Use an initiative in Grow → Content to bring related work together around one objective. A product launch, for example, might need an announcement blog, an email, and several social posts, all telling the same story at different stages.
The initiative holds the shared brief, required outputs, timing, and link policy. Individual content items hold the copy and channel versions. Start with Planning content across channels if you need to set up those items first.
Create the initiative and its shared brief
- Open Grow → Content and switch to Campaigns.
- Open More actions → New initiative.
- Enter a Name people will recognize and an Objective describing the result you want.
- Choose a Type: Launch, Campaign, Recurring series, Evergreen theme, or Custom.
- Select Create initiative, then complete the shared brief and select Save initiative.
Creating an initiative does not create its content or schedule delivery. Recurring series describes the initiative; selecting it does not set up automatic recurrence.
In Initiative brief, describe the Audience, Promise, Message hierarchy / arc, and Proof requirements. Explain who the work is for, what it promises, how the message develops, and which claims need evidence. For a launch, the arc might move from the audience's problem to the announcement, then to a practical example.
Keep this brief useful to anyone preparing an output. Write the actual guidance here instead of relying on a title such as “launch campaign” to explain the plan. If you use Strategy references or Focus goal references, enter the existing IDs requested by those fields; they are not places to paste the brief itself.
Use Draft while preparing the plan and Active when the work is underway. Save changes explicitly with Save initiative. If the save fails, resolve the error and verify the saved values before continuing.
Set the required outputs and connect the content
Under Timing and required outputs, enter Starts, Ends, and Timezone, then the required counts for social, blog, email, and video outputs. For example, a small launch might require four social outputs, one blog, and one email.
These counts describe the work needed; they do not generate drafts or reserve publication times. Keep them realistic and update them when the scope changes. Check your device's timezone and the saved dates as well as the Timezone field before coordinating a timed release.
When creating a content item, choose its Initiative. For an existing item, open Brief, enter the initiative's exact Initiative ID, and save the brief. The ID is the final part of the initiative detail page's address, after /initiatives/; use that value, not its display name. Leaving the field blank makes the item independent.
Return to the initiative and check Content in this initiative. Open each item to confirm that it belongs in this plan and has the intended outputs. Related titles alone do not connect items to an initiative.
Each item still needs its own brief, copy, evidence, media, and review. Use Reviewing and approving content to review the exact output and any platform/account variants. Saving or activating the initiative does not approve them.
Read readiness by channel
Use Readiness to compare approved work with the required outputs. Check the channel rows as well as the headline total: four approved social outputs cannot replace a missing required blog, even when the overall count looks complete.
An approved output is not proof that every account variant is approved, a placement is ready, or the content has been delivered. Open the relevant item to check its current approval, destination, evidence, media, and planned time. The scheduled count helps track progress, but it does not establish that a social post is live or an email was sent.
If no required outputs are defined, the approval count alone cannot tell you whether the initiative is complete. Set the requirements first. If the item list fails to load, retry before assessing readiness; missing data should not be treated as an empty or finished initiative.
Allocate tracked links when the plan needs them
Use Tracked-link policy when some social outputs should direct readers to an existing managed destination. Set Target link share (%) and enter the Eligible managed-link IDs, separated by commas. Ask the person managing your links for the correct IDs if needed, then select Save initiative.
- In Tracked-link allocation, select Preview link policy.
- Review the number of eligible placements, the target count, and which outputs receive a Tracked link or remain Value first.
- Check every proposed destination, protected choice, warning, and blocker.
- When the allocation is correct, select Apply exact allocation and check the result.
The percentage applies to eligible social outputs, not the initiative's blogs, emails, videos, or all posts on your site. With ten eligible social outputs, a 30% target calls for three link-bearing outputs. Dates also affect eligibility: when the initiative has a date range, an output without an intended time or outside that range is excluded.
Protected link choices and existing manual link-bearing choices can make the resulting share differ from the target. Read the actual preview rather than assuming the percentage guarantees an exact result. If an output already points to a different tracked destination, resolve that choice explicitly before applying a new allocation.
Applying the allocation can change link intent and create or update tracked-link bindings. It does not publish the outputs. Inspect the final copy and destination links afterward, and recheck approvals before scheduling. Changing the saved percentage alone does not apply it.
Preview a coordinated handoff
Coordinated native handoff helps prepare several outputs for their delivery workspaces. It can create blog and email drafts and social Calendar placements. It does not publish a blog, send an email, or post to a social network.
Before previewing, save the initiative and each output. Social outputs need an intended time and must satisfy scheduling checks. Blog and email outputs need usable titles and bodies. See Scheduling and distributing approved content for the channel-specific preparation and delivery steps.
Select Preview coordinated handoff and inspect every target. Read its Ready or Blocked result, summary, warnings, and reasons. The list includes only supported outputs for which you have the necessary destination permission. Social outputs without an intended time and standalone video outputs are not included.
For social outputs with account variants, use the item's Schedule tab to select and preview the exact variant. The initiative's grouped controls do not provide an account-variant picker. Check the platform, account, time, and approval before committing that placement individually.
When the grouped preview is correct, select Commit handoff. If some targets are blocked, Commit ready targets lets you proceed with the ready work; it does not mean the whole initiative will succeed. You can also leave everything uncommitted while you resolve the blockers.
Read the resulting succeeded, failed, and untouched counts. Open the resulting records in Calendar, Blogs, or Email Campaigns and verify what was created. Finish editing and releasing the publishable copy in those workspaces. The linked Content copy becomes a read-only snapshot after handoff.
Recover partial work and close the initiative
A grouped operation can succeed for some outputs and fail for others. Check existing destination records before retrying or creating anything manually. Repeating the same operation retries unfinished targets while keeping its successful results; leaving the page or starting a different operation is not the same retry.
If a result is unclear, reopen the affected content item and check its existing placements or linked drafts first. Resolve the specific blocker, preview again, and confirm only after checking the proposed work. If an error persists, share the initiative, affected output, and error with your administrator.
If controls are unavailable, check both permission to edit the initiative and access to the destination. Managing tracked links needs link-editing access; Calendar, blog creation, and email campaign creation have separate permissions. See feature access.
Before changing Status to Completed, verify the required channel outputs and their actual delivery results. Archived removes an initiative from the active campaign board; it does not cancel Calendar placements, scheduled blog publication, or email delivery. Manage those records in their destination workspaces, then save the initiative's final status.