Content cadence: how often should I blog?

Content cadence, or how often you create and publish content, depends on your objectives, audience, capabilities and, most importantly, quality.

What is content cadence and why is it important?

If you’re a poet, musician, dancer or maybe a runner, you’ll know that cadence is all about rhythm and beat. And content is no different. Your news site, blog or social media platform needs a rhythm, whether it’s for search and the Google algorithm, so your content generates the right traffic, or to keep your brand front of mind with your audience. You want your content to resonate with your audience and the algorithms.

Content targeting a B2B audience follows many of the same rules, but with some distinct subtleties. If you Google ‘how often should I blog’, you’ll find search gurus who claim that two to four times a week or even more is the sweet spot. However, you can lose an audience if you publish too much or promote a message that does not resonate.

Other content gurus say the most successful bloggers only publish occasionally. But in doing this, does your audience forget you ever existed?

You’re probably getting the message that context is everything. So, how does that help you decide on your content cadence?

7 factors to consider for content cadence

The answer to how often you should publish is ‘it depends’. It depends on these seven factors:

1. What is your marketing strategy?

When we get potential clients calling to say ‘we want a blog’, our response is always to suggest taking a few steps back to ask about the broader marketing strategy and objectives.

Most marketers agree that high performing content is a great way to generate leads and sales. But so are PPC and display ads if, for example, you have high volume product sales with a range that constantly refreshes. In fact, PPC is probably better for the latter – you don’t want to invest in high performing content for a product that is only in your range for a few months.

Creating content such as blogging and social media posting is not compulsory. If you decide content should form part of your marketing mix, then you also need a content strategy. More on that later.

2. Who is your audience?

Who are you trying to reach with your content? Who are you trying to influence, educate, inform or sell to? Regular and consistent communication with your target audience will ensure your objectives are met.

But, as with all marketing, understanding your audience and its needs, pain points, objectives and desires is essential for understanding what you say to them, and how often. In B2B, that’s where your marketing persona is vital.

The marketing persona’s needs and pain points will steer the message and reveal what will resonate. Their role, lifestyle, daily schedule, function, profession and other attributes will help you understand how frequently you should communicate.

3. What’s your message?

What do you want to say and what’s the call to action? Learn this? Buy that? Vote for me? Stop vaping? It’s another point that sounds obvious, but communication with your audience must have a purpose.

Many brands post curated content – interesting stuff by other brands and people – and don’t really know why. They say ‘this is interesting’ but don’t provide actionable insight about why it is interesting. It is an easy way to fill content production gaps and increase your cadence, but is it communicating your message?

4. How complex is the message?

The more complex the message, the simpler the communication must be. So, you may split it into bite-sized chunks that need regular communication and reinforcement, increasing the cadence.

Alternatively, your message may communicate insight and analysis of an event that requires one or two in-depth pieces, and your audience might not have the bandwidth to consume too many of these. This will reduce your cadence.

5. What are your resources and capabilities?

It is fascinating how so many people assume that because they have the tools, they can use them competently and effectively. In the content of this article, we’re talking about copywriting. Just because you can tunnel bone a chicken, doesn’t mean you have the knife skills to perform brain surgery.

Can you write content that resonates with your target audience and communicates the message at the right level at a frequency your audience needs to understand your message and take the action you want them to? And if you can, is that your role? Do you have the time? If the answer is no, consider hiring a copywriter or engaging an agency or freelancer who has the skills and resources.

6. What does the data say?

This factor gets overlooked the most. This is partly because many brands don’t have data as they have not created content programmes before, or the data has been lost during the last merger or due to organisational silos. If you’ve got the data for several content programmes running in parallel for comparable campaigns, you can use this to help you plan and set your content cadence.

If the data for one campaign says two blogs a month is not enough, but another campaign says four is spot on, then try four for both. If you don’t have data, that’s another reason to engage with an agency. At Copestone, we’re always running multiple campaigns in parallel and have run hundreds during our agency’s existence. This means we have a clear idea of what is likely to work and deliver the results you need.

7. How hungry are the search engines for content?

In most content campaigns where search is a campaign element, there is a direct correlation between cadence and performance. Generally, but not always, publish too little and no one ever sees your message. But in the world of search engines, and Google in particular, quality trumps cadence every time. Perfectly timed but poor content won’t perform, and your audience will likely desert you.

If we had to list an eighth factor, or more of a step, it is tying all the above into a content strategy. If your marketing strategy points towards content marketing as a tool to deliver your objectives, then what kind of content should you be publishing? Why, and who for? What media, which channels? And how often?

If you need support to write engaging, audience-driven content for your B2B brand or agency, contact Copestone today.