Marketers prioritise content marketing, post pandemic

Change is the new normal, and content marketing speaks its language.

As the world returns slowly to business as usual in the post-pandemic world, it is important not to underestimate the rapid changes that were forced on almost every brand during 2020 and early 2021. During those painful, lock-down months, two-thirds of consumers tried new ways of shopping, and their expectations flipped – entire customer experiences suddenly had to be radically adapted to a new normal. Gyms went digital. Supermarkets became delivery companies. Michelin-starred restaurants turned into meal-kit retailers.

A new sense of consumer purpose

It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of the change in consumer behaviour we’ve all just lived through. McKinsey’s data suggests digital adoption leaped 5 years forward in just a few short weeks in 2020 and many brands are still racing to catch up.

As global consumer outlook shifted almost overnight, ‘quality’ and ‘purpose’ became more important than ‘convenience’ or ‘availability’. Meanwhile, the old normal was shunned. Trust in social media plummeted to 35%. Less than 2 in 5 people believed business was doing well at putting people before profits. By October 2020, a staggering 86% of people worldwide said they wanted to see the world become more sustainable and equitable rather than return to the pre-Covid status quo.

The problems of agility and resilience

A select few brands have been quick to respond to this new sense of social purpose, launching campaigns to support health workers and provide disadvantaged children with free meals and homeschooling tech. Coca-Cola, for example, notably paused its marketing spend in 2020 to focus on relief efforts, then returned with Open Like Never Before, a collaboration with George the Poet, imploring people to lock-in the positive changes of lockdown and providing tools and budget to enable hard-up hospitality venues to share their stories and promote their businesses on social media.

But for many, the challenge has now become making the most of digital investment to create opportunities and stand-out digital experiences that promote a return to growth. And often this requires a whole new approach to digital planning.

Building back with better content marketing

Now, emerging from the pandemic and embarking on the process of rebuilding, it’s clear that many marketing strategies are in desperate need of redesign. It’s not simply a matter of shifting budget away from the hubris of brand advertising to richer, more human storytelling. Thriving in this new consumer landscape means breaking down the walls between marketing, digital, sales and CRM. It means reshaping teams and processes, embracing experimentation and building in resilience.

That’s why we’ve launched The Mediablaze Content Marketing Maturity Model to help you benchmark your performance –and improve it. Change can be painful, and there are undoubtedly tough times ahead but the opportunities have never been bigger for those brands that embrace agility and empathy – the cornerstones of sophisticated content marketing.

How to improve your content marketing in 2021

Navigating these challenging times requires a more sophisticated approach to content marketing which is why we’ve created an in depth whitepaper that will help you go from ‘good to great’. Produced by our specialist team of content strategists, this piece provides an operational and measurement framework for content marketing and clearly outlines how to up your content marketing game.

Talk with the content marketing specialists

In addition to our content marketing whitepaper we have produced a suite of strategy products based solely on clearly defined tasks and outcomes to supercharge your digital experience. Whether you have an hour to spare, or want to deep dive into your business challenges, our objective is simple - to deliver content marketing solutions that are tailored to your particular problem. Get in touch with the team, we’re happy to help.