A Simple Editing Process I've Used With Clients

You don't need a complex process for it to be effective. A few simple, straightforward rules of the road are often enough to create an effective process; in this case, editing for inbound clients.

Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash

Processes don’t need to be complicated.

My “old” client editing process shows that effectiveness doesn’t need to be complicated.

I’ve been thinking about processes a lot.

Motivation and energy varies daily.

We’re human. No worries. It happens.

But.

You want to eat, you still need to work.

That’s where processes and habits kick in.

I’m not an expert on either though I can say when your work habits align with your processes; life becomes WAY less stressful. I’d argue that lack of processes kills more creativity than anything else.

Sure, it’s not exciting to think of “creativity” as an assembly line where time on task rules over “inspiration.”

At least until you realize that inspiration often comes from time on task.

Anyway, I found my old editing process document from my time as the VP of content for a HubSpot inbound agency focused on serving copier dealers.

Sharing it to show that a process doesn’t need to be complex or complicated to work.

This one did.

Our Client Editing Process

This is the editing process I used for four years with over a dozen clients. I’ll be revising this for future clients too.

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Because content lies at the heart of inbound marketing, we’ll be writing a lot — and asking you to review what we write (especially in the beginning of our relationship). Please keep in mind the brief points below as we create the content that will help fuel your marketing effort.

Editing and writing is a collaborative process — even our editor needs an editor! Here’s a quick overview of how it works. Please pay particular attention to Step 4, that’s where we’ll have the most interaction.

Our Writing and Editing Process

Step 1 - Voice

When we begin our relationship, from our first kickoff meeting, we’ll begin the process of understanding how you want to present your business online and work on writing aligned with that business “voice.” This process never ends as “voice” evolves over time.

Step 2 – Content Ideas

We will often brainstorm topics and angles for the content to write with you; and we’ll supplement these conversations with our own industry knowledge, your persona interviews, etc. We’ll then provide a list of recommended titles and blog/content asset ideas (in a draft form, published titles will often differ from the initial draft versions).

Once we’re aligned on what the content will be, we move to . . .

Step 3 – Writing

We’ll do any research, interviews, etc. to write the content item.

Step 4 – Editing

Before we design an ebook (or other content asset) or publish a blog, we send near-final copy to you for approval.

We use “near-final” intentionally here. Everything is "draft" until we publish. Our goal is to represent your business as strongly as possible online. To make that happen, we need to ensure that we don't publish anything that gives a misleading understanding to your audience of who you are and what you do.

We don't want you to rewrite — we'll handle that if necessary.

If there are multiple reviewers on your side, we'll ask you to select one point of contact. All content will funnel through that person. They are responsible for collected comments/feedback/edits from everyone on your team in a single document — we suggest track changes in Word or Google Docs. That single document is then shared with our writer.

What we need is for you to focus on:

1. Factual inaccuracies: did we misinterpret one of your services or technologies?

2. Product and Service spelling: we double and triple-check these, but auto-correct can sometimes cause problems!

3. Big missings: Given the topic of a particular content piece, is anything missing about the topic (or maybe even your service) that needs to included?

4. Typos: it is always helpful to have another set of eyes look at copy.

Unless there are major concerns or rewrites, we’ll include your suggestions, perform a final proof and edit, and then publish.

For major rewrites and when clarification is needed, we'll engage in a 2^nd round of edits/approval.

For ebooks/whitepapers and other downloadable content assets (anything that goes through a design process), we will also ask you to review the document once again after it is designed.

If you have an questions or concerns about the editing or writing process, please contact Bryant Duhon and fire away.

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And that was it.

With these basic rules, created or co-created close to 1,000 blogs, email campaigns, landing pages, Web pages, infographics, and ebooks over four years.

There were conversations about topics and angles, but after the first month; never any questions on what the process to create content would be.

If you’re a marketing pro, set client expectations from the beginning.

For example, this document includes two rounds of editing. We already had in our contracts that if we got to a third round, we’d charge (I think) $75/hour for editing. Even if you never charge, this sets the expectation from the beginning that not paying attention to edits early in the process will incur an additional fee and that the process exists to save time and keep everything moving, not just an arbitrary set of steps.

Anyway.

Have processes. Follow them.

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