The beginning of 2021 began like most years. During the last year, every professional struggled to adjust to the new normal.
Content marketing can be challenging and even complex. Now add COVID-19 to your marketing mix! All marketers are on high alert to reassure their customers, patients, and employees that the company is up to date on the pandemic.
While COVID-19 continues to be a global health threat, there is little guidance on how to promote brands responsibly and effectively without harming our humanity. For content creators and content marketers, the question of whether COVID-19 will have a lasting effect is harder than the answer.
Content marketing has always been evolving
The advancement of technology and platforms, the audience pushing brands to ever higher standards, and the pressure to demonstrate the return on investment are just some of the everyday worries of retailers.
Content marketers are used to turning around when necessary to remove obstacles and gain traction. But COVID-19 is probably the deepest obstacle for brands since the beginning of content marketing!
Now that COVID-19 has changed our work environment from the office to home, our shopping from store to online, and our society from social to isolation, one of the questions that are at the top is: Will COVID-19 change Content marketing permanently?
One thing is clear: we already live in a world that has been changed by the pandemic and the hope that life will return to where we left off is fading. As humans, content marketing must develop strategies that not only generate a high level of creativity and effectiveness but also positivity and responsibility.
A changing world brings new habits
The pandemic has undeniably been effective in changing consumer buying habits. With many businesses temporarily closed or closed completely and people being isolated in their homes, purchasing decisions have been influenced in several ways:
- Consumers shop online regardless of their in-store preferences
- As consumers now work and live at home, the products and services they need have shifted
- Consumers have more time to spend online exploring new brands and products
- People welcome DIY projects in everything from hair styling to baking to home improvement
Will COVID-19 have a lasting impact on content marketing?
The research looked in-depth at COVID-19 changes in shopping patterns. Unsurprisingly, consumers have embraced online shopping on a whole new level. In a survey conducted by Bazaarvoice, they reported a 21% increase in online orders in March 2020 compared to March 2019, with 41% of respondents saying they buy items online that they would normally rather buy in-store.
Marketwatch also found that page views and orders were available for nearly every product category. However, at the top of the growth list were food, beverages and tobacco, toys and games, and sporting goods. Of course, while consumers were shopping for the essentials, they were also looking for ways to entertain themselves and their families. Areas, where shopping has declined, are clothing and luggage. No secret there.
If changes in purchasing are the result of short-term external factors, the likelihood is high that these changes will occur again once the external influence has disappeared. But over time, habits become ingrained as repetition goes on. A new habit can be formed in just a few weeks. However, breaking a habit takes a lot of thought, effort, and time.
Reevaluate your target audience
To understand how COVID-19 has affected your audience, it’s worth taking a break and evaluating. Is the campaign you planned three months ago still relevant? How has your customers’ life changed? How have your needs changed? How can you communicate the right tone? Are there any new marketing opportunities you can identify? And what does success look like now?
One thing is certain, brands still need to have a content strategy in place, even if that strategy is to take a break. If your products and services are in high demand during this period, your strategy is different from brands whose products and services are not in demand. Industries like travel and hospitality are badly affected.
The best advice comes from Prateek Keshari, a digital full-stack marketer who wrote on the Hearst Bay Area blog, “The best way to think about positioning your brand during COVID-19 is to think of people first.”
Here are some worthy content marketing goals that keep people first:
- Build long-term trust
- Support customers in difficult times
- Inform customers about your industry
- Entertain customers
Acknowledge that we live and work in another universe. Provide value by seeing what you can do to help. Continue to be authentic and never take advantage of difficult times. Follow these general guidelines and you will likely stay on the right side of the story.
Opportunities for content marketers
Times of change and flexibility encourage the development of new habits, and in the time of COVID-19, content marketing tests the new waters. This is the perfect opportunity for brands to reach out to consumers to influence new habits and behaviors.
A good example of this is the Target retail department store. The goal identified pregnant women as a window of time for them because when you have a new child many routines are broken, leaving that new parent open to something new. What does your brand have to offer that could be attractive in this COVID phase of change?
Here are a few tips and tricks:
Do:
- Show understanding
- Be informative and helpful
- Provide actionable solutions that are not generic. “We are here for you”
- Talk to your stakeholders, colleagues, and others for feedback on your approach
- Be inspiring and optimistic
- Let people know if your brand is taking steps to keep customers and employees safe
- Give away something like free shipping or premium content
Do no:
- Keep using pictures of people shaking hands or happy groups
- Use a hard sell approach. The use of COVID-19 is not going to go down well
- Stay quiet
- Add to the noise. Do all communication about something.
- Avoid click-baiting and hype
It is not since the Great Depression and World War II that we have seen such a tremendous disruption to business and our personal lives. When the dust settles, things will be permanently different than we can even know.
The key to successfully mastering this crisis is empathy and helpfulness. Those COVID-19 content marketing professionals who understand their target audience and really empathize with them will come up with creative solutions that will help people overcome their challenges and weaknesses.
The best content marketing creates brands in the long term. For now, winnings shouldn’t be high on our list of goals.
Most brands experience a lot of difficulties that will continue into the unpredictable future. Adding effective and successful tactics to your list of professional achievements is not an easy task for content marketers, but it can be a tremendous personal reward. Every brand exists to deliver value. There has never been a better time for us to add value by helping one another.