Hidden Costs of Content Friction: Fixing Fragmented Workflows

Disjointed content workflows slowly zap valuable time, creativity, and focus. The costs may seem small at first. But over time, the missed deadlines and wasted opportunities add up.

However, fixing these fragmented processes isn't as straightforward as it might seem.

Instead of addressing the root cause, many solutions just add complexity. These complications often make B2B content operations even more disorganized and difficult to manage.

To find out how content marketers successfully resolve broken content workflows and refine operations, I spoke with several content managers, agency operators, and freelance writers.

I learned that in most cases, a complete content operations overhaul isn't the right move. Instead, small, strategic changes tend to make the biggest difference.

Common signs of content friction

Before you can set up systems that work for your team, you need to know what's broken. The following issues often signal a fragmented workflow.

Endless check-ins

Whether you work with an in-house team or you collaborate with freelancers, you need to keep everyone in the loop. But when status updates result in endless emails or Slack messages scattered across multiple channels, it's a signal you need a simpler system — or a single conversation thread for everyone involved in the project.

Face-to-face meetings are great for getting everyone on the same page during important project milestones. But frequent requests to hop on a call aren't a good use of anyone's time. They're a sign that you need a tool for better communication, not another meeting that could have been a project status update.

Unclear briefs

When no one is responsible for content, unclear briefs often result. Whether your briefs consist of a keyword with no additional context or they're subject to ongoing updates from multiple stakeholders, they make the writer's job unnecessarily difficult. Sometimes they even lead to duplicated work.

Before founding the content agency dslx, Ray Berry dealt with ever-changing briefs, lack of ownership, and endless redos as a freelancer. "I had to rewrite entire chapters of this guide we were creating because the briefs and stakeholders kept changing. Yet no one really knew who had the final say."

Mismanaged access

Managing access to briefs, style guides, and drafts can be tricky. You need to make sure the right people can open and edit files without letting just anyone access your documents. But if your process leaves room for error and creates delays for your team, you might be better off with an automated solution.

As B2B writer Gautam Gauswami shares, "I sometimes struggle to get access to my clients' Google Docs files after requesting it multiple times." When clients mistakenly think they've already granted permission and don't realize the error in their workflow, the solution requires unnecessary back-and-forth.

Zero ownership

Who's responsible for making sure blog posts get published on time? How about case studies and customer testimonials? What about original research reports?

When no one takes ownership of certain content types or specific deliverables, it's unlikely they'll be completed on schedule. And in some cases, they might become urgent when you least expect it.

Inconsistent feedback

Unpredictable feedback can stop progress in its tracks and push back deadlines for freelancers and in-house writers alike. When editors constantly change style guides or erratically apply brand rules, writers end up second-guessing their work. And when a different (or worse, more than one) editor reviews each piece, confusion ensues.

In a previous role, mishandled edits were a major pain point for freelance writer and editor Meredith Sell. "No clear systems or processes in place. No project management. Everything edited by committee," she laments. "I wasn't in a position to make changes, and I learned quickly that my feedback on how to improve things wasn't welcome."

Hidden costs of broken content workflows

The first time these issues happen, they might not seem like a big deal. But content friction builds up over time, and the costs add up.

Wasted time

Between chasing status updates and redoing work, content marketers can easily lose valuable time. "It may seem intangible, but wasted time, energy, and momentum, definitely impact the bottom line," shares Jessi Stafford, consultant and fractional head of content.

"The biggest bottleneck I've seen is teams duplicating work because they’re not looped into what others are doing. Sometimes this is due to fast growth or legacy workflows not meant for modern production." Jessi explains that this can cause siloed teams to create almost identical content, sometimes with inconsistent messaging.

Missed deadlines

When writers have to wait for access to essential files or when multiple stakeholders weigh in with contradictory edits, important deadlines become impossible to achieve. Start dates get pushed back, content has to be redone, and publication dates pass while key deliverables are still works in progress.

This can have a cascading effect on marketing campaigns and sales initiatives, putting everyone behind. Missed deadlines are a common consequence of workflow-related challenges. As Canto's The State of Digital Content: 2025 Edition finds, 34% of content teams report dealing with lag time in getting content to market.

Neglected creativity

The more time content teams spend on managing stakeholders, providing updates, and reworking content, the lower their capacity becomes for creativity. These inefficiencies chip away at bandwidth for brainstorming and innovation, causing teams to lose steam.

8.4% of content marketing teams are forced to adopt a “do more with less” approach, according to The State of Discontent Report. They often take on roles and projects that extend beyond their core expertise and face pressure to produce content at a rapid pace.

The result? Content marketers end up with a relentless workload that leaves little room for creativity or producing groundbreaking content that truly moves the needle or helps the brand establish authority and credibility.

Low morale

When talented content marketers feel like they're spinning their wheels, they might start looking for other roles that offer them more space to be creative and produce high-quality work. As a result, turnover tends to increase, with 22% of teams in The State of Digital Content report losing valuable talent to workflow-related challenges.

As a freelancer, "I had to fire a client, despite it being a great brand name and a large financial contract. The content workflow was just a mess," Ray recalls. "I'd ended up having multiple rounds of feedback, all from different stakeholders and all sharing different opinions, to the point where they were correcting each other's work and I was just the messenger."

Increased costs

Losing team members isn't just an inconvenience. Turnover gets expensive, especially if it happens regularly. On average, replacing an in-house content marketer costs anywhere from half to two times the employee's salary, according to Gallup.

Plus, the more your organization spends on replacing employees and contractors, the less it has to invest in other content needs. This may mean lower budgets for producing content or investing in tools.

Lost opportunities

When content teams get stuck dealing with inefficiencies, it's easy to lose sight of bigger goals. Tasks like building a long-term content strategy, exploring new distribution channels, and experimenting with new formats often get deprioritized. Together, these small setbacks equal substantial lost opportunities.

In this situation, Jessi explains, "A siloed structure leads to a lot of missed opportunities. Top-performing content on one channel never makes it to another, just because no one had visibility into performance data. A YouTube video could easily become a reel or a story or an article could be tested as a newsletter. But that only happens when there’s collaboration baked into the process."

Smarter systems for content operations

Once you know the cause and the cost of content friction, you're ready to work toward a solution. Here's how content leaders successfully navigate this process.

Audit your content workflows

To clarify what's broken, review your content operations. "If I'd been able to implement changes [in my former role], I would have started with mapping how things currently worked," explains Meredith.

From there, the next step would have been "looking for ways to cut inefficiencies and approval layers, instituting an easily navigable tool for content requests, and conversing with stakeholders to better understand content needs and pain points." The ultimate goal? "Devising a more comprehensive strategy that had room to flex where needed while maintaining a more efficient workflow and trusting people to do their jobs."

Designate a single source of truth

One of the most impactful changes you can make is getting everyone to work in a single content management tool. Because this type of tool holds data related to content requests, active projects, stakeholders, deadlines, and distribution, it serves as a single source of truth for your content team.

Megan Morreale, a two-time head of content, explains that the benefits of this type of tool go beyond functionality alone. As she explains, "the conversations it forces you to have about ownership and the transparency over where the workflow breaks down" are essential for fixing fragmented content operations.

The right content operations tool looks different depending on your needs and role.

For example, B2B tech copywriter Jodi Kaplan uses a DIY solution. "I call it the big ugly spreadsheet. It's not particularly fancy, and deliberately plain (that's why it has its name), but it works."

This simple system makes it easy for Jodi to keep track of client content projects:

• Break down each part of the project into individual tasks.
• Add them to the spreadsheet, with a space to note the date and person who okayed it.
• Have a column in the beginning for current status and who needs to do something.

For larger teams, a content operations platform like Relato is often a better fit.

Instead of building a Frankenstack with disconnected tools that aren't designed for content, Relato manages projects, workflows, timelines, roles, and conversations in a single place. This means everyone can access the information they need and collaborate in one space, preventing confusion and eliminating inefficiencies.

Define content roles

Get everyone on the same page by clarifying and assigning roles for each project or task. Use a framework like the RACI matrix, which defines who's responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed.

In some cases, it's also worth rethinking your organization's content team roles. "This will probably make some people break out into a cold sweat, but sometimes you have to be willing to tear down and rebuild the team structure," Jessi shares. "A re-org isn’t just about moving boxes around on an org chart. It’s about aligning people based on how work actually gets done."

She explains that it doesn't always make sense for content channels to be siloed. Instead, creating cross-functional teams can be more efficient, especially when they're based on content goals.

As Jessi puts it, "Rather than a writer creating something and just handing it off to social, they’re collaborating from day one with a social lead and a video editor. That way, you’re not just repurposing content after the fact, you’re building it to be multi-platform from the start."

"Re-orgs also create space for growth. You can carve out new roles around emerging platforms, or even content strategy roles that bridge gaps between editorial and audience development. It’s a chance to right-size the team for what’s working now, not just what made sense five years ago."

Streamline communication

No matter your team structure, collaboration is smoother with clear communication. Encourage everyone to use the same communication channel — preferably your content operations tool.

Then, establish a main point of contact. This is especially important for content teams that work with contractors.

"At my content agency, dslx, we now set up very strict rules on one point of contact having the trump card. They have the final say, and their word is final," Ray shares. "It's really helped to streamline processes and made the experience for our writers and editors that much more pleasant."

Set realistic timelines

When you create project deadlines, you help your content team plan their work and avoid missing valuable opportunities. Go beyond publication deadlines and map out complete project timelines so responsible team members can contribute at each step of the way, including during the feedback process.

Freelance tech writer Rachel H. Meltzer builds strict timelines into her contracts, which allows her to manage multiple projects and clients. "Usually I give my clients seven days to submit their feedback. Then, I'll turn in my edits in seven days after that. All feedback needs to be submitted in one place (either their project management tool or on the document itself) by day seven. If it's not, it won't be included in my revisions."

To keep her processes running smoothly, Rachel uses a three-strike system. "If a fourth issue happens where they can't make the system work, then I end the contract and move on. It's business!"

Automate time-consuming processes

Save your team time by adding automation to workflows. But take care not to overcomplicate the process.

As Jessi puts it, "Automation can be helpful. But I’ve learned that if automation creates more work checking to see if it worked, it’s not worth it. Sometimes simpler is better."

Notifications and intake forms are great places to start. For example, Janet Celosia, VP of Marketing Strategy at BackPocket Agency, worked with a client to automate the process of collecting user-generated content (UGC) via a submission form.

"Once a member submitted an article, it automatically populated into the CMS as a post, complete with headlines, subheads, images, captions, author bylines, bios, and even CTAs. That meant the content team could skip the manual copying, pasting, and uploading, and jump straight to editing."

Janet explains, "It saved hours of busywork. We also shared a style guide and submission parameters with team members up front, which drastically reduced the need for back-and-forth emails and time-consuming edits."

Use AI to scale successful workflows

Once you've successfully set up a simple system, consider using AI to scale your process. For example, Julia Melymbrose, Director of Business Strategy and Operations at Animalz, used no-code tools like Softr, Airtable, and Zapier to build an automated content marketing operations flow.

Everything starts in Airtable, where the team inputs ideas. Clients review ideas in a Softr-designed portal. And Zapier connects everything, triggering notifications, assignments, and document access.

Julia's team is actively exploring how best to incorporate AI into this process. Using AI to create customer meeting notes has proven valuable. After a customer call, Claude automatically reviews transcripts and sends the account manager the following:

• Call summary
• Key discussion points
• Current challenges
• Decisions and next steps
• Insights and new ideas
• Meeting effectiveness rating based on a proprietary scoring system

Julia explains, "This AI flow helps us significantly reduce the time we spend creating meeting notes and customer updates, provide better service to customers by ensuring we don't miss any details, and improve individual team members' skills in running meetings."

After some additional experimentation, Julia's team is likely to incorporate more AI in Animalz' processes. However, the first step is always creating a simple system that works, and then taking steps to improve it with automation and AI.

The takeaway

Fragmented workflows and disconnected tools can't produce great content. To empower your team to do their best work, you need clarity and structure.

Fixing inefficiencies doesn't have to mean scrapping everything and starting from the ground up. Instead, identify what isn't working and focus on making strategic improvements.

Ready to tackle these workflow issues? Start with a 30-minute audit. Identify the three biggest points of friction your team experiences. Then, make small changes that add up to a big difference.