I'm going to take you inside my head; I know, scary, right; this is a real thought that I had when working on my content creation. I was pouring a cup of coffee, and the thought popped into my head that I needed to make fewer decisions when creating my content. You see, at that moment, I was overwhelmed with the amount of decision I had to make to get my blog ready to be posted. And friend, it was the beginning of the day I was at the height of my metal clarity. Blah, the sheer number of decisions for every blog post. If you're new to me, writing content for my blog when I started my business was my least favorite thing to do. Along with my feelings of imposter syndrome, it was the perfect recipe for analysis paralysis. Seriously, then having to: Picking images…Titles…Meta Description…Social Media Content…Search Engine Optimization… 

The list goes on and on. It's a lot of decisions.

These are all big decisions because these are the items that draw your ideal client to your brand. It was time to figure out how I can reduce decision fatigue in content creation and simplify content decisions in the future.

Grr, The Amount of Decisions in Content Creation

As an online business owner, there comes a point when even the smallest decisions—like picking an image or writing a title—feel overwhelming. Heck, don't even get me started about end of the day decision-making abilities. I don't know about you but I was relieved when I learned about decision fatigue, and it’s inevitable when you’re constantly making choices throughout the day.

At the start of the day, making decisions feels easy. You’re energized, ready to tackle your to-do list, and confident in your choices. But as the day progresses, your mental energy depletes, and even simple decisions become exhausting. I'm not sure about you, but I created an 8 week meal plan to avoid the end of the day decision and question, “What's for dinner, Mom?” If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

What is Decision Fatigue?

Decision fatigue is the deterioration in the quality of choices after making too many decisions in a row. Social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister coined the term to describe how decision-making power declines throughout the day.

For business owners, this can lead to:

• Poor content choices (rushed titles, subpar images, inconsistent messaging)
• Decision avoidance (putting off decisions because they feel too hard)
• Effects of decision fatigue (feeling paralyzed by too many options)

How Decision Fatigue Impacts Your Content Creation

Every piece of content requires multiple small decisions, including:

• What topic should I cover?
• What will be the best keyword for search engines to attract the most web visitors?
• What are the subtopics for the outline?
• What title will attract my audience?
• How will I write my meta description in under 160 characters?
• What image best represents my brand?
• What’s the best call to action?
• How many social media posts should be created?

Those are only the decisions I can think of off the top of my head for one piece of long-form content. Never mind if you record a podcast to go along with it. Now, we are into a whole new set of decision-making responsibilities. 

Until I discovered how to put a system in place, a decision-making framework, all those decisions add up. Ultimately, it leaves you in content fatigue, exhausted, and stuck. The good news? You can streamline your content creation process to reduce mental exhaustion and maintain high-quality output. I get it, while I wish all small businesses invested in marketing teams, that is not reality. Leaving the important decisions regarding marketing efforts and content strategies falling on the shoulders of the owner, along with every other business decision.

2. Establish Brand Guidelines

Make fewer decisions by setting clear brand guidelines, including:

• Approved color palette, fonts, and visual elements
• Tone of voice and messaging style
• Target audiences and personas

If you don't know how to do this, let ChatGPT help you or use something from Canva.

A brand style guide means you don’t have to decide on branding details when creating content.

3. Use Content Templates

Pre-designed templates for blog posts, social media, and emails reduce the number of choices you need to make. Your templates should include:

Create title formulas

SEO title formulas are structured formats for writing blog post and podcast titles that help improve search engine visibility, attract clicks, and peaks curiority of your ideal audience. These formulas use elements like numbers, power words, and keywords to create compelling and optimized headlines. Use the tool Headline Studio to create SEO friendly titles, it will give you a score on your title. Try out different formulas like list-based titles such as:

• [Number] Simple Strategies [Keyword] 7 Simple Strategies to Reduce Decision Fatigue in Content Creation
• How to + [Action] + [Benefit] How to Streamline Your Content Creation Process to Avoid Burnout
• [Question] + [Keyword] + [Solution] Why Does Content Creation Feel So Hard? A Simple Way to Fix It

Meta description formulas

• [Pain point] + [Number] + [Actionable benefit] + [Outcome] Feeling overwhelmed with content decisions? Try these 7 simple strategies to reduce decision fatigue and create content with ease.
• [Problem] + [How-to solution] + [Positive impact] Struggling with content overload? Learn how to streamline your content creation process and avoid burnout while maintaining quality.
• [Ask the question] + [A hint of the solution] + [Encourage action] Does content creation feel exhausting? Discover why it’s so hard and the simple fix that will help you create content with confidence.

Standard image placement

If you're website theme allows you to create a templates set one or two for easy content set up of your blog posts. This will give you a couple different ways depending on the type of content. For instant, if you only have a blog post template and a blog post with a podcast episode template. Then set up a Google Doc with the same format to make it easy for your team members to follow the template and set up the post to keep consistency. Create a quick how-to video for each template for easy reference  and add it to your content process in your project management software.

Social media templates

Use canva to set up social media templates in your brand style. Create template for your preferred social media platforms that can be used to repurpose your long-form content and provide social proof of your expertise.

Call-to-action formulas

Along with creating a template for blog posts, also create call-to-action (CTA) templates. Here are ideas for call-to-action formulas tailored for an email list sign-up, a life coach service provider, and a course provider:

• Email List Sign-Up CTA Formula
  👉 [Problem] + [What They’ll Get] + [Action Step]
  💡 Overwhelmed by content decisions? Get my free checklist to streamline your content process and reduce decision fatigue. Sign up now!
• Life Coach Service Provider CTA Formula
  👉 [Empathetic Statement] + [Transformation/Benefit] + [Action Step]
  💡Feeling stuck in decision fatigue? Let’s simplify your path to clarity and confidence. Book your free discovery call today and take control of your choices!
• Course Provider CTA Formula
  👉 [Pain Point] + [What the Course Teaches] + [Result] + [Action Step]
  💡 Struggling to stay consistent with content? My Content Systems Mastery course will help you create with ease and avoid burnout. Enroll now!

By setting a variety of standard formulas you're able to mix and match them to make to create the best option. This allows you to plug and play rather than start from scratch. I'm not sure about you but for some starting is the hardest part. 

As mentioned earlier, your web design theme may allow you to set up global templates, use them for the blog structure and call-to-actions. It streamlines your decision-making processes and makes bringing on a team member easier.

4. Curate a Stock Image Library

Instead of hunting for the perfect image every time, build a collection of pre-approved stock photos that match your brand aesthetic. Organize them by theme, topic, or color to make selection quick and effortless. Have you ever noticed that business owners will reuse the same brand photos for YouTube thumbnails, blog featured images or social media content? The same image can be change used in a wide variety of ways to give it a fresh perspective. 

In addition to your image library, create a b-roll video library for your short-form video clips. With a video library you'll be able to put together different variations for your promotional content. This helps with having to come up with too much content.

5. Implement Decision Blocking

Decision blocking is time blocking for decision-making this goes hand and hand with your decision parking lot. Set aside a dedicated time each week to make non-urgent content decisions, such as:

• Creating a content calendar for the upcoming month
• Choosing blog post titles for the next month
• Approving content topics
• Selecting images for upcoming posts

When you batch these decisions together, you eliminate the constant interruptions that drain your mental energy. Consider your conversion rates to understand what works now when making these decisions. You do not always have to create something new. Recycle and reuse your old content and make it new again when you're sitting down to create your content strategies and calendar. 

6. Use A/B Testing to Reduce Future Decisions

Instead of agonizing over which title structure or email subject line will perform better, run A/B tests and let data decide. Over time, you’ll identify what works best for your target audiences, reducing uncertainty in future content creation.

7. Automate and Delegate Where Possible

Not every decision needs to be made by you. 

• Use scheduling tools to automate content posting.
• Delegate image selection, formatting, or publishing to a team member or VA.
• Set up automated workflows in Asana to streamline approvals and reminders.

Winning the Daily Decision-Making Battle

When you get into the habit of asking yourself, Does this decision need to be made right now? and time-blocking decision-making for when your brain is freshest, you eliminate unnecessary stress and gain more creative freedom in your business.

By implementing these systems, you’ll spend less time on big decisions and more time creating impactful content that moves your business forward.

It's Your Turn to Take Action:

• Start a decision parking lot today
• Create one content template to streamline your process
• Time block one decision-making session this week

Are you ready to simplify your content creation process? Let’s reduce decision fatigue and make content creation easy, efficient, and enjoyable!

*This post includes an affiliate link. 

Are you making the best first impression with your client onboarding experience? Creating a simple client onboarding experience with HoneyBook ensures your process is streamlined for you and impressive to your new client. Using HoneyBook, you can create a seamless and professional experience that sets the tone for your client relationship.

New Leads to Client Onboarding Process

Are you one who enjoys getting into the tech? I sure do. However, I need to ask if that is where my time is best spent.  

Before switching to a client relationship management tool, a prospect would fill out a Google Form with questions about their small business. Then, I would review the inquiry form during the next business day, send a follow-up email with a Calendly link for scheduling, and manually enter them into my project management system for follow-up.

After the call, if we both decided it would be a good fit, I would send over an online contract through Sign Now. Once the signed contract was received, I would send a canned welcome email with the link to the first payment and the client welcome packet with the next steps.

In other words, I was the glue holding it all together—reentering information from one tool to another. This process was time-consuming and inefficient.

While web application tools like Zapier can connect your application, I think you'll agree it’s much simpler not to jump between applications and have everything in one place—this is how HoneyBook simplifies the steps.

The Lead Capture Form and Automation

Wow, Honeybook has added many new features to make it even more simple to create an onboarding workflow. 

How are you currently managing your prospects' new leads? Is it simple? In other words, are you piecing together different tools and acting as the glue holding it all together? Or maybe you're using a web automation tool such as Zapier or Make to help you piece the various applications together. That is great until it throws an error that you miss and stops working. You better love troubleshooting tech if this is your process; I'm just saying.

I am guessing you pour your heart and soul into all your free content to connect and make an impact. If someone has been listening to your podcast or reading your weekly blog posts, you want them to have an exceptional client experience from the first second they reach out to you.

It's a big deal when your dream client finally decides: this is the coach for me. You want them to have a great client experience the second they say “yes.” An easy way to make a great impression is with Honeybook automation. Whether you're an independent business owner or a business owner with team members, utilizing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ensures a better experience for your potential clients.

How To Create An Exceptional Client Onboarding Process with HoneyBook

Step 1: Lead Capture Form

• Create a Lead Capture Form: Use HoneyBook to embed a form on your website. Customize it to collect essential contact information such as the client’s name, contact details, business type, and how they found you. Do you have specific information you'd like to know about the potential client? No problem; set up custom fields on the form to gather this information, such as social media handles and unique needs they seek help with. Remember that long forms can be intimidating and overwhelming to fill out as a first step. Gather only the information you must to make an informed decision and set yourself up for a productive discovery call.

– In addition to the embed form, Honeybook links you to the lead form to easily add a call to action to your email marketing campaigns.
– A quick tip: I love using Pretty Links to create customized links with my business URL.

• Automate Lead Tagging: Set up tags to categorize leads by interest or service type. HoneyBook automatically maps the form responses to your database.

Step 2: Immediate Follow-Up

• Send a Welcome Email: After submitting the lead form, HoneyBook sends your customized automated email thanking the prospect for their inquiry and providing the next steps.
• Assign a Workflow: Depending on the lead’s responses, initiate a tailored workflow that aligns with their needs.

At this point, you may want to pause the workflow. Set up a task to review the form during your office hours before sending the email to your discovery or sales call. The pause is to get a feel for the person behind the form.

Do you feel like you two would be a good fit? I think it is essential to vet a client before you both have too much time invested. While ideally, your long-form content will be the best way to draw the right people to you, it is okay to say not yet to someone who may not be a good client for your services. Remember, the ultimate goal is to book clients that are best aligned with your services. I know from experience creating one-off packages for someone who doesn't fit into your scope of work may not result in a happy client. When you say yes to a potential client who's not a great fit, you could be saying no to a future great opportunity.

Step 3: Discovery Call Scheduling

• Enable Scheduling: Use HoneyBook’s built-in scheduling tool to allow the prospect to book a discovery call directly from the follow-up email. This will save you valuable time by avoiding unnecessary back and forth by providing your available time slots so they can choose the perfect time. But, Friend, I'm certain you already understand the value of a scheduling tool.
• Scheduled Email: In the onboarding workflow, be sure to add an email sent after they book the discovery call with the agenda of the meeting and any additional resources you'd like to provide.
• Calendar Integration: Sync HoneyBook with your calendar to avoid scheduling conflicts and streamline the booking process.

Step 4: Conduct the Discovery Call

• Prepare for the Call: Review the lead’s form responses. Use a discovery call template with the agenda, list of necessary information, points to discuss, and specific questions you have to ask during the discovery call.
• Take Notes: Use HoneyBook’s client profile feature to document key points from the call. Client communication is key; notes are always a gift when you must circle back on your discussion.

Step 5: Post-Call Follow-Up

• Trigger Follow-Up Workflow: After the discovery call, HoneyBook automates the next steps based on the outcome:

– For “Not Yet” Clients: Send a thank-you email and schedule a follow-up task for a later date. However, to keep them engaged with the automation feature, you can set up a “nurture” type email sequence to help support them with additional “do-it-yourself” helpful activities.
– For “Yes” Clients: Proceed to the proposal and onboarding phase.

Step 6: Proposal, Contract, and Invoice

• Send a Customized Proposal: HoneyBook allows you to create a tailored proposal that outlines your services and pricing. The best part is that they provide templates for important documents, so you're not starting from scratch.
• Automate Contract Signing: Include a contract in the proposal. Once signed, HoneyBook automatically updates the project status.
• Send the Invoice: Attach the invoice to the proposal and enable payment options such as payment plans.

Step 7: Welcome Package

• Welcome Email: Send an automated welcome email with a personalized message, welcome guide, and next steps.
  Intake Form: Set up an onboarding form to gather client information. Would you like to send a physical welcome gift? This is the perfect spot to collect the client's physical address.
• Scheduling Tool: With the scheduling tool, your new client can set up the initial kickoff call and coaching calls.
• Client Portal Access: Grant access to the client portal where they can view their documents, forms, and project details.

Step 8: Task Checklist

• Automate Tasks: Use HoneyBook’s task management feature to ensure key steps are completed:

– Create a client folder in your file organization system.
– Add a task in Asana (or your project management tool) for the client project.
– Schedule any necessary follow-up meetings or deliverables.

Step 9: Ongoing Communication

• Keep Clients Informed: Use HoneyBook’s email and messaging features to maintain clear communication throughout the coaching relationship.
• Monitor Progress: Track project milestones and ensure timely delivery of services.

Did It Take Time to Set Up?

Setting up the entire process from the workflows, email templates, and automation in HoneyBook takes some initial effort. But once it’s done, you no longer have to manually handle every step of the onboarding process saving your value time. This will be one of the thing your future self will thank you for. It’s automated, efficient, and allows you to focus on delivering value to your clients.

Ready to Simplify Your Onboarding Process?

If you’re ready to get time back in your day and streamline your client onboarding process, HoneyBook might be the right tool to provide a seamless client experience. By using HoneyBook, small business owners save time, impress their clients, and set their businesses up for success.

💰 Get your HoneyBook account for 30% off for one year with my referral link

*Disclaimer: If you happen to purchase anything I recommend in this or any of my communications, it’s likely I'll receive some kind of affiliate compensation from these products that I use and love. Please do not feel obligated to purchase anything through my links.