Before I jump into revisiting your content strategy, let’s get personal for a moment. Are you hanging in there during this pandemic? I hope so. It’s going to be a long ride until we’re on the other side of this coronavirus hot mess. Please practice gentle self-care and common-sense safety, which includes lots of hand-washing and mask-wearing.
In my last post, I talked about how you should still be marketing, even during the pandemic. The key takeaway? Don’t stay silent. Continue to market but adjust your messaging.
But the thing is, you can’t just forge ahead with your old content marketing strategy. What worked in January won’t work in a COVID-19 world, at least not without some major tweaks. It’s time to take a fresh look at your content strategy, starting with your audience and goals.
Did your audience needs change?
While your audience might not have changed, their needs might have in light of the pandemic. Your audience might now be dealing with new worries, different objections, and fresh pain points. Many people have lost their jobs and are struggling financially. Most people are worried about the continuing health threat of COVID-19. And we’re still ping-ponging between sheltering at home and social distancing as communities reopen.
All of this could alter your audience’s entire motivation for buying, which is why you need to revisit your content strategy. How can your product or service help your audience’s new reality right now?
Is your audience consuming content differently?
Chances are, your audience is probably consuming content in different ways. With so much at-home time these days, people are spending a lot more time on screens. They’re connecting on social, meeting over Zoom, sifting through emails, and watching YouTube videos. They might not only be spending more time on screens, but they might also be trying out new (or new-to-them) platforms. I’m looking at you TikTok!
In light of this, you might need to shift where you connect and communicate with your audience. Guess what this means? Reassessing your content marketing strategy to adapt and reflect these changes.
Are your goals still relevant?
Next, it’s time to revisit your content marketing goals. Are they still relevant? If not, do they need a complete overhaul or just some minor adjustments? You need to pinpoint what you want your content to accomplish during this challenging unprecedented difficult (insert-your-favorite-overused-phrase) time.
With the world struggling in so many ways, you might want to focus more on building trust and boosting customer loyalty instead of generating direct sales. Maybe you’re aiming to accomplish several goals. That’s okay, as long as you’ve got a specific strategy for each goal. But be careful you don’t stretch your efforts too thin right now, especially if you’ve got limited resources. Speaking of that…
Do you have limited resources now?
If you’re like many companies, you might be dealing with fewer resources these days. Maybe you had to lay off some of your staff. Maybe your profits are down because customers are spending less. Right now, you might be trying to do more with less.
That’s why it’s so important to look at your content marketing strategy in light of the pandemic. Moving ahead with a strategy you developed six or eight months ago could be a huge waste of time, money, and resources. It could also alienate your audience and destroy trust if your content marketing appears tone-deaf to our current reality.
Take a fresh look at your content strategy.
Breathe in, pause, breathe out. Take time to pause your content marketing—just long enough to assess its relevance right now in terms of your audience and goals. Then, adjust your current strategy or create a new one.
One final note worth mentioning—be flexible. The pandemic continues to throw curve balls at us and will probably do so until a vaccine is found. Keep revisiting your strategy every few weeks (at the very least, once a month) and tweak as necessary.
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