How the pandemic has changed content marketing

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Organisations are rethinking content marketing strategies, and trends have emerged

LinkedIn has been the most popular social channel in the last 12 months

LinkedIn (96%) was the most popular organic social media platform used in the last 12 months, according to new study

The pandemic has shaken up the way organisations reach out to their customers, members and other stakeholders, according to a new report on content marketing. We give an overview of the insightful survey findings here before sharing some good practice for enhancing your content strategy.

For the uninitiated, content marketing, in the words of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), is

“a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action”

Instead of going for the hard sell, you share relevant, useful information, advice and resources that help those groups important to you, your publics, solve their problems. It’s simple and yes, you’re probably doing some of this already.

It has flourished as a discipline from the growth this past decade in the use of digital platforms. It’s based on the simple premise, to paraphrase a certain global networking organisation, that you gain from giving first. The tone is that you’re not all about the profit margin; you care enough that you’re willing to share your knowledge and insights gratis. The underlying truth, of course, is that content marketing is very much a commercially driven enterprise.

When you’re involved in content marketing, especially when the pressure’s on to realise return on investment, it can feel like a luxury. It’s not as deliberate and immediate as advertising and sales, but it is building brand awareness and connecting you with your target audiences. It’s more the long game than quick wins. And when the content that you’re marketing is of the opt-in downloadable variety, for example, it’s the gathering of all-important data.

Examples of content marketing are videos, blogs, white papers, inforgraphics, e-books, podcasts and webinars. You’re probably nodding and thinking yep, we do some of that. But do you strategise it? How much thought are you giving to the planning and scheduling? To the format of content and the channels you’re pushing it through? How does it support an overall marketing strategy? How are you measuring the success of the content? How is it delivering results for your inbound marketing strategy? People who call themselves content marketers make a career of answering these questions.

And, reflecting pretty much everything right now, content marketing has seen significant changes since March 2020. The pandemic has completely altered and, frankly, revamped the overall content marketing strategies of many organisations. So we'll take a brief look at key findings from research published recently by US-based CMI, before sharing some practical tips on how you and your organisation can become first-rate content marketers. Taken from the report, 11th Annual B2B Marketing – Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, the table below shows just how organisations have flexed to respond to the crisis.

Why has this happened? First, with restrictions in place the onus has now very much shifted to communicating and engaging with customers, stakeholders or target audiences through digital channels. Second, in a crisis there is of course a heightened demand for information - people want to know how their relationship with you is affected, and they may be turning to you for support and guidance. And third, and related to the reasons above, engagement is critically important in times of uncertainty. Your business has an opportunity to show it cares and we're in this together. In sum, we're talking changed business priorities, capabilities, budget forecasts and consumer behaviours.

The annual CMI report was produced from interviews with B2B marketers in North America in July 2020, but they're considered indicative of trends globally - certainly Branagh PR is working with organisations now that have adapted their content marketing in response to the crisis. Participants were questioned on decisions made during the preceding 12 months overall as well as in response to Covid-19, but across the board the outbreak influenced the yearly results. The report includes a host of findings and is worth checking out, but here are a few top lines that might chime with what you're doing now, or make you think differently.

Of all the content types they use, B2B marketers said blog posts/short articles and virtual events/webinars/online courses (both tied at 22%) produced the best overall content marketing results for their organisation in the last 12 months

LinkedIn (96%) was the most popular organic social media platform used in the last 12 months, outstripping Twitter (82%), Facebook (82%), YouTube (62%) and Instagram (49%)

The most popular paid-for content distribution channels were social media advertising/sponsored posts (83%), search engine marketing/pay-per-click (65%), sponsorships, e.g. events and workshops (60%) and banner ads promoting your content (48%)

The most popular metrics to measure content performance were website traffic, e.g. page views, back links (90%), email engagement, e.g. open rates and click-throughs (86%), website engagement, e.g. time spent, bounce rate (84%) and, importantly, conversions, e.g. traffic to subscribers and leads to sales (80%)

When interviewed in July, 50% of respondents thought the pandemic would have a moderate long-term impact on their organisation’s content marketing success, said CMI. Only 15% felt it would be major. A mid-term questionnaire might produce slightly different results as we head for second waves of the coronavirus.

Asked to select the top five content marketing-related areas they thought their organisation would invest in during 2021, content creation (70%) and website enhancements (66%) topped the list.

So we're getting a picture here of the strategies and tactics of content marketers in a period in which a global pandemic has undoubtedly skewed results and, perhaps, what the foreseeable future looks like for marketing teams. What are the steps your organisations can take to improve your content marketing and generate those leads for conversion? Here are a nice, round seven

Create simple, practical processes for managing your content, including a content calendar and, to shape it, a content steering group with clear terms of reference, involving representatives from across your business
Understand your organisation's priorities and objectives, which may be very different to those at the beginning of 2020
Get a handle on the issues facing your customers and other stakeholders now - and what your solutions are for each segment (your senior leadership team will have accounted for these in the realignment of objectives and priorities)
With the content group, devise a content strategy, as part of your marketing strategy, that's informed by your organisational priorities and objectives, consumer behaviours and what resources are available. This is essentially your approach to addressing the issues of your customers etc through the sharing of valuable content
As part of the strategy, introduce or update your channel plan - as the findings above show, some means for sharing content may work better for you than others
Make sure it's two way - your content sharing will encourage engagement, and you should be ready to manage the responses efficiently
Put in place a system for measurement and evaluation and reporting, so you can regularly feed back the results of your content marketing into the content group. Content marketing should be a virtuous circle of continuous improvement

Content marketing can be an incredibly important way to maintain and build new relationships and achieve business objectives during the crisis, and those organisations that adopt a strategic approach will have the edge.

To find out how Branagh PR can work with you on your content marketing strategy, visit www.branaghpr.com

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