5 Reasons Why Consistency is Critical in Content Marketing
A common refrain from our clients is that creating content (like email newsletters or podcast episodes) is hard. “How can we possibly send more than one newsletter a year? What do you mean you think we should be recording a new podcast every week? Isn’t that impossible?!”
The process of coming up with relevant content for your audience, writing that content, creating visuals to go with it, publishing it across multiple channels, and doing this regularly for the foreseeable future can be intimidating. Yes, it’s hard. But it’s worth it!
Content marketing as defined by the Content Marketing Institute (yup, that’s real) is:
“…a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
By creating content, such as blog posts, that your ideal audience finds valuable, you’re giving your ideal audience a reason to come back to you. Whether you’re informing or entertaining them, that content you publish is key for developing a positive relationship with your customers, your donors, your fans… whoever can help you accomplish what you want to achieve.
But you can’t just create one blog post and be done. Publishing content consistently over time is crucial!
Here’s why we care so much about consistency:
1. Consistency builds trust.
As you may have heard us say before, the kiss of death for many blogs or social media accounts is a post that says, “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while…”
Think of a friend that you text with every few days. What if they suddenly went silent? Would you be worried? Would you wonder what happened?
Inconsistent blogging or Tweeting is actually just like that. When you post content consistently, the audience that you build is trusting that there will be more of it in the future. When they come back to your blog, a new post will be there. When they check on your Instagram account, a new video will show up.
If they don’t see anything new for a while, your audience will start to wonder what happened. Are you okay? Is your business still in business? And, worse case, they might stop checking on you all together.
It is very hard to build back an audience that has decided to move on from you because you’re not giving them value anymore, so don’t let that happen in the first place. Content marketing is only worth it if you actually do it. Don’t ghost your own customers; commit!
2. Consistency shows that you are serious.
Many of our clients come to us because it’s finally time to take their content marketing seriously. That’s why a lot of our work begins with creating strategies and schedules, and scheduling weekly meetings to stay accountable.
When you are disciplined about your content and stick to your publishing schedule , it shows that you are serious about what you’re doing. And if you have competitors, it’s even more important; consistently showing up in front of your audience can help you stand out from the crowd, because it’s hard to do. So your audience is more likely to pick you first, when they see you first!
To pull it off, it’s important to understand your own working style and limitations, and create a system that accounts for that. If you truly only have time to push out one newsletter a month, do it, but don’t miss a month. Plan your topics for the upcoming year and write your subject lines in advance. Create content in batches that you can schedule out over time. Involve your team in content creation so you’re not carrying the burden by yourself.
If you don’t take your own content seriously, it can signal to your audience that maybe you’re not taking your business or organization all that seriously, either! Put content marketing higher on your priority list, and don’t accept missed deadlines or start pushing publishing dates back willy-nilly.
3. Consistency makes it easier to stay on brand.
Practice makes perfect, and that goes for your brand voice. You remember brand voice, right? Here’s a refresher on what that is and why it matters.
The more you write using your brand voice or create visual content sticking closely to your brand guidelines, the more confidence you build doing that over time. It gets easier and easier the more you do it, because it will start to come naturally.
4. Consistency helps more people recognize your brand.
You start a business or a non-profit to connect with others so you can achieve a goal, whether that’s selling hoodies for dogs or raising funds for animal rescues. If no one can find you, it’s very hard to make sales or receive donations, right?
Content marketing increases your visibility; the more content you can get out there into the world, the more likely it is that someone will SEE that content! And consistent content marketing helps your customers and donors recognize you out in the wild, no matter where they might run into your stuff.
Think about a brand that you know very well. What are some recognizable aspects of their content that you’d know anywhere? It might be a commercial jingle that you can’t get out of your head, or a swoosh that is very familiar no matter what color it is, or the phrase, “I’m lovin’ it.” You recognize those things because you’ve heard or seen them so much and so consistently that they stick; that’s our goal here.
5. Consistency develops your creative muscles for other cool things!
Developing good content marketing habits can lead to so many other opportunities! Once you’re used to sending out that email newsletter every month, blogging every week, and Tweeting every day (and it doesn’t feel like SUCH a burden), you’re ready to take on something new. How about starting up a podcast? Maybe you should host some events!
Not only that but it’s inspiring to see the content you’ve created as it accumulates over time. Heck, we’ve been blogging here on The Slice for 5 years now (check out our archive here!) and it’s wild to think about all the different topics we’ve covered and all the people we’ve reached over that time.
So don’t be afraid: Make a schedule and stick to it, even if you end up blogging late at night or posting on Instagram before your kids wake up. Content marketing takes time and dedication, but it’s very, very worth it.
And, of course, if you need hands-on help with content creation or someone to help you stay on schedule, you can always call us!