The importance of consistent content marketing before, during, and after a crisis
I was in a Slack community for content marketers last week where everyone was commiserating over their 2020 marketing plans and lead generation opportunities that centered around conferences, in-person events, and casual happy hours. Like most people right now, they were feeling like they were starting from scratch.
Because this group focused on content and delivering interesting and helpful information through written and spoken words, there was also optimism. A feeling that we were going back to what we know.
Content marketing is a long-term strategy. The blog posts, articles, whitepapers, and webinars you do build on each other to help your audience find you, understand what you do, and know how you can help them solve their problems. Like with planting trees, the best time to create a consistent content marketing strategy was five years ago. The next best time is right now.
Why a consistent content marketing strategy is vital now
There is a lot of uncertainty. While it's important to stick with what you know, you probably have answers or advice to help with some of the issues your audience is facing. At Influence & Co., they already had a flexible working policy that allowed their employees to work from home periodically, and several members who were fully remote. So when the largest work-from-home experiment began, their head of HR was able to share their policies so other people could use what took them seven years to fine-tune. Their employees in Colorado and Washington (they are Missouri-based) were also able to provide tips on working from home and helping keep the culture alive when everyone was interacting through screens.
Just because you aren't in healthcare right now doesn't mean you don't have important information to share that can answer questions for your customers and audience. Listen to their concerns on calls and on social media and identify ways that you can be helpful. Just be sure you aren't virtue signaling (look at all the great things I'm doing to help, you should be, too) or providing unhelpful information (how to network at conferences).
People want something familiar: With so much change and all previous routines being thrown out the window, knowing The Skimm will be delivered in my inbox every morning with a quick review of the previous day's news is a welcome sight. It's a little bit of normalcy as my office has been replaced with an old desk in my extra room and my co-workers have been replaced with a needy cat and an 18-year-old choir kid who belts out show tunes.
Consistency provides something familiar, which can be hard to find right now. Your weekly newsletter or your #TBT Instagram posts can provide a touchstone for your audience, while also providing information they can use.
Your audience can tell you what they need from you. All companies are taking a hard look at their business model right now, but some more than others. Having regular interactions with your audience, checking in frequently with your customers and potential customers, can help you understand what problems you can solve for them right now. Those problems might be different from the problems you were solving just two weeks ago.
In a recent episode of Brian Clark's 7-Figure Small podcast, his guest Spencer Sheinin talks about a client of his in the travel and event industry. With his primary income source -- hosting events -- at a standstill, they realized what his audience wanted from him right now was his network, including information from the experts he knew and the insider tips from the people he worked with. Spencer's client could facilitate that in a way he'd never even thought of before.
How to create a content strategy that will help you build relationships now and long after this crisis is over
Know your audience: If you haven't created personas for your business or haven't looked at them since you launched, now is the time. Even after social distancing is just a meme and not a way of life, this crisis (and every major crisis) will leave a mark on your audience. Use this time to see how your ideal client has changed and how what they need from you has shifted.
Focus on being helpful: Even before the pandemic, no one really wanted to be sold to. Good salespeople know that you have to speak to the person's needs and understand what would help them solve a problem they have. Right now, that problem could be as simple as needing to have an interaction with another human being or as complicated as coming up with an entirely new income stream. Your message must focus on what you can do to be helpful.
Create a community: The best way to build relationships is to help people feel like they are part of something bigger. That can be within your company or it can be a community you create. Help your clients and prospects see that they matter, that their problems matter, and provide introductions to other products or people who can help them. Highlight a client in a regular newsletter or create a referral network among your clients. Or create a Slack channel or a Twitter chat around a topic to help people feel more connected.
Be omnichannel: Even without face-to-face communication as an option right now, there are myriad ways people communicate and want to get information. Some prefer scrolling through a feed to pick up on quick topics and some prefer reading more long-form articles. And the opportunity to see someone's face through video is always a great way to build trust. As you think about distributing your content and reaching your audience, try to use several different channels so your audience can connect with you on the platform they feel most comfortable with.
There is no doubt that the world is weird right now. Everyone is unsure about where we’ll be one month, one week, or even one day from now. But this is also a great time to show your clients, prospective clients, and people you work with regularly that you care about them and want to help them succeed now and in the future. Whatever that might look like.