Why deadlines are killing your content
And what to do instead to make better content for your brand, avoid burnout, and enjoy content creation again.
Happy Monday fam,
Hope your week is off to a productive start. Today’s case study is a little different.
It’s about me...
And specifically, it’s about why I’m already pivoting my content strategy (2 weeks into 2022).
I made a mistake, and it’s a surprisingly common one. You might be making it, too. And it’s going to kill your audience growth if you don’t address it.
Let’s discuss.
The Original Plan
2 newsletters every week.
1 case study, on Monday’s at 9am PST.
1 shorter newsletter on Thursday’s at 9am PST.
2-3 Twitter threads per week.
3-4 tweets per day, talking about content marketing.
Simple enough, right?
Wrong. Here’s what happened.
The Mistake
I made the classic New Year’s resolution mistake. I overestimated myself.
You know? Kinda like the person who says they’re gonna go from not training to working out 6-7 days per week within a month. 96% chance they fail by June (unfortunate, but true).
Two weeks into this plan, i found myself with this low-grade anxiety that followed me throughout the day. Increased heart rate, shakiness... if you’ve dealt with anxiety before, you know.
It was weird though. Nothing was “wrong.” Things at work were going great, I’m done with school, and I’ve been taking care of myself physically.
Was it the excessive cold brew that i consume daily? Okay maybe.
But even that didn’t explain it all.
Here’s what i realized — The persistent (and seemingly random) stress and anxiety that I was feeling came from the internal pressure to meet these deadlines that I had set for myself.
Have you ever felt like your brain is constantly searching for the next best content idea? Like it won’t turn off?
That’s how this felt.
And the classic, hustle bro advice in this situation is to just “push through it.”
Just grind it out bro
Wrong. That approach (in many cases) is what’s keeping your content average, and your growth slow as hell.
Here’s why 👇
But first, an (important) caveat 🚨
I’ll start with a caveat here, because i know you’re thinking it.
If you’re just starting content creation for your brand, push through the fear.
Push through the fear of sitting down to write, film, edit. Push through the fear of putting your work out on the internet for others to judge.
There’s going to be resistance at the beginning of anything worth pursuing. It’s healthy to push through that and get uncomfortable. At that point, you don’t even know how to create good content.
But once you already have the content creation skills and the internal drive to stay consistent...
Forcing random deadlines on yourself leads to bad content
Let’s go back to my example, to help you see how this works.
As you know, every Monday I post case studies (well, at least I did).
These case studies are my biggest drivers of follower and subscriber growth, by far. I’ve had days where I jump by hundreds of followers off the back of one article.
The case studies also get my content in front of important people in the industry. The connections I’ve been able to create because of them are wild (extremely grateful for this).
But, the benefits only occur when the case studies are properly researched. And that takes a shit ton of time — time that I don’t always have.
When i don’t have time to research, it leads to case study topics that aren’t as compelling, and arguments that aren’t as developed. In other words, the content isn’t as good.
So yeah, I published it. That’s cool. But did the piece really achieve what it was meant to achieve?
Not at all.
If I’d just taken a few extra days to research (or just skipped that week until i found a compelling topic), the article would have gained more traction.
If I’d taken the time to structure my writing in a more cohesive way, the reading experience would have been much better.
The difference between good content and great content is that extra bit of effort. That extra bit of research. That extra bit of time.
And forcing stupid deadlines on your content keeps your content from realizing its full potential.
Finding the right balance between quantity and quality
As with most things in life, there’s a balance.
Quantity does matter. You have to publish, and publish consistently.
So how do you find a real, attainable balance between achieving consistency and publishing high quality content? Here are a few ideas:
1 - Public a higher frequency of short-form content with less focus on “quality,” and a lower frequency of long-form content with more focus on quality.
For example, I said I post 3-4 tweets per day. I stick with that, no matter what.
The downside of a crappy tweet is minuscule compared to the downside of a bad article. It takes 20 seconds to draft a tweet, but hours to draft an article.
Also, short form platforms often reward consistency much more than long form platforms. For example, the life cycle of a tweet is minutes. The life cycle of a well written article can be months (or even years).
So, use your brand’s short-form content to stay top-of-mind and to test ideas. You can also use it to train your consistency.
Conversely, commit to publishing long form content only when you have good content to publish.
2- Just skip a week. The world won’t end.
This is so simple. Yet it’s so hard to internalize for us high-achieving “perfectionists.”
The benefits of skipping a week to create a great piece of content outweigh the benefits of sticking to your random, self-induced schedule — especially with long form content.
You’re not any less of a marketer for skipping a week. In fact, you’re a better marketer for being aware enough to know that you don’t have anything worth publishing right now.
And, the best part about this:
You’ll actually enjoy creating content for your brand again. It won’t feel forced. It won’t (always) be anxiety-inducing.
Now, here’s my updated content strategy
After reflecting on the above ideas, here’s what I’ve decided on:
I’ll still be tweeting consistently, 3-4 times each day. This is super low cost for me to do — it only takes 10-15 minutes daily. I’ll still be publishing a Thursday newsletter. These take less time, and don’t require the depth of research that full case studies do.
Here’s the big change:
I’m not holding myself to a case study schedule.
When i do publish them, they’ll still be on Monday’s at 9am PST. But if there’s not a topic worth covering (or if I’m just swamped with client work), then I’ll skip that week.
That way, when i do publish a case study i can be confident that it’s worth publishing.
Oh, and i can actually enjoy the process of writing again, instead of feeling constantly rushed to create for the sake of a deadline that literally nobody is enforcing (except for me).
I’d urge you to consider this approach for your brand’s content strategy... at least, if you want to enjoy marketing again.
Final thoughts
I find that a lot of marketing “influencers” approach the quality versus quantity debate with a terrible lack of nuance.
This piece comes from the perspective of someone who’s worked on several brand and personal social accounts. The emphasis on quantity and/or quality really depends on:
Resources available to the social and content teams
Platforms (for ex. TikTok actually rewards scrappier content in many cases)
Where your brand is in the content creation journey
In some cases, deadlines can help drive action and create momentum. In many other cases, deadlines destroy creativity and ruin your content.
If this piece left any gray area or unanswered questions, feel free to shoot me a DM on Twitter with any questions you have. Or you can book a call here to see how we can work together to improve your brand’s social presence.
If you’re new around here and want to get better at marketing your brand with content, sub for free here:
On Thursday, I’ll show you how to avoid one of the most common mistakes brands make on social media that kills their reach.
Talk to you then,
Tommy