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In a 1996 essay, Bill Gates wrote, “Content is king,” and what was true then is still true now. Content is necessary to the success of a business.

If the content is the king, we could say its operations are the queen — or at least a knight. Imagine a startup that wants to create a blog post. It’s a timely post that needs to be up before the end of Q1. Because the startup is new, it hasn’t established concrete operations for blog content. So, the post sits in a Google document with no plan for who uploads the content or what blog platform will host the information. The business has a content writer, but operations don’t typically end there.

Blog posts aren’t the only content option there are. You can incorporate over a dozen different content types, including email, videos, social media posts, podcasts, infographics, and other visual content to increase brand awareness. Without content operations, though, this content likely has no plan for production, publication, or distribution. And what good is a blog post if no one reads it?
If the goal is to post content daily, then you’ll need to identify who is performing the work? What methods are they using? What systems are necessary to get the job done?
One department is the solution to these questions — content operations.

Content operations focus on three elements:

People: who is performing a task and what their roles and responsibilities are.

Process: what functions are needed to complete a project successfully.

Technology: what tools help build out a content operations system.

People
In content and content operations, the people are the foundation. While customers sit at the center of content, the operations aspect focuses on the company and its team. Roles and responsibilities should be well-defined and outlined to keep the system running smoothly.
The first step is defining clear roles. Content teams have content strategists, managers, creators, editors, and more. For example, the content creation department might break down into specialized positions — content writers, graphic designers, and photographers. Although these are typical roles, some content roles and responsibilities may overlap. Content writers and editors have distinct differences. Depending on the team and its bandwidth, your writers may be responsible for editing their work. It is best to avoid overlap; however, that is sometimes impossible. As long as the roles and responsibilities are clear, the team and its operations should function successfully.
Process
Once you have a team in place, how will you get your projects from start to finish? Your people need processes. Your team — and their roles and responsibilities — will help determine workflows to keep your content moving from planning to publishing.
Say you were publishing a blog post. A sample process might go as follows:

Step 1: Strategize and generate the idea.

Step 2: Set a timeline and schedule for the post.

Step 3: Write the post.

Step 4: Edit the grammar and content.

Step 5: Add graphics.

Step 6: Optimize the post for SEO.

Step 7: Publish.

Step 8: Share.

Step 9: Analyze.

If one of the steps in this process falls through, it impacts the overall success of the operation. Style guidelines, templates, and content governance models strengthen processes and promote accountability and consistency. These frameworks help keep content on track, but they need to be used with technology to ensure content operations are running smoothly.
Technology
The last key to successful content operations is technology or the necessary tools for accomplishing each task. Because the planning and execution of content are so extensive, teams require multiple resources to be successful.
The technology for content operations can fall into categories such as:

Project Management & Scheduling
Task Management
Content Execution
Analytics & Reports

Project Management & Scheduling
All content should appear in an editorial calendar. It is a high-level calendar that keeps track of where, how, and most specifically, when content publishes. Not to be confused with scheduling tools that send out timed posts, like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, tools for project management and scheduling include Monday and Asana.
Task Management
Monday and Asana are also great examples of task management tools. These platforms allow for the building, following, and executing of content operations by the team.
Content Execution
Content operations also require the technology needed to execute a task. What is the team using to get the job done? Writers need access to word processing tools, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Alternatively, designers might need a variety of web and graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Canva.
Analytics & Reports
Analyzing and reporting is usually the last step in a content life cycle. Analysis tools measure your content and its success. WordPress, the world’s biggest blogging platform, has its analytics capabilities while thousands of companies, including General Electric and NASA, use Google Analytics to monitor their content and traffic.
Who benefits from content operations?
This is a simple question with a simple answer — everyone. Content operations provide stability and consistency at every level. Upper management personnel, like a CEO, know that the business is operating efficiently, which has a positive reflection on the company as a whole.
Content operations also benefit the members of the team who are directly involved. Team members can use clearly defined responsibilities and processes to work confidently in their roles. It can boost both workplace culture and quality of work.
Lastly, and possibly most importantly, the final group that benefits from content operations are consumers. Content is one of the biggest tools companies use to keep current and potential customers engaged. Blog posts provide valuable information and tips. Emails inform them of current or upcoming sales and promotions. As customers build relationships with businesses, they have expectations. Content operations help meet them.
Why do content operations matter?
Content operations lead to results, and they result in:

Saving time and money
Better quality content
Producing content faster
Happy and confident teams

Saving Time And Money
When a content operations team establishes a sound cycle between people, processes, and technology, it leads to efficiency. Efficiency saves time and money. Content operations allow companies to save time by reducing the time needed to get content created, approved, and published. Companies save money when their team can produce content according to schedule without additional resources, for example, extra labor or tools.
Better Quality Content
Content operations promote better quality content. Teams uphold standards for accurate, consistent, and impactful content with a structured content cycle process.
Producing Content Faster
While there should always be a focus on quality content, that content needs to get out quickly. Not all content is evergreen. When faced with an immovable deadline, content operations keep teams on schedule.
Happy And Confident Teams
When team members are unhappy or confused about their roles, responsibilities, or resources, their work may reflect it. Not only does content operations promote accountability and structure, but it allows teams to become confident in their position. It breeds a positive and happy workplace environment for all involved.
Content Operations Manager
At the head of content operation sits the content operations manager. While the title can vary from business to business, the job function is the same. The content operations manager oversees the day-to-day operations of the content team to ensure that the necessary people, process, and technology execute the content strategy.
To accomplish their overall goal, content operations managers might also be responsible for:

Choosing the technology and tools to support operations
Creating and managing company policies and procedures
Streamlining content processes
Recruiting and hiring content staff members
Training new staff members

In summary, the work of a content operations manager has less to do with actual content and more to do with the people, processes, and technology needed to plan, create, and publish it.
The Three Words Of Content Operations
To understand content operations, remember these three words — people, process, and technology. As long as the right people are in place, with knowledge of the processes and access to the technology, the content operations of a company should run smoothly and successfully.

Marketing automation allows your team to increase productivity while simultaneously nurturing more leads.
Within the category of marketing automation tools are B2B marketing automation tools — software that’s ideal for the B2B marketer.

B2B Marketing Automation
B2B marketing automation allows you to streamline marketing tasks and role responsibilities through workflows and triggers. B2B marketing automation is meant to help your team stay productive and efficient while nurturing your leads.
B2B Marketing Automation Examples
Here are some examples of how you might use B2B marketing automation on your team.

Trigger follow-up workflows after leads visit high-intent web pages (e.g. product page, pricing page).
Create educational workflows to send to your new customers — included educational resources may include videos, how-to articles, and knowledge base articles about how they can accomplish basic tasks.
Nurture leads with content that shows you’re a thought-leader in the industry and is also tailored to their specific needs and goals. This will help you show your prospects that you’re the right solution for them.
Set up rewards for loyal brand advocates — for example, send a discount code to a customer after they successfully refer a new customer or complete a certain number of purchases.
Set up email campaigns with lead nurturing so you can better understand which campaigns work best among your audience while also having the ability to manage a higher volume of leads.
Trigger notifications to internal team members when a prospect takes a specific action.
Set up workflows for webhooks, lead scoring, and lead rotation (to Sales).
Automatically complete data fields and update current data to avoid the need for any manual entry.

B2B Marketing Automation Software
1. HubSpot Marketing Automation Software

Price
HubSpot Marketing Hub comes in a free-forever version. For omnichannel marketing automation, you’ll need a Professional plan ($800/mo) or an Enterprise plan ($3,200/mo).
Key Features
With HubSpot, you can create and automate beautiful and customized email drip campaigns to help you nurture prospects. The tool will help you send the right type of email to the right prospect at the right time based on audience criteria.
Use the visual editor to easily create workflows and use advanced segmentation logic to determine which audience members should be enrolled in your workflows. HubSpot makes it easy to personalize emails for your recipients in those workflows by pulling contact information from your HubSpot CRM.
You can implement workflows and triggers for lead scoring, lead rotation, webhook creation, data entry, and internal notifications (e.g. notify your sales team when a prospect completes a certain action).
2. Versium Reach

Price
There are B2B Digital and B2B Direct plans that start at $300/mo/billed annually. There are also pay-as-you-go plans.
Key Features
Versium Reach makes it easy to visualize marketing data. As a B2B marketer, you can view a snapshot of leads so they can effectively tailor content and other marketing materials to them throughout the different stages of the buyer’s journey.
You can also create targeted B2B audiences that you can reuse across all of your digital marketing platforms.
Versium Reach also automatically manages your data for you — it surfaces your ideal targets for you so you don’t have to review multiple data sources.
3. Marketo Engage

Source
Price
Contact Sales for pricing.
Key Features
Marketo Engage is a B2B marketing tool that allows you to segment your audiences and enrich your audience data with engagement information and integrated customer profiles.
Experience automation nurtures your audience and scores engagement throughout the buyer’s journey. It provides tailored content that feels personal for audience members at scale with the help of artificial intelligence.
4. ActiveCampaign

Price 
There are four plans all ranging in price based on the number of contacts that you have and the features you need. Plans start at $9/mo.
Key Features
ActiveCampaign’s Marketing Automation tool gives you the ability to automate a number of tasks such as sending welcome email campaigns and tracking engagement (by using engagement tags, custom fields, and more). 
ActiveCampaign pulls in information about your audience from all of the channels they have access to including social media, live chat, web pages, and SMS. It automatically identifies your most engaged audience members 
Begin Using B2B Marketing Automation
B2B marketing automation has the power to save your B2B marketing team time, increase their productivity, and help them reach and resonate with more qualified leads. So, find the right tool for your team and begin using B2B marketing automation. 

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