Getting an A+ on your back to school/office content plans
This year has been one of massive change – to our lives, our workplace, our mental and physical health, our home lives and our social lives. Somehow, since the first case of COVID-19 was identified in Canada, time has seemed to fly by, and now we’re at the end of the summer, getting ready (or thinking we should start getting ready) for the return to school for those who are parents, and for some, the return to the office.
As communicators, brand leaders and content managers, fall is typically a key marketing period (not to scare you, but that’s three weeks from now). So, how can we help our customers or clients as they navigate a new challenge and change, using our content strategy?
We’ve put together some practical suggestions to create an A+ back-to-school/office content plan in just five days:
Day One: Review your business objectives
The first place to start is to understand how your business objectives may have changed (in light of COVID-19). Some may still be applicable, for instance, if you are lucky enough to work at a company that already had a strong social purpose, those communications objectives probably held up (with perhaps some directional changes),.However, if your company was a primarily brick-and-mortar store which faced closures over the spring and early summer, your sales model has likely changed dramatically. Hopefully you already have this feedback from your organization, but if you don’t, you can look for direction from:
- Executive communications
- Financial updates (if you are a public company)
- Sales team feedback
- Your competition
- Customer feedback
With this information, you are going to set some relevant goals for your content that align with your current business objectives.
Day Two: Review your audiences
On Day Two, you will want to revisit your current audiences. The pandemic may have changed their demographics somewhat, but you can be certain that their psychographics changed as well. PRO-TIP: the best way to know what your audiences want is to actually talk to them. Ask them! – If you are a b2b company, interview prospects and clients to get a clear picture of their current situation. Ask how COVID-19 is currently impacting their business, what their biggest challenges are and why. Ask if their company is planning to or already going into the workplace and how they are shifting their priorities and processes.
If you’re a B2C company, it may not be feasible or practical to interview customers directly, so instead, engage in social listening. Spend some time on the social media platforms your audience frequents to learn what they’re saying about your brand and competitors. This research will provide you with unfiltered sentiment towards your products, services, and current communications activities. As you review this content, pay particular attention to commonalities in pain points or concerns.
Day Three: Brainstorm!
Has brainstorming gone by the wayside with your new virtual office? Now’s the time to bring back the brainstorm, and some fun, on Day Three. Using what you have learned from your research on Day One and Day Two, set an objective for each communications channel. (and please, do not use the same content across channels!) Take the day to brainstorm against what you’ve identified as themes or areas of focus. There are plenty of tips out there on how to succeed at online brainstorming – you can check out some good tips here and here.
Day four: Plan your content
On Day Four, it’s time to create your content. Quality over quantity can be a tough sell, but in what will be a very cluttered marketplace, lack of relevancy or annoyance can quickly lead to an “unfollow” or "unsubscribe". When in doubt, focus on the basics of simplicity and humanity - the traits that resonate most with audiences right now. As well, short form content is ok, perhaps even best, in the current climate, unless you have a VERY strong offer or a complex announcement that requires detail.
A few tips for day four:
- Schedule content at the right times for each platform – the best times to post and send have changed with the transition to WFH.
- Create content that sounds like you: don’t try to be a brand you’re not!
- Think about content that offers different perspectives that are not typically represented
- But, don’t be tone-deaf: avoid content that features mass gatherings or events that have been cancelled, imagery that shows people physically touching, or captions and copy that could come across as insensitive during a global crisis
- AND please don’t forget about the promises your organization has made about diversity
Day Five: Test, review and engage
Finally, your content is live – but you’re not done yet. You will need to continuously measure and make real-time changes (so yes, I took some liberties with calling this a five-day plan). Consider setting up a daily check-in with your social media team to discuss what’s working and what’s not. Be open to testing different content formats - many brands were sensitive to live video before the pandemic but are now becoming more open to this type of content.
Also, take a look at your content and see if any of it would be of interest to media, then include some earned media outreach as part of your content mix.
Fast forward to fall. Review the goals you set – did you achieve them? Look at the overall strategy instead of focusing on individual posts/communications. Can you tie the results back to meaningful business outcomes? Are you doing better than yesterday? Did more people ask for information? Is conversion up? How’s your search ranking?
The last few months have been overwhelming. We’ve gone from thinking we had everything under control, to realizing how little control we really have.
There may be little we can do about the countdown to back to school or back to work, but by investing a few days to better understanding your current business, your audience, and the content that they’re looking for, the chaos might give way to a reset – providing you and your stakeholders with a new way to engage with each other and a better way forward.
