COMMUNICATION IN THE POST-COVID WORLD

THE NEED TO REVISIT THE PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION

Over the past three decades of my existence COVID-19 has been the biggest shock event that I or the generation before me has experienced, consequences of which have been dire, forcing many organizations to perish or barely survive. But even amidst this catastrophic impact the pandemic has presented an opportunity for many ideas to take shape accelerating our dreams of the future world. A clear fallout of COVID-19 is the acceleration of digital transformation which in turn is leading to a paradigm shift in the way we communicate as individuals, as organizations, as communities and cultures at large.  Challenges we are facing today are completely unprecedented and can seem overwhelming. We are noticing disruption of sales and services, interrupted supply chains, locked-down manufacturing plants, several industries jolted and halted, and a sizeable chunk of workforce staring at an indefinite period of nothingness impacting the socio-economic fabric of the world. All these make it imperative for our communication strategy to change in tandem with our survival strategy. 

Today we have a need to revisit our communication strategy to not just keep our brands afloat, but build a community of staunch believers who will want to invest in building their futures with us when the time is right. This is a great time to focus on brand campaigns and sell through the power of the brand’s content.

The primary purpose of communication as we have known so far is to inform, educate and entertain. To win in these unfavorable times organizations have to customize strategies in today’s unique context and peel layers of underlying opportunities. The post-COVID world has added another layer to the purpose that communication is expected to serve. Communication that is embalmed with empathy, creates camaraderie, and inspires hope. The world is so shattered today that it needs no explanation why empathy is needed in today’s world. As social beings we are forced to go against our grain to confine ourselves through physical social distancing, we are looking for camaraderie more than ever. We want to believe that we are not alone but in this together, instilling the confidence in us that we shall overcome this phase with the hope of creating a better world, embracing the new normal. 

TRANSLATING THE PURPOSE INTO A STRATEGY?

Communication has always been about connecting people and ideas. As physical distance is expanding, virtual space is shrinking and word of mouth is spreading virtually at the speed of light. It’s like being characters in a movie. We have no reference points here, no text books to go back to, but only ourselves and our communities to rely on. We have to have our own interpretation and meaning making of the world around us. We have to observe keenly, learn from our own experiences, and share it back with the community to wade through the murky waters. 

Here are the key tenets of communication that are becoming all the more important as companies are focusing on enhanced customer centricity, sophisticated value-added services and an employee-first approach. 

Be credible 

The rapidly changing world is presenting a new scenario every day. What was true yesterday may no longer be true today. The socio-economic status of a country is changing at the drop of a hat with the fluctuating number of COVID-19 positive cases. Such times of uncertainty and ambiguity can be confusing leading to amplification of speculations and rumors. As communicators we need to ensure we are using credible sources of information and not fanning the fire of misinformation or misrepresentation. You have to pick your facts and figures from credible sources to build your communication plan and messages. For example, if you want to talk about the COVID-19 situation, use information available on Center for Disease Control, or the World Health Organization, don’t just pick it up from any random site. Communicating with sensitivity is the need of the hour as organizations and brands are put under the scanner by the media and public. People are watchful about how organizations are responding to the current shock event. Are they going out of their way to help others? Or are they using this situation to mask their motives and exploit people for profit? Don’t just say things because others are saying so. Be yourself, be authentic. There’s no better time to demonstrate what your company stands for, and the values that define it. 

Be relevant

Relevance comes from a deep understanding of your target audience’s needs and realities. Before pushing for hard sales, understand what is the impact of this situation on different industries and businesses? How does that impact their jobs and lives? What pieces of information they are looking at? Markets are opening up in pockets, and there’s a sharp rise in smart shoppers, many of whom are still constrained by regional languages. The further you can segment your target audience, the sharper the communication. It’s time to weave in vernacular languages in your communication strategy for target optimization around hyperlocal solutions. Segment customers and target them with communication around the right portfolio to drive differential value. Research around the products and services relevant to your organization that are in demand and build communication around them through product demos, service quality testimonials, use-cases, case studies, etc. to grab a piece of your customer’s mind share. Feed your target audience what they need and not the communication you have stockpiled from the pre-COVID times.

Embed empathy

No points for guessing this right. But do you know how to build empathy in your communication? Do you know the science behind empathy?

Having an Empathy map pushes us to dig deep inside our target audience’s psyche of what they see, say, hear, think, feel and do. What are their pain points, what will make them win? Once you have identified these, this map becomes your compass giving you the direction for your content. 

The process of creating an empathy map forces you to think deeper about the problem space giving you the insight on which aspect of the solution you need to highlight in your content that will appeal to the customer’s needs. As customers go digital, their customers’ buying behaviors are undergoing a significant change in terms of how they shop, pay and expect contactless deliveries. Product demos, DIY videos, self-help tips can bring in a lot of value. 

Every day I see an increasing number of people posting stories about losing their job to COVID-19. My heart bleeds to see so many people suffering not just the economic backlash, but many a times questing their capabilities trying to resurrect their broken self-worth. Is there anything that you can do as an organization or at an individual level to help people in their job searches, or in helping them upskill? I want to pause and take a moment to thank Shenzyn for trying to do this. This platform is a live example of how you can drive engagement by embedding empathy in your communication at an organization level.

CONVERTING STRATEGY INTO AN ACTIONABLE PLAN

The only way to convert your strategy into an actionable plan is by orienting your strategy based on the observation about your target audience. While observing, use all our senses, even your sixth sense to connect the dots and then orient your communication strategy to an actionable plan. Observe where your target audience is hanging out, what are the changes in their behaviors you are noticing, what topics they are discussing, what are they reacting to, etc. Use this information to create a robust communication calendar, but keep it fluid.

Research well on the trending topics, the changing business landscape and plug in the most topical content into your communication calendar. Who better than Amul can demonstarte this in brand campaigns? 

Converting your strategy into an actionable plan is going to be the most exciting phase of your communication strategy. Now you are going to test the acceptance of your strategy real time. The more the engagement, the higher the validation of your strategy.  But wait, strategy is only one piece of the puzzle. There are two other pieces that you have to bring together to complete the communication puzzle – content and execution.

Let’s first look at CONTENT

Amidst all the customer centricity and hyper personalization, content is increasingly holding fort when it comes to creating superlative customer engagement and its role is  taking the center stage as content is proving to be the king. If you get your content right, customers will follow.

Sources

A strong line up of content will be a prerequisite to fire up your communication engine. So how do you go about building your content repository? What are the different sources you rely on? From your understanding of the trending topics make a list of all the Functions and Departments in your organization that can give you original content and insights on these topics. Reach out to the Leadership team and the key opinion leaders within your organization who can help you with the base content. Your Technology and R&D departments can be a great source of content today, that people are waiting to grab. Do you have a Wellness, Health & Fitness Center in your office? The Wellness team can be a good source of engaging content both for your employees and for the external world. 

Having a first-hand experience of your organisation, employees and customers are an extremely critical fraternity to lean on for content. Testimonials and recommendations from them will go a long way in helping you build a positive image for your organisation. 

Flow

I have found the why-how-what format most helpful while creating content. This format allows you to go inside out from the purpose or, why you do what you do to the how and what. Selling the purpose appeals directly to the part of the brain which controls behavior and decision making. So, while the why convinces your target audience to take an action, the how and what helps rationalize the decision with facts and figures. Hence, start with the purpose and end with the action you want your target audience to take (CTA). 

Formats

What is content? It’s not just blobs of words and sentences. Content is anything that can be expressed through some medium, verbal, written, textual, design, or any other form of art. When creating your content calendar, use different content formats, with a healthy mix of written, audio and visual content. I have listed different kinds of formats you can choose from. Get creative and add more to your list. 

An illustrative list:

•      Mailer
•      Newsletter
•      Blog
•      Article
•      Case Study
•      Whitepaper
•      Use Case
•      Infographic
•      Use case
•      POV
•      Vlog
•      Video
•      Podcast
•      Webinar
•      Interview
•      Testimonial
•      Recommendation
•      Story

Amongst all these content formats, virtual events are taking the media space by storm in the post COVID era, and speculations are that they here to stay. So definitely add some podcasts, webinars and live streaming to your communication mix.  

Numbers tell stories. Look underneath data and numbers to find the hidden story and try narrating a simple theme or an otherwise mundane process in the form of a story. Stories have a much higher potential to stick in people’s minds, so instead of run of the mill formats, use storytelling to spice up your communication pieces.

Style

If you don’t have a style guide for your content yet, perhaps it’s a good time to create one. The style guide as the name suggests will help you in having a consistent style of messaging, voice and tone of communication that all your communication pieces should carry. Depending on the kind of brand you represent, the language and tone of communication will change accordingly. This is an age-old theory, but what’s new in the post COVID world is the touch of empathy, camaraderie and hope brushed on top of your messages. 

Length

Through an extended period of work from home, we are consuming content on the go juggling and switching between multiple tasks both at the home front and at work, our attention span has reduced to less than that of a goldfish. Which means we need short, catchy, tasty, visually appealing, sharp content. In short, snackable content. 

Even for the more serious educational or informational pieces of long form content like whitepapers and case studies, you may want to keep a short form content ready which will serve as trailers, hooks and lead magnets to get your target audience to read the long form content. With relevant, catchy headlines and subject lines, the lead magnets could be more effective in lead generation and in-bound marketing. 

4 PM content as I like to call it, is becoming more and more popular of late as people are deprived of their water cooler conversations and “chai pe charcha”. 4 PM content, especially long forms like Podcasts, Webinars and Live videos are a new fad emerging post lock down. 

Twitter is known for brevity, while Facebook and LinkedIn allow for much longer content forms. Hence, content to suit the real estate available on the channel or platform is also an important consideration for content creation. 

EXECUTION of your communication strategy is the last piece that completes the puzzle. If Content is King, Execution is the Hand of the King.

Channel

Your content strategy and design will vary depending on the channel you choose to communicate.

Every social media platform has its own rules, restrictions and idiosyncrasies. 

The content you will use on LinkedIn will not work on Instagram and vice versa. While Facebook and Instagram can have similar content consumers, yet their styles will be very different. Twitter allows 280 characters now as opposed to half the characters it allowed until last year. The idea is to only have brief, sharp thoughts on the platform. Interestingly the extra characters are being consumed by words like “thank you” and “please” by about 25 and 50% respectively. Is this an indication of a more empathetic world? I will leave that to your interpretation. 

Digital communication platforms are seeing a massive upsurge in their user base. For e.g., Facebook has seen a 70% increase in video calls, Instagram has seen a 60% increase in live videos and Webex customers have used 5.5 billion meeting minutes in just the first 11 days of lockdown. This is a clear indication of how we are quickly adapting to technology, collaboration tools, and newer forms of social media communication. 

Creating diverse content for a micro-segmented online fraternity can be overwhelming. Having a master contentdocument which will have everything about the topic or the story you are crafting will help in managing content pieces. Then depending on the medium and channel you choose, you can tailor your content. The utility of having a master content is that you can repurpose your content in various formats. 

ConsistencyThough different social platforms have their peak performing time slots, consistency of communication irrespective of the channel is the secret sauce for more stickiness. So whatever plan you have for whichever channel, be consistent with the plan. If the 4PM webinars are what you have subscribed to in the last couple of weeks, the absence of it in the 3rd week will make you question the capability of the platform to bring you these webinars. If you have already found a regular target audience for yourself, they must have found value in what you bring to them. Deliver them content with consistency to keep them coming back to you.

Collaboration

Collaborating with your internal teams, employees and customers is a great idea. With the right strategy and content, you can now look at amplifying your communication and marketing efforts by creating social communities. Social communities have existed since the advent of social media, but what’s interesting to observe is the increasing number of members the communities have added. We are living in a networked world, and more than ever COVID-19 has pushed the social beings to hang out virtually while staying locked up inside their homes. In the pre-COVID era, being a network native was a differentiator, but post-COVID that barrier is dissolving. Irrespective of our age, everyone who has survived through the pandemic be it our parents or grandparents, most of them by now, know WhatsApping, Zooming and virtual socializing. The sheer number of communities and their comments available on social media can make or mar a brand’s image. You know by now why Glassdoor has become one of the key reference points for job seekers before they jump into accepting a job offer.

Community marketing 

As an aftermath of COVID-19, many are seeking comfort from people with similar experiences and forming communities and self-help groups. With more and more traditional industries adopting online sales, the significance of social media as a platform for recommendations and product discovery is going up. As an example, 52% consumers of the CPG industry have used social media for their research before buying. Consumers are relying more and more on word of mouth online. 

Brand advocacy in the post-COVID era is no more a good to have strategy, but a must have. Community marketing plays a critical role in this scenario, and hence a focus on building a communication strategy around community marketing becomes imperative. While designing your communication strategy, make sure to bake in the three “R”s as I like to call it – Recruit, Recognize and Reward. By recruit, I am talking about attracting the right kind of people who fit into your community and then getting them interested in partnering with you to build your community. Recognize your active participants by inviting their ideas and feedback. You can organize polls, quizzes and contests for your community members and reward the winners with a simple shout out popularizing them on your social media handles. Have a response mechanism in place to keep your engagement going. As you keep strengthening your engagement on your social community, your community members will recruit more members growing your community organically.

Experience marketing

As a Marketing & Communication professional for much over a decade now, I can say this with conviction that no matter what the fads are, no matter what the newest terms in the marketing landscape are, the best marketing ideas are derived from first principles thinking, and by connecting the dots. Digital marketing will still remain the key enabler as technology continues to surprise us with newer possibilities almost every single day.

When I talk about surprises, Experience marketing comes to my mind which is enabling brands surprise their customers by creating unique immersive personalized experiences through AR, VR playing to people’s lifestyle preferences. Furniture to F&B, companies are using Experience marketing in creating an environment that is unique to the consumer’s life style, giving them a taste and feel of the products even without owning them. As digital fashion makes an appearance in the online market, the image-conscious social media user is all set to lap up these experiences to enhance their online social appearances. 

In the post-COVID world where consumers are moving towards contactless buying and no-exchange policies, sampling through Experience marketing is helping brands strengthen their bond with their target audience, leading to sales.

Influencer Marketing

With consumers looking for product recommendations and validation of their choices, Influencer marketing is peaking up. Whether it is about driving traffic to your website and social media handles, or creating awareness through brand advocacy, backlinks generated by influencer endorsements and user generated content can be helpful in more ways than one. Influencer marketing has become a fad today, but just like the fashion of celebrity endorsements have come down the ‘cost vs. impact’ matrix, influencer marketing will also fizzle gradually. Consumers are smart, just as is the difference between advertorials and editorials, they will soon make out the difference between a genuine user generated content and a paid influencer content. Before signing up with an influencer for marketing, make sure to onboard the right influencer. Find influencers who believe in what you believe in, and whose thoughts are naturally aligned to your organization’s so that the recommendations are not plastic and the brand appeal is real. Also, working with a bundle of right-sized smaller influencers instead of banking on just one broad-reach influencer will be a smart move to make in the post-COVID world.

Feedback is the foundation on which your entire communication strategy lies. Make sure to keep your feedback loops operational to feed into every aspect of your communication design – be it the content, execution or the strategy itself. Tweak and change depending on the changing need of the hour. Constantly monitor feedback from customers, employees, followers and through media mentions to analyze sentiment around your organization. This can help in revisiting and sharpening your communication strategy. There are a bunch of free social listening tools that can help you gauge the social sentiment around your brand. Your feedback loops need to be constantly feeding into a fluid strategy. 

Right now, we are in the midst of an exciting time where we are going to be remembered as a part of history. We have the opportunity to reconstruct our future at top gear with the emergence of newer technologies by the day.

As marketers and communicators, we have to now revisit our strategies, showcase how our products and service offerings can solve the problems of the new world and bring out brand’s value proposition through interactive, engaging stories. 

Author: Sinjini Guha Thakurta