A blog post needs more than a first draft. Someone has to choose a useful topic, check the sources, prepare the images, add the right links, and put everything in a place the team can review.
This guide shows how to automate those production steps with Okou. You will turn one brief into an article draft, a cover image, a title and description, and a review checklist. You can start with a document and add your CMS and translations once the first version works.
I'm Ming. This guide adapts the process I originally built with Lucas, our marketing agent when the product was called Zero. The practical steps below use Okou; the original implementation details are collected at the end.
What you will produce
Use one article as the first run. Ask for a draft package with these parts:
| Deliverable | What to review |
|---|---|
| Topic and search intent | The reader, their question, and the useful result the article promises. |
| Article draft | Clear steps, source links, examples, and a relevant next action. |
| Title and description | An accurate summary of the article that makes sense in search results. |
| Cover and image notes | A brand-appropriate cover, descriptive alt text, and where each image belongs. |
| Review document or CMS draft | One place to check the copy, links, images, and unresolved questions. |
| Optional translations | Drafts of the approved source article for review in each target language. |
This is the output to aim for. A draft link alone does not mean the article has been published or that its claims have been checked.
Step 1: Give Okou a clear brief and your existing context
Start with the audience, the task they need help with, and the material your team already trusts. Attach your product notes and brand guidance, or share them through a connected Google Drive or Notion account. Include two or three published articles that show the voice and level of detail you want.
For example, a small marketing team might want to teach readers how to compare public Instagram accounts and turn the findings into a content plan. Its starting material could be an existing report, example posts, and a product page explaining which data is available.
Use a brief like this:
Help me prepare a practical blog tutorial for [audience] about [task]. Use [source documents] for product facts and [example articles] for tone. The reader should finish with [specific output]. First propose a focused topic and outline, flag missing evidence, and check whether [our blog URL] already covers the same question. Prepare drafts for my review; do not publish.
Keep audience, positioning, tone, and approved claims in a shared document. Update that document when the guidance changes so future drafts start from the same context.
Step 2: Choose one search question and check existing coverage
Ask Okou to research how people phrase the problem and inspect the pages that currently answer it. If you have a connected keyword research account, include its search-volume and difficulty estimates with the country and date. Keep estimates separate from your own Search Console results.
Find relevant search questions for [topic] in [market and language]. For each candidate, explain the search intent, what the current results provide, how our product helps, and what original example we can show. Compare the candidates with our existing articles. Recommend one question and say whether to update an existing page or write a new one.
Choose the question your team can answer well. A query asking for a template needs a usable template; a query asking how to do something needs steps and a worked example. Difficulty and volume help prioritize candidates, but they do not replace that fit.
Check for an existing article before creating another page. Where the intent is the same, an update can make the original page more useful while keeping its URL and links.
Step 3: Review an outline, then build the draft around an example
Have Okou show the intended result near the beginning, then explain how to reproduce it. For a tutorial, a useful outline contains the inputs, the steps, the example output, how to check it, and the next action.
Write the article from the approved outline. Open with the result the reader will create. Use [example material] throughout the steps. Include copyable prompts, explain how to check the output, and link factual claims to their sources. Clearly label any fictional examples. Flag unsupported claims and missing product details for my review.
Read the first draft for accuracy before polishing the voice. Check that screenshots match the steps and that the instructions work for a reader without your internal tools or knowledge.
Then ask for a focused edit:
Shorten the introduction, explain unfamiliar terms in plain language, and remove claims the sources do not support. Suggest two relevant internal links and a next step that continues the task in Okou. Keep the wording natural.
A first draft is a review checkpoint. The useful work is checking whether a reader can follow the instructions and recognize a good result.
Step 4: Prepare the cover and search metadata
Provide approved logos, brand examples, and the intended image dimensions. Ask Okou for a cover that represents the task or result, then review the image alongside the article.
Create a cover for this article using [brand references] and [approved assets]. Keep the design consistent with those references. Return the image and suggested alt text. Also propose a page title and meta description that describe the tutorial accurately.
Check names, labels, logo usage, and legibility. Use screenshots of the actual workflow where they teach a step better than an illustration. An illustration can explain a concept; it should not stand in for proof that the workflow ran.
Keep the primary search question recognizable in the title and opening. Write headings for the steps readers need, and add internal links where they help someone continue the task.
Step 5: Save the package where your team reviews content
You can start with a shared document. Connect the document service your team uses and ask Okou to place the draft, image links, title, description, and open questions there.
Save the article and review notes in [document destination]. Include the proposed title and description, source links, cover image, alt text, and unresolved questions. Return the document link.
If you want the next version in your CMS, connect a supported CMS account and specify the article, language, and draft destination. Our original workflow used Strapi; your first run does not require that setup.
Save the reviewed package as a draft in [CMS]. Use [existing article URL or new article brief] and [language]. Preserve the existing URL and original publication date when updating an article. Include the cover, alt text, title, description, and body. Return the preview link and confirm the saved status. Do not publish.
Open the preview and check the complete page. Confirm it is a draft, inspect the images and links, and compare the saved content with the version you approved. If the integration cannot safely save an unpublished draft, keep the review in a document and make the CMS handoff manually.
Step 6: Add translations and reuse the process
Translate the approved source version after the main edits are settled. Specify the languages you actually need and provide any terminology your team has already agreed on.
Prepare [target languages] from this approved article. Adapt idioms and examples naturally, preserve factual claims and links, and use [glossary]. Keep each version as a draft and flag wording that needs a native reviewer. Do not publish.
Have a fluent reviewer check each version, including its title, examples, and call to action. Keep the language versions linked to the source article so later corrections can be carried through deliberately.
Once one article has passed review, ask Okou to save the repeatable process as a workflow. Record the required inputs, source documents, output location, and review checkpoints. Teammates can then reuse it with their own briefs. Add a schedule only when you have a dependable source of topics and someone responsible for reviewing the results.
Check the first article before scaling up
- Can a reader complete the task using the instructions and inputs shown?
- Do examples, quotes, metrics, and product claims have supporting sources?
- Are fictional examples and unavailable data clearly identified?
- Do the cover, screenshots, links, title, and description match the finished draft?
- Is the saved page in the expected draft state, with the existing URL and date preserved for updates?
- Does each translation have an appropriate reviewer?
For the first few articles, track where editing time goes. Repeated corrections belong in the shared guidance or workflow instructions. Keep topic judgment, factual review, and the publication decision with the people responsible for the content.
Optional: how the original Lucas workflow was implemented
The original setup connected Lucas to Ahrefs, Strapi, Slack, and custom illustration and writing instructions. It grew gradually as repeated production tasks became clear.
- Keyword research: Lucas queried Ahrefs, compared candidates with published Strapi articles, and used a difficulty threshold as one early prioritization rule. That threshold was specific to our situation, rather than a requirement for every blog.
- Brand images: A custom
drawscript fixed the composition, colors, and logo placement, leaving a small number of inputs for each article. The implementation used the assets and image provider available at the time. The reusable lesson is to supply a consistent visual brief. - CMS handoff: The integration uploaded media and mapped the article into Strapi's title, description, locale, author, category, and rich-text fields. Those field limits and draft behavior depend on the CMS setup and should be checked before writing.
- Translations: The original process produced English, German, Japanese, and Spanish versions. Start with the languages your audience and review capacity support today.
These details explain the original implementation. You can follow the six steps above through Okou without copying the script, writing API requests, or rebuilding that exact stack.
Start with one article
Use the keyword research and multilingual draft workflow for a starting example, or open Okou and bring one brief and your source material.
Turn [brief and source material] into a blog tutorial for [audience]. Propose the search question and outline first, then prepare an article draft, cover, title, description, and review checklist. Save the package in [review destination] and stop before publication.
