Batching for the Unexpected
Navigating the mental fog from recent global and local events is making writing this really difficult. My brain seems to be working on reserves, not premium fuel. Trying to be creative while dealing with something heavy is like trying to squeeze a lime without cutting it first. The juice is there, but it’s almost impossible to get to.
When you're a business owner, you can’t call in sick from your marketing - even when your brain feels like it's running on fumes. And since consistency is so important in marketing, content needs to go out on schedule.
Here’s where the hero of strategically batching content comes in. You create a small backlog of high-quality pieces ready to go when things hit the fan.
Audit Your Content Types
Look at your current content and ask, “Will this topic be relevant six months from now, or does it better address what's happening right now?” Then look at the types of content you produce that can be batched successfully:
Newsletter segments that aren't news-dependent
Educational social posts vs. community engagement
Email sequences, frameworks, templates
Evergreen blog topics (your client’s pain points, questions, and offering value)
Strategy on “Good Brain Days”
Hopefully, you have more good brain days than not. And when you do, you can plan to create one piece of extra content.
At a minimum, I would plan for 2-3 strong, extra content pieces at any given time and focus on your most important content types. You can always have AI pull from your main pieces to give you secondary pieces in a pinch (like pulling social media posts from your newsletter).
I wouldn’t rely too heavily on AI to create your batched pieces. And I would argue that using AI on bad days will still produce lukewarm content.
But using AI to outline extra content on a good day can be a good strategy, especially if content creation is not your strength. It will take less time, give you good bones to work from, and all you need to do is edit and add personalization.
Batching (ish)
I don’t know about you, but the word “batching” makes me think of a big backlog of perfect content ready to go. And for the big guys, this is probably true.
But for me and you, we can have some of that, but other things help, too. Like:
Strong outlines mean you only need enough brain power to fill in details, not create from scratch
A content idea bank removes the "blank page" paralysis
Customer testimonials/interviews let other people do the heavy creative lifting
Organize Your Batched Content
You may use your batched pieces here and there, or if things get really rough, you may use them consecutively. Consider that as you plan, and save them somewhere you’ll be able to quickly see what topics they cover.
Set Yourself Up for Success
When life gets heavy - and it will - set yourself up for success by thinking ahead when times are good.
Create one extra content piece this week and write 20 content ideas from knowledge you can share and common client problems that you offer solutions to.
