Many years ago, as a new online business owner, content cadence was tough for me to understand. I didn’t know how many blog posts per week were ideal or the best posting cadence for social media. But today, that’s no longer the case.
If you’re a marketer or business owner who’s clueless about content cadence — or unhappy with the results of your posting cadence — don’t worry. You’re not alone, and you’re in the right place.
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In this post, I’ll explain what content cadence is, how to determine the best posting cadence for your business, and how often marketers publish content. I’ll also share my tips on how often to post blogs, videos, and social media content.
Table of Contents
What is content cadence?
Content cadence is a regular pattern of how different types of content — like blog posts, social media posts, videos, and so on — are consistently published on the right platform at the right time to achieve maximum engagement.
How to Determine Content Cadence
The right content cadence can increase engagement with your target audience, keep your brand top-of-mind, and also generate more leads. But there’s no one size that fits all. The best posting cadence for you may be wrong for others, and vice versa.
To determine the right content cadence for you, I’ve identified eight actionable steps you need to take.
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1. Know and understand your target audience.
Without a solid knowledge and understanding of your target audience, you’ll most likely get your content cadence wrong.
So, identify your target audience first, and learn everything you can about them. For example, what age range do they belong to? What’s their gender, marital status, income bracket, passion, hobbies, likes and dislikes, and so on?
2. Identify relevant topics to write about.
You can get your content cadence right when you create content on topics that grab and keep your target audience’s attention. For example:
- Write about topics of interest to them.
- Create content that provides solutions to their problems and challenges.
- Give them the information they are searching for.
- Answer their questions.
- Provide tips and tricks that can help them succeed.
3. Determine the types of content to create.
Take everything you know about your target audience into consideration and create the right type of content for them. Do they love short-form or long-form content? Or do they prefer video over text?
Also, don’t forget that members of your audience won’t be at the same stage of the buyer’s journey at the same time. As a result, they will need different types of content depending on their current stage.
This means you need to be ready and able to provide content like blog posts, in-depth guides, case studies, white papers, videos, and so on.
4. Choose the right platform.
The success of your content cadence will also depend on using the right platform.
Are you going to publish on your blog or on social media platforms? Once you’re focused on your target audience, you can’t go wrong. In other words, my tip here is to go where your target audience is.
I know it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the many platforms and posting times and content types and what goes where and when, but the best advice I received on this was always: start small, but start!
If you’re just getting started on social, for instance, choose one platform and then expand after you’re comfortable and have established your content cadence there.
Or, if you already have an existing presence or cadence and you’re just tweaking things, you can also take that slow and introduce your new posting cadence gradually.
5. Identify the right content frequency.
Content frequency is an important part of content cadence, and it refers to the volume of content published within a specific period of time — for example, how many blog posts per week, per day, or even per month?
For best results, consider a frequency that won’t overwhelm your audience.
Or you.
6. Know the best times to post.
Posting content on the wrong day or at the wrong time can mess up your content cadence and reduce engagement.
I recommend you find out the specific days and times your audience is most active on different platforms. Then, try to post with this in mind.
If you’re just starting out with posting content, check out the resources in the next section to help you get started with scheduling.
On the other hand, if you already have a content calendar and just want to change your content cadence, you could slowly shift your content into a new slot you’ve chosen.
I find being methodical and making small changes is the best way to do this. Then, you can test your posting time and iterate from there (I’ll share more on that below.)
7. Create a content calendar.
Once you know your topics, content types, the right platforms, and content frequency, you need to create a content calendar.
A content calendar (aka editorial calendar) is a documented plan or schedule of all your upcoming content, where you plan to publish, and when.
A content calendar will give you an overview of all your tasks in advance, help you track and complete each one on time, and keep you organized.
Without an editorial calendar to help you juggle all these moving parts successfully, getting your content cadence right might feel unwieldy at first.
To help you hit the ground running, you can start with HubSpot’s free content calendar templates.
I have used these templates as a starting point for my content calendars for years, and whether you use one of them out of the box, or tweak it and make it your own, I always appreciated this as a solid starting point.
Without a calendar, your efforts are pretty much wasted (you’ll lack focus and strategy, trust me!), so I encourage you to take the time to make friends with your content calendar.
8. Experiment, audit, and tweak.
Identify key engagement metrics that will be measured for each platform. Then, experiment and publish relevant content for a set period of time. Next, audit your audience's behavior and review your content's performance.
For example, you can conduct a:
- Website audit to assess your blog and web pages.
- Social media audit to review your social media channels.
After your audits, you‘ll have comprehensive information and a detailed analysis of your content’s performance and audience's behavior.
If you achieved your desired level of engagement, then you’ve found the right content cadence for your business. But if not, use relevant insights from your audit report to tweak, optimize, and iterate on all your earlier steps. Then, experiment again until you achieve your goal.
Remember, content cadence varies for every organization.
How often do marketers publish content?
To answer this question, HubSpot surveyed over 1,200 marketers to determine how often they publish content across various channels. The results showed that:
- 34% of marketers publish content multiple times a week.
- 33% publish content once a day.
- Only 13% reported publishing content multiple times a day.
- 10% said they publish weekly.
- 6% said multiple times per month.
- 4% said once a month or less.
But which posting frequency is the most effective?
- Most marketers (35%) who publish once daily described their 2022 marketing strategy as effective.
However, 33% of the marketers who publish multiple times a week said their marketing strategy was effective, 39% described the same cadence as neither effective nor ineffective, and most (43%) described it as ineffective.
For me, this just reiterates the advice I shared earlier: how often you should post content really depends on when and where your audience is most active online.
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How often should you post content?
Next, I’m going to share a few tips for posting blog, video and social media content. You can also use what you learned from your experiments and audit to inform your decision-making here.
How often should marketers post blog content?
I think how often you publish a blog post will depend on various factors, such as:
- Your goal
- Your target audience preferences
- Your budget and resources
- Your blog’s age and size
- Number of new and old posts on your blog
For example, if your main goal is to boost organic traffic, I recommend posting optimized content as frequently as possible.
Consider educational content like how-to's, listicles, and campaign round-ups to keep your blog posts fresh and consistent.
Running out of ideas? Check out 101 blog post ideas for inspiration.
For organic traffic, I think:
- Small blogs should post new content 3-4 times a week.
- Larger blogs should post new and updated content 4-5 times a week.
If your goal is to raise brand awareness, you likely won‘t need to post as often as you would for organic traffic. That’s because you need to focus more on building your brand‘s voice than on boosting numbers.
You’ll also need to diversify your posts and provide more informative content to boost brand awareness.
Therefore, for brand awareness:
- Small blogs should post new content once or twice a month.
- Larger blogs should post new and updated content 3-4 times a week.
How often should marketers post social media content?
With so many social media platforms out there, how often you post depends on the platform, how it works, and when your target audience is active there. But here’s what I recommend as a jumping-off point:
Post multiple times a day, especially between 12 PM and 3 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
Post multiple times a day from 12 PM to 3 PM or from 6 PM to 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
Post multiple times per week from 3 PM to 6 PM on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
X (formerly Twitter)
Post multiple times a day from 12 PM to 3 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
TikTok
Post multiple times a day between 6 PM and 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
Post multiple times a day from 12 PM to 3 PM on Thursdays and Saturdays.
How often should marketers post video content?
Video consumption has risen over the years and is still going up. For instance:
- 89% of consumers want to see more videos from brands in 2024, according to Wyzowl.
- In 2023, companies hosting their videos on Wistia saw video plays jump by 15% and total watch time soar by 44%.
According to Kyle Denhoff, senior director of marketing and audience development at HubSpot:
“There are two changes in the market indicating a need for more video content.
First, the search landscape is being disrupted by AI. Second, we’re seeing a shift to a video-first consumption of content for audiences.”
In short, consumers are watching more and more videos, and marketers can use that to their advantage.
How often you post videos will vary depending on the following factors:
- The platform and how it works.
- Your target audience’s appetite for video content.
- Types of video content.
- Length of the video.
Here are my tips for maximizing your video content output.
Post content on:
- Your blog. Every time you publish a new blog post, find a way to incorporate a video. For example, your blog post can be repurposed into a video and published within the post itself or somewhere else on the blog. This way, your audience can choose to read the post, or watch it as a video, or both.
- YouTube. Post videos three times a week, or daily, if you can. But if not, posting once a week is also a good starting point.
- Other social media platforms. Consider videos as part of your social media content, and use the posting frequency discussed earlier for each platform.
Pro tip: If you need a quick way to maximize your video content output, try HubSpot’s Clip Creator, a free AI-powered tool that converts text to video.
Getting Your Content Cadence Right
As I’ve discussed here, content cadence varies from one business to another, and there’s no reason to copy others blindly.
At the same time, using industry benchmarks — and your own experiment results — will really help you nail the right cadence for you.
Above all, I encourage you to experiment. Establishing the right posting cadence isn’t always a quick process, so give yourself time to try things out, iterate, and see what works.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
The State of Social Media in 2024
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- AI Content Creation
- Community Building
- Social Media Shopping
- Social Vs. Search Engine
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