One of the things I hear most often from the online business owners I know is how hard it is to create consistent content.
Whether we’re in the middle of a global pandemic, which has thrown you into crisis-schooling your children, or it’s just a regular week, consistently creating content can be a struggle.
IE 176: How to Create Content Consistently
In today’s episode, I am going to provide you with some strategies and tips to make consistent content creation easier for you.
But before we dive into those tips, I want to be sure you’ve gotten your copy of my new book, Influencer Entrepreneurs: The 4-Step Framework for Building Your Audience, Growing Your Business, and Making Money Online.
Did you know that I have a free workbook that goes along with the book, as well? You can get the book and the workbook by going to jennymelrose.com/book.
What Do We Mean by Content?
Before we talk about how to create content consistently, let’s stop for a second to define what we mean by content.
As bloggers and influencers, you may think of content only in terms of blog posts or social media posts. But content is anything you create to release to your audience. It could be a blog post or an Instagram story, but it could also be a course or a podcast.
Content could be a YouTube video or maybe you’re writing a book. Any and all of these things are considered content.
How Consistent Content Creation Helps Your Audience
There is a lot of confusion in the online space on consistency and why it matters. Some folks figure that as long as they put stuff out, who cares when or how often?
I’ll tell you who cares. Your audience cares.
If you want to grow a loyal audience, they have to know that you are going to release content on specific days of the week. This develops a relationship with them where they come to depend on you to put out new content on that day.
Just think about this podcast as an example. This is episode #176. That means for the past 176 weeks, I have released a new podcast episode. I haven’t missed a week in 176 weeks.
And my audience has come to depend on me for that content. You as a listener know that every Monday morning, a new episode will drop into your podcast player and you don’t have to wonder when I’ll be releasing the next one.
Consistency makes it easier for your audience to consume your content.
How to Plan for Consistent Content Creation
My audience is not the only people served by my being consistent in creating new content. The other person who will be served when you get consistent is you.
I don’t have to wonder when I need to create a new podcast episode. I don’t have to wonder when the last time was that I did create one.
I know that every week, I am releasing a new episode, so that means that every week, I need to be preparing one or more.
I have a content calendar prepared months in advance so that I can be consistent.
How to Batch Content Creation
One of the things I do to help me create content consistently is to batch my work. I most often do this through themes.
Themes simply mean that, at times, I choose to focus on one topic for an entire month on the podcast. I decide who I want to talk to about the topic, what information I need to cover on the topic, and I organize it all amongst however many episodes will come out that particular month.
If you’re a parenting blogger, maybe you have a ton of potty training information and resources you want to push out. Maybe you want to do it all in a month or perhaps you have a 6-month time frame in which you want to get that info out to your audience.
It’s easier to bang out tons of content if you do it all at once if it’s all on the same topic.
If you’re doing the potty training content, you can sit down and in a few hours create one main blog post on potty training, and then create tons of other content based on the first one, and interlink them all to each other.
Why You Have to Hold Yourself Accountable
If you want to be consistently creating content, you’re going to have to hold yourself accountable.
This includes writing blog posts, sending out emails/answering emails, shooting videos, and filming Instagram stories.
How do you do this? You create a schedule for yourself.
Listen, I get it, many of you are still in the middle of crisis-schooling right now. Your kids are home and there is literally no way to go anywhere and get even a few minutes of quiet to get your work done.
Trust me, I’m in the same boat. I was used to having certain hours of the day to get my work done and that all went right out the window when my husband and girls had to stay home all the time.
But I knew that I had to come up with a schedule that both allowed me to get my work done and also fit around my family’s needs. I need a certain amount of time to get my work done and I had to create those blocks of time even though things were not perfect.
Building a Relationship with Your Audience
One of the ways that consistent content creation helps you is by building a relationship with your audience. The more consistent you are, the more they see you as a reliable resource, and the more they begin to trust you.
You become the person they expect to hear from, whether that’s in their email inbox or through a new blog post or your next podcast episode. Not only do they expect it, but they actually look forward to it and they are more likely to share that content with others.
And if something happens that’s out of your control and you miss a week, don’t stress over it, because if you are authentically engaging with your people, they will understand that sometimes, life happens.
Know How to Use Your Time
If you are short on time because the kids are at home or you’re helping aging parents, you have to know before you sit down to work exactly what you’re going to do during the time you have available.
One of the biggest mistakes I see clients make is that when they have a 30-minute period to work, they spend the first 10-15 minutes of that time making a list of what they need to do during the 30 minutes.
It’s a complete waste of time! Have that list ahead of time. Sit down on Sunday evening and make a list of what needs to happen during the week.
And when you have a 30-minute block on Tuesday afternoon but the kids are happy watching a show or the baby is napping longer than usual, don’t look around your house for something to do. Don’t waste those precious minutes scrolling Facebook!
Pull from your list of tasks and knock one out. Do something that will propel your business forward instead of wasting that time.
Create an Imperfect Plan
I know you guys have all seen the television interview with the guy whose kids barge into his office while he’s doing a live spot with the BBC. How many of us can identify with this poor man?
I’ve had it happen recently, as one or both of my girls pop into my office while I’m on a client call or doing an interview.
It happens. And your audience understands that you are a real person with a real family. So don’t expect whatever schedule you come up with to be perfect. No schedule is going to work perfectly all the time.
You have to able to roll with the punches and not let it knock you off your game.
Yes, try to do the tasks that you think will fit within certain pockets of time, but if a kid walks in during an important interview, it’s not the end of the world.
Plan for the Future
Some of you likely have a child who is supposed to start Kindergarten in the fall and you’ve been looking forward to everything you’re going to get done during the day.
I’m not here to burst anybody’s bubble but I do think we need to be preparing ourselves that some type of distance learning is likely still going to be our reality for the future. I think it highly unlikely that kids will be getting on school buses and going to school from 8-3 in classrooms of 25 kids.
I am fully prepared to continue at least some measure of distance learning when school starts back up in the fall.
And if you don’t prepare for that, you are going to be devastated when all your plans go out the window.
Take a look now. Decide now how you could make it work with the kids home. Use the summer to put some routines in place that will serve you well if, in fact, your kids are home more than you expected in the fall.
Set yourself up to win so that you aren’t completely thrown off track if your plans don’t look like you thought they would.
Creating consistent content is about having a plan and knowing where things are going to fit into place for you. It’s also giving yourself the grace to know that it won’t always be perfect.
If your entire to-do list doesn’t get checked off this week, the world won’t end.
Begin to think about the pockets of time you have available where you can consistently create content for your audience. Set realistic expectations for yourself so that you are more likely to hit those expectations.
Action Steps:
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