Though bottomless budgets certainly help, their role in the creation of outstanding ideas is relatively small. This is particularly true in the age of rapid digital influence, where content and experience can be tested, withdrawn, tweaked, and re-released within minutes. The ability to extend the reach of campaigns once perfected, even during times of enhanced economic and social pressure, brings marketplace competitors onto a level playing field. This is the value of content.

How Content Helps to Keep Up with The Pace of Change

Some of the most famous content campaigns of this generation will go down in history as they struck whilst the iron was hot. A brand’s ability to react to trends, news, and changing circumstances outlines its ability to gather followers, engagement, and customers – but it’s not an arena which simply rewards presence. The content must be meaningful to resonate and retain.

For most of your consumers, meaningful content at this point is likely to be content which speaks to Covid-19, it’s influence and its effects. Though emotionally charged content like this may seem divisive, it is also impactful – and presents an opportunity to communicate your understanding and empathy, as well as your desire to keep up with the momentum of change.

Serving as the mouthpiece for your brand, getting effective content to your customer will prove invaluable in the current climate. Customers are understandably wary when it comes to purchasing now and consequently your marketing must do more of the legwork in sales than it has ever done before.

The consequences of being behind the times can be stark. Research from Ketchum showed that, earlier this year, almost half of all consumers had changed their brand preferences during the pandemic – due either to a failure to appreciate consumer struggles in relation to Covid-19, or failure to engage with racial justice issues following the BLM movement.

As Forbes discovered in 2020, 79% of CMOs are pivoting to focus on building more ‘trusting relationships’ and content marketing is going to be a key driver in keeping the market aware of this intention. As well as this. according to Demand Metric, content marketing is 62% cheaper than traditional outbound marketing and delivers 3x the leads, yet it somehow still only attracts strong investment from 60% of B2C companies.

We know that content marketing delivers results, this is why 86% of highly effective organizations have someone leading on a group-wide content strategy. It simply does not make sense not to engage in content creation currently, to realize success, organizations must invest now.

What does a Meaningful Customer Experience look like?

Once we have used our content to engage potential customers though, how can we then provide a meaningful customer experience? First impressions are hard to erase – and that’s just as true in-person as it is from a brand perspective, so naturally, we must develop a customer experience which provides meaningful outcomes for the end-user. This is particularly important in a world of remote engagement and diminishing brand loyalty.

According to McKinsey, there are four simple ways that CMOs can improve this in the day-to-day:

• Care & Concern – customers want to feel seen, heard, and listened to. To this end, the tone of your approach must be sensitive rather than promotional. You need to figure out a way to prioritize your staff and community whilst staying true to your values
• Meet your customers where they are – The lives of your customers have changed – possibly irreversibly – and you must make all efforts to meet them where they are. For example, provide innovative digital models to serve customers at home, whilst expanding delivery and contactless options
• Reimagine the post-Covid-19 world – though economic difficulties may drive closures and cost-cutting measures; most businesses can still work effectively. Executives must look to migrate their customers to digital channels, to both save money and stay afloat, but also to improve experience in the overall.
• Build Agile Capabilities – CMOs must reach for every tool on the shelf if they are to deliver results on time. This means tapping social media for customer readings, using employees to get on-site insights, building ‘test and scale

GDS Group hosts experts to help experts. We strive to provide an atmosphere for our attendees that enables them to confidently lead their companies through major transformation projects. For information on upcoming events, view our view our Digital Summits. To remain current on our activities, visit GDS Group on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter.