The Power of Batching Content for artists and other creatives

In today's digital world, effective online communication is essential for any business, regardless of whether it is a hobby or a revenue-generating activity. As a result, anyone with an online presence can be considered a “content creator”.

Before you bawk at the idea, saying “but I’m an artist (or writer, or poet, or musician…)! I don’t want to waste my time creating content for the algorithm”, take a minute to consider how you attract an audience to your work. Quality content is what attracts and engages your online audience with your creative practice, whatever form that takes. This content can be shared on various channels, including social media platforms or owned channels like websites and newsletters.

Batching content creation is a powerful way to optimise both your time and your content creation strategy. By focusing on productivity and time management, you can produce more content in less time, and attract a larger audience to your creative works.

What is Content?

Content covers:

• written (e.g. blogs, articles)

• video (short form like reels, TikTok and YouTube shorts and longer form, which is generally over 60/90 seconds and more indepth)

• photos

• audio (e.g. podcasts)

What does this mean for you?

As creatives, our whole practice provides wonderful opportunities for creating content in batches. People have a natural interest in the creative process - how we create, what we’re working on, colour palette choices for example - and so taking action to video or photograph some of the process as we go along can provide raw content for us to use as part of our content batching strategy.

We have lots of things that we could share but it also puts us under pressure. It is worth considering the following:

• What do we want to share?

• How does the need/expectation to share impact our creative work?

• Do we feel obliged to over-share things? Our processes for example.

• Maybe you're introverted and don't like videos

The solution here is to focus on content creation that you enjoy, that is relevant to your practice and that attracts the right type of audience for your work. As a busy creative, batching content is one key way to optimise your time and your content. Another key tool in your content creation toolbox strategy is scheduling your content - find that blog here.

How to make content creation easier

As a creative, you are your brand - people resonate with you as a person and the art you create. So it makes sense to tailor the content you create to suit you, your needs and your practice.

This means that you don’t have to do silly dances because they’re popular (or you should/could dance to your heart’s content if that’s your jam) or other things that feel unaligned with you.

There are always alternatives. For example:

* If you don't like being on video, you don't need to be - you could focus videos on your process or timelapses

* If you don't like writing, can you focus on photographs, audio or video instead?

Batch, batch, batch!!

As mentioned, batching content is one brilliant way to optimise your time and your content creation process. It is where you create numerous items of content in one go.

So you might set out one morning and record several short-form videos together. Now you'll have videos available to you to share in your channels when needed.

You might prepare a couple of blogs so all you'll have to worry about on release day is to press that "publish" button.

It's basically front-loading content creation on a set day(s) to make it easier on you going forward.

Batching content is about making your creative life easier. If you can schedule time out to batch certain content, then it can be used during periods that you're too busy to create new content. You're still communicating with your audience with minimal impact on your current workflow.

Not all content can be batched or pre-planned but doing so where possible will release some of the pressure that creating content can bring.

Prepare for content batching

Preparation for batching you content creation can include: creating your schedule of content, recording videos as you produce work so you can use them later, and taking photographs of different stages in your work.

Don’t forget to look out for next week’s blog on re-purposing your content to make it work harder for you!

Got some tips to share? Leave a comment below!!