If I had £1 for every person who told me they find content creation stressful or overwhelming, I’d probably be living in an obnoxious turquoise palace by the sea.
If I had £1 for every time I’ve said “It doesn’t bloody have to be!” I’d have the horse and carriage to go with.
Here’s the thing – you can create consistent content that’s actually worth consuming, without sacrificing your time, your sanity, your soul or your bank account. Want to know the secret?
Simplify.
Yep, that’s all there is to it. Simplify at every step and you can get that content machine working for you, rather than in spite of you.
Step 1: Map out your business timeline.
You want all of your content to support your business goals and priorities, so map out the following:
- Launches
- Affiliate launches you’re involved with
- Industry events
- Holidays and celebration days
- Joint ventures
- Things you’re developing
Plug all of this into your content plan so that you can be sure that every single thing you create makes sense for your business as a whole.
Step 2: Pick one system.
Don’t try to follow everyone else’s workflow. Pick one method and see it through – if it doesn’t bring you the results you’re after, switch it up in 90 days.
As an example, I offer a membership programme, The Content Arsenal, that is all about nailing your content creation in daily increments. I also offer a pop-up bootcamp, Batch Like a Bitch, that guides people through planning, creating and scheduling 90 days worth of content over one 4-day stint. I would never recommend both of these programmes to the same person because they involve implementing two very different systems.
If you try to follow advice from too many sources, you’ll just confuse yourself with the contradictions.
Step 3: Pick one core format for your content.
Feed your content machine with one thing. it doesn’t matter whether that one thing is blog posts, or podcasts, or live streams, or videos, but please just pick one.
You’ll notice that I am totally ignoring my own advice on this point – I publish both blog posts and podcast episodes. My “core format” of choice is my podcast. The reason that I’m also publishing a weekly blog post right now, is that while I was running Batch Like a Bitch, I actually did batch like a bitch. I created (and scheduled) 90 days worth of blog posts (including this one right here).
Step 4: Create a template for sharing with your list.
Put together an email template, formatted in a way that you like, so that you can easily pop in and add the details of your latest thing before sending it off to your list of subscribers.
It could be as simple as:
Hi there, munchkin!
Intro paragraph: What I’ve been up to this week inc. one key takeaway
Quote pulled from this week’s blog post
Paragraph summarising premise of blog post
Click here to read [title of blog post]
Signature
P.S. Your call-to-action
Step 5: Automate the sharing.
Use a handy dandy scheduling tool like Smarterqueue to automagically share every piece of content you create far and wide. Repeatedly. Trust me when I say that NOTHING is a bigger time suck than showing up to do this manually.
So, in summary, simplify everything and you will win at content creation this year and forever.
- Sort out what’s going on in your business so that you know what’s what, and where to focus your energy.
- Pick one workflow and give it a go.
- Create ONE form of content.
- Use plug-and-play templates to make it extra effortless.
- Take advantage of tools that offer (and deliver) ease.
