5 Reasons People Struggle With Content Creation
Content creation is an essential part of creating an online presence.
It’s true – creating content is a big commitment but it has a dramatic impact on your business. Creating content consistently helps build your content library which increases your authority, builds trust with your audience and drives traffic to your business.
Even though 80% of marketers say content creation is a top priority for them, many small businesses, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs struggle to commit to it.
Here are five of the most common reasons people struggle with creating content and some suggestions on how you can overcome them.
1. Lack of time
Probably the most common reason I hear about why a business isn’t creating consistent content is because of a lack of time.
Creating high-quality content takes time and a lot of business owners are focused on their other responsibilities and commitments leaving little room for content creation. This can be especially true if you are a solopreneur or the primary person running your business.
But, like many other things in life, it requires you to commit to prioritizing content creation in order to create the room needed in your calendar.
I get it. Even though my specialization is content marketing, I’m still a small business owner and have a ton of other things that I must do in my business.
I’ve found the best way to manage this for me is through a combination of batch working and time blocking.
Batch working is grouping similar tasks and doing them at the same time. Time blocking is blocking out a dedicated amount of time on your calendar to do focused work.
When I set my goals for the year, I determine what the content objectives or themes are for each quarter. For example, one quarter may be focused on growing my email list, another may be focused on a launch, etc. I take a week and write all the blogs for the next month.
For me, it looks something like this.
Monday – a 90-minute block of time to determine blog topics for the next month based on my objectives and begin title drafts.
Tuesday – a 90-minute block of time to outline the blogs, research any supporting data and finalize the titles.
Wednesday – two 90-minute blocks to write the blogs.
Thursday – a 2-hour block to edit the blogs and create the graphics for the blog posts.
Friday – a 2-hour block to input the blog content into my website; format; do the back-end admin tasks, like SEO, customize URLs, write meta descriptions, etc.; and schedule to publish on their respective dates.
Each week I time block three batch sessions to create my social media graphics for the next week, write the captions and schedule them for publishing.
2. Fear of failure
Another reason people won’t commit to content creation is a fear of failure. You may be afraid your content won’t be well-received. Maybe you worry that you won’t be able to be consistent.
These fears can be paralyzing and can prevent you from even trying to create content.
But there are a few things you need to remember.
First, your content will get better the more you do it.
So even if it’s not well-received at first, the more you work at it, the better it will get and the more people will engage with it.
Second, don’t stretch yourself too thin.
We tend to compare ourselves and think that those we follow in our industry seem to be everywhere so that means we must be also. But it's not true. Chances are you are following those particular people because they’ve been doing it for a while and have been successful. They didn’t start that way and they likely have a team assisting them now.
Focus on what’s realistic and emphasize quality over quantity. One to two insightful Instagram posts every week is better than three posts a day about random items. It’s more sustainable and better serves your audience.
3. Lack of ideas
This is an incredibly popular obstacle that prevents people from creating content.
You may have a goal of publishing one piece of content a week but when you look at the calendar and realize that’s 52 pieces of content, you may think that there’s no way you can come up with 52 different things to talk about.
Fortunately, this is one of the easiest obstacles to overcome. It just requires a relatively small amount of time with no distractions.
Let’s say you are a fitness coach, here’s how you can come up with enough content topics for the year.
Block off 1-2 hours. Put away the phone and close your email and social media. Look at your calendar and not any times that you have certain functions occurring in your business. For example, if you have a launch at the end of October, spend all of September and October talking about topics related to your launch.
Take one subject in your niche and break it down multiple times to come up with content ideas. Let’s say you help postpartum moms get back to their pre-pregnancy shape or better. Break that into categories – workouts, nutrition, self-care.
Then break each of those down even further – workouts: at the gym, at home, without weights, with weights, with resistance bands, best ab machines at the gym, etc.
You could even break it down further based on body area: thigh exercises with resistance bands, arm exercises using things around the house, etc.
Keep breaking down the subject and turn each item into a piece of content. You’ll be amazed at how the ideas and creativity will start flowing.
You’ll quickly have more than enough topics to talk about to your audience.
4. Perfectionism
Perfectionism – let me tell you, I have the equivalent of a Ph.D. in using perfectionism as an excuse.
Perfectionism and planning are my go-to excuses when it comes to procrastination.
It’s not perfect. It may never be perfect … and that’s OKAY!!!
I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Apple is a major player in the tech space. But they’re not releasing an A+ product every time. If they did, there’d be no need for new products or the multiple updates released all the time. They release a C/C+ product and then continue to make updates and improvements once it’s released.
If you wait until your content is perfect, you’ll always be waiting.
And here’s the biggest secret – it’s not really about perfectionism.
There’s always an underlying cause. It took me a long time to realize this. My need for perfectionism was an excuse for procrastinating and I was procrastinating because of a lack of confidence or fear of judgment.
5. Lack of confidence / Fear of judgment
Sometimes you may feel like you have nothing of value to say and it’s usually because you lack confidence in yourself.
Sometimes you may think that people will judge you and question why you are doing what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and just what you’re doing in general.
But let me be frank, most people don’t care. They’re caught up in their own insecurities and self-doubt so don’t let the thought of them stop you from serving your audience.
Those that do judge are often poking at others because of problems within themselves. Release them. They’re not for you and you’re not for them. And that, too, is OKAY.
You’re not going to be for everyone but that doesn’t mean you don’t have anything of value to say because you do.
There are many reasons why people won’t commit to content creation.
However, you can overcome these challenges. It just requires a willingness to experiment and try new things and a commitment to consistency and perseverance.
By tackling these obstacles head-on and developing a plan for content creation, you can create high-value content that engages and inspires your audience.
AI is all the rage right now and is also a great resource to come up with content ideas. If you’d like to know how to use AI to aid your content creation, click on my FREE guide to using AI for your content.