Top 10 tips for Content Marketing During Coronavirus

Content-Marketing-during-Coronavirus
The world economy and the business conditions across the globe have been in omnishambles and a nerve-racking situation because of the outbreak of the recent pandemic caused by the Coronavirus. With uncertainty lingering over the future of economy and businesses in dire all of us have to develop a resilient mindset to do the best we can – be it in the field of business or our daily lives. Content marketing during Coronavirus has to be more empathetic than ever before, while succinctly reflecting on the value proposition of the products or services. It should leverage the increase in the number of web browsers to find prospects and new opportunities for business while being smart and tactful enough to innovate, sustain, and optimize sales conversions. Content marketing during Coronavirus is a really challenging affair as manufacturing, logistics, and sales keep on crashing and the demand for the non-essential items has hit the rock bottom. Majority of people and workers are stuck at home and with technology being the only medium to communicate, research or keep themselves entertained, the marketers need to ensure that content marketing during Coronavirus fits this new landscape of the internet, almost taking the center stage of reality from just being a virtual hangout platform for many, if not all, and how it empathizes with potential buyers with uncertain psychology and inspires them to buy. As we all collectively navigate through these challenging times the following are ten tips for creative content marketing during Coronavirus to speak with the audiences in an empathetic tone and drive sales conversions.

1. Prioritize humility, empathy, and transparency

Be it brands or people, we are all in a vulnerable state right now and strategic content marketing during Coronavirus means acknowledging the reality and speaking to the prospects and audiences in an empathetic tone. For example, the brand message from Apple reads, “Your home at your command.” Companies in the sector are taking up the internet to speak to the customers on how they are taking care of their health and well-being using empathetic content marketing tone during Coronavirus. For example, on the homepage of StateFarm, they have started with the tagline, “We are here for you.” And have highlighted and advertised the solutions they provide for their COVID-19 patients. Content marketing during Coronavirus need not be overly commercially exploitative as any nuances of brand voice wouldn’t fare well.

2. Choose the right channels to communicate with your audiences

Marketers should understand that choosing the right channels is important for content marketing during Coronavirus. As marketers, you need to capitalize on the right communication channels that have the right viewership. Marketers need to put a pause on offline marketing. Content marketing during Coronavirus should majorly focus on Social Media platforms and paid online advertising so that a positive brand resonance can be designed. Also, this means hosting virtual events instead of organizing any upcoming social events or meetings. Content marketing during Coronavirus should concentrate on designing responsible press releases and articles. Let your viewers know how responsibly you have taken up the task of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

3. Leveraging the Agile use of Media

Amidst the uncertain and quickly changing circumstances, the marketers wish to build more rapid models to respond quickly to the changes around them. The ability to quickly craft creative messages with the change in circumstances, access to remote production, and having the capability to be creative will become vital for the organizations. For example, Nike quickly adapted to the changing circumstances and changed its brand message to, “Play inside, play for the world.” Also, in the midst of uncertain circumstances, the marketers would rapidly require to shuffle their marketing mixes. For example, with a continuous surge in the consumption of online videos, digital marketers can plan to amplify their use of ad-supported premium video streaming and mobile gaming. Also, the marketers should try their best to leverage upon the use of the relevant news articles, to engage with the customers. Also, the brands should ensure that the news isn’t studded with ads very frequently, as this might disrupt the creative element. Delivering news requires surveillance and accountability, otherwise, any question to authenticity may disrupt the brand equity.

4. Mind Your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Be good to your customers and people in general

Content marketing during Coronavirusneeds to promote positive messages and a feel-good element among prospects and customers to alleviate anxiety and making them feel secure to the extent they embrace your brands. The companies executing the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities need to prove that their contributions are not for commercial benefits, but are driven by a genuine purpose to help and guide people at a time of crisis. Prospects, customers, and people at large are likely to remember brands from their acts of good at times of crisis, particularly if the brands show some heart and genuinely embrace their CSR endeavors. The little acts of generosity involve making donations, contributing to food banks, or any other monetary contributions at the time of crisis. For example, almost everyone is likely to remember how Ford, GE, and 3M partnered to restore manufacturing capacities and employed people by engaging them to make respirators and ventilators stay strong in the face of crisis.

5. Host Webinars to Engage with the customers

Hosting webinars is an impeccable strategy for content marketing during Coronavirus that not just helps to educate the viewers but also keeps them engaged and glued to their screens. Keep the on-screen text to a minimum. Show the humanized face of your brands by including fewer slides and more speakers and by adding polls and Q&A section at the end of the webinar to make the webinars more interactive. Include panel discussions in the webinar to keep the conversations flowing. There should be a Call-to-action (CTA) at the end of the webinar and redirect the customers to some relevant blogs or to download the text copy of the webinar. This helps in keeping the conversations flowing, even as the webinar has ended.

6. Track the behavioral trends of your customers and come up with data-driven predictive insights to optimize your marketing endeavors

The marketers can use emotional analytics to gain insights into the behavioral trends of their buyers as well as the prospects in real-time. Read more on 5 Reasons to use Emotional Analytics in B2B marketing. Marketers measuring sentiments and content consumption trends regularly can better adapt their strategies content marketing during coronavirus. Measuring content trends across the social media platforms, community websites, and e-commerce product pages allow marketers to identify opportunities in the midst of data. It can be a good idea for companies to build dashboards with emotional data to leverage the emotional and behavioral analysis of the prospects and customers for marketing purposes. Content marketing during Coronavirus requires the marketing team to collaborate and work in cross-functioning with other teams including their C-suite colleagues, finance, and operations to develop data-driven business insights about predictive scenarios and their potential outcomes and should according develop a predictive content strategy.

7. Be proactive on Social Media

In the midst of a pandemic like Coronavirus, marketers need to be proactive on social media. Mostly, the content marketing endeavors during Coronavirus can be considered to be hugely dependent on how marketers execute their content strategies across social media platforms. The content strategies for social media need to be really simple and straightforward at the time of coronavirus. For example, one question surveys may replace lengthy questionnaires and prepare blogs instead of lengthy questionnaires. Conducting live sessions on LinkedIn and Instagram to engage with the viewers and answer any questions that they might have on their minds is an excellent way to engage with the prospects, as well as, the customers. Don’t forget to update your viewers on recent news and remind them to stay at home. Be mindful to tell your customers how you have been handling the crisis, in terms of continuing your remote marketing efforts and maintaining the work from home situations for your employees.

8. Use Video Content

One of the most important tips to excel at content marketing at the time of coronavirus is to show your support to your prospects and existing customers and conveying them that we all are in this together. Convey your company culture and values through high-quality video content to reflect optimism and kindness and inspire hope. Articulate the images and language in your videos to not show people in close proximity and convey the message of social distancing. Sharing too many social pictures can make people reminiscent of their social lives a while ago and longing for it may make them gloomy. Try to keep your video marketing messages contextual to the new definition of normalcy in the current times. Be as realistic as possible, while keeping that element of hope intact. Read more on 7 Best Practices for B2B Video Marketing.

9. Optimize Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and Local SEO

According to a report by Thrive Agency, cost-per-click (CPC) has reduced by 6% across all verticals and is likely to dwindle further. Now is the perfect time for marketers looking to incorporate PPC advertising in their digital marketing mixes, to optimize audience engagement and viewership at a lower cost. Read more on Top 10 PPC Trends for 2020. Also, in the midst of a global pandemic, people are looking for the supplies of local products and services. Marketers can project to project to customers about their presence in specific geographies and how they can deliver their desired products or services free (if feasible), quickly and in a contact-less manner. Focusing on local SEO is an excellent strategy for content marketing during Coronavirus. This primarily includes doing the following things:
  1. Optimizing your ads and content to rank higher in your area of service
  2. Focus on optimizing your Google My Business account
  3. Ask happy customers to review to products or services online and then proactively respond to those reviews
  4. Contribute your pieces of content to local news channels, charities and activities to boost your local SEO
  5. Try and get valuable backlinks to boost your local presence
  6. Contact local influences requesting them to link back to your content
Focusing on the local SEO is important both for the local businesses as well as businesses focused on targeting specific geographies across the globe. Read more on How to Employ Local SEO to Optimize B2B Marketing.

10. Ensure Business Continuity

Content marketing during Coronavirus is also about how marketers adapt to the new ways of working to ensure the continual supply of their deliverables. Deploying collaborative technologies, besides arranging the apparatuses for working remotely are the absolute imperatives at the times of crisis. Ensure that you have the requisite technologies in place to ensure the seamless flow of chats, file sharing, meetings, and call capabilities. Teams need to stay connected, collaborative, cross-functional, motivated to keep on functioning at their highest potentials. Sales teams need to keep up the practice of “pitching” the clients remotely, realizing that face-to-face meetings are unlikely to happen for many days to come. Leaders have to embrace the added accountability to ensure that transitions happen smoothly for all the teams viz. marketing, sales, and services so that evolving to the new normal isn’t much of a challenge to anyone. Also, the times of crisis create opportunities to inspire solutions like never before. Wrapping Things Up Marketers across the globe have already taken their best feet forward to combat the invisible force and adjust to the new definition of normalcy. Though we are all in the midst of uncertainty, with social distancing becoming a norm there are major shits in the customers’ behaviors across the diverse platforms on the web. Print media and televisions have emerged as preferable modes among customers to consume news from reliable and authentic channels. Along with health and safety, recreational activities, escapism through gaming apps, social media interactions, live streaming videos, and scripted programming, have all, amalgamated, to be executed from the vicinities of our homes. The B2B eCommerce industry is at a boom with demands from the customers being at an all-time high. Marketers need to capitalize on this new momentum of optimizing digital-experience using the above strategies for content marketing during Coronavirus. Even as the crisis ends, which will hopefully happen for sure, people and customers will get habituated to some of the new things and trends that have blossomed in the forced circumstances. With so much dynamically changing during this time, marketers need to remember that every adversity presents an opportunity to evolve, it’s a gifted opportunity in disguise, to take like never before, to operate from a place of empathy for the customers,  to serve the customers and to grow the customers base and for brands to mitigate risks and take care of themselves and their existing and potential customers. Valasys Media understands that business continuity lies at the heart of building lasting customer relationships and optimizing their experiences. Our hyper-tailored services including lead generation, lead nurturing, account-based marketing, list building services, contact building services, content syndication services, event promotion, appointment setting, business intelligence, and CRM services will help you in strengthening your brand equity in the times of the global pandemic and beyond to eventually help you realize your business bottom-lines.

Leave a Reply