Fix the Metadata, Fix the Machine

If you run marketing, sales, or service operations, you already know the pain of trying to align teams across audience, channel, products, and functions. The 6Qs makes it easier.  It’s a simple, shared metadata model—who, what, where, when, why, and how—that can describe any engagement anywhere in the business.

The 6Qs is powerful, but introducing anything “enterprise-wide” can sound overwhelming, especially when teams can’t even agree on basic definitions today. So don’t start enterprise-wide. Start with one process, make it measurably better in weeks (not years), and let that success pull the rest of the organization along.

Where should you start?
Say you are a business that creates a lot of content.

All content creation processes follow one basic pattern:

• Content is requested
• Content is developed
• Content is reviewed/approved
• Content is distributed
• Content is deployed

Let’s also say your company’s content is created in one of two ways:

• Recurring — templatized content updated on a regular cadence (weekly, monthly, quarterly)
• Ad hoc — content that may use templates, but whose drivers (situation, audience, objective, event) vary by request

Finally, let’s assume you want to streamline content operations to improve:
• Efficiency (reduce time to market, effort, and errors)
• Effectiveness (measure engagement and optimize performance)

When improving any process, it’s helpful to limit the number of variables. So in this case, we’ll start with recurring content.

Recurring Content

The first step is understanding the content you’re working with. This begins with a thorough content inventory—collecting examples of every recurring piece and all existing metadata (file names, tracking IDs, request/production sources, intended destinations, etc.).

Once collected, the content must be categorized and sorted to identify patterns you can leverage to build optimized operational processes.

The 6Qs makes this step easier.
It provides a pre-structured metadata system that lets you describe each piece using simple, consistent, granular terms.

·      Teams won’t spend time debating category definitions or worrying about downstream impacts.

·      Categorizing content becomes as straightforward as describing what you see.

·      And when correctly applied, the 6Qs captures every variable you may want to automate or analyze later.

The result is a complete inventory of scheduled recurring materials, each described with 6Qs metadata.

Because each entry is consistent and governed, this inventory can directly power workflow automation and system integration in platforms like Workfront, AEM, Seismic, and Salesforce. These systems can read the metadata the same way, enabling consistent routing, templating, version control, sequencing, permissions, and deployment across the content operations process.

Content Request and Development
• Route requests to the correct team members based on 6Qs metadata
• Dynamically generate content based on templates, products, and audience variables captured in 6Qs metadata
• Map externally developed materials into the same 6Qs metadata model
• Improve creative/production briefing by replacing open-text fields with structured, repeatable inputs pulled from 6Qs metadata

Because the context of each request is clearly defined, teams can also safely introduce AI-assisted work execution with reduced risk of hallucination or mis-application.

Content Review and Approval
• Streamline routing using 6Qs metadata such as reviewer, priority, region, and risk tier
• Automatically apply levels of oversight and review based on 6Qs metadata
• Capture approval and version history as a 6Qs metadata item so downstream systems know when content is ready for distribution and to support future review and audit requests.

Content Distribution
• Automatically send materials to the right channels—AEM pages, Seismic libraries, Salesforce campaigns, email platforms—based on 6Qs metadata
• Trigger distribution sequences (e.g., “publish to web, then email, then update advisor portal”) using 6Qs metadata-driven rules

Content Deployment
Provide downstream teams the context they need to deploy materials appropriately regardless of channel, objective, or audience by providing the 6Qs metadata associated with each piece of material.

Enable channels teams to build deployment automation solutions by adopting and applying 6Qs metadata regardless of content source.

Finally, you can track and analyze both process efficiency and content performance by linking the content inventory to workflow progress, distribution data, and engagement metrics.
The 6Q metadata enables consistent rollups by segment, product, channel, playbook, and initiative—something siloed metadata can’t do.

Ad Hoc Content

Once recurring content processes are established, you can turn your attention to ad hoc content.

As with recurring content, start by collecting examples of previous ad hoc work and any existing metadata. Describe each piece using the 6Qs categories to identify additional terms or classifications you may want to include in your metadata library.

Unlike recurring content, you can’t begin with a predictable inventory. Every request is unique. So metadata must be captured at the time of request.

The 6Qs makes this straightforward.
Requestors simply describe what they need—why they’re requesting materials, how it will be used, who the intended audience is, etc.—the same information typically provided in a creative brief.

Because the 6Qs is governed and structured, you can use predictive forms and dropdowns instead of open text, making answers easier, more accurate, and more scalable.

6Qs metadata also enables business logic to auto-assign related metadata. For example:
• If a user supports a specific product line, only those products appear in the form
• If a user requests a banner ad, “advertising” and “digital” can be auto-applied

This approach allows you to collect all ad hoc requests through a small number of consistent, easy-to-navigate forms—each producing complete and governed 6Qs metadata.

This consistency dramatically simplifies intake governance. All requests enter through a limited number of structured processes, each arriving with complete metadata, making it easier for shared services, pods, and business partners to coordinate.

Most importantly, because ad hoc content now uses the same 6Qs metadata as recurring content, the same Content Review and Approval, Content Distribution, and Content Deployment workflows built for recurring content can be reused for ad hoc content - driving scale, reducing load, and improving ROI.

Typical Outcomes of 6Qs Implementation

• 30–60% faster content turnaround time
• Higher consistency and reduced rework
• Increased content reuse across teams and channels
• Clearer governance across marketing teams, SMEs, and shared services
• Improved compliance alignment and routing
• Better measurement across channels and systems
• Stronger alignment between strategy and execution

Other Enterprise Processes

The 6Qs is a common ontology designed to describe engagements with any audience (WHO), using any content (WHAT), in any channel (WHERE), at any time (WHEN), for any objective (WHY), as part of any practice (HOW). As such, it has multiple applications across the enterprise. 

Audience Segmentation and Identification - use 6Qs metadata to:
• Create, describe, and share segments consistently across channels, objectives, and practices
• Apply enterprise-wide audience rules to ensure compliance with preferences, regulations, and contractual permissions
• Feed clean, structured segments into activation systems (AEM, Salesforce, MA platforms)

Standardized Engagement Tracking- use 6Qs metadata to:
• Combine metrics across channels (ads, emails, web, events, etc.)
• Roll up data by audience, channel, content type, campaign, or playbook
• Improve analytics maturity with consistent, governed engagement definitions

Business Planning and Prioritization- use 6Qs metadata to:
• Capture, describe, align, and prioritize business initiatives
• Link downstream work (briefs, projects, assets, campaigns) to approved priorities
• Improve portfolio reporting across pods, shared services, and business partners

Playbook Design, Execution, and Optimization- use 6Qs metadata to:
• Identify and execute standard, repeatable playbooks (awareness, inform, respond, encourage action)
• Describe and align playbooks across channels, audiences, and objectives
• Close the loop between strategy → creation → activation → measurement → optimization

So while the 6Qs is an enterprise-wide solution, you don’t need to introduce it enterprise-wide to benefit from it.