How Long Should You Test Content Creation For On Instagram?

Five years ago, you could get away with saying content marketing is nice to have but not essential. That thinking today is dangerous, and it's even more fatal tomorrow. Here's why. 67% of your buyer's journey happens during online research before they ever contact you. That means by the time a prospect reaches out, they've already eliminated 80% of their options based on what they found online. And if your business isn't a part of that research phase, you don't exist in their consideration set. You're not even in the running. It's kind of like the third dude in every election race here in the United States. Yeah, sure, they'll have like 4% of the votes, but they're the third dude. So in this video, I'm going to show you exactly what content has become your business's lifeline, not just a marketing tactic, and why every month you wait, it makes it harder to catch up. And let me show you this diagram which explains everything in a very visualized, need to understand format. So this diagram over here shows the shifts that's happening right now in how buyers make decision here on the right, you'll see old ways, and that way is fading fast, and we'll talk about it in a minute. And on the left, you'll see the new reality, the way most buyers operate literally today. So at the top over here, you see the key Insight, which is 67% of buyers journey happens during online research before they ever even contact you. And that's the game, and that's what's changed. So if you feel like lately business has been slow, this might be the key thing that you're missing. Because most business owners are still operating like it's 2015. They're waiting for referrals, hoping the phone rings, relying on traditional methods. And meanwhile, their competitors are literally building content assets that capture prospects during the 67% research phase that we just mentioned over here. And I want you to explain this to you extremely logically. Whenever you post something online which has the potential to reach millions of people just off one video, it gets extremely easy for your competitors to capitalize on that specific traffic. When your competitors post an ad and they're spending literally thousands a month on just reaching more people, it becomes extremely simple for them to capitalize on that specific traffic, mainly because they're just reaching more human beings. And the more human beings you reach, the more potential cash you can make. And the longer you do it, the more cash you will make, because there's always an opportunity cost, let's say you start posting content for a month and you just do it for a month. Same thing with ads. By the time you start creating content and start running ads, a lot of people who are cold to you, they don't necessarily know you, have never heard of you. That is the first time they discover you. They, that's not necessarily when they're going to buy from you, that's when they just discovered you. So if you just do it for a month and just reaching new people, they're not going to do anything. And there's a high chance that you don't necessarily make any return on that one. If that's the goal, just don't do content and ads. If you're just going to do it for 30 days, it's not going to work. I promise you it's not going to work because the opportunity cost is important. By the time they discover you and by the time they're ready to make a decision to purchase your services is something that you need within the campaign or the actual strategy of what you're going to be doing to try this out for at least six months, try this out for 12 months, have a long term goal, set your mind up to the fact that, okay, for the first 30 days, maybe even 45 days, 60 days or depending on your ticket price as well, maybe even 90 to 120 days, you might not see anything. And when it comes to content and of course what I'm talking about, the, this isn't necessarily about doing more marketing, this is about survival. Because if you're not visible during the research phase, you're not getting considered, period. And this is of course for people who are looking to take their business to that next level. Of course, if you're fine exactly where you are, you're happy with, you know, some of the business coming here and there, you still have certain margin set and you're satisfied with that. More power to you. But this is of course a video for people who definitely want to take their practices or businesses to that next level. I'm talking about 2xing 3xing 5xing the business using social media and paid advertising. So let me walk you through this diagram and show you exactly what's happening and what you need to do about it. So this all the way over here, which still works for some buyers, but fewer every year. So of course if you've been, if you're a local business and you've been in the market for like 20 plus years, of course you will have a lot of, you know, referrals you'll have a lot of phone book references, a lot of direct calls. So that part is still active. But of course, if you're looking to get into, you know, the next generation, the next scale, just being in front of more people, this is where of course you need to be in the research phase over here, which we're going to get to in a second. But let's just look into the old way first just so we understand like what's happening right now and why the method you're trying to use might be just extremely outdated. So you know, prospect has a need. So you know, somebody is a in the market for what you have to offer and they have a need. So the traditional methods, of course, like we just mentioned, referrals, like you have a phone book contact, direct call that makes a contact and the business gets a lead. And this path is closing and fewer buyers travel this road each year. And this is just one of those things because there's new buyers in the market every single day. It's just how, and this is just how the world is moving. There's no other explanation other than that same same concept of why you don't see necessarily horses on the street anymore. So the new reality over here is competitor without content is pretty much invisible. So they will necessarily get eliminated here. And let me also put a caveat to this. Of course, if you're in business for over like 25 plus years and you have that local presence, you will to the point like you will be fine because you already have maxed out that market and you just want to make sure that the only reason why you would need to do this is if you want to make sure that, you know, business is consistently still growing and there's no plateau or just going down. Because we've heard these stories time and time again. Like we've heard, we've talked with so many medical practices, so many local business owners where just a new practice opens right next to them and they're losing some business to them. Now this would just happen anyways. But the fact is they just started advertising heavily, they just started doing events, they just started doing all the right things to take people away from this specific business that we were talking to. And this is just kind of like D game and you have to be prepared for it. Like not everything is going to be pretty much, you know, just on a straight line at all times, especially when it comes to marketing. And that is just kind of like just the game. And this is also true for a business owner who we were just in touch with, they came to us, they've been in business for a while, but they were just losing business to this new location that opened pretty much right next to them. And they were doing all the right practices, they were, you know, doing social media stuff, they were doing some local events, they were doing all the right things to attract new people to their specific location. So it gave this element of people to just, you know, try them out, you know, just give them a chance. And they were just actively taking away customers from this specific brand, from this specific practice. So, and I'm pretty sure if they already had this massive audience built on social media, if they were consistently running ads that kept highlighting what they do, they wouldn't necessarily have this issue to the extent that they did. I'm not going to necessarily get into details as much on that specific thing. And this is just one of those things where if a location opens right next to you, you will for a fact just, you know, just lose some business to them anyways, even though you have like a massive social media content. So comparing the new way to the old way, let's see what the prospect does when they have a need. So whenever a prospect has a need now, they're going to watch videos and tutorials and they're going to read articles and blogs. Even articles and blogs, I've just included it. But even this one's kind of like just slowly dying down. Just kind of like heads up. So social media posts is a big one. Website content, and even website content is kind of like the second step. It used to be the first step where people used to go to, to just kind of like learn more about your businesses. But social media videos and tutorials, these are kind of like the first step people take to see if this is a legitimate business or not. And then after that they'll go to website, but website in here anyways. Because sometimes, let's say if somebody searches you on Google, the website of course is, it still needs to be polished, it still needs to be made the right way. But of course, compared to a couple of years ago to now, like website doesn't necessarily get the same love or the same importance to make a decision when it comes to prospect research. After that, of course we have the consideration set short list of trusted options. So of course if you're not even in this bucket, if you don't have like the social media posts, videos and tutorials, you're not necessarily in the short list of trusted options. So like that's of course one problem we need to solve pretty much right off the bat. So as soon as we have a consideration set, prospect makes content and then your business gets a high qualified and high trust lead. So this is pretty much what happens. And of course, and even with this short list of trusted options, this is where another battle is happening. Like okay, how is this person's case studies? How is this person reviews, how is this person's content? This is, this is brand kind of like relate with me more all these type of things. What is this brand's value? All these type of things depending on the prospect will help them make a decision. And one more thing I want to add before we of course get to the conclusion of this video is the AI acceleration. Because of course this video being recorded in 2025, going into 2026, 2027, 2028. Whenever you are watching this AI content machines layo competitors are flooding the market with random posts, articles and videos. So literally you have to act now because AI has just made so much easier for and simpler for people to just make like some random requests rubbish content. Now that for people who are doing it the right way doesn't necessarily oppose as a threat. But for people who are not even on these platforms and posting anything, the AI content machines are literally doing just way better than you because they have something to show for. But for our clients, they don't necessarily have to worry about this one because the AI content is not necessarily as good and just doesn't resonate with people as much. But of course if I had to choose between this one and not existing completely or not posting consistently at all, this would, would still take the lead. So the whole premise of me putting this here was just to tell you that AI is still a thing and it's moving waves and making things way faster than a couple of years ago would. And just overall compounding effect of content is unbeatable. Like you're always going to grow your followers. If you're starting with 100, get to your next 200, get your 500, get to the thousand, get to the 5,000, 10,000, 20,000. And then of course depending on your business as well, you don't even necessarily need 20,000. You can just be fine at 15,000 and you make way more cash just by doing that. Because your objective over here is to reach more people, not necessarily collect a lot of random followers. Because we know pages, and this is a fact, we know a lot of pages that do multiple six figures a month just by posting content for their specific target market. That's literally it. So the question is, will you start building content assets now or wait until your competitors make it impossible to catch up? That's something you need to decide. And think about it like this. If your competitor has been posting twice a week for over two years, they have 200 plus pieces of content working for them. 24, 7 you have 0. If you start posting today, it'll take you two years just to master volume and by then they'll have 400 pieces. This is why waiting is so dangerous. Content literally compounds. The longer you wait, the harder it is to catch up. So here's what we covered. Buyers make 67% of their decision during online research before they even contact you. If you're not creating content, you're quite literally invisible during that phase. The old ways for getting referrals and phone calls is literally fading away, especially for newer businesses. The new reality is content driven research and AI is making this shift happen faster, while the content compounds literally over time, making it harder for you to catch up the longer you wait. Content isn't just marketing anymore. It's your business's lifeline. It's how prospects find you, trust you and remember you. Without it, you're fighting for 20% of the buyers who still operate the old way. And that number shrinks every year. Now listen, if you've come this far, I do appreciate that. And if you want help building a content system before it's too late, there's a calendly link in the description and we work with service based businesses to create content that gets them into this exact 67% zone. Videos, social posts, all designed to build trust and generate qualified leads. So book a call and we'll map out exactly what you need to start building content assets that compound over time.