Real talk, we're all busy - especially us business owners who wear 2,349,970 hats to keep the business going.
We're a full time work-from-home, homeschooling family. Since the *spicy cough* of 2020, my husband has worked from home 99% of the time, I've always been a work-from-home / stay-at-home mom, and since December of 2022, I also homeschool our kiddos.
Yes, you read that right, we are all home 24/7/365 together. And you know what? I LOVE it. Truly God's divine intervention on that one - never in a million years did I ever picture my life as it is today, and I honestly couldn't imagine ever going back to how it used to be.
But I digress, we're here to chat digital marketing right?!
So how does content batching help me in all of our chaos? Simply put, it provides me structure and consistency where I need it most (business wise).
I use the time blocking method to plan out pretty much all aspects of my day; scheduling chunks of time for content creation, homeschool lessons, homeschool lesson planning, working out, housework... you name it, it probably has a designated time slot in my calendar.
That's not to say I'm not flexible. I completely understand and take into account that sometimes life doesn't always go as planned. Client projects take longer than expected or there's a last minute project emergency to tend to, which can absolutely cut into my designated time blocks. BUT, having those blocks there in the first place allows me to follow a structured timeline so that I know exactly where to pick back up when I get back to it.
Now, some of you might be thinking that this sounds simple, redundant, or just plain basic. But have I also mentioned that I have ADHD? My brain works differently than most and it's taken me a lot of time and practice to find exactly what works for me. Not saying my insight and expertise isn't for the neurotypical folks, just sharing my story and what works for my passion yielding, neurodivergent self in hopes to help other business owners nail down something that will work for them too.
So time blocking for digital marketing. What comes next?
Basically the beginning of my process is chunking out time slots solely for content creation. From there, I section out those blocks to include sub-blocks for:
• Creating a bank of content ideas (blog posts, email newsletters, and social media)
• Writing out my newsletters and blog posts (with due dates on them)
• Designing coinciding graphics for Pinterest (I'm focusing solely on Pinterest and TikTok for the remainder of 2023)
• Scheduling out those graphics using Tailwind
• Recording videos for TikTok
• Editing those videos
• Scheduling those videos (so I can "set it and forget it" for a week or two)
Everything I do is scheduled and based off a strategy of some sort. Otherwise, the thought of creating content is so overwhelming that I just say 'forget it' and throw it on the back burner.
BUUUTT, if I want my business to grow I've got to market it, right?!
Hence the semi-strict schedule of time blocking and content batching. It helps me to break the process down into bite sized pieces, resulting in actual progress instead of a frustrating standstill.
Through years of experience, learning, growing, trial and error - I put together a structured course for all business owners who are in the same boat that I was (i.e. tired of feeling like a content marketing failure) so that you, too, can work your way to feeling confident in your digital marketing efforts and nail down a strategy and system that works for you (and not just in the "I can do this" sustainable way. I mean in the way that it's doing work for you - like bringing in more customers) so you can focus on other things.
If you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed with your social marketing, I highly recommend my Confused to CONFIDENT self paced, social marketing course. It's everything I've ever learned (and use in both mine and my client's businesses) packed into one sequential package.
Until next time,
Amye
p.s. peep my newest employee / mascot for my TikTok content!