No content? No Problem!

So you’ve crafted a well-laid out marketing plan, prepared a social media calendar, clarified your new design aesthetic, and defined a system to determine which type of content you’ll publish on which social media channel.

But now you’ve hit a wall.

The truth is, very few of us have the time, resources, or ingenuity to post something new about ourselves every week—much less every single day. And yet, we know that a thriving creative career demands a well-oiled content machine—one that keeps our narratives fresh and visible to potential colleagues, partners, and bosses.

So how do we iron out this paradox—the need to keep the content flowing, on the one hand, with the very real limitations of constantly creating new stuff, on the other? We’ve got three strategies that can fundamentally shift your content equation and allow you to have the best of both worlds.

Pave Your Content Runway

A mistake many of us make is to take a rich, beefy, and multi-angled story and waste it on a single post. Perhaps you’re appearing in a new show. You select the best rehearsal shots, lead with the promotional poster, come up with a pithy caption, and blast it out Instagram and Facebook. During the first few hours, the likes and comments roll in and your dopamine receptors are on fire. Toward the evening, things slow down a bit. The following morning? Nothing. This is the one-and-done approach to content—the equivalent to putting all your eggs in a single basket.

Instead, consider breaking up this career milestone into multiple and distinct pieces of content that you can spread out over a longer period: An Instagram carousel of the rehearsal shots. A blog post about preparing for your role. A Q&A with the playwright or director. Cross-posting your castmates’ content. An Instagram Live from the dressing room.

We call this giving your content more runway. Think of the best chefs. They can open up what you would consider a tragically empty pantry, quickly take stock of the pasta, cream, and neglected herbs, and whip up lunch, dinner, and even something for the following day. All this while you’re wasting money on takeout once again.

The bottom line: Become more intuitive about breaking up your content to last multiple days on multiple formats. Some examples:

• When you are in a show, think about all of the “announcement” marketing listed above, but mark out the various stages of the process: rehearsals beginning, tech, previews, opening night. What are all the various moments you want to capture along the way? Map them out in advance.

• Let’s say you have a reading or gathering with like-minded artists. Consider paying someone to take pictures and video you can share over the course of a few weeks. Remember interesting quotes and observations people make. Can you write those down and tweet them out later, crediting and shouting out the person for additional engagement?

• You spend a day on set. Once again we suggest you map out in advance all of the different stages of the process and what moments need to be shared along the way; from fittings, to the show going to air, to your first residual check. Add these moments to your calendar and be sure you promote what you’re a part of!

Take Smaller Bites

In addition to taking a long moment in time and showing off the process, you can invest time in a major content project and break it up into manageable chunks. I’m talking high-investment, high-impact endeavors like a blog, a podcast, or your own YouTube channel.

You may be worried about the commitment attached to these ideas—but look at it this way: It’s a content vehicle that fuels itself. A single blog post can be broken down into several tweets spread over a whole week; YouTube content can be cut up into several Instagram Reels or a Live video with someone related to the story; a podcast episode can be spliced for promotion on Twitter or Soundcloud. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. Just as you would take a career milestone or big story and break it down into various content pieces, we must milk these bigger ongoing projects for all they’re worth

This kind of content investment—its marketing potential aside—can also serve various elements of your creative career. Can you invite guests on your podcast who could one day serve as collaborators or partners? Could you use an ongoing blog as a vehicle to articulate your unique artistic mission? These big content projects not only take the pressure off coming up with new marketing posts all the time, but they can serve as extensions of your artistic mission.

Lean on Resourceful Resurfacing

You may have read the above and said to yourself: “But I’m not appearing in a new show and I don’t have a podcast right now!”

That’s OK. Chances are you’re sitting on amazing content in your archives, based on previous accomplishments and interactions, just waiting to be rediscovered. Let’s challenge the notion that new is always better, and see what timeless gems we can give some more exposure to.

The technique has proven powerful even in major media companies, who you would think have the resources to publish brand-new content every day. Take for example The Atlantic, a magazine that regularly takes advantage of its rich content archive to keep its audiences engaged.