Keep calm and carry on with Q1 content marketing plans
We’ve been here before. Rapidly rising COVID case counts, school closures, shutdowns, fear, and anxiety. The start of 2022 has many of us in Canada feeling more like we are watching a rerun of a bad TV show rather than celebrating and kicking off our new business and marketing plans.
There is a silver lining though. It is the fact that we have been here before. This is not March 2020 and we are not staring down the barrel of an unknown disease; we are two, seasoned years past that point. The Omicron variant may be spreading quickly and disrupting all of our lives, but we know what we need to do to help ourselves and help our businesses: Keep calm, and carry on.
Now is not the time to panic and abandon marketing strategies. Despite what Omicron may be doing to our lives, or whatever new variant may shake up our future, it is important to make the pivots you need to stay the course. Slashing budgets and abandoning Q1 plans will only lead to missed expectations down the road.
Instead, now is the time to take a fresh look at your goals, double down on your content marketing, take events back online (if hopeful in-person plans were made), and ask for exactly what you need.
Double down on content marketing
Don’t be afraid to flood the market with your content. Your audience has gone back to meeting you almost fully online all the time, so you need to be visible. Write and publish additional blogs, push out a bonus newsletter, and give your social channels a little extra content love and attention. While you don’t want to overwhelm your audience, a little more content than usual won’t hurt. Instead, it will help keep your brand top of mind.
Find your content tilt
The term content tilt, popularized by Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, refers to the sweet spot of a topic related to your product or service that has minimal or no competition. It is your best chance of standing out in the content crowd. Dig deep to find a fresh spin for your content and push it out there to engage your audience to stick around.
Ask for what you need
This tip is just for non-profits and it is the same advice we have been giving for two years: don’t be afraid to ask for exactly what you need in your call to action. Yes, a lot of people are once again facing financial uncertainty at the moment, but that doesn’t mean everyone is. Share how these once again challenging times are impacting your organization and ask for what you need most. You’ll be surprised how many donors will step up just because you asked.
Take events (back) online
While our final tip isn’t specifically about content marketing, you can use these actions to shout your efforts from the (content marketing) rooftops. We had all hoped that 2022 would be the year we could bring back in-person events. While all hope is not yet lost, that dreaded ‘pivot’ word is currently glaring at us in neon lights. We all now know how to fundraise and market our businesses online. As a non-profit, be creative and ask your community to be creative too — virtual walks, Zoom pie-baking a-thons, and more have worked before and will work again. As a small business, find a few good virtual trade shows, conferences, or workshops to attend. While you may have been hoping for business cards and handshakes, getting some online visibility is better than getting no visibility.