How to batch-produce content for your business without spending all day on it

As a small business owner, it often feels like there’s an endless list of tasks to be done, and never enough time to do them all. 

Marketing is no exception. Creating all the content you need for your various marketing channels – like your website, blog, social media accounts and email newsletter – can easily become a full-time job in itself.

Yet it’s never been more important to stay consistent with the content you post. There’s more competition than ever online, and without sharing interesting, original content on a regular basis, it’s unlikely that you’ll reach the ideal audience for your products or services.

So how do you stay consistent with your content, without allowing it to take over your life?

By batch-producing your content: creating a load of content at once, instead of spreading the task over several days or weeks. This means promoting your business won’t distract you from the gazillion other tasks on your to-do list.

No more task switching

Switching between different tasks (such as jumping between client work and social media) is proven to put a strain on your brain and quickly leads to burnout. So by creating all your content in one go, you’re saving yourself a lot of time and energy in the long run.

The key to good content batching is to begin with a foolproof plan. My previous blog post shares an easy method for planning a month’s worth of content in an hour – check it out now if you haven’t already.

Once you’ve got your plan in place and you know what content you need to produce, set aside an afternoon and aim to get it all done in one go.

Choose the right format

You can speed things up by choosing a format that plays to your strengths. For me, writing comes naturally, so I can usually type up a full batch of written social media posts in a couple of hours (powered by coffee and instrumental music on noise-cancelling headphones – my go-to productivity combo!).

I’ll also factor in time for converting my written posts into Instagram graphics. Having pre-made design templates with my brand colours and fonts, this is basically just a case of copying and pasting my written content into the right text boxes.

Hit export, save the files in a dedicated folder on your phone or computer, then share your posts according to the dates scheduled on your content calendar. Job done!

If writing isn’t your forté, you can create shortform videos for Instagram or TikTok using a similar approach. Divide the process into three phases: scripting, shooting and editing.

By working on multiple videos at once (scripting several clips in one go, before moving on to shooting and editing in a similar manner), you can potentially finish an entire month of promo material in a few smartly planned content batching sessions.

Allow extra time

Like any creative task, batching content often takes longer than expected. Try to allow an hour or two more than you’d ideally like – it’s surprising how quickly this time slips away once you’re in the flow of things. 

Through trial and error, you’ll quickly learn which kinds of content give you the most bang for your buck – the most positive response for the least amount of time and energy. Then you can repeat what works without losing all your free time to the content production treadmill.

Fancy some professional guidance to help you plan and produce customer-winning content for your small business?

Booking a one-to-one power hour could be just what you need. During a private collaborative session, we’ll chat through lots of creative content ideas and select the best ones together. Then we’ll put together a plan for producing consistent content in a way that feels both achievable and exciting.

It all starts with a free 15-minute discovery call. Drop me a message now to get the ball rolling.