COVID-19 has brought marketing back to basics. And I say this in a good way.
More and more companies are back to building a story of their brand which is customer-centric and empathetic. And there is more emphasis on doing the right thing for the customer. And serving them to WOW them.
That means that marketing plans presented in early, 2020 had to be redone. And a new movement had to be launched when COVID-hit. A “customer-oriented” movement, when you cannot see or meet them in-person. This is when B2B and B2C marketers got back to building awesome content – that is what creates messaging to engage users and build awareness of any new programs that are helpful for customers to find out about how companies can help customers during COVID-era.
While customer-focus has been part of a lot of marketing efforts, now, is the time when the rubber hits the road:
Personalizing customer experience – need to match the story to the product experience is critical.
- Create a content hub and get all feedback from all outposts to the hub
- Check out the NPS score and review all the feedback carefully
- Invest in sharing the feedback with sales, trading partners and internally
Thought leadership becomes community service – build content with a narrative of care, create value with insights that impact the customer’s lives in a real way. Big, bold statements without any thought into why it matters to the customer is a complete letdown.
- Community service is customer service with insights that matter to them
- Content for B2B and B2C around thought leadership is almost the same, even in B2B, it is humans who are making the decision to buy your products
- Content formats are important to consider – long blogs can cause content fatigue for folks glued to zoom screens.
Content marketing is back (well! It was here) but now so much more real and connected to the community’s wants, which is why it is playing the role of speaking the language of love which makes brands that last.