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What is Batching Content?
Batching content is doing the same task multiple times for different pieces of content. Most content comes together through a process. The idea is to stay on the same step and complete it multiple times.
Here is a quick example, if you are creating pins on Pinterest you need to create the title, description, and image. You also need to schedule the pin. With batching you would create multiple titles all at once. Then you would spend time writing out multiple descriptions. Maybe another day you are feeling creative and you get on Canva and create a large number of pins. Then when the time comes you spend a day mass scheduling and publishing pins.
The way this works is you compartmentalize the task and ideally get in a good flow. When you are creating titles you will get the right creative juices flowing and quickly turn out some eye-catching titles.
The same can be said for any task you batch. Using the batching technique breaks any process down into steps. This can greatly help with productivity.
Productivity is increased by staying on the same couple of tabs or pages. You spend less time bouncing around and opening different applications. For example the day I create the pin images I stay in Canva or the day I write descriptions I am in a Word document.
Batching can take many different forms based on your business.
YouTubers will often get their camera gear and lighting perfect then film 5 videos. Later on a rainy day, they may spend time editing.
Batching is a great way to save yourself time.
Why You Should Batch Your Content?
The main reason to use batching is to increase your efficiency which allows you to get ahead on your work.
Batching can be done in the creation process as well as the publication process. If you use schedulers batching can get you ahead on your work.
For example, I already have blog posts written, edited, and published on my blog for the next month. They are scheduled to go out on their publication dates.
When you combine batching and schedulers you have the ability to put your content on autopilot.
Why would you want to put your work on autopilot?
I can quickly list off a few reasons:
Vacation
Injury
Death in the Family
Birth/Maternity Leave
Unexpected Life Event
If you notice some of these are planned events and some are unexpected.
The events that are planned are ones that you can precisely batch and schedule for as needed.
The unexpected events will hit you when it is least expected. If you have used batching to work ahead combined with schedulers your business and work should be fine for a few days at least.
Like I stated before I have blog posts scheduled for next month already, now this doesn’t mean I have pins scheduled yet. But if something were to happen I would know that at least my posts are going out and maybe I could manage to keep up with Pinterest.
My point is that you should use batching because it allows you to increase productivity and get ahead on your work. This gives you a cushion for when life happens and you need your business to keep running.
Batching content is great for staying focused on a particular area.
If you are a YouTuber working on thumbnails you can make ten all at once. This keeps you on the same task and using the same tools and applications. It will also help in consistency.
Say you have a certain vibe, style, or branding. These ten thumbnails are going to be much more cohesive if you create them all at once.
I cannot recommend batching enough it is good for efficiency, consistency, and the ability to work ahead.
What Can Be Batched?
You can just about batch anything.
As a blogger, I break down many processes into specific steps.
Here is a quick list of things I batch when it comes to writing blog posts. I will typically do about 5 articles at once.
- Brainstorming ideas/jotting down ideas and thoughts
- Creating multiple titles and rough outlines
- Cleaning up the outlines and selecting the best fitting titles
- Writing the posts
- Editing the posts
- Publishing the body of the posts
- Adding link to all posts
- Adding disclaimers to all posts
- Adding email opt-ins to all posts
I use Pinterest to promote my content.
I have a detailed system where I create a page that corresponds to every article. I call it my Quick Pin Template. I will take the time to grab multiple titles from when I was coming up with the title I used. This is where I use a bit of repurposing. I will then have a list of titles for pins.
On this page, I will batch produce descriptions. I will write out about 3-5 pin descriptions for a single post. This way I know what the post is about and have the description prepared.
If I were to do this on the fly when publishing a pin I would have to reference the article to remember what it was about.
Then I put the URL and a list of boards it could go to. The main thing that saves me time here is writing out multiple descriptions at once.
At another time I will create pin images. I always create multiple pin images when I go into Canva. Sometimes I may create 5 pins that all go to a single article. Other times I may create 20 pins and they all go to 20 different articles. Both ways are beneficial!
The final step is to batch my time spend publishing these pins.
Because I have batched the earlier steps I can quickly publish a lot of pins at once.
Use batching everywhere you can! I find it especially useful when downloading, uploading, or resizing images.
Say you are big on Twitter. You can write out a bunch of tweets in advance and schedule them to go out at later predetermined times.
Conclusion
You can use batching in many different ways.
It can work for you and your business to move you forward by increasing productivity with strong systems.
Look for ways to can batch work in your business. Find ways to increase efficiency.
Let me know if you have tried batching and how it benefited your business in the comments below!
Check Out My Articles
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