It’s just over a year since I wrote 47 things to do when business is slow. We were all about to enter our first lockdown, and we had no idea what was ahead. For all kinds of businesses, things changed in a matter of moments. Thinking about how to prioritise content probably wasn’t top of our list of things to do.
While things are not back to normal for many aspects of our lives, many businesses have adapted to life, changed how they do things, and probably find themselves now back in the thick of things. When a hundred things are competing for your time and attention, how do you make time to create content as part of your marketing efforts?
Doing nothing isn’t really an option
You’ll know yourself what it’s like to look at an out of date website and blog, or an Instagram feed with the last post being back in 2018. It might almost be better to not have them there at all given the potential negative impact on how people might view your brand.
So if you’re balancing up different things competing for your attention, how do you decide where to spend your time where content is involved? Here are some criteria you might want to consider in how to prioritise content.
What makes you the most money

This is probably going to be the top priority when time is short. From your analytics, you should have a good idea as to what drives the most customers to you and converts to them spending money with you.
Whether it’s your newsletter or an Instagram post, you will want to keep up your schedule of these to ensure the cash continues to flow. Taking care of this is your foundation but comes with a caution. Even when you’re frantically busy, don’t let the only thing your customer hears from you be about trying to get them to buy. Read more here about why always selling can have the reverse effect.
What gets you the most signups
Your mailing list is your property. No change in algorithm is going to change that, or the ability to show up in people’s mailboxes once they’ve invited you in. You’ve earned that invitation, big tech can’t take that away.
Whatever activity gets people signing up to hear from you should probably be next on your list. There’s no point being busy today, and then hitting a lull and finding you’ve got no one new to talk to.
What’s easiest for you to produce
There’s a condition with this one. It can be easy for you to produce, but it needs to still be high-quality content, not just something thrown together. Your customers like quality content, and Google likes what customers like. Keeping people engaged and on your page is key.
With all that in mind, if you’ve got a store of blog post ideas, or some fantastic Insta-worthy images, that you can convert to an engaging and useful piece of content fairly easily then work with that. Make sure it’s still worthy of someone’s attention.
What do your tribe value most

Perhaps the people who love what you do love your Instagram Lives or crazy Tik Tok videos. If those things get lots of engagement, that get them to talk to other people about what you do, then those things have a value.
Those people who are real fans are the people who might have the best long term value to your business. I found this article from Forbes fascinating about moving on from the old model of customer acquisition costs to thinking about lifetime value. Thinking about how to bring in those people who are really invested in what you do is a good measure for considering the value of creating content, and the time you commit to it.
Still got no time?
There might come a point where you have to consider where your time is best spent, and decide that content creation is not the thing where you’re driving the most value for your business. If it’s time to think about working with someone else, you might want to have a read of things I suggest you ask someone before working with them.
For many people, hearing from the founder is one of the things they enjoy most about supporting an independent brand. That’s why finding the right person to work with is critical so that you can develop a relationship where you have confidence in the tone and content of what they produce in your name.
So, even when you’re short of time, don’t adopt radio silence. Consider which content you prioritise, focus your time and keep your customers front of mind. And then don’t beat yourself up if the answer is still that’s not where your time is best spent.