October 25, 2023 • 15 mins
What if you were posting content too often or maybe not enough and didn't even realize it? What would it mean for your brand's visibility and reach? In this episode, Sonja guides you through the twisty maze of content creation strategies, focusing on the controversial debate of content quality versus quantity. We take a look at the pros and cons of one technique versus the other.
Later in the episode, Sonja shares insights on maintaining consistency, understanding social media algorithms, and effectively producing content. Tune in and discover how to turn your content into a powerful tool for brand growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sonja Crystal Williams (00:13):
Hi everyone.
I'm Sonja Crystal Williams,your host of 10 Minute Marketing
.
Thanks for listening today.
So I've got a topic.
This is going to be part of athree-part series around content
creation, and I look at this assomething that's really timely
right now because we are comingup on the end of the year.
(00:35):
This is a time when a lot ofbusinesses are doing their
planning, they're thinking aboutwhat lies ahead and, when it
comes to digital marketing, yourpresence on your website and
your social media, the contentthat you create, is going to
have a big impact, and planningahead for that content and
(00:56):
looking ahead to next year alsorolls into that.
So I'm doing a three-part serieson an age-old argument when it
comes to digital marketing,which is content quality versus
content quantity.
Should I be producing contentbased on the quality of the
(01:18):
content or should I be creatinglots and lots and lots of
content quantity higherquantities to get my name out
there, to get known, to bevisible?
What should I be doing?
Is there a balance?
Does that exist?
What makes the most sense formy business?
So today I'm kicking off withpart one of our series and
(01:38):
really thinking about reallywhich one makes sense and can we
strike the perfect balance.
So, before we go deeper intothis, remember to hit the
subscribe button.
Give us a review on yourfavorite listening tool for
podcasts Spotify, Apple Music,whatever it might be.
That way, we can get yourfeedback and keep these episodes
(02:00):
coming All right.
So let's jump into the debate.
First of all, let me make thisfirst statement Quality and
quantity when it comes tocontent creation, are both vital
components of any strategy thatyou're putting together, and I
want to talk particularly aroundthe blog content that you're
(02:22):
creating, that's going on yourwebsite, as well as the social
media content that you areproducing, and, honestly, it's
not as simple as choosing oneover the other.
So I want to kick off todayjust kind of an exploration mode
of really making the case forboth, and then you kind of
(02:44):
starting to get on that path offiguring out what's right for
you when it comes to yourbusiness.
So first I want to talk alittle bit about content quality
, and I did a little bit ofresearch.
There's a lot of informationout there on the argument behind
why someone should evenconsider focusing more on
(03:06):
content quality as they'recreating content or as you're
planning your content for nextyear.
Should I focus more on thequality.
So let's take a step back.
First of all, do an assessmentof where you've been with your
content up to this point.
Find out, look through old blogposts, if you're doing it for
your website, if you're doing itfor social media.
(03:28):
Go through each social medianetwork and rank where you feel
like you fit on the contentquality scale.
Give yourself a scale from oneto 10.
And really ask yourself if I'mgoing through old posts that
have been up on Instagram,pinterest, linkedin, youtube,
any of those channels okay, giveyourself a score for each
(03:48):
social media network, write itdown on a paper, type it out,
put it in a spreadsheet and justanswer the simple question on a
scale from one to 10.
What was the quality of ourcontent?
One being low quality, 10 beinghigh quality okay, so that's
gonna be step one in thisprocess.
You need to look through whatyou have today that currently
(04:09):
exists, to give yourself abenchmark so that you know where
you're gonna go as you moveforward and what defines things
that are considered high qualitycontent.
Okay, one might be content thatkind of adds more value and
cuts back on the fluff.
I know that's not the nicestthing to say, but there's a lot
(04:31):
of content floating around outthere where people focus more on
kind of generalizations andthey just want to get content in
front of people and it's justnot as high quality.
And you know when you'rereading something that's not
high quality content, becauseyou know how it feels.
And again, pros and cons, maybetheir strategy was focused on
(04:53):
quantity, they just want to bein front of you, they want to
flood your feed.
Okay, so there's no right orwrong answer there.
You're just assessing it foryour organization, your team,
your business, your social mediaaccounts, your blog post on
your website.
You need to assess it from thatpoint of view.
Okay, so I need to address whatis or what do I consider high
(05:16):
quality content.
So for me, I look at it as,again, content that adds value
to my audience.
I Would also consider, when I'mlooking back through it and
kind of giving myself thatranking, how much did my
audience engage with thatcontent?
Because that might also be amarker for defining something as
high quality.
If I'm looking at blog posts, Imight go into Google Analytics
(05:37):
or whatever Tool you're using tomeasure your website traffic
and, as you look back at thattool, how many visits did you
get to that blog page and youcan even, in Google Analytics,
it'll even tell you how longthey were on the page, so
that'll give you an idea if theywere really scrolling through
and reading that content or not.
And then you might even bejudging based on when it's high
(06:01):
quality.
It's not just the writtencontent itself.
Okay, when we think about highquality content, if I'm thinking
about the form of an article ora blog post, it might also
include did you include visualsin there as part of your content
?
Videos, things like that.
(06:22):
If it's a social media post, doyou have a graphic?
In some cases Maybe not all,but in some cases Do you have a
graphic that supports your post?
Is it a well craftedInfographic or graphic that was
designed using a design tool orworking with your graphic
designer to communicate apowerful message that people can
(06:46):
understand?
Right?
So those are some examples.
Okay, but get that spreadsheettogether, give yourself a
ranking.
You're not looking at allcontent.
Maybe it's your top 20 piecesof content from this year that
you pull in and you build thatspreadsheet out and you do it
(07:08):
again per social media networkas well as per your website.
Okay, so we need to look acrossmultiple channels to assess if
that content was high quality.
Okay.
And then here's other things.
When you think about highquality content, okay, why
should we focus on and I'mgetting, I'm making the case for
high quality first doesn't meanI'm not going to focus on
(07:30):
quantity.
I'm going to focus on that next, okay.
So, for high quality content,okay, what are some other things
or reasons why we mightposition ourselves to go in that
direction?
So you make your assessment,you figure out where you are and
then you need to decide.
Okay, am I going to focus nextyear, as I'm building out my
content strategy, more on thehigh content, quality or
(07:52):
quantity?
If you're focused on quality,okay, what are some reasons why
we might do that?
Well, one it often leads tohigher engagement and it builds
trust with your audience.
Okay, and there are studiesthat support this.
Okay, there was a study basedon my research done in 2019.
It was done by Rival IQ andthey showed that posts with
(08:13):
well-crafted visuals,informative captions and some
type of compelling storyattached to it consistently
outperformed lower qualitycontent when it came to likes,
shares and comments.
Okay, but quality isn't justabout engagement, it's also
about brand reputation.
(08:35):
So here's another study, studydone by Edelman's Trust
Barometer in 2021 revealed that61% of consumers trust credible,
authoritative, high qualitycontent shared by businesses.
And this is really importanttoo, because if you're marketing
yourself as a business, notlike a personal brand, there's
(08:59):
already, honestly, a level ofdistrust there that people have
when it comes to a businessrepresented versus a person.
People can relate more to aperson.
They see the human there, theycan see your eyes, they can see
your face.
They get you.
It's harder as a business tohave that relationship.
Okay, so, as a business, whenyou build high quality content,
(09:19):
it can really, really reallycreate trust.
That pays off a lot in the longrun.
Okay, all right, so here's onemore.
One more point is particularlyas it relates to your website,
but this could also relate tocertain social media networks
like YouTube or even TikTok,where your content, the way you
(09:41):
write it, matters.
So point two when it comes tothe high quality argument is the
long term SEO benefits.
Okay, so let's talk about theimpact of quality content on SEO
search engine optimization.
So here's one more study I'mgoing to tell you about for
today.
Okay, so here's a study.
(10:02):
Backlinko's extensive study,done in 2021, analyzed 12
million Google search resultsand they found that high quality
, informative content tends toperform better in search
rankings.
So it's not just about, like,the immediacy of putting your
content in front of people.
There's a long gang that'sinvolved here.
(10:23):
Okay, so those are a fewarguments on the side of content
quality.
Let's talk about contentquantity.
Okay, so same thing, pull outthat spreadsheet, rank yourself
when it comes to contentquantity.
Because, on the flip side tothe quality argument, okay,
posting high quality quantity,how much, how often, how
(10:47):
frequently you're putting yourpost in front of people also
plays a major role.
You can't post every other week, even if it is high quality,
quite frankly, and hope and praythat you're going to get
miraculous results across allyour social media networks,
across your website, right, formost brands, that rhythm doesn't
(11:08):
work unless you have a ton ofother things going on, like paid
ads and other things like that,that are supplementing that
lack of content and you'refinding other ways to get
yourself in front of people.
But if we were just resting onorganic social media outreach
alone and the ability that youhave to post blogs on your
website, you need to think aboutquantity too, okay, now again,
(11:30):
I'm not saying which one isright or wrong.
Let me give you some facts onthe quantity side, okay.
Number one if I'm thinking aboutcontent, quality, content
quantity then there's a goodoption when it comes to
visibility and consistency, allright.
So posting frequently, it'sjust going to increase your
(11:52):
visibility on social media,right?
This is why people tell you,when you're trying to grow your
TikTok page or your Instagramaccount, post a reel every day
for 60 days.
Right?
There's actually something tothat, right?
I've watched creators andlistened to podcast interviews
where there are creators outthere.
When they were first growingtheir account, they went live on
Instagram every day for 90 days.
(12:14):
They stayed consistent and sureenough, over time, that got
them to five and six-figurefollowers, right?
So this strategy can beapplicable in some cases.
In fact, hubspot Study 2020showed that businesses posting
multiple times a week saw asignificant increase in website
(12:35):
traffic compared to those whojust post less frequently.
So posting consistently cankeep you top of mind.
But it's not just aboutvisibility, okay, it's also
about audience growth, becauseposting more than once a day on
some social media platforms willhelp your brand get faster
(12:56):
growth compared to brands thatpost less frequently.
Okay, so content quantitymatters.
Now here's one more argumentfor the side of quantity, okay,
which is a lot of social mediaalgorithms over there will
reward you for regular posting,and the truth of the matter is,
(13:16):
even if you're putting a blog upon your website, you get
rewarded for that too by thosesearch engines.
They're constantly coming backto your site.
When you're constantly postingfresh and new content on a
website, it gives those searchengines spiders a reason to keep
crawling back to your site.
There's fresh content here,there's new stuff here.
We need to index it, we need torank it right.
(13:36):
That's a good thing, okay.
So algorithms, these socialmedia algorithms, or search
engines in some cases rewardregular posts and content
updates.
Take, for example, Instagram in2022, they released the
algorithm guide and theyemphasize that posting
consistently can increase thechances of your content being
(14:00):
seen by your followers.
So there it is, straight fromthe horse's mouth.
You can look that up, you candocument it, you can remember
why that is so important.
So I'm going to pause here fortoday and leave you with that
homework.
Do your ranking and startthinking about where do you want
to position yourself for nextyear.
(14:21):
Is it on the quality side?
Is it on the quantity side, Iwant to know what your thoughts
are.
Do you lean more towardsposting content focused on high
quality or do you focus more oncontent that is more frequent
and you're really focused on thequantity that you need to get
out in front of people?
I think this is a great andreally fun debate.
(14:43):
I would love to hear yourthoughts about it and make sure
you listen to part two and three, where I'm going to go deeper
into quality versus quantity andbreak each down so you can
figure out what path you need toget on.
Until then, thanks forlistening.
Have a great day.
Hi everyone.
I'm Sonja Crystal Williams,your host of 10 Minute Marketing
.
Thanks for listening today.
So I've got a topic.
This is going to be part of athree-part series around content
creation, and I look at this assomething that's really timely
right now because we are comingup on the end of the year.
(00:35):
This is a time when a lot ofbusinesses are doing their
planning, they're thinking aboutwhat lies ahead and, when it
comes to digital marketing, yourpresence on your website and
your social media, the contentthat you create, is going to
have a big impact, and planningahead for that content and
(00:56):
looking ahead to next year alsorolls into that.
So I'm doing a three-part serieson an age-old argument when it
comes to digital marketing,which is content quality versus
content quantity.
Should I be producing contentbased on the quality of the
(01:18):
content or should I be creatinglots and lots and lots of
content quantity higherquantities to get my name out
there, to get known, to bevisible?
What should I be doing?
Is there a balance?
Does that exist?
What makes the most sense formy business?
So today I'm kicking off withpart one of our series and
(01:38):
really thinking about reallywhich one makes sense and can we
strike the perfect balance.
So, before we go deeper intothis, remember to hit the
subscribe button.
Give us a review on yourfavorite listening tool for
podcasts Spotify, Apple Music,whatever it might be.
That way, we can get yourfeedback and keep these episodes
(02:00):
coming All right.
So let's jump into the debate.
First of all, let me make thisfirst statement Quality and
quantity when it comes tocontent creation, are both vital
components of any strategy thatyou're putting together, and I
want to talk particularly aroundthe blog content that you're
(02:22):
creating, that's going on yourwebsite, as well as the social
media content that you areproducing, and, honestly, it's
not as simple as choosing oneover the other.
So I want to kick off todayjust kind of an exploration mode
of really making the case forboth, and then you kind of
(02:44):
starting to get on that path offiguring out what's right for
you when it comes to yourbusiness.
So first I want to talk alittle bit about content quality
, and I did a little bit ofresearch.
There's a lot of informationout there on the argument behind
why someone should evenconsider focusing more on
(03:06):
content quality as they'recreating content or as you're
planning your content for nextyear.
Should I focus more on thequality.
So let's take a step back.
First of all, do an assessmentof where you've been with your
content up to this point.
Find out, look through old blogposts, if you're doing it for
your website, if you're doing itfor social media.
(03:28):
Go through each social medianetwork and rank where you feel
like you fit on the contentquality scale.
Give yourself a scale from oneto 10.
And really ask yourself if I'mgoing through old posts that
have been up on Instagram,pinterest, linkedin, youtube,
any of those channels okay, giveyourself a score for each
(03:48):
social media network, write itdown on a paper, type it out,
put it in a spreadsheet and justanswer the simple question on a
scale from one to 10.
What was the quality of ourcontent?
One being low quality, 10 beinghigh quality okay, so that's
gonna be step one in thisprocess.
You need to look through whatyou have today that currently
(04:09):
exists, to give yourself abenchmark so that you know where
you're gonna go as you moveforward and what defines things
that are considered high qualitycontent.
Okay, one might be content thatkind of adds more value and
cuts back on the fluff.
I know that's not the nicestthing to say, but there's a lot
(04:31):
of content floating around outthere where people focus more on
kind of generalizations andthey just want to get content in
front of people and it's justnot as high quality.
And you know when you'rereading something that's not
high quality content, becauseyou know how it feels.
And again, pros and cons, maybetheir strategy was focused on
(04:53):
quantity, they just want to bein front of you, they want to
flood your feed.
Okay, so there's no right orwrong answer there.
You're just assessing it foryour organization, your team,
your business, your social mediaaccounts, your blog post on
your website.
You need to assess it from thatpoint of view.
Okay, so I need to address whatis or what do I consider high
(05:16):
quality content.
So for me, I look at it as,again, content that adds value
to my audience.
I Would also consider, when I'mlooking back through it and
kind of giving myself thatranking, how much did my
audience engage with thatcontent?
Because that might also be amarker for defining something as
high quality.
If I'm looking at blog posts, Imight go into Google Analytics
(05:37):
or whatever Tool you're using tomeasure your website traffic
and, as you look back at thattool, how many visits did you
get to that blog page and youcan even, in Google Analytics,
it'll even tell you how longthey were on the page, so
that'll give you an idea if theywere really scrolling through
and reading that content or not.
And then you might even bejudging based on when it's high
(06:01):
quality.
It's not just the writtencontent itself.
Okay, when we think about highquality content, if I'm thinking
about the form of an article ora blog post, it might also
include did you include visualsin there as part of your content
?
Videos, things like that.
(06:22):
If it's a social media post, doyou have a graphic?
In some cases Maybe not all,but in some cases Do you have a
graphic that supports your post?
Is it a well craftedInfographic or graphic that was
designed using a design tool orworking with your graphic
designer to communicate apowerful message that people can
(06:46):
understand?
Right?
So those are some examples.
Okay, but get that spreadsheettogether, give yourself a
ranking.
You're not looking at allcontent.
Maybe it's your top 20 piecesof content from this year that
you pull in and you build thatspreadsheet out and you do it
(07:08):
again per social media networkas well as per your website.
Okay, so we need to look acrossmultiple channels to assess if
that content was high quality.
Okay.
And then here's other things.
When you think about highquality content, okay, why
should we focus on and I'mgetting, I'm making the case for
high quality first doesn't meanI'm not going to focus on
(07:30):
quantity.
I'm going to focus on that next, okay.
So, for high quality content,okay, what are some other things
or reasons why we mightposition ourselves to go in that
direction?
So you make your assessment,you figure out where you are and
then you need to decide.
Okay, am I going to focus nextyear, as I'm building out my
content strategy, more on thehigh content, quality or
(07:52):
quantity?
If you're focused on quality,okay, what are some reasons why
we might do that?
Well, one it often leads tohigher engagement and it builds
trust with your audience.
Okay, and there are studiesthat support this.
Okay, there was a study basedon my research done in 2019.
It was done by Rival IQ andthey showed that posts with
(08:13):
well-crafted visuals,informative captions and some
type of compelling storyattached to it consistently
outperformed lower qualitycontent when it came to likes,
shares and comments.
Okay, but quality isn't justabout engagement, it's also
about brand reputation.
(08:35):
So here's another study, studydone by Edelman's Trust
Barometer in 2021 revealed that61% of consumers trust credible,
authoritative, high qualitycontent shared by businesses.
And this is really importanttoo, because if you're marketing
yourself as a business, notlike a personal brand, there's
(08:59):
already, honestly, a level ofdistrust there that people have
when it comes to a businessrepresented versus a person.
People can relate more to aperson.
They see the human there, theycan see your eyes, they can see
your face.
They get you.
It's harder as a business tohave that relationship.
Okay, so, as a business, whenyou build high quality content,
(09:19):
it can really, really reallycreate trust.
That pays off a lot in the longrun.
Okay, all right, so here's onemore.
One more point is particularlyas it relates to your website,
but this could also relate tocertain social media networks
like YouTube or even TikTok,where your content, the way you
(09:41):
write it, matters.
So point two when it comes tothe high quality argument is the
long term SEO benefits.
Okay, so let's talk about theimpact of quality content on SEO
search engine optimization.
So here's one more study I'mgoing to tell you about for
today.
Okay, so here's a study.
(10:02):
Backlinko's extensive study,done in 2021, analyzed 12
million Google search resultsand they found that high quality
, informative content tends toperform better in search
rankings.
So it's not just about, like,the immediacy of putting your
content in front of people.
There's a long gang that'sinvolved here.
(10:23):
Okay, so those are a fewarguments on the side of content
quality.
Let's talk about contentquantity.
Okay, so same thing, pull outthat spreadsheet, rank yourself
when it comes to contentquantity.
Because, on the flip side tothe quality argument, okay,
posting high quality quantity,how much, how often, how
(10:47):
frequently you're putting yourpost in front of people also
plays a major role.
You can't post every other week, even if it is high quality,
quite frankly, and hope and praythat you're going to get
miraculous results across allyour social media networks,
across your website, right, formost brands, that rhythm doesn't
(11:08):
work unless you have a ton ofother things going on, like paid
ads and other things like that,that are supplementing that
lack of content and you'refinding other ways to get
yourself in front of people.
But if we were just resting onorganic social media outreach
alone and the ability that youhave to post blogs on your
website, you need to think aboutquantity too, okay, now again,
(11:30):
I'm not saying which one isright or wrong.
Let me give you some facts onthe quantity side, okay.
Number one if I'm thinking aboutcontent, quality, content
quantity then there's a goodoption when it comes to
visibility and consistency, allright.
So posting frequently, it'sjust going to increase your
(11:52):
visibility on social media,right?
This is why people tell you,when you're trying to grow your
TikTok page or your Instagramaccount, post a reel every day
for 60 days.
Right?
There's actually something tothat, right?
I've watched creators andlistened to podcast interviews
where there are creators outthere.
When they were first growingtheir account, they went live on
Instagram every day for 90 days.
(12:14):
They stayed consistent and sureenough, over time, that got
them to five and six-figurefollowers, right?
So this strategy can beapplicable in some cases.
In fact, hubspot Study 2020showed that businesses posting
multiple times a week saw asignificant increase in website
(12:35):
traffic compared to those whojust post less frequently.
So posting consistently cankeep you top of mind.
But it's not just aboutvisibility, okay, it's also
about audience growth, becauseposting more than once a day on
some social media platforms willhelp your brand get faster
(12:56):
growth compared to brands thatpost less frequently.
Okay, so content quantitymatters.
Now here's one more argumentfor the side of quantity, okay,
which is a lot of social mediaalgorithms over there will
reward you for regular posting,and the truth of the matter is,
(13:16):
even if you're putting a blog upon your website, you get
rewarded for that too by thosesearch engines.
They're constantly coming backto your site.
When you're constantly postingfresh and new content on a
website, it gives those searchengines spiders a reason to keep
crawling back to your site.
There's fresh content here,there's new stuff here.
We need to index it, we need torank it right.
(13:36):
That's a good thing, okay.
So algorithms, these socialmedia algorithms, or search
engines in some cases rewardregular posts and content
updates.
Take, for example, Instagram in2022, they released the
algorithm guide and theyemphasize that posting
consistently can increase thechances of your content being
(14:00):
seen by your followers.
So there it is, straight fromthe horse's mouth.
You can look that up, you candocument it, you can remember
why that is so important.
So I'm going to pause here fortoday and leave you with that
homework.
Do your ranking and startthinking about where do you want
to position yourself for nextyear.
(14:21):
Is it on the quality side?
Is it on the quantity side, Iwant to know what your thoughts
are.
Do you lean more towardsposting content focused on high
quality or do you focus more oncontent that is more frequent
and you're really focused on thequantity that you need to get
out in front of people?
I think this is a great andreally fun debate.
(14:43):
I would love to hear yourthoughts about it and make sure
you listen to part two and three, where I'm going to go deeper
into quality versus quantity andbreak each down so you can
figure out what path you need toget on.
Until then, thanks forlistening.
Have a great day.
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