success on social media 

How does SmartTask improve this workflow?

Bringing teams out of silos is a big challenge when organizing webinars or live events. SmartTask helps tackle this by making cross-team collaboration a breeze. You can share tasks across projects, eliminating the risk of duplicate work.

5. Campaign Management 

Campaigns, if managed poorly, can quickly become synonymous with burning heaps of cash. Here's an example workflow designed to avoid that:- 

• Create a SMART goal for the campaign (For example: increase home page visits by 25% by the end of Q3)
• Determine the campaign's budget
• Select a target audience (or audiences)
• Pick the right channels 
• Form a plan of action (a timeline) 
• Assign tasks and deadlines to your team members 
• Track progress on all campaign activities (content creation, community engagement, outreach activities, etc.)
• Publish content according to the campaign plan
• Study ROI when the dust settles 

How does SmartTask improve this workflow?

Campaigns are often spread across weeks, if not months. Several marketing dollars go into their creation, making it crucial to stay data-driven. SmartTask helps by equipping you with intuitive dashboards that make it easy to centralize all relevant data and justify ROI.    

Ready to Manage Workflows the Smart Way?

So far, we have covered about a dozen workflows marketers can use. Implementing them, as you've seen, is much easier with SmartTask taking care of the busy work. 

However, that's just the tip of the iceberg. With SmartTask as your go-to work management platform, you can save as much as a day a week. But don't just take our word for it. See the impact for yourself. 

What Our Customers Have Accomplished With SmartTask?

Here's a taste of the impact we've created for the 20,000+ teams using our product:- 

• Sarhad Dairy — a milk production union that collects 5,00,000 liters of milk every day — switched from Asana to SmartTask and increased employee productivity by 50%. 
• SpiderWebs – a UAE-based digital marketing agency with operations across several continents – used SmartTask to streamline the development of its eCommerce app.

Pretty awe-inspiring, right?