I see so many people in my community as well as many of my clients who are just struggling to stay consistent with their marketing. But what does that mean to ‘stay consistent’ and how do you actually do it … and why does it even matter?
Being consistent is not about just saying every week, ‘Oh, I’ve got this checklist, and check, I did this and check, I did this and check, I did that … and I’m all done with my marketing.’ Because it’s more than that.
Your purpose, your reasoning and your intentions for being consistent have everything to do with how you’re building a successful business. And I’m talking about ALL of your marketing. I don’t just mean posting up on Instagram or on LinkedIn. I mean all of your marketing like your email messages and writing blog posts.
I’m talking about being consistent with sharing the content that you’re creating because it’s not an option anymore if you really want to build your business. It’s a requirement for a small business owner and it’s not something that you do “when you have time.”
You have to be consistently showing up in a way that you prioritize it, that you plan for it. And when you can prioritize it and when you can plan for it, you find the time for it.
When you’re building your business, your goals are long term.
Your purpose is to build your business and you want your marketing message to be out there and shared with the right people in the right community.
Your intention is to be the first person or the first business that someone thinks of when they have a need or they’re challenged by something that your business can solve.
That is your purpose — and when you can show up and do it consistently, those are the moments when you know that you have the opportunity to build your business because you are top of mind. You have your name, your business, your information, the valuable content that you’re sharing and even your call to actions out there so that people can find you.
And that is WHY you are creating this valuable content and being consistent.
But one of the BIG secrets to being consistent goes beyond just having a plan in place – it’s understanding, accepting and even embracing when you’re creating bad content.
I know that sounds crazy. I know that sounds super strange for me to be saying this. Like here I am trying to give you content tips and I’m turning around telling you to create bad content.
It’s not that I’m telling you to create bad content. It’s just gonna happen.
And that’s the big thing that I want you to understand that’s going to keep you consistent.
Let me use my Create Your Business YouTube channel as an example: When I first embraced that I’d have to create some bad content, it was literally a breakthrough moment for me.
When I first started creating videos, I was totally overwhelmed. I was new to the whole video thing. I didn’t know anything about editing. I didn’t know how to record my audio. I didn’t even know what kind of programs I should be using or the equipment I needed.
Developing YouTube videos was just completely out of my element. I was the type of person who is a big Pinterest user and a big Instagram user. I know about creating images. I know about SEO keywords. I know about writing content, but videos? I had to basically teach myself about what to do to develop video episodes.
When I started producing videos, I had a choice: I could obsess over how I was going to be perfect – like how I was going to make sure that I didn’t fumble over my words or how I was going to edit the video without big jump cuts.
And I spent way too many hours worrying about ‘Who am I to talk about this?’
OR I could accept that I was just going to move forward with what I knew how to do, to learn as I went along … and that I was probably going to end up creating a whole lot of bad videos on my way.
And you’re in this same space too.
Whether you’re just getting started in your marketing or just starting to step into a new social platform, you’re in that place where you’re not an expert.
It’s an unrealistic thing that we think we’re going to come right out the gate knowing all the steps and doing all the things perfectly.
I knew that I had to push through with developing my Create Your Business YouTube channel. I knew that to be me and to share what I knew and how to share the value and the content information that I had been teaching for the last 15 years.
I had to keep moving forward consistently.
My best solution was to create a process and a workflow routine. I knew that the more that I did the video production work, the more streamlined I would become, the more efficient I would become.
But I had to start somewhere.
The big secret to staying consistent is that you’ve got to come into this whole content development process knowing that you’re not going to create consistently amazing content until you create a lot of bad, a lot of okay, a lot of meh kind of content first.
When I look at some of my old videos, I’d call it ‘cringeworthy’ content but I also accepted that it was just part of my video content journey.
It’s a part of your journey.
Understanding this part of your content process is what’s going to get you to create consistent great content.
This content development process is something that you’re going to learn from. You’ll learn what content you like. You’ll learn what’s working and what’s not working.
You’ll start making changes to make your content better than the last. And it’ll become easier, your time will be more effective, more streamlined.
But if you go into this NOT embracing the possibility that you’re going to have bad content, you’ll most likely find your challenges as an excuse and find a reason to quit.
So you have to learn how to push through it and learn from your challenges. And learn how you can make your content better. Because when you learn this, it helps you develop that routine and process that’s going to help you stay consistent.
And I’m serious when I say this, when I look back on my first video episodes, I’m cringing. I gotta be honest … It took about six months of producing these videos every single week before I finally found a groove. Before I finally found my routine and I finally found my process that helped me stay consistent to create a weekly video EVERY week for two years.
Don’t let your need to be perfect creating amazing and remarkable content move you into coming up with excuses from putting your content out there. Because there is a balance between quality and quantity.
While I do believe that volume is important, that frequency is one of the things that you strive for when you’re trying to be consistent. And the more you create, the more opportunities you have of reaching new customers, the more opportunities you have of sharing your messages with your community.
How long do you think that you’ll need before you’re going to create consistent content before you start gaining traction?
My guess is it’s going to take a lot longer than you think it will. I would have not known going into my YouTube journey that it would take me a good six months of producing videos every single week before I started to find my groove.
It’s like we see some of these businesses, influencers and creators going viral and posting to thousands of followers. We think it’s so easy for them to show up day after day and create this amazing content. But we miss the fact that there were years that we weren’t even aware that they were showing up every day with crappy content. That they were showing up with their content and they were stubbornly consistent because they had a purpose.
So content creation and being consistent with it, doesn’t have to be the biggest struggle of your business. Because when you start looking at it from this perspective, knowing that you have to put a routine in place, to put a process in place. And to look at it as something that you actually look forward to — knowing that this process is going to take time like a long term goal to grow your business.
You’ll start to enjoy showing up. You’ll start to enjoy the process of creating content that’s helping your community … and you’ll start to see the results of showing up consistently.
Need more tips for staying consistent with your content creation?
Marketing should be a priority for your business. But when it starts to feel overwhelming, when it feels frustrated to stay consistent, that’s the point when that plan gets pushed to the side and the strategy becomes ‘figure it out later.’
If this feels like where you are then it’s time to change your approach to your marketing and that time is NOW.
Because all these marketing platforms that you rely upon for your marketing are constantly changing and knowing how to make these fit into your business is essential.
And to do this, you need to look at the full picture of your marketing, not just each single social platform.
It’s time for you to focus on how you’re going to make that marketing plan bring you results.
THIS is exactly why I created this FREE masterclass: How to get organized to stay consistent
In this free training, you’ll learn how to:
- Develop the Heartbeat of your Content Strategy: Learn how to pinpoint the content topics that show your expertise and share your marketing messages.
- Establish a Routine and Develop a Content Workflow: Develop a routine that will make you more efficient. You’ll become an assembly line with your content creation and find ways to make your work more efficient.
- Create a detailed Content Plan: Learn how to develop a workflow process that you can manage AND how to stick with it so you can reach more customers.
Click here to watch the free masterclass – How to get organized to stay consistent – and learn the simple marketing techniques to stay consistent with your marketing to help you grow your business and create consistent revenue.
