A quick overview of why choosing a content cadence first before content consistency can help you over the long term because of the following benefits:
- A simplicity driven approach to content cadence is first starting small. Pick something that is very doable, such as one piece of quality content a month to start with.
- Developing content cadence will help you find your own voice on social media, across various platforms and get you in a content groove.
- A cadence will allow you the chance to see what type of content you enjoy posting rather than merely leaning on what very experienced people have to say and give you time to create sustainable habits that are easier to stick to, towards a consistency driven approach, but first starting small.
Are you ready to throw a brick at the content preachers thrashing the word consistency like it’s a pināta at a 5-year-old’s birthday party? Well, it’s about time we talked about uncovering content cadence over consistency with the power of a simplicity-driven approach.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed watching and observing on the sidelines in groups, targeted on social media, and hearing the chatter in your inbox from all the experts, touting consistency but no one actually talks about how exactly to get that coveted consistency, then here are some steps that can help you build this in.
If you think about someone as talented as a stage performer, know that it takes years to perfect the craft with a grit-driven, inconsistency fueled, cadence-finding approach that leads to eventual consistency.
So the sooner you think of developing content cadence as a long term investment like a marathon than a short term sprint, the easier it’s going to be in the long terms without burning out creating content.
Here are some steps to consider to develop content cadence:
1. Develop a voice-aligned strategy before striving for content consistency
To create content cadence, you need to develop a way of showing up that excites you and is closely linked to your own unique voice.
To get the building blocks for developing your unique voice and get excited about creating content cadence, ask yourself the following questions:
- What experience do you have from your professional experience that you are bringing into your business?
- What life experiences have you had that have shaped your journey and helps you approach your profession from a unique perspective?
- What problems are your clients or prospective clients searching for, tell you about or post about on social media?
Once you understand the specific outcome only you can create, you can reverse engineer all the things they need to know to understand your product or offering with the solution seekers.
It’s a journey from taking them from being solution aware of needing a service or a product and helping to position your product in front of solution-seeking people looking for a specific outcome that you happen to offer.
Create a sustainable content plan
Sustainability in a content plan is mapping time and available resources with a content strategy that is right for your stage of the business.
Without being able to sustain a low-effort, low-complexity plan, getting to consistency will feel more like being on a content hamster wheel than a content groove.
Which leads to overwhelm and giving up.
This video shows you how to use a simplicity-based approach using AI to help you get started. Using AI as a content helper rather than leaning on it entirely to create all your content will help keep your content authentic and sounding like you.
So pick the point of lowest effort for you by first determining how much time you have in a week, what resources are available to help you create content, what stage of the business or new route in your business you are in, the revenue you are currently making and whether you can afford to hire someone consistently, your experience with marketing and the level of expertise in your own industry. If you mark yourself lower in most of these categories, start with just one piece of content each week.
If you are not sure what to say or write and you are just getting started, download the three-phase framework for message mining.
The three-phase framework will help you build out the exact language that your ideal customer is using, even if you have no clients yet.
Build a roadmap for establishing a cadence toward content consistency
This basically is setting a regular time in your calendar each week for 2-4 hours at minimum and could end up being more like 6-8 hours developing your weekly core content. It will take this long initially, but once you get started, it will become easier.
This is why starting small is best and why committing to just doing one thing after you have established where you are heading and created an outcome is the best way to get started.
Repeat this process and commit to the content cadence for at least four weeks before reviewing and adding in other channels, creative assets such as canva designed posts, carousel designs, story templates, and other tools in your toolkit and broadening your reach.
You can also completely deconstruct this and start messy, but know that you will always come back to the same place, and that is to first start with an outcome-based approach to creating content if you want your messaging to land.
If you want a messaging guide to help you get started, download the three-phase framework to nail your messaging.
Layer it up once cadence is achieved for content consistency
Once you have mastered having content cadence, you can reassess your time by having made some gains through efficiency and speed in creating content with a purpose.
By establishing cadence first and giving yourself time to work through it, you will get faster and free up time to add and layer other elements like channels and creative assets, building towards getting a wider reach.
The power of a cadence-first, simplicity-driven approach to unlocking content consistency will not only make creating content more enjoyable but also set you up for success rather than disappointment.
