As business owners, we are drilled with the message that consistency is one of the most important factors in marketing. But the problem consistency focus is this continual drive for more.
Once you manage to consistently make three Facebook posts a week, make that five posts, once you do five, better start working up to seven!
And if it isn’t MORE content on the same platforms, it becomes content on MORE platforms. Okay great, you’re consistently recording a video, now make that into a written blog. Now add a podcast and upload your videos to five other platforms so people might be able to find you there.
It’s a never-ending story, an unending reel of adding more and more pieces. And just outsource the distribution of it so you don’t even need to worry about it, spend money to do MORE because you ‘should’.
It’s always more posts, more consistently in more places.
And it’s not just in marketing, we apply the same pressure to income and securing clients, we want them to operate like clockwork. Five clients every month generating $10k every month.
The problem with focussing on consistency alone is it lacks alignment with you and your audience.
In marketing, your audience isn’t always online at the same time every day in the mood for consuming the same content or reading about the same things. What takes my interest at 8 am is not what takes my interest after a long day at 8 pm.
In terms of sales, your audience isn’t always going to be in a position to buy every single month of the year. They may take school holidays to be with their families. They may have the busiest months of the year in the run-up to Christmas. Aka they aren’t always available to work with you.
There will be cycles, there will be ups and downs. Times when consistency seems to come easily & content ideas flow. And there’ll be times when you aren’t in the content zone and you can’t face that weekly FB live.
What Else is Important?
So if consistency isn’t the be-all and end-all of building a sustainable business what is?
Challenge the More, More, More
Focus on alignment to your ideal client, and not just where do they hang out? Where are they searching for the thing you are offering?! If you’re targeting me on TikTok unfortunately you’ll have to cut through the videos of knitting, goats, thrift find upcycles, renovations and tatting before you find me.
Think About Impact
Duplicating the same content across five different platforms at the same time and saying the same thing in five different spaces overlooks the facts of:
- the people on different platforms are different and generally looking for different things and they can be on there at different times of the day, and days of the week.
- the format of platforms is different, each time I see a ‘share a photo of your…[whatever] in the comments on Instagram I know immediately this has been pushed from Facebook with a second thought to how it might work on IG.
Quality over quantity
If all your posts are low-quality people will stop engaging with them. This means the algorithm will then start downgrading them! Ouch. Engagement is the key and engagement comes from providing what your ideal audience want in a high-quality way.
Engagement comes from connection. Understanding your ideal client and using their language, their lived experience, referencing their circumstances, goals and desires. It’s the old chestnut of niche and being specific.
Accept the Ebb & Flow
Business (and life) aren’t one constant, predictable, uninterrupted stream. And that applies equally to your potential clients and yourself. Think about working with that ebb and flow rather than fighting it.
- when are you most inspired to write content?
- how can you batch activities so you maximise the flow and cover the more challenging times?
- do you need a plan to manage school holidays, menstrual cycles, partners work schedules or any of the other aspects of your life?
- how can you create a cash buffer for those leaner months?
So I encourage you to challenge the thinking that consistency is a requirement for where you are now in your business. Is it what you need or just an ultimate aim? To stop just focussing on consistency alone.
Help is Here
If you need help untangling consistency as a rule before you can be successful and overcome the problem with consistency focus then reach out for a free chat.