Got Content Rhythm? Why Every Content Marketer Needs a Beat
August 26, 2013
One of the biggest mistakes many companies make when they try to build a content factory is that they fail to get into a regular rhythm for creating and distributing their content.
As a result, their content comes out in drips and drabs over time, making it impossible to build momentum, scale the program, and establish the kind of consistency and frequency that a content factory needs to produce steady results.
That’s why as you are building your content factory, it is important to think about the following points:
- Put a stake in the ground and commit to a rhythm that you are confident you can deliver consistently, even if it is just one blog post a week.
- Once you have mastered that rhythm, increase the tempo by getting to two or three blog posts a week. As soon as that becomes routine, add something else into the mix, such a monthly report or a quarterly eBook. The idea is to make creating each piece of content so routine that you get better and faster at doing so. Eventually, you will find that you are able to add new things to your rhythm.
- As you are finding your rhythm, try to determine what kinds of content you need to deliver at what frequency to get the best result. That will take some experimentation and invariably your rhythm will evolve over time.
- Ultimately, strive to get into a daily, weekly, and quarterly rhythm so that you have content coming out at each of these intervals. Until you reach that point, it’s incredibly difficult to get any real traction with your content marketing efforts.
After getting established, a young content factory’s content rhythm might look like this:
As you get more experience, you will be able to take on more. At OpenView, for example, our content rhythm looks like this:
No matter where you are in the evolution of your content factory, the key is to establish a framework that dictates which types of content you are going to create at which intervals, and then ensuring that your content factory is optimized to maintain that rhythm. Doing so will yield much better results than creating and distributing your content on an ad hoc, inconsistent basis. Over time, strive to get to the point where your content factory is producing and delivering one high-impact piece of content every day.
The best way to do this is by developing really efficient and streamlined processes for developing and distributing your content. Start with one type of content at a time and refine your process as you go. Eventually, creating one type of content will become easier and easier, and you will find that you are able to take on something else. Over time, your content rhythm will speed up and you will find that you are able to create a beat that is music to everyone’s ears.