The behaviors of your well defined audience are shifting. Your meticulous business objectives are changing.
In this new environment, your pre-pandemic content marketing plan is ineffective.
What ought you to do? As quickly as possible, update your one-page content marketing approach.
A one-page, limited-time content marketing plan will enable you to:
- Create and curate content that successfully responds to the demands of your audience today.
- Make sure that your strategy is in line with the evolving operational goals of your organisation.
- Inform the team members (internal, external, and neighbouring) so they can adopt the new approach more rapidly.
We understand that “short term” might change based on the news of the day, your target market, and your business. As your priorities change over the next several months, you might need to go through this procedure more than once.
Step 1: Determine the organization’s present objectives
Consider your company’s current state and potential future developments.
What has changed? What is similar?
If you’re lucky, the leadership group has effectively conveyed the company’s short-term strategy. Look around if not.
Has anything changed about the goods and services you provide to your clients? What might that look like when individuals continue to isolate themselves for a month or two? What would it look like when individuals, many of whom may have acquired new viewpoints or routines, gradually return to a more regular schedule?
These actions don’t have to be taken separately. Consult one or more influential people. What goals does your company have for the upcoming two weeks, month, or quarter? Engage the sales staff in discussion. Since companies exist to generate income, they could possess some information that hasn’t reached you.
Step 2: Explain how using content marketing may assist the company in achieving those objectives.
It’s time to think of ways content marketing might assist now that you are aware of the company’s present goals.
Even if it means producing the bare minimum of content now because there isn’t as much demand or interest and spending more time planning for the future, content marketing is always important.
At this stage, focus on the company’s objectives rather than the audience’s.
For instance, content marketing may assist the company in becoming known as:
- A professional educator
- A source of alternative concepts and answers to today’s problems
- A thought leader offering perspectives on the post-crisis world of the future
- A resource for essential information that isn’t epidemic
The most beneficial thing that content marketing can accomplish in some circumstances is upkeep. Continue to post and communicate with your readers. Although you could reduce your frequency or change the focus of your topics, you want your audience to know that you’ll be there for them when they need your material.
Remember to keep measurement in mind as you discuss how content marketing might aid in achieving organizational goals.
Step 3: Identify your target market.
Take some time to consider your options before you simply copy and paste your existing audience description here.
It may not be clear yet just how your audience is changing. But it’s changing.
Are everyone’s priorities the same in the audience? In what ways have their surroundings changed? What brand-new difficulties exist? How has their daily schedule altered? How do people now consume content? What kind of stuff are they consuming? Have their preferred methods of communication changed?
Also possible are new audiences. Why are they now curious about your company? Do their profiles contrast with those of your current audience? If yes, proceed with the typical (but condensed for time) audience evaluation procedure.
You probably have a solid sense of how your audience is affected, given the pandemic’s global reach. However, you may also get in touch with some of your audience by voice, video, or email. Ask a few questions on your social media channels.
With all of this information, you can change the description of your target audience.
Step 4: Describe the audience’s interests in relation to the organization’s work and what they want to know, learn, or do.
Standard procedures and ways of thinking are frequently abandoned in times of crisis. Humans naturally want to lend a hand in whatever manner they can. And that’s advantageous. But in your capacity as a content marketer, pause and refocus.
The issue isn’t, “How can we assist?” How can we use our resources and area of expertise to benefit our audience? ”
What information does our audience need or desire from us, to put it even more simply,
That is your motivation for content marketing. Your audience’s requirements or interests are in one circle, while your company’s area of competence is in the other. Your material should address the overlap.
Step 5: Describe how you create content, including the formats and distribution methods you use.
You may likely use your current method for the first phase. If necessary, adjust it to fit your new working environment. Is your procedure for approval the same? Is the anticipated turnaround time consistent?
But the second section, which deals with formats and distribution methods, could or might not be the same. If live events are currently a part of your format mix, they won’t be for some time. Should the content be made into internet movies or turned into virtual events? It’s not the right moment to publish a thorough industry study if your audience is time-constrained right now. However, this can be the ideal moment to release concise pieces.
Are the same methods of communication still being used by your audience? Utilize your current analytics, whether daily or weekly, to examine their communication behaviour and revise your content distribution strategies to take into account their customs.
Step 6: Indicate how often you can commit to delivering this information.
You now have a better knowledge of your audience’s preferences for your content based on the previous phases. But first, make sure you can regularly provide the material before adding it to the schedule.
Consider your internal and external resources for content marketing production, distribution, and promotion. Will budget constraints make it impossible for you to pay the freelancer who produces an article each week? Is a member of the content marketing team being forced to take on additional marketing duties because someone is ill?
Based on each of those considerations, plan your content calendar. Manageability is the key. The optimum moment to anticipate maximum productivity is probably not right now.
Step 7: Describe the actions you want the audience to take and give quantifiable objectives.
Create your goals, and then After reading your information, what do you hope the audience will understand, consider, or do? How would you quantify that? How long do you have to do that?
For instance, you could just want your e-unsubscribe rate to be at 2% or less throughout the course of the next 30 days. Or perhaps you want to see a 20% increase in returning visitors over the next 60 days. But using this method to reach a target that will take six months is not practicable.
The bottom line is to create short-term, attainable goals.