In this age of information with the overabundance of online content available, it’s obvious that quality is essential. If you want to stand out, you need to create content that is exceptional. However, how do you strike a balance between producing enough content and producing quality content without your online business taking over your life? Spending too many hours on busywork goes against the Quality Over Quantity philosophy. Besides, there is only so much you can accomplish when you run a one-woman show. In this post, we will put together all the elements of quality over quantity in business to help you come up with a plan that promotes efficiency without neglecting quality.
The Meaning of Quality Over Quantity in Business
Quality over quantity implies a preference for better things over more things. The concept can be applied to just about everything in your life. Read about the many benefits of Quality Over Quantity in my post Quality Over Quantity: What It Means and How to Live By It. Today’s post will focus on why quality over quantity in business matters and how you can implement the concept in your work.
The Importance of Quality Over Quantity in Business
Learning to balance quality and quantity in your business is crucial. If you do not produce quality, you won’t retain your ideal customer. If you don’t produce enough quantity, your ideal customer won’t find you. You need to find that sweet spot where you favor quality over quantity while creating enough quantity. This post is all about helping you do just that.
How to Measure Quality in Your Online Business
When it comes to digital content, quality can be defined in very specific terms. I will outline the details later, but for now, let’s just focus on the overall goal of quality in your online business: solving your audience’s problems. If you are solving your audience’s problems better than anyone else, you are on track. Doing better than anyone else helps you gain true fans. True fans are an important asset for your business. It is often said that one thousand true fans is all you need to be successful online. You don’t need thousands and thousands of customers if you focus on helping your true fans.
The Importance of Quantity in Business
As I mentioned already, quality over quantity in business doesn’t mean you are putting quantity aside. Quantity is important in your online business because you need enough quantity for people to find you. Producing enough quality content can be a balancing act. Let’s talk about how you can accomplish this feat.
Quality Over Quantity in Your Online Business
How should online business owners focus on quality over quantity? Let me share some specific guidelines to help you achieve the right balance.
Quality of Work Over Quantity
Many online business owners spin their wheels with busy work. Quality of work over quantity is all about finding the quality benchmark that your business requires to succeed and executing this level of quality in as little time as possible.
Blog Content Quality
How do you define content quality then? I have some specific metrics you may consider to ensure your blog content quality is superior:
- Number of words: There used to be a time when bloggers would publish daily and most blog posts were below 500 words. Now, readers expect more in-depth content. Strive for blog posts that have at least 1,000 words. You will notice that posts around 2,000 words do better.
- User intent: When you write about any topic, make sure you understand what kind of information anyone looking for your chosen keywords wants to know. You need to provide that information in a clear and concise manner.
- Related keywords: Related keywords are a good way to ensure your content satisfies user intent. I like to use the Chrome extension Keywords Everywhere to check all the related information that would help my readers. I often use many related keywords as subheadings for my blog posts.
- Other Online Content: As I write any blog post, I check all my keywords online and see what articles come up. I do my best to produce more exhaustive and helpful content than anything else I find.
If you follow the above guidelines, the quality of your work will be high enough to please your readers and the Google search engine.
The Perfectionist Trap
Many bloggers and online marketers fall into the perfectionist trap. They either spend countless hours focusing on details that don’t really matter like the layout of their Website, the font they use, their logo, or the placement of the images on their posts. They may spend an inordinate amount of time making sure they are not making any grammatical errors or feel paralyzed and unable to take action for fear of not meeting their own expectations. Remember, most of your content will not be seen much. Quantity will help you gain the needed traffic to your Website. It is best to spend less time worrying about these details and improve your popular posts after you know which ones are effective as far as helping you find your ideal customer.
Blog Content Quantity
In any business, quantity cannot be ignored. How can you make sales if you don’t have anything to sell? How will your customers find you if you don’t produce enough blog content? Fortunately, you don’t need tons of blog content to be successful. As a general guideline, 4-6 posts a week is adequate. Now, that frees a lot of your time to invest in quality, doesn’t it? Quality Over Quantity in business means you are selecting your blog topic carefully and wisely. You do your keyword research, select keywords that your ideal customers will be looking for, and answer all their questions.
Quality and Efficiency of Work
Quality Over Quantity in business should not require to sacrifice efficiency. That’s why I warned you against the perfectionist trap and gave you some specific points to check off to ensure quality while maintaining efficiency. You can also use some tools that will improve your efficiency when you strive for quality.
Tools to Improve Efficiency While Preserving Quality
Some of my favorite tools to create quality while still remaining efficient are:
- Grammarly: Grammarly will help you avoid obvious typos and grammatical errors. It is totally worth the investment.
- Pin Subscription: My Pin subscription allows me to create professional-looking pins in no time. It takes the stress off my Pinterest strategy.
- ConvertKit: Convertkit is my email marketing service provider. I use it to automate my emails and keep in touch with my readers. It is user-friendly and it saves me a lot of time.
- Evernote: Evernote is an effective tool to improve your time management and keep track of your projects while sharing essential info with anyone else involved.
- Zapier: If you need to link different platforms together, Zapier is the way to go. For example, if you create online courses, Zapier will make sure people who purchase your courses are tagged automatically in Convertkit when they purchase your course on a platform like Thinkific.
Quality Over Quantity for Social Media Content
Bloggers often fall prey to time-sucking social media marketing. Let me put this out there: social media is most likely not going to bring in very many customers. Some platforms are useful in some niches (for example Instagram for photographers and Reels or Tik Tok for YouTubers, singers/composers, or dancers), but as a general rule, most business owners give social media more attention than it deserves. I post on social media because I enjoy the connection I find there, not because it helps me grow my online business. Either way, to make sure your social media content is quality content, it is crucial that you define your audience accurately.
Defining Your Audience
Your social media posts should fulfill one of three main goals: education, connection and entertainment. For example, a post that relates to your life in general as opposed to your business, may increase your connection with your audience or entertain while a post about your niche will most likely educate. Think about these goals when you post to avoid posting randomly and mindlessly. It’s a good way to ensure your favor quality over quantity on social media.
Quality Traffic Over Quantity
Even though social media may not be the best avenue to grow your business because of how little traffic it will bring to your Website, keep in mind that it will bring quality traffic. Someone who leaves a social media platform to check out a Website is already highly engaged. In that sense, social media works great in the spirit of Quality Over Quantity, I don’t recommend you ditch social media altogether, but I would advise you to not spend too much time worrying about your social media content. Instead, create consistent content (just a few times a week is enough) that aims at making you relatable while sharing useful information from your Website.
In Summary
Quality over quantity in business is a matter of striking the balance between producing enough content and making sure your content is high quality. It’s about not spinning your wheels uselessly and focusing your energy on tasks that truly matter. These tasks should include consistent well targeted content that surpasses your competitors. Over time with practice, you will find ways to save time through productivity tools. Moreover, you will discover what your audience wants and you will be able to focus on that. As everything else when it comes to pretty much anything in life, quality over quantity in business comes through experience. Always keep an open mind and measure the type of results you get through various levels of effort.
