In our recent Croud Academy Live session – Pivoting your content strategy – we discussed how to effectively shift your content strategy to adapt to the changing times. Here’s a wrap-up of the key points.
Importance of flexibility
The importance of having a solid content strategy in place is undeniably vital to the success of your overall digital marketing efforts. However, it is important to consider the areas of our content strategy that we can control versus those we cannot.
As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it’s important for digital marketers to be able to adapt to uncontrollable, ever-changing situations. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to a successful content strategy, brands with a clear grasp on their aesthetic and tone of voice will be able to adapt well amid periods of change. Thus, it’s important for companies to stay true to the core foundations of their brand so that unexpected situations are never too daunting to overcome.
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen some amazing success stories of distillery brands creating hand sanitisers, fashion brands creating masks, along with other companies who have effectively transitioned their strategy.
Be ready to form new relationships
According to Nielsen, media consumption is up by 60% and people are spending up to 12 hours a day across various content channels – this means that brands need to reevaluate how their audience has been affected and, ultimately, who their ‘new’ audience is. With this increase in media consumption, it is now important for digital marketers to consider three key points:
- What are your customers’ goals and values, and how can you tend to them?
- Are your customers engaging with COVID-19 content, or are they ready for business as usual?
- After assessing your “new” audience, how can you tweak your content strategy to meet their needs?
Helping vs selling
During these uncertain times, it’s important for brands to be sensitive with their messaging and step away from focusing too much on driving conversions. While some brands, like travel and hospitality companies, may not be able to promote their standard offerings, brands can still reposition themselves by offering other content that meets their audiences’ needs, and thereby, build brand equity. Focusing on finding short-term solutions for your customers can help grow brand loyalty in the long-term.
Red flags
How do you know it’s time to pivot your content strategy? Below are some red flags indicating it’s time to make the change:
Your traffic isn’t growing
To achieve your business goals, growing traffic is one of the realities of building a qualified audience. While not every one of your unique visitors will become a future customer, growing your volume of visitors will increase the chances of conversion. If your traffic isn’t growing, it could mean that your content isn’t reaching new people, or people who have seen your content already aren’t coming back for more – or it could even be a combination of both. This could be a good indicator that it’s time to rethink your content strategy.
Your traffic isn’t coming from search
It’s essential to understand where your traffic to your website is coming from, whether it be through direct traffic, referring sites, or most importantly, search engines like Google. About 67% of all clicks are received by the top five Google search results, so marketers need to be strategic, creative, and even a bit lucky, to earn that prime real estate and ensure visibility to consumers. To do this, marketers should write with intent while still playing by Google’s rules, rather than just keyword-loading to enhance SEO.
Your content isn’t getting shared
With so much competition to stand out in the digital space, it’s essential to create content that encourages viewers to share it across social. Marketers should reassess what type of content is currently being shared, and if necessary, reframe their content strategy by producing more engaging content – this will generate more traffic and shares, which will ultimately lead to more conversions.
You’re not getting contacted
Effective content sparks conversations, which in turn can create positive conversions. Brands can still drive engagement within small audiences by offering content that gives value to its viewers.
Your content isn’t converting
Mindlessly creating content just as filler within your digital marketing strategy is never a good idea. Brands need to ensure that there is effective content within each stage of the marketing funnel so that they are meeting all of their audiences’ needs. The content should attract people, start conversations and develop brand loyalty, which could lead to increased conversions.
Times are changing
With changing times, users behave and search differently, making it crucial to have a content plan that adapts alongside them. Digital marketers should adopt some of the new insights they gain from reassessing current situations to deliver new messages that are sensitive to these ever-changing times. 2020 has been a rather unique time that has opened up opportunities for brands to pivot their content strategy and truly connect with their customers.
Pre-pivot checklist
Before you shift your content strategy, make sure that the problems you’re facing are actually stemming from your content, as opposed to other technical issues. Ask yourself:
- Is my content long enough and still providing enough value to users?
- Am I regularly posting relevant content?
- Am I paying enough attention to both offsite and onsite SEO?
- How is the quality of the content?
Once you know that you have all of these areas covered, then it’s time to begin rethinking your content strategy.
How to pivot
To refocus your content strategy, it’s important to first reflect on past content you’ve created that proved to be effective. Analyse the whys and hows of the performance of these types of content to try to integrate these elements into your new strategy.
Marketers could also look for opportunities to find a new angle on the same type of content they’ve been producing. They should consider how they can convey their brand message in a new, unique way to tend to their customers’ changing needs. It may be helpful to even look at competitor brands to assess how you can repurpose existing content.
Experimenting with different formats to deliver a message could also be an effective way to present new content to your audience. Consider who is consuming your content and plan your range of formats accordingly.
It’s important to always adapt to the changing times and reflect on how you can provide your audience with a valuable customer journey.
Key takeaways
- Stay agile and flexible – be ready for change.
- If you can see that your content strategy isn’t working, it’s time to rethink your plan.
- There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so consider your brand’s voice and message when pivoting your content strategy.
You can watch the full webinar here.
If you would like to speak to our Content team about your next campaign, or to learn more about Croud, get in touch.
