4 Incredibly Useful Tips to Keep Your Content Consistent
Have you ever watched a television series that is so great 90% of the time but occasionally puts out an episode that doesn’t actually move the story along? Or maybe the only relevant thing to the storyline isn’t presented until the last 5 minutes of the show?
It’s beyond frustrating!!
I’m not a huge TV person anyway so when I commit to a series and spend an hour or so watching a filler episode that doesn't progress the story, I feel like it was a huge waste of my time.
It is so inconsistent with what I’ve come to expect from the show that I literally question whether I should continue watching. Honestly, I’ve actually quit watching some shows for this very reason.
Well, guess what - the same thing can happen with your content.
Being consistent helps your audience know what to expect from you. When you meet these expectations you build loyalty. And I don’t need to tell you that a loyal audience is much more likely to become a buying audience.
Here are four simple ways to help build consistency with your content.
Create an editorial calendar
The most common thing people think of when talking about consistency is timing.
In terms of content, this means delivering your content on a regular schedule.
The first thing you need to do is determine when you will publish your pillar content. By pillar content, I mean your main type of content. This can be done many ways but the most common types of pillar content are blogs, podcasts and videos.
When considering this, you need to keep in mind what you can realistically achieve with the time available for you to work on your content.
Yes, you can blog every day, but ask yourself if those blogs will all deliver high-value content and engage your readers, or will some of them end up being filler content? Chances are you’re going to end up with some filler in there.
This is a quality over quantity moment.
It is SOOO much better to deliver high-value content less frequently than to put out meh-content often!
Once you’ve determined how often you will release your pillar content, you need to have a method for making sure you follow through.
The best way to manage this is by creating an editorial calendar.
An editorial calendar can be done in several different ways. Some people use a calendar, like a Google or Apple calendar, others create a spreadsheet and some use a project management system, like ClickUp.
An editorial calendar can be simple with just your pillar content information or it can be more complex and include social media posting, promotions, themes, etc.
If you’re just starting with an editorial calendar, start with simple and build it as you go based on what’s working in with your content delivery objectives.
Create a checklist of your content process
Another means of being consistent with your content is documenting your process of creating it.
A content checklist is an easy way to accomplish this.
Start by writing down every step that you do to create your content.
This may start by coming up with topics, followed by creating an outline and so on. Be sure to include any format information needed. For example, a basic format template may be: title, subtopic 1, subtopic 2, subtopic 3, closing and call to action.
Obviously, this may vary a bit depending on the topic but having this will ensure you are consistent in your delivery format and help you make sure you don’t miss any steps.
A lot of people just stop there but that’s far from the end of the process.
Be sure to include everything that you do from the time you come up with the topic until you hit publish. This includes things like editing, sourcing or creating graphics for your blog, creating or selecting the thumbnail for your video, scheduling your social media, drafting your email to share it with your list, etc.
You can download my Ultimate Content Creation Checklist to help get you started.
Create a style guide for your content
What is a style guide?
A style guide is a set of standards that defines your brand.
You may recall from your high school or college classes that you had to use MLA or APA style guidelines when writing your papers. These are academic style guides to ensure consistency in writing and sourcing.
In business, sometimes owners and entrepreneurs only think of a style guide as it related to visual brand collateral - logo, font, colors, etc.
But you also need to have a content style guide. This ensures that you are consistent with your grammar, tone, and usage of various words, among other things.
I’ve worked for many years in higher education. I was responsible for reporting to federal agencies, accreditors and directly to the Board of Trustees for a number of those years. This writing, as I’m sure you can imagine, is often very formal and dry, with loads of data and zero personality. Having worked in higher ed for so long, it became my default.
So when I decided to move from side hustling to starting my own business, I struggled with writing in a more informal manner that allowed some of my personality to come through.
Having a style guide for my content saves me daily!
There are several things you can include in your content style guide, such as common phrases you use, words you use to describe your products or services, your tone of voice and how you use hyphenation and capitalization.
An example of this in my business is the term pillar content. I always use ‘pillar content’ when referring to a primary piece of content. With most of my audience, that’s a blog, podcast, or video. But pillar content can also be referred to by other names like core content or anchor content. However, by using ‘pillar content’ and not bouncing back and forth with other terms, my audience knows exactly what I’m speaking about and it helps avoid confusion.
Batching content
Batching content is when you focus on doing related tasks at a given time.
Batching content allows you to do multiple tasks related to creating your content which, in turn, allows you to create more than one piece of content at a time.
Completing more than one piece of content at a time gives you flexibility for those moments when real life kicks in and doesn’t care what your content plans were. It also makes it easier to stick to that editorial calendar we talked about earlier.
There are multiple studies and articles related to the value of batch work.
Let’s put it in practical terms as it relates to your creating your content.
Regardless of your content delivery method, the foundation of your content relies on words - outlines, scripts, writing, etc. This work is often done in the left side of the brain - the side that processes logic, reading and writing.
But words are only half of the tasks related to your content. You have to drive people to your content and that requires you to promote it. Promoting your content often includes visuals, like images for social media posts. These types of tasks use the right side of your brain - the side that is more visual and deals more with images than words.
To create and publish one piece of pillar content requires you to bounce back and forth between both sides of your brain. It’s not efficient. You can’t get into a rhythm and it ends up costing you more time to create your content.
By batching your pillar content, you eliminate this bouncing back and forth between the sides of your brain.
An example of batching your pillar content may look like this:
Session 1 - Write four pieces of pillar content - blogs, scripts, etc.
Session 2 - Draft social media captions and email campaigns related to the promotion of the content created in Session 1.
Session 3 - Source visuals and create graphics for pillar content and related promotional/social media content.
Session 4 - Finalize for publication - upload content to website and platforms (i.e. YouTube, iTunes, etc.), schedule social media and email campaigns, and other admin-related tasks associated with your pillar content.
Keeping your content consistent is a key component of creating authority and building an audience of devoted followers.
Download my Ultimate Content Creation Checklist to help you stay consistent today!