Strong Content Will Be King In The Post Covid-19 World

Many businesses have realised the importance of having an online presence throughout this pandemic. They were left scrambling to figure out solutions and essentially playing catchup. A global crisis like Covid-19 can either paralyse your marketing efforts, or act as a necessary catalyst for change.

First things first, what is content marketing?

Content marketing, just as the name suggests, involves the planning, creation and implementation of content as a part of your marketing strategy. It is non promotional, and develops an ongoing relationship with your customers and prospects. Let us explain the whole ‘non promotional’ thing. Consumers are clever, they know when you’re trying to sell something. Just like how you don’t like those pushy salesmen at your local car dealership, consumers don’t like being ‘spoken at’. They don’t like you waving your products and services in their face. The key is to ensure your content provides value to your audience. Adjust your perspective. Don’t approach it with a ‘how can this content help us - the business’, rather ‘how can this content genuinely help our prospects’. This perspective, coupled with consistency is a winning formula. When you help consumers, without asking for anything in return, trust is created. A brand with trust holds a lot of power.

Okay, now that you know what content marketing is, why do you need it?

Strong content allows you to provide information to your prospects regarding the products and services that you offer. Educating your leads with content helps to build relationships with customers and ultimately, improves conversion rates. Content allows prospects into your brand and creates a sense of community and connection. Your potential customers start to see visually, how you can solve their problems.

By providing all of this valuable content, you will in turn increase your social media following. A greater following means more people are exposed to your products and services. By posting quality content on a consistent basis, you can become somewhat of an authority in your niche. If you can do this, you’re one step closer to brand affinity.  

As an agency that offers digital marketing as well as content, this next benefit we love. Content allows you to build a custom audience to retarget based on behaviour and how a consumer has interacted with your content. Let’s say someone watches 75% or more of a video that you posted on social media, or maybe they clicked onto your website to read a blog. They must be at least a little interested, right? You can then build a list of these people and target them with advertising in the future. 

Content is also extremely versatile. Video, for example, can be used to highlight product benefits, create tutorials, webinars, vlogs, interviews and even allows you to interact with consumers with live videos. Further, content can be interactive through 360 degree video, augmented reality, virtual reality, quizzes and polls. 

Why will content be important post Covid-19? 

First, some businesses have traditionally allocated up to half of their marketing budget on events and trade shows. There may be a sense of trepidation around attending large events like this. A stronger focus on content can still allow you to provide information online, in a visual and interactive manner to prospects, just as you would at a trade show. With the help of some paid digital campaigns, you will reach a much larger audience than would’ve made an appearance at the event or trade show! 

Further, people have been spending more time online and searching for products online due to restrictions on shopping at brick and mortar stores. This has resulted in increased confidence and capability regarding online shopping and therefore, a larger market size for you to capitalise on with your content. Going forward, ensure you are focussed on a long term growth strategy, are providing value and building trust through your content.

Many businesses will need to alter and redefine their current business goals, content and marketing strategies coming out of Covid-19. You may need to enter a reactivate or relaunch phase. If that is the case, you will need to build customer focussed campaigns and content with specific full funnel, end-to-end consumer journey in mind. Consider the buyer persona and how it will change post Covid-19 - needs, attitudes, values and expectations. Carefully evaluate the brand including tone of voice, language and imagery. For example, phrases such as ‘get in touch’ or social media posts of people not following social distancing rules can be easily scrutinised.

The final reason content will be important post Covid-19 is, quite simply, that most brands have upped their digital game throughout the pandemic. They are producing more videos to attract a wider audience. They are posting more infographics to educate prospects, hosting more webinars to build relationships, writing more blogs to increase SEO and creating more animations to generate engagement. Businesses that are not doing these things will simply get lost in the crowd. Please don’t get lost. Utilise your content to stand out - it’s 100% possible for every business. Even you.