Tag Archives: Covid-19

The importance of content writing and copywriting in the times of Covid-19

Importance of content writing and copywriting in the times of Covid-19 outbreak.

The world is gradually settling down to the reality of living amidst the Covid-19 outbreak. How can content writing and copywriting help you get through these difficult times?

The lockdowns came and economies all over the world are opening up with great caution. There have been heated debates on what is more important – preventing oneself from getting infected or restarting the wheels of the economy.

Millions of jobs have been lost. Thousands of businesses have been closed and many are on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the meantime, Jeff Bezos is almost worth $ 200 billion. A lot of credit goes to the spike in the online retail market because people don’t want to go out and shop.

As someone who provides professional content writing and copywriting services, I see an increased demand from my clients in the online retail sector. Many on-demand mobile apps are coming up that allow people to buy products from home.

Cloud services is another sector that has experienced phenomenal growth during the Covid-19 outbreak, as a greater number of companies prefer their employees to work from home.

Even Google and Microsoft declared recently that they are encouraging their employees to work from home at least for a year.

Companies like Intel are changing their work culture on a permanent basis so that more of their employees can take care of their responsibilities from home using cloud services.

How can efficient content writing and copywriting help you during the Covid-19 outbreak?

Coming to the main topic of the post…

Whenever a calamity hits, some businesses are affected more, and some businesses are affected less.

There are many businesses, due to their positioning and targeting, who even profit.

Businesses providing digital services are profiting during the times of Covid-19.

Netflix is profiting. Of course, Amazon. Microsoft and Google. Gaming companies. Online video conferencing companies. On-demand food, groceries and commodity delivering services.

Hence, if you are providing services that can be delivered online, you need to enhance your presence.

I’m not saying that suddenly you’re going to give Amazon and Google a run for their money, there are thousands of small businesses that are doing great during the outbreak.

This also means that you need to maintain your visibility.

Almost everyone searches online these days whenever one is looking for a service or are product to buy.

The first thing they do is, go to Google or launch the Google app on their mobile phone, and search for the thing they need.

It’s very important that they are able to find you if you want to sell to them.

No matter how great your product or service is, if they are not able to find you, how are they going to become your paying customers and clients?

You need to improve your search engine rankings. You need to improve your conversion rate.

Targeted content writing helps you increase your organic search engine rankings.

Efficient copywriting helps you improve the conversion rate on your website or landing page.

During uncertain times, you may feel that you can ill-afford to spend money on professional content writing and copywriting.

This is understandable.

But, if you are spending money on advertising (something like PPC campaigns), then SEO content writing is, though, I don’t like using this expression, way cheaper compared to advertising.

When you run PPC campaigns, you pay for every click. And this every click is for every keyword. If you get 10 clicks, you pay for them. If you get 100 clicks, you pay for them.

But when you invest in quality content, your search engine rankings improve organically.

So, whether you get 10 clicks, 100 clicks, 1000 clicks, or even 1 million clicks, the only money that you spend is on the quality content that you are getting from a professional content writer.

The same goes with professional copywriting. Even if you don’t want to improve your SEO and you would rather spend money on a PPC campaign, how much of that paid traffic is actually converting?

If your PPC campaign sends all the traffic to your homepage, let me be frank with you: you are wasting money.

Traffic from a PPC campaign must always go to a landing page that has been specifically created for a set of keywords. Landing pages are specifically used for PPC campaigns.

A landing page needs professional copywriting.

Once people come to your landing page through your PPC campaign, they need to be convinced by your copy.

Every headline, every sentence and every bulleted list point contribute towards your overall conversion rate.

Hence, if you ever thought of making strategic investments in content writing and copywriting for your website, now is the best time.

You need all the visibility you can get during the Covid-19 outbreak which, the WHO has predicted, is going to last for a couple of years, at least.

How to use content to market your business during Covid-19

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Using content for marketing during Covid-19.

Marketing budgets are being slashed all over the world. This Forrester research says that marketing budgets all over the world have definitely declined due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but they are expected to start going up by the end of 2020 and may recover by 2021.

But it depends on which side the unpredictable camel of the outbreak sits. Nothing is for sure right now. Many countries don’t even know what their current position vis-à-vis the outbreak is.

According to the above research, the CMO’s are taking the money out of out-of-home advertisements and moving the budgets to digital marketing for obvious reasons.

Despite the lunatics denying the severity of Covid-19, lesser number of people are moving out and are spending time working from home and consequently, being in front of the screen for longer durations.

Another thing many marketers are stressing is that, you shouldn’t stop marketing. A McGraw-Hill research of the 1981 and 82 recession found that businesses that marketed aggressively during the recession had 256% higher sales than those that did not.

But how do you market yourself if your business is making less money than before?

The answer is content marketing.

You spend less money than you spent on traditional advertisements, and it is far more effective. Especially now, when digital marketing is more effective than traditional marketing.

You can either publish original content or you can re-purpose your existing content, or you can do a mix of both.

The point is, now is the right time to let your customers and clients know that you are still in the game (you haven’t been destroyed by the Covid-19 outbreak) and you are still actively promoting yourself.

The dust is settling. In the early months of the year people were caught off-guard. Emotions were running high. People were scared and concerned. They were caught unaware.

Although the virus is widespread and a big part of the population is infected (in New Delhi right now 33% of the population is reported to have been infected by the virus), people are less worried. A lot has to do with the ignorance about the effects of the virus, but many businesses are getting back to their feet.

https://twitter.com/AmritHallan/status/1285550801151119361

During this time, it is nice if you set a healthy example and use content marketing and digital marketing to promote yourself. Here are a few things you can do with your content:

Repurpose existing content

If you feel you have already got lots of content on your website or blog but you need to add new content, you can consider repurposing your existing content.

You may like to read: How to re-purpose old content?

Repurposing your content means generating new formats of content out of your existing content pieces.

For example, if you have a detailed blog post on how to do content marketing on mobile phones, perhaps you can create a slideshow or a video. You can also create a PDF e-book that people can download.

Refocus on your email marketing

Email marketing is a big part of content marketing, in fact, the most effective aspect of it. When you send emails to your prospects, your message appears right in their inbox.

Of course, before you can send them emails, you need to win their trust so that they regularly open your emails.

Winning the trust of your email recipients is a different ballgame and requires a dedicated post, but for the time being, you need to understand that since most of the people are confined to their homes, they are more receptive to receiving valuable information through emails.

This Campaign Monitor study has revealed that more people are opening their emails than before. From February to March, businesses reported a 16% change in the open rate of emails.

This American Express blog post has shared some insights on the emerging email marketing trends during Covid-19 and what you can do to make your email marketing as effective as possible.

Accelerate your content publishing

Since more people are working from their homes, they are consuming targeted content with greater frequency than when they were going to their offices.

Also, while working in isolation, people are searching for relevant information to solve their day-to-day professional problems.

Basically, everything on the Internet is content. What you publish on your website, whether they are web pages or blog posts, is content. What you publish on social media, is content. When you send an email marketing campaign, you are broadcasting content.

To publish purposeful content during the outbreak, you first need to find out what your core audience is looking for.

For example, my clients want to improve their search engine visibility through quality content. These days, on my blog, I’m publishing lots of content that can help you improve your search engine rankings vis-à-vis the Covid-19 outbreak.

Information is another thing that people are constantly looking. They want to remain informed. Whatever business they are dealing with, they want to get the right information about whether the business can deliver or not.

You can also sail your content marketing boat on uncharted waters. If you have never published case studies, maybe now is the right time because they are a big confidence booster. If you have never published videos on your website, perhaps now is the right time.

Content marketing can help you in multiple ways during these trying times. For example, it can help you stay in front of your customers and clients. You can help them by providing them useful information and as a result, increase customer loyalty.

It was also set in motion your core content marketing strategy even after Covid is over.

B2B marketing content consumption increased during Covid-19

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B2B content marketing has increased during Covid-19

So says this PRWeb report. It is understandable. Since most of the people are confined to their homes, whether they are freelancers or full-time employees of some company, one of the best ways of reaching out to these people is through high-quality marketing content.

In-person, face-to-face meetings have been stopped or even banned at many places. Conferences and workshops stand cancelled for the foreseeable future. The B2B marketplace depends a lot on these communication channels.

Not all findings notice an increase in the spending on content marketing especially in the B2B arena. For example, this McKinsey survey found mixed reactions among its responders.

Sales leaders are already moving quickly to navigate the crisis, with the best ones focusing on how to make targeted changes that help their businesses weather the storm and start preparing for the recovery. As we update this survey in the coming weeks, we will also share perspectives on planning for the recovery as well as reimagining the new normal for sales.

Many B2B companies are reducing their marketing spend but on the other hand, there are many companies who have increased or maintained their current budgets thinking that there is more reason to keep in touch with their core customer base in whichever way possible.

Digital interactions are obviously increasing whether they are through targeted content or video events.

90% marketing among the B2B circles is happening through video conferencing, mobile phones and other digital platforms.

This LinkedIn study reveals that 42% of the respondents faced budget cuts in marketing (whether conventional marketing or content marketing), which is a big challenge. 47% marketers said that they have increased focus on emotional and human-centric content during Covid-19. Consequently 19% confessed that there has been a drastic reduction in the product-focused content.

The author of the above LinkedIn report rightly comments that marketers have no idea how to deal with the current situation. They have a precedents with other market conditions such as the recession or the bursting of the dot-com bubble, but the Covid-19 outbreak is a completely new, unexpected phenomena that engulfed the entire world within a matter of a couple of weeks.

This Forbes article says:

The pandemic has led to nations limiting business activities, which has added immense pressure on business owners. While some organizations have closed, the remaining are left to deal with the harrowing aftermath. They are facing unprecedented challenges, including supply chain disruptions, a slump in customer demand, regulatory changes and increased uncertainty about the future.

The reality is that you cannot ignore marketing. Ad hoc responses don’t pay dividends. You need to put a strategy in place. I personally believe that the Covid-19 situation is going to last for a long time, and we need to prepare accordingly.

Why Will the COVID-19 Crisis Boost Digital Marketing in the Future?

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Digital marketing is more relevant during Covid-19

The field of digital marketing has been evolving for more than a decade now, and its importance is exponentially growing. With all the changes in the use of our devices, technological advances have provided us with more opportunities, along with constant access to the World Wide Web.

And with the outbreak of a global pandemic, people are spending even more time online. Most of the countries are in a lockdown state, with restrictions on travel and general movement, but people still need both products and services. The impact of the current situation will be a long-term one, and it will affect every aspect of the world market.

The new reality

For the time being, virtual reality is the only one where we can actually connect. For this reason, it is essential for brands to continue with the online presence and show people that we’re all in this together.

Many businesses are having a hard time coping with the loss of profits, and are wondering if they’re going to survive. And we are all aware that many people have lost their jobs and financial stability.

The times are quite unfortunate, but no one could have predicted these circumstances. The only way for a business to survive is to adapt to rapid changes, stay visible and relevant, and understand the consequences for when everything gets back to normal.

Staying relevant

It has never been so important to remind people of your products and services. Trying to anticipate the needs of the consumers is a leading idea in marketing in general, but at this point, you have a better perspective than usual.

And you can even get the best out of this awful situation and earn more trust among your customers, by increasing the loyalty levels. You know that everyone is spending more time online, so you need to be present as well.

There are several aspects of your visibility, starting with social media.

This period can be an opportunity to work on your digital marketing improvement, as its importance is going to continue growing afterwards.

Providing relevant content and staying on top of the crisis will make your brand more humane, and you ought to show empathy while raising your brand awareness.

Share the latest updates and helpful advice, ask for feedback and try to entertain people.

You can attract a new audience and possibly convert them into customers.

In terms of branding, this can turn out to be a great phase in which your business can evolve. It is highly recommended to use this time to invest in PPC and SEO services, as those are becoming the new and modern “traditional” ways of marketing.

Experts all over the world have been saying this for a while now, but now, living only in the virtual world, deprived of human contact, it is becoming clear as a day.

Consumer intentions and habits

Digital marketing and peoples expectations during Covid-19

People are adapting to the changes quite rapidly, and their expectations change in accordance.

You need to follow and respond to those because billboards are huge, but the reality is that most people will walk by them staring at the screen of their smartphones.

The importance of e-commerce is also exponentially growing, therefore the need for better online promotion.

It is all connected, and every trend will influence the next one. But, since we’re not talking about fashion, the trends will not come back, but only continue to change.

Your ranking on the search engines is likely to determine the future of your brand’s image and reputation.

Most people will search for the product or service they need before they purchase, so they need to be able to learn about your brand. It is simply not enough to have a website, because, without the proper promotion, the traffic on it will most likely be on a low level. Furthermore, not every one of those visits will end up with a conversion of users into buyers.

The future has arrived, and you shouldn’t leave a head start to your competitors, by staying in the past.

Conduct research of your competition and you will most likely find out they are all investing in paid advertisements and optimization of search engines. The smartest move would be heavily investing in the promotion now and preparing something valuable to offer. Since there is a movement restriction, the best advice is to focus on the local area and include it in your targeted keywords.

Emotional component

When you are there for someone in the hardest of times, people tend not to forget it. They will appreciate a supporting video message from a company’s CEO for example and every other way you can try to engage them.

We are all isolating and staying home, surrounded by the devastating news which are shaping our minds and heavily influencing our emotional stability.

Having the emotional component in the equation can help you trigger the positive ones and create a more stable connection with consumers, further increasing the levels of loyalty.

No one can say for sure how much longer this is going to last, but one thing is sure – the world will not be the same afterwards. Once the habit is formed, it is not so easy to break out of it.

This doesn’t mean people will continue to shop in bulk, but rather there will be many changes in our lifestyle that have happened on a subconscious level.

Accept the fact the virtual reality is becoming more and more intertwined with real life, and as soon as you adapt to it, you will see the results and higher profits.

You can even convert the most loyal consumers of other brands, by appealing to their emotions. Brands that have developed a strategy for promoting the offer of deliveries will be more respected and attract new buyers, for example.

Conclusion

In the world of entrepreneurship, flexibility has always been the key.

Marketers need to focus on the expectations and habits of consumers, in order to find the right approach.

The Internet has changed the very essence of life, and people will most likely continue to shop online, and those numbers are predicted to only grow over time.

One-click purchases, and deliveries are some of the features people are grateful for in the new age.

The time is only going forward, so don’t let yourself be stuck in the past.

7 blog writing ideas during the Coronavirus outbreak

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7 blog post writing ideas during to coronavirus outbreak

You know that you need to blog regularly. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak and the lockdowns in its wake, everyone is either sitting home or stuck somewhere.

If you run your own business or if you have a small company, this is a good time to improve your search engine rankings by publishing quality content on your blog.

Depending on which source you decide to trust, roughly 2-4 million blog posts are published every day. 70 million posts are published every month just by WordPress users.

Even if the figure has been reduced by 50% due to the Coronavirus outbreak, 1-2 million blog posts every day is still a very big number.

As I quoted one of the HubSpot reports in a previous blog post, businesses that publish on an average 16 blog posts every month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those businesses that publish on an average 4 blog posts a month.

Hence, consistently posting fresh content on your website is particularly important. As it is, business may be down for you and on top of that if you ignore writing and publish content or blog posts on your website, it is going to make things worse.

But what to publish? People’s priorities seem to have changed. They are either very alarmed and worried about their livelihoods, or they are simply clueless and in shock.

Obviously, Covid-19 or the Coronavirus dominates every discourse these days. People want to read about the virus as much as possible. They want to read about how it is infecting, how bad it is and what are its after-effects. They also want to read about its economic impact.

They may already be going through hardships due to the outbreak.

Nonetheless, they also want to know how to do digital marketing in the times of Covid-19.

Content marketing or digital marketing begins with publishing quality blog posts. If you are running out of ideas, listed below are 7 blog top writing ideas during the Coronavirus outbreak.

1. Write about your personal experience

Blogging is about sharing your personal experience. It is usually written in the first person. You can write a blog post on how the Coronavirus outbreak is personally affecting you.

For example, one of my biggest clients has completely vanished. He was a big income source.

Although personally I don’t recommend depending on a single source of income, in the hubbub of life, you end up ignoring many aspects of your business and one of these aspects was, generating more income streams.

How is your online traffic these days? Has your traffic increased or decreased? This data can give valuable hints to other businesses.

How about your employees or business partners? How is the Coronavirus affecting them?

Many topics and subtopics can be created out of this.

2. Write about what steps you are taking to promote your business during the Covid-19 lockdown

Most of the businesses are itching to get back on their feet. In fact, many governments are more eager to ease out the lockdown than they should.

What it means is, whether you are open for business while the Coronavirus pandemic is at its peak or you plan to open after the dust settles, you need to promote your business.

If you are choosing not to promote right now, rest assured that your competitors are.

The wheels of commerce do not stop. Whether you feel like promoting your business right now or not, you must put in some effort.

Hence, if you are actively promoting your business, what measures are you taking?

Are you trying to improve your SEO? Are you filling the gaps? Are you adding quality content? Are you increasing your social media presence? Are you revitalizing your newsletter? Are you working on that e-book you have been planning to write for years?

There are scores of things you can do to promote your business during the Covid-19 lockdown. Write about them.

3. Write about what has been your work from home experience

Literally millions of people are working from home.

Frankly, aside from the fact that one must remain locked down and be very careful, I have been working from home for years. What has changed is, most of my clients are also working from their homes these days.

What is your experience? Has it affected your productivity? Are you looking forward to working from home for many more months? Or do you need the sword of the office hanging over your neck to remain productive and to deliver?

If you have just recently started working from home, what sort of environment have you created for yourself? How is it affecting your productivity and efficiency?

4. Advise your customers and clients on how to remain safe

This is one of the most pressing concerns these days: how to avoid getting infected by the Coronavirus?

This will be a slight digression from your usual postings (for example, my content is mostly about content writing and content marketing) but since you already have some traffic on your blog, you can use it to raise awareness about how to keep safe from the Coronavirus.

Everybody knows that you must wash your hands repeatedly and keep your face covered and avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes when you think you might have touched something infected.

Nonetheless, you can give some interesting twist. You can also write something on how to avoid getting infected and how to avoid infecting your loved ones if you cannot help going out and you must expose yourself due to an unavoidable reason.

5. Write about the interesting stuff you’re finding on the Internet

Everything is not gloom and doom on the Internet. People are finding plenty of time during the lockdown to create interesting stuff. For example, this family is creating chalk drawings with the help of their little daughter.

Activities during the coronavirus lockdown

People are preparing lists of books they can read during the Coronavirus lockdown. They are creating Netflix lists; music lists and all sorts of lists people can use according to their taste. You can prepare your own list and publish it on your blog.

6. Write about your fitness schedule

One of the biggest problems faced by people who are working from home is that their movement has been curtailed.

People cannot go on walks. People cannot go to the gym. Even the usual physical exercise such as walking on the pavement or using the public transport or using the stairs in the office has been brought to a grinding halt.

Nonetheless, people are using creative ways to keep themselves fit and healthy. There is a deluge of mobile apps that help you follow a well-defined fitness schedule while you are in the lockdown.

Share your fitness schedule. Even if you don’t have any, just talk about how you feel about it.

7. Write about the new things you have discovered about yourself while working under the Coronavirus lockdown

Again, I have always worked from home so when it comes to discovering oneself, I think I have made plenty of discovery.

What about you? If you have just started working from home and that too, due to the Coronavirus lockdown, what have you discovered about yourself? Are you able to work without supervision? Are you missing the meetings or the air of importance that an office gives?

Do you like house chores? Recently I was reading an article where a person says that he has discovered that he loves doing house chores which he used to find boring when he was going to office.

Someone else has written that she really enjoys reading stories to her little kids.

Another person has started compiling lists of to-do apps that can help you work in isolation while keeping track of what you have done and what remains to be done.

A big part of writing blog posts during the Coronavirus lockdown is writing about the pandemic and at the same time writing about you and your business. The topic ideas need to revolve around the current context.