Content Strategy: Batch vs. Spontaneous

When creating, scheduling and planning your use of content, there are two main approaches that you could go with: batch and spontaneous.

Both offer advantages and can be fantastic for your business. The important thing is to have a strategy. If you have a plan for how you will be using and posting your content on your social media pages, website, emails and other platforms then you’ll see a far greater return on investment than with an inconsistent approach.

Batch Content Strategy

This means creating a large quantity of content at once and planning it out in advance. This can mean having your social media or email campaigns scheduled, having blogs prepared to go live, or having new content to add to your website at the ready.

Advantages

• Organisation: Creating, planning and scheduling a batch of content in advance is a great way to stay organised and keep on top of everything. You can track what needs to be done and when, and make sure nothing comes down to a last-minute panic.
• Safety: By having things planned in advance you have an added safety net. If things get a bit hectic further down the line you won’t have to worry about your content drying up!
• Be prepared: You can plan in advance for any big announcements or events you know are coming up. This means you won’t miss the opportunity to create content about really vital things.

A good way to think about this would be to think of content strategy like the diet of a student. A student might typically make a big batch of chilli to last them through a week’s worth of meals. Without it they’d risk either not eating, or creating a last-minute meal out of the random ingredients they have lying around.

Similarly, if you’ve forgotten to schedule out your content you risk not posting at all or scrambling something together in a mad rush!

Spontaneous Content Strategy

The other option is to create and post fresh content more regularly. After I’ve just been singing the praises of batch creation, and warning of the dangers of leaving it to the last minute, why would you do this?

Advantages

• Creativity: By creating fresh content you can have more freedom and experimentation. As such, you can react to current events in the world or your industry that would be valuable for your business.
• Stay relevant: Trends online, especially social media, are constantly changing. If you’re regularly creating content there’s a better chance you’ll be clued up on the latest trends. This will keep your content at the top of its game and make it far more engaging!
• Get the edge on rivals: You don’t want to be left behind or beaten to the punch by your industry rivals, so staying ahead of the curve with trends and industry-specific news is vital.

Both approaches have their benefits and downsides; batch creation guarantees consistency and peace of mind, and can give you more time to do other things, whilst creating and posting regularly can keep your content fresh and give you more freedom. However, make sure your hectic schedule doesn’t get in the way and leave your channels starved of content or filled up with half-baked content!

You could even have a hybrid approach, where you batch create general content to go out but leave room for more spontaneous posts as well. This keeps your social channels fresh with regular content, and also provides a bit of variety with different posts every now and then. This might be the best way to stop people scrolling and pay attention to your content - interspersing your regular content with something a bit different is great for engagement and keeps your pages interesting! Read more tips for effective social media marketing.

Now you’ve got our expert tips you can tailor your content to your own needs - every company and individual is different, so just find what works best for you and stick with it!