The content spreadsheet on a Wednesday
The content lead has a spreadsheet with a tab per client. Each row is an article: target keyword, brief link, writer, due date, status. Status is updated when someone remembers. Writers send drafts by email or share Google Docs. The editor works in the doc. Clients approve by email, or do not. Once approved, someone logs into the client's WordPress to publish, often a week later.
On Wednesday a client asks where their March articles are. The content lead checks the spreadsheet, which says "with client". She searches her inbox and finds the client approved two of them nine days ago. They were never published. The third is with a writer who has gone quiet.
Why articles get lost between stages
- Every hand-off happens in a different place: brief in a doc, draft by email, edit in Google Docs, approval by email, publishing in the client's CMS.
- Freelance writers have no view of the agency's plan, only the brief they were sent.
- Status is updated by hand after the fact, if at all.
- Client approvals arrive in the account manager's inbox, not the content lead's.
- Publishing is the last step and has no owner, so approved articles sit.
Each person knows where their own articles are. Nobody can see all of them at once.
What lost articles cost
Retainer deliverables are missed and clients notice, especially when they are paying for a set number of articles each month. Writers are paid for pieces that are never published. The content lead spends a large part of each week tracking rather than editing. Approved work goes stale waiting for someone to publish it.
The content pipeline we build
- Every article is a card with its client, keyword, brief, writer, editor, due dates per stage and target publish date.
- Briefs are generated from a template per client, including tone, internal links to include and any compliance notes, and sent to the writer with a link.
- Writers submit drafts through the link. The draft is attached to the card and the editor is notified.
- After editing, the client gets an approval link for the article, with approve or change buttons. Approvals go to the pipeline, not to an inbox.
- Approved articles are pushed to the client's WordPress as a draft through its API, with categories, featured image and meta fields filled, ready for a final check and publish.
- Late stages are highlighted, and writers and clients get reminders before and after due dates.
- The content lead sees all clients on one board, filtered by stage, writer or client.
| Stage | Who holds it | How it moves on |
|---|---|---|
| Brief | Content lead | Sent to writer by link |
| Writing | Freelance writer | Draft submitted through the link |
| Edit | Editor | Marked ready for client |
| Client approval | Client contact | Approve or change on the link |
| Publishing | Content team | Pushed to the CMS as a draft, then published |
If your team already uses a content tool with most of this, we connect the missing parts, usually client approval and publishing, rather than replacing it.
Wednesday with a pipeline
The client asks about March. The content lead filters the board and sees two articles approved and already sitting as drafts in their WordPress, waiting only for a final check, and one overdue with the writer. She publishes the two, sends the client a link, and reassigns the third. The question takes a few minutes instead of an afternoon.
Is your content team working like this?
- Article status is tracked in a spreadsheet updated by hand.
- Approved articles have sat unpublished.
- Freelance writers only see the brief, not the plan.
- Client approvals land in whoever's inbox they were sent to.
- Monthly article deliverables have been missed without anyone noticing.