Instant gratification is a consistant temptation. But why is this the case? According to Quora Creative, 57% of marketers are struggling to accurately measure the performance of their blog content. This leads to instant gratification rearing its ugly little head. And when that happens, business owners give up on their ambitious content marketing projects far too quickly.

But what makes instant gratification so tempting (and popular)?

First, let’s start with a definition.  Positivepsychology.com offers the following definition:

Instant (or immediate) gratification is a term that refers to the temptation, and resulting tendency, to forego a future benefit in order to obtain a less rewarding but more immediate benefit.

And if you’re thinking “I don’t have an instant gratification problem”, here’s a real life example.

To respect their confidentialty, I’m going to use a fake name (Bob) when I talk about this person. But this is an actual story of a client I’ve worked with in the past. Prior to working with me, Bob expressed frustration about how the only person who was reading his blog was his mom. During our content strategy call, I asked him:

What are you doing to promote your content?

• He mentioned a Facebook page.
• He mentioned a newsletter.
• And he mentioned he had a Twitter profile.
• But he rarely posted anything because he didn’t really know what to post.

That’s when I realized Bob had an instant gratification problem. Because he thought that if he wrote and published a blog post, his audience would come to him.

Once he embraced the need to produce content consistently, and promote his posts as much as he could his online following grew.

Because you’re probably looking for reassurance that your hard work is paying off…

Here are some signs of doing the right thing with your content marketing to look out for.

FYI: Some affilaite links are included, but I only endorse products that reflect the values of this blog.

1) People are actually sharing your blog posts

When your blog posts are making an impact, you’ll know based on how people are reacting on social media. But it’s not the number of shares that matters. It’s the act of sharing that matters the most. Because, according to CoSchedule, the three most common reasons why people share stuff on social media is the following:

• Self-expression and self-fulfillment : the need to express what we care about the most, and feel involved in a community.
• The growth of relationships: A lot of people share relevant info with people we likely wouldn’t stay in touch with in any other context.
• Getting the word out: often people share content to support causes they believe in.

So many of the reasons listed above for sharing are about emotionally connecting with other people. Therefore, it’s a two-way process (you emotionally connected with them, therefore the sharer wants to use your content to emotionally connect with someone else).

2) People thank you for sharing

Nothing is more valuable than people saying your content you worked so hard on is meaning something to somebody. If your content is having actual value to actual people, they’ll find a way to express their appreciation.

For me, this often happens in one of my favourite (and most effective) marketing platforms, Facebook groups. When I share my posts in the weekly promo threads I often get comments like this one:

3) The stats express interest

First of all, I wanted to share a recommendation for WordPress users. FYI: I’m confident that this is a majority of my readers. Because one-third of the web is powered by WordPress:

Sign up for Jetpack. Because not only does it provide detailed stats on who is visiting your blog and what they’re clicking on, but it also notifies you when your site is down, does 24/7 security and backups, and provides related post and publicize tools.

Although, for both WordPress users and non-Wordpress users, I also recommend signing up for a G-suite account. Because G-suite is the only way you can access Google Analytics, which provides a detailed view of web visitor demographics, and how web users behave when they browse your site.

The perks of both tools:

Both tools will help you identify whether or not you’re attracting your target audience, and what you can do to keep your readers on your site for a longer period of time.

And if you’re not sure what to look out for, here’s a tip. If one post leads to people clicking on other pages and posts on your website, you’re doing something right.

But most importantly here’s what you need to remember to protect yourself from the temptations of instant gratification:

Readers need to be taking your intended action. For instance, if one post is promoting a specific event, product, or service are they clicking on the link you asked them to click on if they want more info?

And…are your posts gradually increasing the size of your social media following, and your newsletter? If not, then you need to rethink your content strategy, calendar, and overall approach.

If your posts are leading to actual results

Then the imposter syndrome you’re likely experiencing is based on very little. And you deserve a pat on the back for achieving the original goals of your content.

If someone seems more successful than you, and appears to have achieved success overnight, here’s  what you need to remember. The part of their success you’re likely not seeing is the years of hard work.

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Please add a comment below if you'd like to discuss this topic. – Rosie