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CMS & Content

Content Workflow

Editorial Workflow

Portrait of Lukas Horvath, co-founder of Roelu Studio
Lukas HorvathCo-founder

What is Content Workflow?

A content workflow, sometimes called an editorial workflow, is the sequence of states a piece of content moves through inside the CMS, from initial draft to publication. Typical states include draft, in review, approved, scheduled, and published. Each transition has an owner — the writer drafts, the editor reviews, the marketing lead approves. The workflow is encoded in the CMS so the process happens by default, not by Slack reminder.

Why it matters

Without a workflow, content publishes by accident. Someone hits the wrong button on a Friday and an unapproved post is live. Legal copy goes out before legal sees it. The CMO finds out about a launch from a customer email. A defined workflow makes the process visible and enforceable. Every post passes the right eyes. Every approval is recorded. The team ships faster because nobody is asking what the status is — the CMS shows it. The CMO stops being copy-pasted into review threads. The system runs itself.

How it works

Inside the CMS, each content type has a set of workflow states and rules about who can move content between them. A writer creates a draft, marks it ready for review, and the editor is notified. The editor revises or approves. Once approved, the content is either published immediately or scheduled. Some workflows include legal review for regulated industries or design review for landing pages. Notifications fire on every transition so the right people know without anyone chasing. Sanity, Contentful, and Storyblok all support custom workflows; WordPress needs plugins. The workflow design should match how the team actually operates — anything more is theater.

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