The pandemic has affected businesses in varying ways, but what almost all have in common is that they have had to adapt and do things differently.
For some, that’s meant furloughing workers, while others have pivoted and found new ways to drive business in unfamiliar times. This might have meant taking offline services online, or going business-to-consumer instead of business-to-business.
What hasn’t changed (or if it has, it’s only become more relevant) is the need for internet marketing, and a big part of that is maintaining a blog. Of course, the environment is different at the moment, and that means you might have to consider a slightly different strategy to your normal. Here are some suggestions:
1. Don’t ignore the elephant in the room
It would be great if we could wake up tomorrow and find that the coronavirus had suddenly disappeared, but the reality is that it’s governing everything we do at the moment. That means you have to take it into consideration with what you write.
If you sell alcohol, don’t blog about hosting a party or barbecue with friends. If you’re in event management, advice on how to host an event in May would be all but useless right now.
Think about the images you’re using as well. For example, I published a piece about Clap for our Carers this week, and I was about to set a feature image for it that showed a crowd of closely huddled people applauding. I realised just in time that this would be inappropriate and would only invite sarcastic comments.
2. Find the COVID-proof element of your business
Tying in with the theme of pivoting, make sure you’re writing about the products and services you can still sell, and not wasting too much time on the ones you can’t.
At Engage Web, we usually offer face-to-face client meetings, and services like video filming. These have had to go on the back burner for now though, so it wouldn’t be a great time to blog about them. What we’re still doing as much as ever is search engine optimisation, content development and web design. In fact, we’ve found some of our clients want to use this time to ramp up their digital campaign.
3. Lighten the mood
While, as we’ve said, you shouldn’t ignore the virus in your blogs, you also don’t necessarily need to hammer home the misery of it all. The media seems to revel in making us scared and depressed, but businesses can take a different tact and use their website content and social media to connect with an audience spending more time than ever online.
Write blogs that ask questions and encourage followers to get involved. There’s a lot of stuff going around social media at the moment where people are sharing favourite albums, films, songs and so on. See if you can find a relevant way to tie what you do into this, and improve your followers’ mental wellbeing at the same time.
If you’re looking for inspiration, contact Engage Web. We may not be able to meet you in person until all this blows over, but we’re easily reachable by phone or our contact form.
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