2020 has been a year like no other. At the end of 2019, we were all hoping for 2020 to be a year of ‘plenty’. It has indeed been a year of plenty things (not what we were hoping for!), so we need to use the events that have happened and use this narrative to paint ourselves and businesses in the best possible light.
Here are some of the events that have shaped our content marketing this year.
Social distancing
The practice of social distancing has become part of our everyday vocabulary just as the ‘new normal’ has. This necessity has required us to become more creative with our content marketing so that we can deliver the message that we feel has the most impact.
The hardest-hit industry, in my opinion, from a content marketing perspective, has to be the PR industry – specifically the PR eventing industry. A mainstay of their business was able to reinforce their clients’ message – which they would introduce via press release – is through an event and then inviting social media influencers to said event to make the message live longer on social media.
However, clever PR companies have gotten around this by engaging directly with brand ambassadors – and when I say ‘brand ambassador’ I don’t mean a Hollywood celebrity or a sports star – but rather the people who you know and follow on social media – and getting them to engage with the products so that they can tell their followers about the experience with your product.
Masks
Together with the necessity of social distancing has come the requirement to wear masks, with some countries – such as South Africa – even making it compulsory for people to wear masks. While there has been no law passed about the type of masks which need to be worn, and governments saying that a ‘homemade item’ covering ‘nose and mouth’ will suffice, some companies as going so far as to brand their employees’ masks with their corporate IDs.
The result of this two-fold:
- As people are forced to engage with their masks several times per day and see others wearing masks, the branding that is on their masks is always top of mind – as well as for those people who see it. This is the same psychology that underpins companies putting their logos on items – such as notepads, pens and pencils – that people use every day.
- More importantly, because a company’s logo is on a mask – and the employees of the said organisation are wearing the mask – the obvious jump that viewers will make is that the company is so concerned about the health and welfare of their employees that they have gone to the trouble of providing them with masks as opposed to leaving the employees to their own devices.
This is a powerful message and will go a long way in generating social capital.
Social media
One thing which has come out during the Covid-19 pandemic is negativity with people spraying their various social media platforms with doom and gloom – and so encouraging others to share in the same negative sentiments. Unfortunately, we are hard-wired to respond more quickly (and readily) to negativity as opposed to positivity. VeryWellMind calls this negativity bias.
To make your brand stand out, content marketing-wise, you need to adopt a positive spin on all the messaging that you put out. If you do this, you’ll inject the people who read your messaging with a sense of positivity and, as a result, lift up their spirits. They will associate you with making them feel good about themselves and because they feel positive when reading what you have to say, they’ll actively seek out other pieces that you’ve written. In this way, you’ll develop your passive brand spectators into loyal and engaged followers.
Tips on how to make your language positive:
Keeping a positive tone to your content marketing doesn’t mean a total overhaul to your brand style guide. All it needs is a couple of tweaks here and there. For example:
- Instead of saying: “I don’t like red balloons” say “I prefer other-coloured balloons.”
- As opposed to saying: “The people were dirt poor” say “The people were rich in aspects other than money.”
- Rather than saying “I hate what Peter did”, say “I don’t agree with what Peter did”.
The coronavirus is something that will be a significant part of our lives until a vaccine is found. However, there are ways that you can use the narrative of this disease and make it benefit your business. If the new socially distanced norms have made conducting a part of your business impossible, see how you can use the skillsets that are already at your disposal and use them to pivot your service offering. Business is cyclical – Covid-19, or no Covid-19 – so you have to devise ways to keep yourself relevant.