Let’s talk about how to batch your blog content. Ready for me to save you some mega time and sanity AND help you be more consistent in your blogging.  You came to the right place.  I’m sitting here on hour 2.5 of writing blog posts.  I know, you probably think I’m crazy, but it works, my friends!  I’m talking about batching content.  Earlier this week, I walked you through how to batch your Instagram content and today, we are talking about batching your blog content.

Psssst.  Did you see my podcast that helps you figure out how to plan your summer schedule?  Listen to it here.

What is batching content?

Content batching is doing the same type of task altogether.  So instead of writing a blog post on the day that you are going to post that blog post, you will sit down for a longer period of time and write multiple blog posts one right after the other.  Then you will do all of the images for those posts at the same time and then you can do the SEO for those posts.

So much time is wasted switching between tasks.  Batching your content allows you to stay in one frame of mind and stops you from using all of that energy and time switching between writing, then creating images then getting your post SEO ready.

I have to be a very specific mindset to be able to write blog posts, but I can create blog images while watching a movie with my kids.  Batching allows me to do this.  It is magic, my friends!

Why do you need to create all of this content in the first place?

Content marketing should be a big part of your business strategy.  Content marketing is THE new way of marketing.  It is creating relevant and useful content for your audience that they will find valuable and that builds a relationship with you and them.  This blog article is a great example of content marketing.  I know that my audience is trying to build their business online.  They want to know how to do that so, by me creating content for them, they know, like and trust me more.  (Reader, it is working, right?  I sure hope so.;).

Creating content is also a great way to get found.  When you blog and do so with Pinterest and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in mind, you will be able to reach a larger audience and get organic growth.

And lastly, when you create blog content, you are creating to last.  Unlike Instagram and Facebook posts that have a shelf life of a couple of hours, your blog posts can serve you for years to come.  It is worth it to take the time to invest in this platform.

What are the steps to batching your content?

Step 1: Define your purpose

Why do you have a blog?  Who are you trying to serve with your content?  What type of content do your people need?  What products do you have?  What type of content can you create that will lead people to your products?

Consider the questions above when deciding what the purpose of your blog is.  I don’t want you to create content just to create content.  Think of the reason you want to create the content.  Much of content creation is to attract your target audience to you.  Because of this, it is crucial to create the type of content that your people are looking for online.

Step 2: Brain dump

Once you know your purpose, ask yourself: what do I know that my audience needs and is looking for?  Write down a list of all of the things that come to you.  Keep writing until there is nothing left.  You will be surprised at how big your list is.  This list will be your list to go to when you are deciding what to write.

Step 3: Research

Do some research about your audience.  Ask them about what types of problems they have that you can help with.  You can do this through your email list or on Instagram.  For me, I will hop on Instagram stories and ask a question.  Like today, I am was trying to decide if I keep my podcast going throughout the summer but wasn’t sure if my audience would be listening to podcasts all summer or not. So, I asked them.  I had a bunch of responses and they all said, yes!  So, now I know that my audience is ready for my podcasts and they will listen.

I do this with blog post topics too.  I will ask on my stories if they would rather learn about Blog batching or Instagram batching, for example.

I will also spend some time on Pinterest and Google looking at what type of content has already been created and what is performing well.  Then I will take it one step further and do some keyword searches to decide what topics are going to be the most beneficial to write about.

I will add anything I find to my brain dump list.

If you are having trouble on knowing how to create a great title, you should check out this blog title generator.  It is really fun and super helpful.

Step 4: How to Batch Your Blog Content into steps

Now that you have your titles planned out, you need to break them up into steps.

For me, I break up my blog creating into:

Writing: This is where I spend the bulk of my time creating my content.  I’m committed to creating long, information filled blog posts.  I will sit down and write 2-3 blog posts at once.  This work is deep thinking work, so I need to have quiet and alone time.  When I’m writing, it is hard to go from writing to other tasks quickly, so I try to sit down and stay writing as long as possible (or until the kids interrupt;).

Graphics creation: I make sure that each of my blog posts has Pinterest worthy graphics that perform well on Pinterest and attract the right people to my site.  This creation process takes a lot less mind work.  I can create these images while watching a movie or tv at night.

If you are looking for some free stock images, I use Unsplash.com and if you are up for paying a little bit more, I use Haute Stock.

Finishing up with SEO and Readability: Once my graphics are created and my blog post is written, now I will go in and make sure that everything looks right for SEO, Pinterest and Readability.  This doesn’t take a lot of time, but is a crucial step to optimizing your blog posts.

Scheduling: If you are using WordPress, you will be able to schedule your blog post.

Promoting:  Once your blog post is scheduled, then what?  I Tailwind to schedule my pins for Pinterest and then add my content to my Instagram plan.  Check out how I do it here.

And that is how you batch your blog content.  I know, it seems like a lot.  Maybe I shouldn’t have lead with the story of me sitting at my computer for more than 2 hours, but that is the blogger life, I guess, and it sure feels good to have 3 killer blog posts ready for the world and ready to bring me new followers and to help my current people.

Check out my Instagram batching blog post here.

Ready for my Summer Business planning guide?  Pick it up here.