The 12 Days of Digital Marketing: Day 11
Welcome to Day 11 of The 12 Days of Digital Marketing.
Every day, we’ll answer a marketing question sent in by people like you. Even if—especially if!—the phrase “internet marketing” produces deep nausea or dread. We’re here to show you how it’s all about connection and authenticity.
Q.
I always have such great intentions for how often I’m going to blog and send emails, and then life happens and I wind up way behind schedule and stressed out. How do I keep up with a schedule so I’m not always ghosting my list?
– The Ghoster of Christmas Past
A.
Dear Ghoster—
Keeping up with consistent communications can be really hard. We’ve all been there! So, first of all, be gentle with yourself. No one (or no one reasonable) is going to be upset if you miss a few messages on your schedule.
That said, there are a few things you can do to keep from feeling like you’re always behind.
First, consider what your schedule looks like in the first place. Are you over-promising? Unless you have a content team providing hot-and-cold-running blog posts, you’re probably going to feel the pull between client work and content creation, and your clients are most likely going to (rightly) win that battle. Is it really necessary or reasonable to blog every week? Do your readers need daily emails, or have you just convinced yourself that they do? Even if your schedule is reasonable, think about what you can do to make it easier on yourself—planning for the occasional link roundup, personal update, or recap of recent content instead of all original, on-topic, valuable professional insights can help you keep up the communication without quite so much pressure.
Second, give batch creation a try. That is, try to sit down once or twice a month and just knock out as much content as possible when you’re not on deadline for something else. Yes, this means it’s going to be worthwhile to create an editorial calendar, so you can plan in advance what you’re going to say. Yes, you’re probably going to have to create some on-the-fly content when there’s something time-sensitive in the news that’s important for you to cover. But the more you have on hand, the less stressful it will be when it’s time to share.
Finally, if you do find yourself missing some posts or emails…don’t stress out about it. It’s up to you if you want to address it with your list after the fact, but if something comes up and you don’t want to spill all the details, don’t feel like you owe anyone an explanation. Just get back into it with some quality content—not all sales, all the time—and chances are, they’ll just be glad to hear from you. You are much more aware of your own slip-ups than 99.9% of your readers.
Consistently connecting with your audience is one of the best ways to build a relationship with them, but we’re all human. Create some systems, hire help, build up a buffer of content, but don’t beat yourself up if you miss a few posts or emails. A little bit of grace goes a long way.
Wishing you a ghost-free future,
-Emma & Katie
Have a burning question of your own? Email us at info@dossieragency.com. We’re keeping all questions anonymous, so be as upfront as you need to be, and don’t worry about feeling silly. Chances are, lots of other people need to hear the answer, too.