Why Content Deadlines Are Important

You remember deadlines. Those dates set for projects that caused countless all-nighters in college. Well, if you’re involved in content creation, they’re back, and they’re equally, if not more important than turning in your thesis on time. I know what you’re thinking – many deadlines for content creation feel restrictive and unnecessary. But they are vital to your overall strategy, and where I see projects derail because of missed deadlines.

Before we jump in, however, let’s talk about who should care about their content deadlines. The short answer? EVERYONE. Your entire team should be creating content and meeting their deadlines, because without timely contribution from all of your subject matter experts – yes, even your sales team – you will be creating content with gaping holes.

Now, with that out of the way…

Why Deadlines Are Set

We get it. It’s difficult to prioritize content creation if you’re a busy C-level executive or business professional. But as with any project, if we never set deadlines, nothing would get done, and we would have very little to maintain structure to our content creation.

In short, without deadlines, don’t even think about trying to create a content calendar or campaign. Deadlines are important to us content creators for two reasons:

• They keep us on track with our goals agreement; and
• They keep your audience engaged.

Content deadlines may appear to be a suggestion, but they aren’t.

Habitual deadline-missers not only have less content published due to a continual state of “catching-up” but they also don’t see the results discussed in my last blog. Truth is, inbound marketing only works if your efforts are consistent. If you’re committed to the idea of inbound marketing, you should be committed to creating content on time.

What happens if you don’t meet deadlines

A few missed deadlines are salvageable. It’s understandable that emergencies come up, and content may not take precedence over a time-sensitive business decision. If something comes up, you can always break from your schedule and publish on a date outside of your content calendar or double up on content.

However, if you continue to miss deadlines, you’ll never be able to catch up. You may think it’s okay to miss a few blog posts, but if you have a sales level agreement (SLA) or goals contract with an agency or your team, you’ll not only miss your targets, you’ll upset a few people, as well.

Simply put, if content does not get published, prospects will slip through the cracks, your sales team will have less leads to follow up with, your sales will likely decrease and no one will be happy.

Your Turn

What’s the hardest part for you keeping up with content creation? Have you experienced the negative effects of missing deadlines? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for staying on track with you content creation calendar!