Creating content can feel like a giant chore. Every day, it’s a new post, a new blog, a new Reel to create.
The machines and algorithms just keep telling you to create more, more, more.
Worse, the “experts” are out there telling you that you need to create 3 videos per day to stand out, release a podcast, video, and blog weekly, and you have to be in your stories all. of. the. time.
Oh, and don’t forget those email blasts!
If this is already making you tired, that’s honestly the correct reaction.
What most of the experts don’t tell you is that they have a team of people and a system helping them to churn out all of this marketing content.
How can you, with yourself and a VA, create excellent marketing content without burning you out?
Let’s talk about that.
Take a Break When You Need To
Before we dive into the ways to create content more effectively, I want to give you permission for something radically different.
You can take a break from the constant cycle when you need to.
I’m not saying you stop posting on Instagram for months. However, you can take a week or even just a couple of days off if you need to.
I rarely post in my stories on the weekend, for instance. One, I know that as a B2B business, well, not a lot of my clients want to be thinking about work on the weekend. In fact, I want to attract clients who love boundaries and taking some downtime. Two, I’m not sure anyone needs to see me cleaning the house or meal-prepping. Three, if I’m with friends I typically like to respect their own privacy and not plaster them on my social. And finally – I just like taking a break from not thinking about it all for a couple of days.
I’ve also released a couple of revisited episodes on my podcast in the last couple of months. They’re great, popular episodes so it made sense to share them again, but it also gave me a break during a very busy time.
If you take a short break here and there, you are not going to lose your momentum. You can always step back in and work on growing your audience again.
And if you want to protect your business from those marketing breaks, you can make some tweaks to your website to get more leads without the constant work.
Schedule and Batch What You Can
Now that you have permission to take the break you probably need, let’s talk about how you can come back to creating content and feel a lot better about it.
It’s time to batch-create and schedule it out my friend.
The first thing that trips you up is likely wondering what in the world you need to post that day. That becomes overwhelming in and of itself and then all of a sudden this one Reel takes over your brain for the entire day.
Create a Content Calendar
Instead, create a simple calendar that tracks what day you’ll post what. You don’t have to write the entire post or blog article while you’re planning, but when you have the topic decided on it makes it so much easier to stay consistent.
Create & Schedule Multiple Pieces at Once
Take this one step further create several pieces of content at once. I prefer to do about a week’s worth at most, just in case something timely comes up.
Instagram and other social media platforms have built-in scheduling tools and then of course there are tons of social media tools out there like Agorapulse, Later, or HighLevel that allow you to schedule out your posts across multiple platforms.
With blogs, WordPress has a native scheduling tool so you can write a post and have it automatically published on your regular content date (my days are Tuesdays for new articles).
For podcasts and videos, most platforms allow you to schedule new content.
Basically, there’s no excuse for you to rush to create something on the day and get it out. Take some of the stress out and plan it and then schedule and batch what you can.
Focus on the Most Important Channels
If you feel like your marketing is burning you out, chances are you’re trying to do too much.
Instead, pull back and focus on the most important channels for your customer.
(Notice that I didn’t say you?)
You want to be in the channels where your customers are spending the most time.
Are they largely on Instagram? Focus on that!
Do you work with a lot of local people? You might want to focus on Facebook.
Want businesses as your clients? LinkedIn might be a great place for you.
When it comes to social media, we get caught up in trying to be on every single platform and unless you have a team, no one has time for that.
Look at where you’re getting the most engagement now and focus on creating content for that platform. Go all in on one or two places and forget about the ones not serving you.
Here’s the trick – once you feel pretty good about your strategy for your main channel, you can start experimenting and adding more.
Your Weekly Content
This isn’t just about social media. If you want to attract more people to your business and build your audience, you need to be creating larger pieces of content weekly.
Think a blog article, podcast episode, or YouTube video.
You do NOT need all three. In fact, we’ll talk about how to take one of these and make it work for you in multiple places, but make your main weekly content something that your customer wants.
Do they like listening to podcasts and learning on the go? Do that.
Are they looking for quick answers? They’ll likely prefer to skim a blog article.
Do they enjoy visuals with their learning? Do a video.
The key here is to choose one of these outlets and make sure you’re choosing something that aligns with what your customers actually want.
If you’re not sure, ask them! Poll 5 of your favorite clients and ask if they’d prefer a podcast, blog, or video.
Repurpose Your Content
The best way to get the most out of your content?
Repurpose that shit!
Your content doesn’t have to be a one-and-done thing. Most of your audience is not going to see everything you put out, so it’s great to repeat and reuse what you can.
But it’s more than that. Repurposing your content allows you to work smarter, not harder.
Let me break it down. Say you release a weekly podcast. You can take that podcast outline and create a blog post that goes with it and even embed the podcast player on your website. This gives you a great SEO boost and lets you create two big pieces of content at once (and this is 100% what I do every week).
That one podcast episode can become multiple Reels and stories, you can pull quotes to create text posts for LinkedIn, you can turn a quote into a nice graphic, and you can use it all as the basis of a weekly email.
You can literally spend a couple of hours creating a podcast and several pieces of content from that podcast and be set for the entire week!
Repurposing is the best tool in your arsenal to not only avoid marketing burnout but to ensure that more people actually see the awesome content you’ve created.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
You don’t need to be on a constant content creation cycle of doom.
(I ran out of a C word for alliteration there.)
There are so many things you can do to market your business, but that doesn’t mean you have to do all of them.
Actually, you shouldn’t do all of them because your ideal customer isn’t spending time everywhere either.
Focus on those places that make the most sense for your customers and your business and work on scheduling, batching, and repurposing to make everything more efficient.
You can have a beautiful content and social media strategy that drives leads without making you want to pull your hair out.
