Mile Run Challenge. Need to lower that time.

Vital Signs: You and Your Content

How are you what’s your story what’s happening how’s it going? Your answers are your content themes and your target audience would like to know. But first, you need to know.

A quick point of reference is a to-do list. Mine is typically 10–20 items long. I draft the next day’s every night then revisit the following morning. The list helps me focus on what needs to get done so I can allocate my time efficiently. It’s a form of discipline.

Every business has its own unique list — call it a strategy and execution plan. Businesses also have vital signs, the qualitative and quantitative measures that determine whether or not they’re on a path worth pursuing. It’s the vital signs that lead to stories, and the stories to great content.

Vital signs are data points. The objective is to know them well and keep them moving in a healthy direction. The essential prerequisite is establishing what those ranges should be. Periodic changes, while expected, are OK. Massive unintended shifts are not.

A few suggestions on content vitals worth keeping top-of-mind and correlating with both daily to-dos and overarching strategies.

1. Maintain a clear handle on how much time and energy each content commitment requires and don’t be surprised when additional investment is necessary. In content as anywhere else, managing ambiguity is all in a day’s work.
2. Acknowledge the natural tension between quality and quantity. That you’ll work hard is a given. The open issue is how hard you can work while preserving outstanding deliverables. Where you’re strong, quantity might be relatively easier to generate and where you’re not vice-versa. Know your balance, improve where you can, and optimize for your competitive advantages.
3. Establish benchmarks by format and complexity. Rate your work. Journal. Evaluate what went well and what didn’t, where you leaped forward and fell behind. Keep tabs on what you need to improve (there’s something for everyone) and the holes in your content strategy and execution. Adjust regularly.
4. Content-making requires flow states, periods of uninterrupted productivity that lead to high performance. Are you leaving enough room in your to-dos to achieve and benefit from these? Or are you bolting content onto the rest of your crazy schedule in twenty-minute increments? There’s a preferred mode and I’ll assume you can guess which it is.
5. Are you tracking the correct things? How do you know? Why? Are your content goals clear? Is your content serving your strategy and supporting desired behaviors, or is it a passenger on another train?

Numerical expectations ultimately define how every business initiative gets managed and content is no exception. In a nutshell, it’s hard to respond to what you don’t recognize or compose an effective plan without facts and direction. It all starts with vitals. Know them, craft your day around them, make them your friends. They’ll repay the favor.

John Tintle is the Director of Content and Communications at Highspot, the leading sales enablement platform for content management, customer engagement, and analytics. Twitter: @highspot. Also: highspot.com.