What if this is it?

What if this is as good as it gets? A lifetime wearing face masks – or rushing back home to find the one you forgot, just so you can buy a loaf of bread. A life wearing baggy pants with a few cooking stains for your most important client meeting because your lockdown tum-down is mercifully hidden by a Zoom screen. 

And what if we are faced with a lifetime of Vera repeats and no new middle of the road middle-class BBC dramas to help us escape the humdrum of our lives for an hour every Monday at 9pm? And god forbid what if temporary lockdown home schooling just becomes schooling?

What if I never get to see Take That in concert again apart from a live stream into my living room brought to me by a meerkat?  

Every crowd-based event that we once took for granted will look and feel so very different. Theatre, comedy, musicals, gigs, opera, D-list celeb pantomimes, the races, awards ceremonies, corporate networking or sales events and big brand launches may never be the same again. No crowd surfing, no back slapping, no more big, bright, brash hats,  no more he’s behind yous, no sales spin and swopping of business cards, no heckling, no Rule Britannia and no branded freebie bags full of stress balls and plastic pens or the obligatory after event drinks with new-found best friends.

Instead we will sit on our comfy sofas in our comfy pants and log on and tune in – trying to get involved and get in the mood. Trying our best to look engaged and immersed.

So how does it feel to attend a virtual event? Flat or fabulous? Who loves or loathes them? As a planner how to you make it a success and as a business or brand how do you make them lucrative?

Planning a virtual event a few years ago would have sounded so futuristic and so out there. But in our era of Tik-Toking teenagers and crypto coin dealing through to online zoo and museum visits, it doesn’t sound out there at all anymore.

Tech and social media have allowed the smallest of gigs to the biggest of conferences to cut costs and carbon footprints and open up the invitation to a boundary-less, limitless worldwide community. Lady Gaga’s star-studded ‘One World: Together at Home’ virtual concert was livestreamed to millions of people in their homes across the world. Easy for celebrities with trillions of Twitter and Instagram followers. But how do businesses get people to log on, live stream and live tweet without strings of number ones, award nominations and record labels backing them?

Not so easy. But here are 5 tips to get you going.

Tip 1 – It’s all in the preparation

Your plan of attack should be to first answer these 10 questions to form your event concept and strategy.

1. What kind of experience do you hope to deliver?
2. Will the event be live, on-demand, or both?
3. Where do I want the content to be seen?
4. Will access be gated or free?
5. When is the best time for the event?
6. Will you require event registration?
7. How will you promote the event?
8. Do you plan to work with an advertiser or other partner?
9. Will people still have access to the event once it’s over?
10. What KPIs and data do you plan to track?

Tip 2 – Timing is of the essence

Getting the date and time right is essential, so do your research. Before you commit or send out invites to save the date to your network, make sure there are no events or holidays that would compete with yours. Check analytics to see when your community is typically online or consider posting a poll for preferred dates.

Don’t forget time zones if you are going global – pick a time that works for as many of your customers and followers as possible. It’s useful to ensure content is accessible after the live presentations for those who couldn’t make it.

Tip 3 – Shout if from the rooftops and laptops

Be focused on the key selling points of your event and shout it loud in all your marketing and social media. This could anything from a gift incentive, a noteworthy speaker or an opportunity to network to discounted pricing, live demos or a sneak preview of an exclusive new product or service.

Registrations tend to peak 2-3 weeks before an event so maybe ramp up marketing activity around this time, with LinkedIn’s InMail ads which may be a better way to extend invitations than impersonal sponsored posts.

Take advantage of the social media tools available such as creating an event countdown in Instagram Stories or list your event on sites like Eventbrite or wherever your audience will be surfing and searching.

Speakers can become influencers and brand ambassadors, so provide them with the details they need to share and shout about your event with their army of followers.

No virtual event should be without a link to a registration form or your Instagram or LinkedIn profile and don’t forget to share an event hashtag to drive conversations online.

Tip 4 – Hitches and glitches

It may seem obvious but rehearse and test. Test your Internet connection, rehearse again and refine and get speakers do the same. Prepare backups of visuals, demos and presentations in case tech lets you down.

Be mindful that some guests may not be tech savvy so anticipate the troubles people may encounter by preparing easy to follow guides or FAQs that are easy to access.

Tip 5 – Get engaged

Create opportunities for engagement by getting people involved. Just because it’s not face to face doesn’t mean it can’t be personal.

Encourage questions and comments through a chat tool, ask people to participate in polls or quizzes, encourage live tweeting, take requests and invite suggestions. And at the end of the event, ask for feedback.

Failing all that, ask Beyoncé to sponsor your event.

Businesses around the world have been hit hard by COVID-19.

For many, the last few months have been some of the most testing on record, but as the UK enters the next stage of the pandemic, the focus now turns to getting back on track – and that means injecting life back into the sales pipeline.

So how can social media help?

Social media should have already been an essential part of your marketing strategy, but with business being conducted almost entirely online for a large chunk of 2020, now is the time to take full advantage of the shift to digital and use it to translate leads into sales.

Here, we share seven key tips to using social media to drive sales in the wake of the pandemic.

1. Choose the platform that’s best for your business

Research by GlobalWebIndex found 71 per cent of company decision-makers say social media is influential when researching a new product or service for their business, while more than a third use it to discover new products and services.

It’s easy to create a company account on most social media platforms. But do you really need a presence on all of them?

If your target audience tends to be men aged 40-plus, Pinterest might not be worth your time. Similarly, Snapchat might seem like a good idea but will you be regularly creating ad-hoc video content to share with users?

Analyse your current customers – their age, gender and location – and think of the channels where they are most likely to be found. Scrutinise how your competitors do social too – what platforms do they use? Do they get many engagements or is it a wasted effort? What type of posts are most successful on each channel?

For B2B companies, LinkedIn tends to be the key platform, as well as Twitter and YouTube. But that doesn’t mean you should rule out Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. There needs to be a balance between being visible and not spreading yourself too thin.

2. Provide engaging content

While you want your social media strategy to generate sales, being too overtly promotional will have the opposite effect.

No one wants to follow a company that constantly puts out sales messages – it can be regarded as irritating, boring and rarely offers any real value to consumers. It can also risk driving customers and prospects into the arms of competitors.

What’s more, it can impact the reach of your posts. If no one is engaging with your posts due to them being too salesy, social media algorithms – the way posts are sorted on a user’s timeline based on relevancy – simply won’t prioritise your content in a user’s feed. Fundamentally, the more engagement your posts get, the more likely they are to be seen.

So how do you get your content in front of potential leads?

Brands should look to follow the 80:20 rule – 80 per cent original content (such as advice features, infographics and videos) and relevant third-party content (such as news stories and blogs), and 20 per cent promotional content.

By creating your own advice-led content, it also helps position your company as an expert in its field, offering customers and prospects insightful information on the subjects they are interested in.

If you want to use your content for lead generation, consider making a proportion of it gated. That is, ask prospects to provide valuable data, such as their name, email address and company in exchange for viewing marketing assets, such as whitepapers.

3. Show your personality

Many B2B companies fall into the trap of just posting ‘business-only’ content on their social channels, but ultimately everyone is human and ‘personal’ content will invariably achieve higher engagement rates.

People want to know who they are dealing with, so involve staff in your social media postings. Share mini ‘meet the team’ videos or a Q&A with your MD to demonstrate to prospects that you aren’t a faceless brand with no personality, but rather a knowledgeable group of individuals that they can trust.

Shout about your award wins, new appointments and contract wins – but at the same time, share images that reveal your company’s culture such as your office pet or your participation in charitable events.

Let your followers get to know you.

4. Share customer stories and testimonials

As an unbiased, trustworthy voice, customer case studies and testimonials can be a powerful weapon in the battle to convert leads to sales.

Third-party endorsement helps to prove the value and success of your company’s products and services, strengthening the reputation of your brand.

Share posts linking to your website case studies page, post customer quotes with attractive visuals and retweet or share positive feedback received via your social platforms.

Short video testimonials can also act as a social media magnet. A real person associating their name and brand with your company helps to build brand trust and authenticity, as well as providing your sales team with content to share when pitching to a potential customer.

5. Employee advocacy

Employees are your company’s greatest advocates. By encouraging staff to promote company news and content, you are not only expanding your brand reach, but also helping build trust among your target audience. Indeed, research has revealed consumers are more likely to trust posts from individuals rather than from organisations.

A sales team that is active on social media can also have a direct bottom line impact. Research has found 73 per cent of sales professionals that use social media as part of their sales process outperform their peers, with 23 per cent more likely to exceed their quota. Moreover, the top-performing sales reps who close 51 per cent more deals than their peers say social media platforms are ‘very important’ to their success.

An investment in LinkedIn Sales Navigator is also worth considering, enabling your sales team to reach out to prospects outside of their LinkedIn network and opening the door to opportunities based on previous search history, profile views and saved leads. Sales Navigator can also integrate with your CRM to help better manage your sales pipeline.

6. Run paid ads

More than 27 million people use LinkedIn across the UK – that’s more than 27 million business professionals you could be engaging with every day.

Not every one of those users will be interested in your products and services, but the network can empower you to reach out to a highly relevant audience. Its advertising solution offers refined targeting, reaching professionals by job title, company industry, company size, user age, job function and more. 

When compared to Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn advertising is more expensive, but it typically delivers the best results for B2B companies.

7. Monitor social interactions and engage

Social listening is a frequently underused tool in generating sales from social media.

There are times when social media users will voice their need for a particular product or service, asking their followers or connections for recommendations. This calls for a swift response.

Some might not be asking for product advice, instead posting about a topic relevant to your business. It is still important to engage and get involved in these conversations.

Social media management tools, such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social, can simplify this process. Just set up the relevant keywords and hashtags and reply to those that are most appropriate.

With the majority of us still working from home, the digital world has become the go-to means of interacting and communicating with clients and prospects, almost overnight.

And now, as we emerge from the crisis, we can expect many of the changes to customer behaviour to remain in the collective psyche, at least for the foreseeable. None of us are likely to be attending industry tradeshows, real world events or regular face-to-face meetings any time soon.

Indeed, looking forward, recent research conducted by McKinsey found that B2B companies now regard digital interactions as two to three times more important to their customers than traditional sales interactions.

The flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness of virtual meetings, events and webinars are undeniable. But the lack of real life interaction can also be very challenging.

Most of us can relate to the side-splitting ‘conference call in real life’ video that went viral, and it served to highlight the difficulties of communicating in a virtual world.

With this in mind, we bring you six practical considerations for sales and marketing professionals who may be less than familiar with some of the hurdles and pitfalls of engaging prospects online.

1. Find a platform fit for purpose

A successful meeting, presentation or event can be made or broken by the platform used.

There is no single best solution however, nor a one-size-fits-all. It very much depends on how you intend to use it – and it is important to determine this at the very outset.

Are you looking for a general conferencing solution, a platform to host non-interactive ‘webcast’ presentations, interactive ‘webinars’ or more expansive virtual events?

TechRadar have recently published helpful guides to the virtues of some of the leading video conferencing software and webinar tools.

The functionality of webinar platforms, such as Zoom, join.me and WebinarJam, is becoming ever more sophisticated and these can now be used for bespoke events. But for events that may involve hundreds of participants, a wide variety of virtual spaces, virtual exhibitions, conferences, presentations and roundtable discussions, dedicated event software such as INXPO, Hopin or VFairs offers the more appropriate solution.

Furthermore, consideration should be given to the customisation functionality. To what extent can your company’s branding be integrated across the platform? This can be particularly important for virtual events, where a consistent brand experience is paramount.

An ability to capture and record an event can also be important, allowing attendees to access the information you’ve shared with them at a later date.

2. Make your customer’s experience a visual and interactive one

In the real world environment, the speaker will generally be the focal point of presentations.

But in the virtual world, the focus will invariably be on slides, either as the principal visual aid in webinars or as a tool to help reinforce key messages in one-to-one sales presentations. This makes the need for presentation visuals to be all the more dynamic. Leave your audience’s screen static for too long and you risk them switching off.

The use of multimedia here – from charts and web pages to videos and animations – can offer a powerful antidote to the monotony of traditional presentations, and it can go a long way to boosting audience engagement. Think of presentations in the virtual world as a ‘visual magnet’.

Most video conferencing platforms will also allow you to run live polls, with the results display graphically back to the audience, and interactive Q&As that can allow more experienced speakers to adapt their presentations on the fly.

3. Set up to minimise distraction

Did you see Professor Robert Kelly’s children gate-crashing his live BBC interview about South Korea? He managed to keep his composure, but it was far from easy.

Taking steps to avoid interruption is important, but it is just one aspect of ensuring a good set-up to minimise distraction.

Whether you’re in a sales meeting or presenting a webinar, if your audience have to work hard to hear or see you, you will soon lose their attention. Ensure your internet speed can handle your VOIP connection and consider a USB microphone, which will generally provide clearer audio than a laptop’s in-built mic. A room with soft furnishings will also help to reduce echo.

Position your eyes level with your webcam to give the illusion of ‘making eye contact’, make sure you’re in a well-lit environment and consider your background carefully. If you’re struggling to find a suitably neutral and professional backdrop, your video conferencing software will normally feature a background blur option to help ensure you remain the focus of attention.

Most important of all, make sure to test your set-up thoroughly.

4. Less is more to keep ‘screen time’ energy levels high

In a virtual sales meeting, it is highly likely that your prospects will be on webcam – and because they can be heard and observed, it will be generally easier for you to retain their attention.

Equally, however, people don’t tend to have the same attention span in front of their screens. Keeping your presentation tight, and the pace and energy levels high, is even more important in this environment than in the real world.

With this in mind, particular attention should be paid to the structure of the content you present. It is advisable to break it down into three or four key topic areas and to keep the detail clear, simple to understand, relevant and focused on where it is likely offer most value.

5. Enable networking without a handshake

Networking opportunities remain one of the key event drivers for event delegates – so virtual events calls for virtual networking.

Even relatively simple platforms will offer live chat streams, allowing attendees to communicate with one another or to ask questions of the speaker.

Encouraging interaction on these streams, however, can be difficult, with questions often limited to the likes of “is anyone having problems with their audio?” Adding a Twitter feed can help overcome this, allowing people to communicate in a way they’re more familiar with.

Platforms such as Hopin will allow you to create dedicated networking spaces, where attendees with an interest in a specific topic can participate in video discussion groups. Using event registration data, you can also link attendees with similar interests and personally invite them to relevant group sessions.

6. Promote, promote, promote

The challenges of securing a virtual meeting with a sales prospect remain the same as for a real world face-to-face.

Webinars and virtual events, however, call for active promotion – multiple communications across multiple channels, including email marketing, social media and website banners.

An important, but frequently overlooked, consideration here is the tech savvy nature of prospective attendees. Virtual events may run the risk of turning technophobes away. Clearly signposted support prior to the event, in the form of FAQs and contact details for those that can help overcome technical issues, can help to boost registrations and your final attendee numbers.

Getting the message, tone, language and style of marketing campaigns on point is vital to protecting a brand’s reputation – and during a crisis, the care and consideration that must be given to this is magnified.

Are you being empathetic? Is it a positive move? Could it be seen as insensitive or tone-deaf?

Ultimately, the coronavirus pandemic has demanded new approaches and campaigns that were planned before COVID may no longer work. KFC UK, for example, launched an ad campaign back in February that involved the licking of fingers – lots of it actually. In the current climate, where there is a heightened focus on hand hygiene, the ads were seen as inappropriate and attracted a number of complaints, leading to the campaign being pulled.

We’ve looked at some of the brands that have got it right during COVID, and those that got it (very) wrong.  

The good

1. Budweiser – Whassup in the COVID era

Remember the days when people would answer the phone to each other with ‘whassup?’ from the iconic 1999 Budweiser advert?

Well, it could soon be doing the rounds again over Zoom and Facetime thanks to Budweiser UK.

The company reworked the classic advert for quarantine, using footage from the original version and re-recorded audio.

It does have a purpose other than making you want to buy beer though. With one in five Brits living alone during lockdown, the advert shows one friend checking in on another to make sure he’s ok, with the final words on screen being ‘Buds support buds. Check on yours #TogetherAtADistance’.

The company also launched ‘Save Pub Life’, an initiative to safeguard the future of pubs during lockdown through the purchasing of a giftcard which can be used at pubs when they reopen. The giftcard value will be then matched by Budweiser and the total amount will go direct to businesses within two weeks.

So go on. Give your mate a call, see ‘whassup?’ and put a date in the diary for a pub visit in (hopefully) the not too distant future.

2. Brewdog – swapping beer for sanitiser

When lockdown measures were introduced in the last week of March, alcohol sales increased substantially, with an additional £104 million spent compared the previous week.

So you’d think alcohol companies would be ramping up production, right? Not exactly. Aberdeenshire-based beer giant, Brewdog, decided to transform its distillery and turn its hand at making hand sanitiser to help with the national shortage.

To date, the company has given away (for free!) more than 50,000 units to the NHS and local charities.

3. Nike – play together, separately

Sports giant Nike knows the power of emotional branding. The company’s ‘Just Do It’ campaign has been rolled out year after year since its launch in 1987, inspiring consumers to go forth and get fit, strong and never give up like their favourite sports stars.

The ‘play inside, play for the world’ campaign is no different. The ad unites famous faces and ‘normal people’, all exercising from their homes rather than their usual gyms, stadiums and courts. Viewers are asked to adhere to social distancing by working out separately but ultimately become part of a team looking out for each other: “today we’re playing for 7.8 billion people”. Emotional or what?!

The brand also got athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Dina Asher-Smith to share the message on their social channels, as well as having them take part in the #livingroomcup – a competition that sees sports stars challenge those at home to beat their workout score.

Now, pass me my trainers please. My teammates are waiting for me.

4. Scouts – discovering the great indoors

While the Scouts usually encourages its members to get outside, the organisation launched a new initiative focused on activities inside the home during lockdown.

‘The Great Indoors’, lead by Chief Scout Bear Grylls, involves more than 100 activities being made available online for free to help youngsters tackle boredom and cabin fever. Each game, activity or craft has been developed to entertain and educate, allowing them to learn new skills and advance existing ones.

What’s more, some challenges are also supported by other organisations, such as The Royal Air Force, Mind and the WWF.

Are we sure these are just for kids? We wouldn’t mind learning how to make a lollipop catapult – it might come in handy when fighting over the last chocolate digestive!

5. Bread Ahead Bakery – bake like us

Based in London, Bread Ahead Bakery do exactly what they say on the tin – they’re bakers, bread-makers and also have a baking school to boot.

Since mid-March, owner Matthew has been treating the company’s Instagram followers to a live step-by-step tutorial each day at 2pm, sharing tips and secrets on how to get the best bake possible.

What’s more, Bread Ahead have also created a new ebook that is free to download but has asked for donations for the ‘Meals to the NHS’ fund. At the time of writing, they’ve raised more than £15,000.

Not only are Bread Ahead keeping people sane, but their generous nature – whether raising money for charity or just sharing their excellent recipes – looks to be doing wonders for brand awareness.

NB: We would highly recommend the cookies and hot cross buns. Next one on our to-make list is the goats cheese and pesto brioche!

6. Marcus Rashford – food for all

This one technically isn’t a brand – but we had to give a shout-out to local hero, Marcus Rashford.

The Manchester United forward has been working with the charity Fareshare to make sure the 600,000 children who usually rely on free school meals don’t go without food during the crisis.

Supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and The Co-op have donated £20 million-worth of food and cash, while smaller businesses and the general public have also been donating.   

Marcus has also recently lent his support to The Co-op, appearing in the company’s new television advert to help boost urgently needed food bank donations.  

The bad

1. McDonald’s Brazil – socially-distant arches

While we understand the idea behind the separating of the fast food restaurant’s golden arches, the move was deemed insensitive and resulted in a backlash from consumers across social media. But why?

McDonald’s outlets in the UK shut down completely to ensure the safety of employees, however, over in the US, a large majority of restaurants still remained open for drive-throughs, take-outs and deliveries.

Tweeters slammed the chain for not practicing the social distancing that their logo preached. Others, including Bernie Sanders, called for workers to get paid sick leave as well as a living wage, seeing the ‘act of solidarity’ as a hypocritical move. They also criticised McDonald’s lack of action taken to help fight COVID, with one social media user saying: “I don’t want your cute logo play McDonalds. I want you offering a million free meals to those in need. I want you turning your drive thru into safe testing sites. I want you doubling down on that happy meal box content for kiddos who are stuck inside”.

The campaign was soon pulled from the McDonald’s Brazil social channels.

And the ugly

1. Sports Direct – the new frontline?

When the government ordered non-essential stores to close to combat the spread of COVID, the high street became a ghost town overnight.

Pharmacies remained open though, as did food shops. Oh, and Sports Direct.

Not exactly an ‘essential’ business, I hear you cry. Well, according to Frasers Group who own Sports Direct, the company was “uniquely well-placed to help keep the UK as fit and healthy as possible during this crisis”. Ok…?

While a lot of people turned to exercise during lockdown to boost their mental and physical health, critics condemned the company for deeming itself a vital public asset and putting lives at risk.

After the backlash, the chain quickly u-turned on its decision…

…But then put its prices up online as “a way of relieving the pressure” of stores closing. *Face palm*

Spend, spend, spend…

Why should businesses increase their marketing spend in an economic downturn? We look at the lessons that can be learned from history.

For many, the Covid-19 pandemic has switched the commercial focus from growth to survival, as organisations have strived to safeguard their immediate futures and protect the livelihoods of workers.

No one saw this coming. And the instinctive survival mode response of battening down the hatches was to be expected. But where does the world of business go from here?

It should be remembered that commercial success has never been about just surviving the storms – it is about emerging from them thriving.

The ripple effect means that the decisions we make today, tomorrow, and in the weeks ahead may be still be felt in years to come. Get them wrong, and the impact can prove devastating.

So should businesses be firmly closing the lid on the marketing coffers, or is now the time for them to actually be increasing their share of voice?

When the call to continue, or even increase, marketing and PR activity comes from the mouths of marketeers, there will be inevitable scepticism – ‘well, they would say that wouldn’t they?’

The evidence to spend, however, and reap the rewards, is irrefutable. Although it may feel counterintuitive, history has clearly demonstrated that fortune really does favour the brave.

Those that have opted to double down on marketing – and wider business innovation – during recessions and economic downturns have profited, gaining a precious advantage over their competition.

Numerous studies have confirmed the returns on investment of pursuing this strategy. An analysis of the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategies (PIMS) database¹, for example, has revealed companies that maintained or increased marketing spend during the financial crisis of 2007–08 gained an average market share of 1.3 per cent.

A separate study by McGraw-Hill² found that companies increasing or maintaining advertising spend during the 1981-1982 recession enjoyed a dramatic increase in sales, both during and after the recession, of 256 per cent over those that chose to cut budgets.

So here we shine a spotlight on some of the companies that have held their nerve in the eye of the storm, and for whom positive marketing investment strategies have paid off.

When times are tough…

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt life as we know it, Marketing Week³ reports that Procter & Gamble believes now is the time to remind its consumers of “its brands and their benefits, rather than cutting back on marketing spend”.

On a call with analysts CFO Jon Moeller said that while other companies were looking to cut media support, P&G was “doubling down”.

This has long been the Procter & Gamble approach.

“We have a philosophy and a strategy,” former Procter & Gamble CEO, A.G. Lafley, was famously quoted as telling The Wall Street Journal more than a decade ago. “When times are tough, you build share.”

Indeed if it weren’t for this philosophy, the company may never have made it this far. Look further back into the history books and Procter & Gamble’s decision to actively pursue new marketing opportunities, notably in radio, helped it survive the Great Depression of 1929⁴.

Food for thought

During the 1990/91 recession McDonald’s opted to cut its marketing spend, according to Forbes⁵.

Restaurant chains Taco Bell and Pizza Hut took advantage, both deciding to continue with their marketing campaigns.

McDonald’s sales declined by 28 per cent. Taco Bell, meanwhile, increase revenues by 40 per cent while Pizza Hut’s sales grew by 61 per cent.

An appeal to the heart

Back in 2009, Tim Mahoney, chief marketing officer for Subaru, told us: “You can introduce a product during a recession and still do well if you do it right. Doing it right means being true to who you are and positioning the product properly⁶”.

Indeed, during the recession of the time, Subaru ran its now famous ‘Love’ campaign. Despite the economic crisis, Subaru gained a notable share of voice and in 2009 became the 11th most popular auto brand in America⁷, up from 19th just one year earlier.

Continued innovation

Another company to thrive during the recession of 2009 was Amazon, which saw sales grow by a remarkable 28 per cent⁸.

Much of this has been attributed to the company’s commitment to continued innovation, including the launch and promotion of the Kindle. For the first time in its history, on Christmas Day 2009, Amazon customers bought more ebooks than printed books.

The creative route to driving success

During the 1970s, Toyota launched some of its most memorable marketing campaigns ever, using tag lines that included “You Asked For It/You Got It!” and the hit “Oh What A Feeling!”

Despite the recession of 1973-75, the company’s decision to continue investing in marketing saw it emerge at the end of 1975 as top imported car manufacturer in the US⁹.

Virgin Atlantic, flying high

During the global financial crisis of 2007-09, as the airline industry was seeing passenger numbers falling, Virgin Atlantic took the decision to increase its marketing spend with a focus on brand-building communications.

According to an entry into the IPA Effectiveness Awards in 2010, in January 2009 the company celebrated its 25th birthday by launching its ‘Still red hot’ campaign. While it was running, the campaign is estimated to have accounted for 20 per cent of company revenue, equating to a payback of £10.58 for every £1 invested¹⁰.

¹Evidence presented at a March 2008 IPA conference.

²McGraw-Hill Research. Laboratory of Advertising Performance Report 5262, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986.

³P&G ‘doubles down’ on marketing as demand soars, Marketing Week, April 2020

⁴Five Great Depression Success Stories, The Wall Street Journal, May 2019

⁵When A Recession Comes, Don’t Stop Advertising, Forbes, September 2019

⁶All Brands Are Niche Brands, Strategy+Business, August 2009

⁷Bloomberg Businessweek, May 2010

⁸Recession Reinvention, AdAge, October 2018

⁹Toyota company history, Toyota pressroom, April 2020

¹⁰IPA case study,’Virgin Atlantic: Still red hot, even in a downturn’, 2010

Not a day goes by or indeed a minute when we don’t use the C- word. It is the topic that has literally gone viral affecting every aspect of our lives – work, rest and play.

It therefore stands to reason that marketeers have jumped on the bandwagon to get involved in the biggest and most controversial conversation since Brexit. Some doing so out of necessity – such as finance, insurance, legal and health brands – others shoehorning it in, or filling a void to replace delayed or abandoned campaigns, when they really have nothing of value to add to the dialogue or debate.

Here are four ways content marketing can truly add value as we all navigate blindly through this unprecedented pandemic that has the world under siege. Actually five if you include humour. Afterall, if we all come out of this crisis with our health, sanity and a smile, we’ll all be winning.

As we all adapt to juggling remote working, social distancing and home-schooling, getting tone and content right has never been more vital in order to realign with the new norm. While some businesses are flourishing, others are failing. Individuals are losing livelihoods and loved ones and need to be treated with compassion and sensitivity – not contrived, corporate content or meaningless monologues.

However, many companies have a duty – legally or morally to inform users of changes and updates in response to this crisis. But how they deliver this is key.

One of the most effective ways to alert users of important COVID-19 information is using a specialist hub on your homepage.

Email comms should be timely, relevant and concise – and only broadcast when you have something important to say. Don’t bombard people when they are already burdened.

During such a stressful time, your target audience that is affected by COVID-19 should have easy access to straight-forward, honest and empathetic information – don’t add to their stress with confusing or conflicting information that is hidden eight clicks away. Be factual, useful, non-judgemental and avoid being political.

Brands and businesses who communicate and treat customers and staff with respect and integrity during this crisis are more likely to survive than those who don’t. A sympathetic ear goes a long way in building trust.

Answer your customers’ and prospects’ questions before they need to ask, or before they have even thought of the question. Give them one less thing to worry about –  from sharing information about business opening times, delivery details, legal updates on furloughing or mortgage holidays to health and wellbeing advice or online tutorials about how to use remote working or teaching tech. Make their life easier when it is anything but.

Any legal or governmental advice you share must be accurate and factual – and from a reliable and trustworthy source – it may not provide the most entertaining content, but at times it’s better to be serious than sorry.

Before you put pen to paper to create new content or update old, walk in your customers’ shoes and write what you would like or need to read.

3. Be extraordinary

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures to create content when you don’t really have anything to say or sell. With guests and shoppers stuck at home, DoubleTree and Ikea decided to reveal their infamous chocolate chip cookie and meatball recipes to the world. Fans have been posting their cooking efforts on social media, creating a self-sustaining buzz that has resulted in an effective content marketing campaign – even when business is dormant.

Proof that a crisis doesn’t have to kill creativity.

4. Spread the good word

This may be stating the obvious, but this isn’t a time to prey on people’s fears or insecurities. No content should be exploitative or forced – not every brand needs to get heavily or actively involved in COVID comms. Sometimes they can just be a breath of fresh air with good news, happy and humorous stories of being – and doing good.

If your content can educate, inform, and generally make someone’s life a little easier or happier, then you should do it.

Kindness in content will always be well received. Just ask Captain Tom Moore.

Seth Godin calls content marketing “the only marketing left” – it’s authentic, useful, and perfectly suited to the internet generation.

As content wizards ourselves, we’re on board with the far-reaching impact of good content.

The marketing industry grew under the misguided impression that more content equalled better content.  However, it is now recognised that whether audio, visual or text, it’s the value and relevance of the content that matters, not the size or length.

Never has this been truer than today.  The businesses emerging bruised but not beaten by the coronavirus pandemic are scrambling to be heard over the noise that is post-lockdown marketing mania.  

Everything you produce, from a two-minute promo video to a 2000-word blog or 20-minute podcast should be better than the stuff your audience is currently reading, viewing or sharing – particularly when it comes to what your competitors are doing and saying.

Leave your audience satisfied so they have a reason to engage with you, share your content, and come back for more.

In the turbulent year of 2020, content marketing is evolving dramatically.  The channels, tactics and tools used to create and distribute content are adapting to the current climate, at a faster and more furious pace.

So, keep up with what’s in vogue with our top 10 tips:

1. Video and live-streaming take the limelight

Aside from blog posts, video content is the go-to content stream for brands looking to engage, inform and entertain customers – and the lockdown era has only served to accelerate this trend.   

Seemingly everyone, from B2C to B2B brands, have jumped on the video and live streaming bandwagon to remain front and centre of client and prospects’ minds during this disruptive period.  It is often in times of adversity that innovative thinking prevails, and brands are quickly adapting their marketing techniques to reach their audience and video is a sure-fire way to engage with key demographics.  Just some examples of what brands are doing include:

• Webinars
• Instructional/advice videos
• Q&A sessions
• Product demos and reviews
• Behind-the-scenes
• Interviews with experts
• Live case studies
• Testimonials from happy customers
• CSR events, awards or accreditations

Whatever the concept, it’s important to repurpose your video content in a variety of formats in order to transfer the content into full or edited pieces, audio-only or transcribed into text.

If you create the right video for your message on the right platform to reach the right audience, you will create a mini army of followers and influencers who will help you get more exposure for your business.  Video platforms include YouTube, TikTok, IGTV on Instagram and, of course, your own website.

2. Podcast-mania

Around 7.1 million people in the UK now listen to podcasts each week. That’s one in eight people and is an increase of 24% over the past year – and more than double over the past five years.

This trajectory is set to continue, as audiences become more and more engaged with their timely and topical content. If you have something relevant to say, build audio content into your marketing strategy and reap the rewards of this highly engaging platform.

3. Let’s talk about conversational marketing

It’s good to talk – even if it is to a virtual person. Chatbots or online live chats are growing in popularity as audiences look for quick answers or fast navigation to more in-depth content.

With the advent of social distancing, virtual chat has become a pivotal channel for marketing, as traditional means of communications have become more difficult to maintain.  

By engaging in conversation with your audience, you can learn more about their specific needs in real time. Conversational marketing tools minimise frustrating downtime or the need to fill out forms or being put on hold on a call. It is therefore vital that your chatbot tool is able to easily find this content on your site.

4. Content tailored to voice search and smart devices

It’s understood that 50% of all web searches will be conducted by voice this year. Brands are now starting to optimise their content for voice search which will help smart devices answer queries more accurately (currently only around 60% of answers are correct).  

So, get ahead of your competitors and update your existing content ready for voice SEO – understand the difference between what your audience will write compared to what they will say. Get it right and it will be your content that’s shouting out of smart devices in the future. You’ll be Alexa’s first choice.

5. Personalised content gets even more personal

Fortunately, as the consumer’s need for personalised content increases, so does the development of technology to facilitate these demands. By using dynamic content tools, you can automate the creation and delivery of highly-relevant content to individual customers based on their preferences, needs and interests via multiple communication channels. One size never fits all.

 6. Build topical authority

Google’s algorithms now assesses the holistic value of a given page within the entire site, not just the content on a single page when ranking. So, for example, a car brand offering advice on safer driving technology would rank more highly than the same topic offered by a general gadget site – even if the content was equal in quality.

Building credible authority is done by creating long-form pillar pages that act as a base for your content marketing. Build on this foundation over time by creating pillar content covering a wide range of topics that support the original ‘pillar’. Become the voice of authority.

7. Sometimes a snippet is all you need

Google’s ability to deliver ultra-relevant pages and content based on a search term now goes one step further by presenting ‘snippets’ within the first results page. Appearing at the top of results pages, snippets provide an impactful, brief overview of the key points within a piece of content.

The result of this development is that content creators must recognise that the number of ‘no-click’ searchers is on the rise. Over 50% of Google queries resulted in no clicks last year, indicating that Google is evolving into an answer engine more than a search engine. Therefore, creating content that ranks on Google may increasingly require marketeers to adopt a question-driven content strategy.

It’s becoming more and more common for users to search for a longtail keyword, so that Google will present a quick and easy snippet with all info they need without them having to click through to a full website.

8. Data-driven content creation

Content should be created based on hard evidence of what works and what doesn’t – not a gut feeling of what you think your audience wants to hear.  Key to these insights is data and a data platform that allows you to monitor and report on the successes and failures based on KPIs or the ROI of past campaigns. Listen and learn then do it again – better.

9. Search intent should drive content

There are 4 types of web search to be aware of:

• Informational – when the user is looking for broad information (e.g. how many calories in a banana)
• Navigational – when the user wants to visit a specific site (e.g. instead of typing “Facebook.com,” the user searches on Google for “Facebook”)
• Investigational – when the user wants advice (e.g. best headphones for runners)
• Transactional – when the user wants to do buy something (e.g. book flights to Berlin)

Google’s algorithms have now brought search intent to the fore and can detect the type of search a user is conducting (along with more specific aspects of intent).

So, ensure that each piece of content you create for each search intent includes either a call to action or relevant further information that will lead your audience swiftly to the next stage of their enquiry.

10. Fast and focused content

At last but by no means least, it may seem obvious but ensure content is relevant to the customer search.

Content should be easy to digest and focused on getting readers to their desired information – fast. Filter list posts (with links, headings, buttons, icons) based on exactly what your reader is looking for by segmenting the topic into obvious and easily digestible sections.