Optimizing content workflows with Arc XP

Sometimes, solving these identified opportunities can be accomplished simply by exploring unused functionalities available in the technology you already use. Rob Sawers, a Principal Training Consultant on Arc XP’s Customer Enablement team, shares some of Arc XP’s key workflow functionalities customers can apply to improve agility and efficiency in their organization.

Content creation workflows

If you’re not sure where to start, look to the beginning of your production pipeline. Arc XP comes equipped with built-in functionality designed to boost content creators’ efficiency.

Story templates: One way to streamline content creation in Arc XP Content’s editorial interface, Arc XP Composer, is through story templates. With templates, content creators can add metadata, assign tags, and apply the right settings automatically, so they can jump into writing without the time-consuming pre-work. There are countless use cases for story templates – try making a list of the most frequent content scenarios your organization encounters and make a template for each one.

Example states of ‘Create story’ options for authors in Composer; First has Blank story enabled, No default template set and No templates starred by the user; second has Blank story disabled, Default template set and No templates starred by the user; third has Blank story enabled, Default template set and No templates starred by the user; fourth option has Blank story enabled, Default template set, and Two templates starred, unique to the individual user

Visual elements: Directly embed digital assets (both photo and video), social media posts, HTML blocks, and more directly from within the Composer interface. Modify elements to align with your SEO and content strategies, without making any changes to the original asset in your digital asset library.
Story variants: Add local flavor to global stories. With Composer, you can easily manage multiple versions of a single story for different websites. Adding a variant zone to stories that warrant different versions lets you create audience-specific content and edit it independently of the main story.

example of a story and then an outline of a similar one with a different image representing a variant — Composer story variants

Content planning workflows

Once your content is created, add it to your publishing schedule using Arc XP WebSked. Keep track of your team’s resources, identify gaps in your publishing schedule, and execute your content strategy with flexibility.

Calendar view: Create a scannable view of your content distribution and publication schedule, so you can easily find and focus on the content that needs your immediate attention. This added layer of dynamic flexibility makes it easy to decide what to publish next, identify schedule gaps, and quickly adapt execution strategies. See at a glance what’s coming up and change a story’s planned distribution time simply by dragging and dropping it from one day to another on the calendar.
Pitching: Websked also comes equipped with built-in pitching functionality, enabling creators to recommend content for publication on specific platforms or publications. Editors or managers are notified when content is pitched and can immediately respond and or schedule it. Seamless communication between creators and planners streamlines collaboration to save valuable time.

Tasks: Managing teams of any size involves a lot of moving parts, but Arc XP’s multi-app task integration helps to centralize your control and keep things running smoothly. Automated task triggers eliminate the countless email back-and-forth email and frees everyone up to move on to other things quickly.

Flow chart showing WebSked's integrated task management with an editor creating task in websked, photographer uploading images for that task with task ID, and then writer embeds images in same story (where images are ready) — Arc XP WebSked integrated task management

Tags: Assigning thematic tags to content doesn’t just help it stay organized – it also can provide an alternate way for your audience to navigate your website and find content. Respond immediately to your audience’s evolving interests by adding new tags the moment something becomes news. You can even create dynamic feeds based on content tags and blend them with hand-picked content, helping you to curate for specific needs and interests.

Content delivery workflows

Content creation and planning can make up a significant portion of day-to-day workflows, but there are ways to optimize content delivery, too. Arc XP can streamline curation and help you connect the dots to deliver the most relevant content to your audience.

Collections: A simplified way to approach curation, WebSked’s collections feature enables editors to create lists of prioritized content that can be pushed directly to a webpage. Its end-to-end integration means creators can submit relevant content to a collection, content editors can re-order and even pin the most important stories to the top, and homepage editors can create a feature that automatically curates content from that collection onto a specified webpage.

Example of a collection in WebSked titled Editor's choice which distributes to a home page, a landing page, and print

Multisite Collections: To further simplify content distribution, Arc XP enables multisite collections. Rather than populating a single block of content on one site, collections can be configured to distribute content to multiple sites at one time, from one location. With multisite collections, the need to manage different streams and different workflows for different content destinations is eliminated.
Print integration: Seamlessly integrate your content library with your print CMS or newsletter systems. With the pitching functionality, content creators can simultaneously assign a story for print and digital publications. The “send to print” function in Composer also does this. When ready to publish, creators can use the “send to print” button to instantly transfer the content to their print CMS. Any updates to the original content will be automatically applied downstream as well. You won’t have to spend time retraining your team to use different systems – Arc XP makes it happen with the click of a button.

With Arc XP, you get a comprehensive suite of tools designed to optimize your operations at every step of content production from start to finish.

Optimizing content workflows with Arc XP

Whether going through an organizational change, integrating new technologies, or conducting business as usual, there is never a bad time to re-evaluate your organization’s content processes to identify opportunities for improvement.

Content creation workflows

Content planning workflows

Content delivery workflows

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