Content Marketing During COVID -19. How to Market Your Business Online
Hands up if you’re sick of hearing the phrase ‘uncertain/unprecedented times’? Yeah… us too!
Our hatred of buzz phrases aside though, you can’t deny that we are indeed stumbling through an era of unpredictability right now! No one has been here before, there’s no precedent to follow, no definitive end in sight, and so many questions that remain impossible to answer.
So quite understandably, many business owners are struggling to know what to do. Here’s a list of our top tips for handling your content marketing efforts during the pandemic….
Keep Marketing!
In short, don’t do nothing! It can be tempting in times of uncertainty to do as little as possible, to just ride it out and hope for the best.
Spoiler alert: this is rarely a winning strategy!
It’s something we’re fairly used to seeing… a business hits a rough patch and the first thing to get cut is the marketing budget. Which makes no sense when you think about it. If your issue is a drop in sales or footfall, then the last thing you should be thinking about is reducing your efforts to stimulate more interest in your products and services.
Don’t get us wrong, eliminating unnecessary costs is a good move right now. But maintaining an online presence, holding onto your market share, keeping your business relevant, and sustaining/growing your audience has never been more important. So even a short term cut in your marketing budget is likely to have a detrimental long term effect.
Be Visible
Staying engaged with your customers and followers during this time is paramount. As people sit in lockdown and isolation, internet usage is skyrocketing all over the world. So use this as an opportunity to keep yourself in their viewfinder. You need to let them know that you are still here and that they still matter to you:
Social Media
Social media channels are a great way to tell stories and keep your followers up to date and interacting at the same time. Be careful with your content though, and avoid any images or language that portray group gatherings or close proximity. Reveal details about the innovations you are making, and what you are doing to help your customers, staff, or local community. Share good news stories, jokes, articles, fun memes, memory flashbacks, and snippets of what you are planning for when the economy starts bouncing back, etc. Be creative and give your posts value. Don’t just tick the box on posting something for posting’s sake, or stick to the same kind of post every time. The key is still to engage, not just to keep your channels active.
Email Marketing
Return business coupled with word of mouth referrals from previous consumers can account for a significant percentage of income, especially for small businesses. Keep your existing customers up to date on how your business is faring during the pandemic and what plans for products and services you are working on for them, either now or in the future. You could even send out promotions, returning customer discount offers, or vouchers/gift cards for them to use on their next purchase with you.
Website
Take the time to get your website up to date and in line with the latest trends and algorithms. If you are already doing content SEO, don’t stop. With more and more time being spent online during the pandemic, your efforts will be rewarded.
Not working on content SEO yet? There’s never been a better time to start. With most web copy updates, you don’t start seeing results for at least a few weeks, possibly months. So if you get started now, this should fit in nicely with an upturn in the economy and consumers returning to the marketplace.
Publish Altruistic Content
Never capitalize on a crisis, or add to people’s panic by being alarmist. Remember that there are many for whom this is a very worrying and fearful time, especially those who are not working or are separated from their family and friends. People need an extra touch of humanity at the moment, so be careful not to cross the line from positivity and stray into arrogance, bragging or ignorance. Even if you have managed to do well during the COVID-19 crisis, no one is in a mood to hear how you are the biggest or the best right now.
Focus on what your company is doing to help. Are you providing any educational services to keep people busy in lockdown? Hosting interactive chats, meetings, or events to bring people together? Are you giving any services, products – or even your time - away to help others?
Have a Plan
Preparation is key. Ideally, this means updating your existing marketing plan. A proper marketing plan is a living document that can be updated and adjusted at any time, to suit any development and economic climate. Think about strategies to help you recover from the current downturn as quickly and efficiently as possible. Have your posts, press releases, and emails planned, prepped, and ready to go for when the time is right.
Be creative and proactive in your approach, and make sure your staff knows about it. The very fact that you have a plan will help you work towards your goals together more effectively, and it also adds an element of control and progress that will bring your employees some reassurance that better times are on the horizon. Bear in mind it’s not all about surging forward, however. You may need to push back on certain campaigns or product launches until a more suitable time if the planned content is not relevant or appropriate at the moment.
Don’t have a marketing plan for your business yet? Then get onto making one, pronto!
Look for Opportunities
Adversity encourages creativity. When a business is running smoothly, many of the more development-orientated tasks get pushed to the bottom of your ‘to-do' list, as there’s not too much pressure to look outside the box at different approaches or opportunities to diversify and grow. However, in the current climate, most businesses are really having to get creative to keep their rent paid, doors open and salaries covered. Granted, the forces that necessitate this are undesirable, but nevertheless, many companies are currently producing some great ideas and concepts. Ideas and concepts that will ultimately prove helpful not just during the COVID-19 pandemic, but afterwards too. Remember your plans don’t have to be complex or unique. It could just be a small tweak, expansion, or adjustment to your current products and services. Something you could have been doing all along anyway, you just didn’t bother before because things were going well enough already that there was no perceived need to.
Constant Vigilance!
Remember to keep an eye on regional, national, and international developments so you can be on the ball and proactive with rolling out your plans when the time is right. Getting back into the active marketplace with the right communications ahead of your competitors will significantly impact how quickly normality will resume for your company.
Need further advice when it comes to content marketing during COVID-19? Then, by all means, drop us a line.