A new report has revealed that three-quarters of marketers are seeking workflow improvements across their teams to alleviate bottlenecks and pressure on resources.
According to Canto’s ‘State of Digital Content’ report, streamlining workflows is key to success in the coming year. The research, conducted in partnership with Ascend2, identified that teams with efficient workflows are over five times more likely to significantly increase the ROI of their content.
The study was conducted among over 600 professionals in the UK and the US who are involved in the production, management, and/or strategy for content and creative assets at their organisation.
It found that more than half (57%) estimate they waste more than three hours a week trying to locate assets that fuel their marketing machine. This equates to roughly three and a half weeks annually that could be spent planning and delivering campaigns, creating more content, and boosting sales pipelines.
“In a world where marketing teams and creatives have to do more with less, our research highlights the benefits of brilliantly organised workflows. With hybrid work now the norm, my advice to fellow marketers is to look at the tools your team depends on for collaboration and efficiency,” said Erica Gunn, Chief Marketing Officer at Canto. “We are experts at optimising nearly everything we do, from the time of day we post to social media to A/B testing email subject lines. Eliminating inefficiency in our workflow is an area most of us can address next.”
Further, Canto’s research identified that teams with the right tech stack are happier. For example, users of digital asset management (DAM) platforms are more than twice as likely to be highly satisfied with how their organisation’s digital content is managed and stored.
Better tools also mean better insights. With teams needing to plan, create, manage, publish and update assets, a lack of proper workflow and control means many content producers find it challenging to deliver against KPIs. Those surveyed who use a DAM solution were three times more likely to gain insights from their content management tools to inform strategic decisions around content creation.
The most commonly cited challenge identified in the report was found to be maintaining and updating content (37% of respondents). Among other challenges, content organisation falls short of the mark for many. Despite the time and complexity involved in content production, less than a quarter of marketers overall are using content taxonomies, editorial calendars, and content approval workflows.
Along with streamlining workflows, improving customer experience (CX) and improving collaboration were identified as top priorities for content and creative teams in 2023.
Further findings and guidance for marketers based on the research can be found in the State of Digital Content report available at www.canto.com/ebooks/stateofdigitalcontent
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