Q:  What are the benefits of Content Batching?

Websites and Social media have become increasingly important platforms for small business owners. They are effective ways to reach new audiences, as well as maintaining contact with existing customers and clients. However, it isn’t easy to create quality content while still running your business full time. Even with the best of inentions, many of us who work in the online space, find that we are strapped for time – which can quickly lead to our social media posts becoming unfocused and repetitive – 🙋‍♀️ i’m guilty of this!

So what’s the best way to approach this problem?

One solution is a process called ‘content batching’. Here, I explain just what it is, and how it can help you to stay on top of your online content.

What is Content Batching?

When starting out, many small business owners will focus on creating up-to-the-moment content, spending time each day looking for new and interesting things to post across various platforms – there is nothing wrong with this approach but it can be extremely time-consuming. If you try to maintain this in the long term, it can quickly lead to you feeling overwhelmed by all you have to do, not to mention the creativity block we all experience from time-to-time.

Think about how long it takes you to get warmed up every time you sit down to try and write your content for the day.

It can be much more productive to take a half-day, or even a full-day out of your diary to focus on writing a few months worth of content for social media, blogs, customer emails and the like. This will not only reduce content overwhelm but also help you to make the most out of your precious time to spend in other areas.  Doing it this way helps you to get a good break from the content creation wheel.

Don’t forget to repurpose your content.  One of the best ways to do this is to take your main piece of content e.g. blog post and then slice and dice it to make content for the other platforms you use.  You can use tips from your blog to create instagram posts/stories.  Is there valuable information in your blog that can be used in a video for YouTube or to create a podcast episode? Repurposing content is a huge time-saver!

What are the Benefits?

Firstly – it leaves you far more time in the day. Knowing that everything is pre-planned, means you don’t need to worry about committing time each day, leaving you more space to run your business. It also allows time to engage and interact with your followers, which is the whole idea of using social media in the first place.

It is also a lot easier than it sounds. By producing a calendar, you can work out how to spread your marketing messages throughout the month – and you can incorporate ‘themed’ posts, for example, by ensuring you include national awareness days or upcoming holidays on your calendar. Just because your messages are planned in advance, it doesn’t mean they will feel dated, and of course, you can always add an impromptu post if there is something topical that you want to comment on!

Laying out all of your posts in one place means you can also sense-check whether you are bombarding your followers with the same messages too frequently. This overarching view can help you to reduce any content that is overwhelming your social media posts, helping you to keep them balanced and interesting.

Batching your content also allows you to take time away from your business and know that you are still touching base with your customers and clients, even when you are on holiday.