Have You Changed Your Content For The Apoca... Ahem, 2020?

The year 2020 has been downright apocalyptic so far, and it isn’t finished with us yet. In fact we’re not even halfway done. Nobody knows what’s gonna happen, but the best we can probably hope for is more of where we're at now.

And if you’re a B2B content person lucky enough to still have your job, you’ve probably published all of your content written pre-outbreak by now, and now you’ve got a second half of the year to think about. So let’s review the important things that have changed for your audience.  

What’s Changed for B2B Audiences

A Big Chunk is Unemployed

This fact has two major implications. One, a lot of the email addresses you have are now useless. So raise your blog game, and try to get more subscribers. And two, unemployed followers and subscribers don’t want to see a lot of sales content now. They want to see content that helps keep them employable. This means thought leadership, industry intelligence, general trends, and anything else that convinces unsuspecting recruiters and social media contacts that they aren’t sitting around in their underwear watching Netflix.

A Lot of Spending is Frozen

B2B means you’re selling to businesses, and a lot of businesses just aren’t buying now. And you no doubt know by now whether or not this applies to your customers. If they’re not buying, follow the advice I just gave you. Deprioritize sales and prioritize brandbuilding by adding value. Don’t waste the audience’s time with a lot of hippy-dippy BS about being in this together, or what you’re doing for your remote employees, or your thoughts on the crisis of the week. An unemployed person with grim prospects has precisely no patience for that sort of thing. And your audience gets enough of it from other sources anyway – they don’t need it from you.

Your Content Isn’t Being Consumed in an Office

You probably knew this already. But you might not realize all the implications. First, desktop consumption is up, which tilts the scale somewhat towards long-form content. But social media and news consumption are also up 21% and 36% as of March, respectively (Statista). This means your content needs to be strong to keep your audience from being lured away by the latest morsel of dopamine-laced outrage on Twitter.

And since people are commuting less, the importance of the old regular publishing times is also less (more on this below).

How Should You Adjust?

I don’t have all the answers. There’s no playbook for where we are now. But you’ll need to make some tactical adjustments. I’ve already suggested a few ways, but there’s still more to do in terms of methods, channels, and execution.

Be More Social

Social media has been a popular punching bag lately amongst marketing influencers, but people are spending more time on it than ever. So it may be a good time to step up your efforts. However, don’t assume that just because your audience is consuming more social media, you can get lazy in terms of quality. People are busy, distracted, outraged, stressed out, sleeping poorly, and have Friends on in the background. You really need to bring you’re A-Game to have a breakthrough amidst all that noise. And don’t bother with a bunch of branded hashtag crap. There are more important things going viral right now. Focus on value, education, and repetition.

And one other thing. Despite what the membership numbers tell you, Twitter and LinkedIn are still very much US-dominated platforms. If something big is happening in the States, these channels will break your heart if you choose to compete with it; and it’s gonna be a long hot summer, and even hotter autumn, in the land of the free.

But I don’t think you should just sit it out during the big events. You’ve gotta keep plugging away. I would focus more on quality and less on frequency, with plenty of cleverly repackaged repetition. And throw your expectations in terms of metrics out the window, because it’ll probably be ugly.

Just grin and bear it.

Be More Experimental

Be sure to experiment with publishing times, if you haven’t already. I don’t have numbers to back this up, but my gut says hit your audience early in the morning, before they have a chance to be sucked into the vortex of whatever today’s crisis is, which will drain their willpower to click or read your latest blog on home-office firewalls.

Also be sure to experiment in terms of format. Nobody really knows what the new rules are yet for how to best reach the home-office worker bee.

Be More Visual

This advice is not exactly new. But in the past, you might have derided it if you were in B2B. Video was often a tough sell because audiences often consumed B2B content at the office. But now your desk may be at home. So don’t be afraid to flex your video muscles a little more.

And since your audience has spent the last few months getting more accustomed to webinars, podcasts, and Zoom meetings, explore these avenues. One thing I suggest that could prove highly effective is video testimonials, since it’s probably easier now to pin down customers, as well as your own sales staff and account managers. And a testimonial can have a lot more power if it’s coming from a living breathing human instead of a publicity photo.

Be More Survey-ish

LinkedIn’s new survey function could not have come along at a better time. People are in their homes, wondering what everyone else is doing, wondering what’s happening in their industry, and wondering if what they’re thinking, feeling, and experiencing are normal. Surveys are a good way to address this hunger, and fancy reports with colorful figures and factoids can be a nice output.

Be More Supportive

Your company may or may not be selling a lot right now. But regardless, something you might need more of right now is post-purchase content. Since more of your customers are working from home, they may no longer have access to a geek who can just visit their desk and solve technical problems as they come up. Support the non-technical people amongst your customers with demo videos, FAQ lists, and other plain-language content.

Go Deeper

Your new work situation may be more chaotic than you might like, but chances are you have fewer brush fires to put out in terms of writing than you did before. This gives you a good opportunity to focus on creating some good high-value content. Write better blogs. Create that whitepaper you always wanted to. Make better case studies (still the most valuable form on content in terms of generating sales).

And remember, your audience is quite unsettled. Don’t disturb them with reheated leftovers. Offer something fresh.