Tag Archives: Covid-19

The importance of quality content during the Coronavirus outbreak

importance of quality content during the coronavirus outbreak

Quality content has always been about being informative and helpful.

Whether you are writing content for your website or blog, or you are publishing videos and images, your content must be relevant and purposeful.

Quality content is supposed to solve problems, and what could be the greater problem of our times than the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Coronavirus outbreak is turning out to be one of the greatest human and economic tragedies of our times.

Millions are falling victim to it. Thousands are dying on daily basis.

By early April 2020, 16 million people are known to have lost their jobs just in the US.

The overall economic growth worldwide is projected to be -3%.

Two major fears during the Coronavirus outbreak are:

How safe me and my family are and what can I do to keep my loved ones safe?
How do I take care of my livelihood, my business or my employment?

Businesses are reorienting themselves with great speed. Old privileges of being lost. New opportunities are being found.

Outbreaks like the Coronavirus aren’t new to the world.

In one way or another, our world has constantly been besieged by different catastrophes.

The world has seen great wars, colonialism and imperialism, large-scale slavery, atomic explosions, epidemics and famines, environmental disasters, and crusades and jihads.

As a global civilization, we have survived. As individuals, some do, some don’t.

The better informed, the better educated, are in a better situation to cope with a calamitous situation compared to those who are too smug or too busy panicking and complaining about the state of affairs.

Nothing informs and educates better than content, especially in the times of the Internet.

As a business, how can you inform and educate your customers and clients?
If you have an online presence, if you have some degree of traffic on your website or blog, you already have a platform.

Don’t worry about how many people come to your website. Even if you can help a couple of people by publishing informative web pages and blog posts, you will be making a positive impact.

What about a newsletter?

Everyone can use timely information.

In normal days, you use a newsletter to promote your products or services or to engage your subscribers on an ongoing basis.

You can achieve the same even during the Coronavirus outbreak. People already know what business you are in, so you don’t need to mention that.

Whenever you come across something useful, something you feel that your subscribers can benefit from, you can publish it in your newsletter.

New trends are emerging. New patterns are being found. Curves are being flattened.

Thousands of scientists are toiling in their labs to discover the vaccine. There are stories of human triumph all around.

You can publish such information on your website along with how it is going to impact your audience.

Keep publishing helpful content on your website, blog and newsletter.
Remain in touch with people, irrespective of whether they intend to do business with you. Just as you help someone, someone will help you. This is how one civilization after another has survived.

Tackle the Coronavirus outbreak with strategic SEO

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Work on your SEO during the coronavirus outbreak

At the cost of sounding opportunistic, I’m getting multiple updates in my email and all over the web that digital marketing may get a boost during the coronavirus/covid-19 outbreak.

I know, marketing budgets are being slashed. Businesses are still recovering after the initial shock.

Everybody is adapting to the new reality that is going to manifest for a long time.

Social distancing has magnified the importance of the digital environment.

Although, no longer a novelty, the world had resisted fully adopting the digital and had been existing in an avoidably physical environment with people needlessly rushing to their offices and contributing to vehicular pollution.

No matter how worse the situation gets, people will need to get on their feet, even if mostly digitally.

This is going to throw up a new marketing opportunity.

The way people search is changing fast. People are looking for new ways of earning a livelihood and even carrying on their lives.

SEO can play an important role in this. This blog post titled Marketers find SEO vital to facing coronavirus challenges refers to an SEO research that has thrown up the following highlights:

64% respondents say that there are going to be drastic cuts in the marketing budgets.
86% say that meeting annual goals due to the coronavirus outbreak seem like a distant dream.
63% say that search engine optimization (SEO) is more important than ever.

The last point is important from the perspective of what I am writing.

Why SEO is very important in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak?

One, everyone is scrambling for whatever is left of the business opportunities.

Two, it is often very difficult for bigger organizations to adapt and adopt. This is an opportunity for smaller businesses.

Also, bigger businesses are less courageous and agile than smaller entrepreneurs.

Bigger businesses are cutting short their marketing budgets and this is also having an adverse effect on their search engine rankings.

You can use this opportunity to work on your SEO and improve your search engine rankings vis-à-vis other big and small businesses.

You can also write and publish content according to change in the paradigms.

Find out what people are looking for in the altered reality and then write and publish content accordingly.

The above-linked blog post rightly says:

Most media investments are fleeting. You buy an impression, you get an impression. You buy a click, you get a click. Your content and SEO are like bonds. You invest today. You begin to get yield today, and if you execute well, you continue to drive value for many years – without making any more investments. This is like a high-yield bond fund, not a lot of risk, and it just grows and grows and grows.

SEO, underpinned by targeted content writing, is a long-term investment that, once it starts paying, pays for a very long time.

You may like to read 10 SEO content writing tips for your small business.

I will share my own observation of the recent coronavirus-ridden times.

My traffic hasn’t reduced. In fact, there have been very small spikes.

It means, people are either exploring content writing and content marketing opportunities for themselves, or they are aware of publishing high-quality content for SEO.

Going by the effort that I put in, I would also like to go to the extent of saying that even the number of queries hasn’t gone down although, the conversion rate isn’t as good as it used to be.

It means people are realizing the importance of quality content writing vis-à-vis SEO, but they are finding it hard to make financial decisions. Which is understandable.

Anyway, this is a good time for you to work on your SEO. Multiple factors are in your favor:

Bigger businesses are spending less on marketing and SEO.
Many small businesses are still coming to terms with the new reality.
Many businesses think that the situation is going to pass quickly (which is not the case) and by the time the reality dawns upon them, you can get a head start.

These are difficult times. Many businesses are being closed down. Many have already closed. People have lost their livelihoods. Lap-up every opportunity you get.

Remove digital distancing through targeted content writing

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Remove digital distancing with targeted content writing

We are living in the times of social distancing.

Instead of coming closer, we want to move away from people fearing that the closeness can get is infected with the Coronavirus.

This is a legitimate fear as the initial reluctance for social distancing has proven disastrous for many countries.

As social and physical distancing are the norms of the day, how do you make up for it.

By removing digital distancing.

What is digital distancing and how you can remove it with targeted content writing?

Digital distancing can be self-imposed or inadvertent.

Digital distancing is when people who are supposed to reach you, people who should be able to find you, are unable to do so.

Digital distancing can happen due to multiple reasons including

You are not writing and publishing targeted content.
You don’t rank well for the right keywords and search terms and hence, people cannot find you on Google and other search engines.
You don’t have a social media presence.
You don’t have a mailing list and you don’t publish a newsletter.
You don’t have incoming links from other websites and blogs.

What it means is, for a big chunk of your target audience, you practically don’t exist.

You can remove digital distancing and bring people closer to you, digitally.

You can achieve this by writing and publishing targeted content.

What is targeted content writing?

Targeted content writing

It is content writing that solves the purpose.

Why are people looking for you?

For example, if you’re searching for content writing services or a content writer or an SEO writer, are you simply doing it because you have lots of spare time, or are you in need of these services?

Targeted content writing is based on searcher’s intent.

Here Google explains how searcher intent is redefining the market funnel.

In terms of search engine traffic, searcher intent is the “why” behind the search.

Why is the user looking for the information he or she is looking for?

Searchers intent can be categorized in the following manner:

Informational intent: People are simply looking for information, something like “how fast is covid-19 spreading?”
Navigational intent: People want to go to a website but don’t know what the URL is and hence, they search for the name, something like “credible content”.
Commercial intent: People aren’t yet ready to buy, but they are comparing different services, something like “which is better, MailChimp or AWeber?”
Transactional intent: People do this search when they actually want to buy a product or service, something like “need a content writer for my website”.

If you can know what the intent of your typical searcher is and then write and publish content accordingly, you can remove digital distancing to a great extent.

When you write and publish targeted content, on regular basis, you begin to experience an improvement in your search engine rankings.

When your search engine rankings improve, more people are able to find you and when more people are able to find you, more people share your content on social media and more people link to your content.

This sets a chain reaction.

Your online business, whether you run a consultancy, a retail store or an e-commerce store, depends on the right exposure that you get on the web.

To grow your business through targeted content writing, you need to achieve two things:

Start generating targeted traffic through publishing targeted content.
Write and publish lots of quality content to replicate the above result.

Removing digital distancing is very important for online success.

Unless people are able to find you, how can they buy from you, how can they do business with you?

Yes, you can use advertising to mitigate digital distancing to a great extent, but advertising is haphazard, unscientific and in most of the cases, ineffective.

Content marketing – writing and publishing targeted content and then broadcasting it using all available means – makes you become a part of people’s lives, which is more meaningful than advertising.

So, start writing and publishing targeted content to remove digital distancing.

What marketing rules to follow during a crisis like the Covid-19 outbreak?

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Marketing rules to follow during the Covid-19 outbreak

Since lots of content is appearing on my timeline about managing your business, marketing, and content marketing during the Covid-19 outbreak, I tend to share more such content through my blog.

Forbes Billionaires has published Marketing Rules To Follow During Uncertain Economic Times.

This article lays down some rules to follow during an international crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

The suggestions made in this article are quite logical and I myself have been writing about most of them on my blog.

Whereas my writing is around content writing and copywriting, this is a general article on how to take care of your business during such a crisis.

Some of the suggestions made in the article are…

Increase your focus on your current customers and clients

Every business struggles to get new customers and clients.

I myself am constantly worried about, and working hard at, getting new assignments from new clients.

But I’m getting a constant supply of work from my existing clients.

Although, it isn’t as much as the usual business that I get, still, a big amount of my work these days is coming from clients who have either used my content writing services previously, or are currently using them.

Keep in touch with your existing customers and clients.

Inform them and send them information that can keep them safe and secure.

Do something that can improve their lives or even cheer them up.

Hard times doesn’t mean you don’t spend on marketing

The meaning of marketing changes in hard times but it doesn’t stop.

There are multiple reasons why you must go on marketing your business.

The article rightly says

When recessions hit, marketing is often among the first budget cuts. Doing so could potentially cause long-term damage to the brand and allow smaller or weaker competitors to steal market share. There are countless studies going back more than a decade showing that brands maintaining or increasing advertising during a recession gain market share over time.

What does marketing mean in contemporary times, even if you take the Covid-19 outbreak out of the picture?

It means constantly engaging with prospective and current customers and clients.

If you abandon marketing during hard times, your prospective and current customers and clients may think that you are here only to sell and when the prospect of selling vanishes, you vanish too.

Adopt new technologies and new tools and platforms

You may feel that I’m pitching my services, if you haven’t started publishing quality content on your website, this is the right time to do so.

The world of business and marketing is constantly evolving.

15-20 years ago, people depended on conventional advertising on TV, radio and newspapers.

Over the past few years, people have been sifting there focus on content marketing – let people come to your website instead of loading them into visiting your website.

Similarly, you should explore different avenues to promote your business without overtly pushing your products and services in front of people, especially when there are more concerned about their safety and livelihood.

Since hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to work from home, I have observed that many cloud-based services are promoting their business aggressively because they know that these people are going to need the new cloud-based tools to work and collaborate.

Use the time to build your brand through quality content writing and publishing

This is my own pitching, but it is quite applicable.

Just imagine how much you are saving by not having to work in an office.

You can use some of your savings to build your content presence and consequently, expand your brand presence on the Internet.

You can work on your SEO and see how you can generate more search engine traffic.

You may like to read 10 SEO content writing rules you cannot ignore

Open a spreadsheet and start making a list of all the keywords and search terms you haven’t yet covered in your content.

Then, you can either hire a content writer and start publishing your blog posts and webpages on your website, or you can do it yourself.

Be a pillar of strength to your customers and clients

You have been running a business.

You have been leading a workforce.

You have been implementing new business ideas.

You know how to turn challenges into opportunities.

Share your wisdom and experience with your customers and clients and help them in this hour of need.

What type of content to write and publish during a global crisis like Covid-19?

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Content writing and publishing during the Covid-19 crisis

It is very easy to lose track during a crisis. There is all-out chaos.

All your attention span is taken by the news of how many people are being infected or how many people are dying, or about how the outbreak is unleashing unprecedented recession.

What type of content should you write and publish during a pandemic that is affecting every individual in the world?

Just as it happens in normal times, the purpose of writing and publishing content is always to help your readers, and so should be the case when you write and publish content during a global crisis.

This blog post on Marketing Land titled Marketing during a crisis and recession rightly says that “There’s no playbook for any of this.”

Marketing in the times of a global crisis

No one among us has seen a global crisis of such scale. The things that we saw in the movies are now unfolding right in front of our eyes like a bad dream.

The good thing about writing and publishing quality content is that the fundamental intention of publishing such content doesn’t change: even when things were normal, your content was supposed to help people.

In the “normal” times, of course, the “help” meant educating your customers and clients so that they could make better purchase decisions.

But in the Covid-19 ridden world, you know that the biggest question staring in everyone’s faces how to survive the outbreak, both physically and financially.

When you want to promote your products and services, you must consider whether people can actually buy them or not.

I have a few clients whose markets have totally vanished (I provide B2B content writing services and hence all my clients have their own businesses).

For most of the clients, they’re simply trying to hold onto whatever they have got.

Fortunately, the machinery of the world is still moving.

Which means, things can be done, should be done, and this also holds true for writing and publishing quality content to maintain your search engine rankings, to maintain your visibility, and even to reach markets that you haven’t yet reached.

For example, I’m getting content writing assignments from countries I had never previously gotten work from. Hence, I’m thinking of expanding my presence in these countries.

Here is a nice “Whiteboard Friday” video and the treat is that Rand Fishkin is making the presentation almost after a year:

People are naturally holding themselves back when it comes to spending money on marketing, especially content marketing because they believe that the demand is crashing, but Rand in the video makes a very good point: things are going to bounce back, and when they do, will you be ready to leverage?

Don’t hold yourself back simply because everyone else is. If you can afford, do invest in content marketing and building quality content because as the world gets back on track, there will be a sudden surge. At that time, if you have improved your visibility you will be better off compared to your competitors who have gone into a huddle and are ignoring their marketing.

Rand says that one thing we can be certain of is that people are paying more attention online now that they are confined to their homes.

Whatever you are publishing, they’re paying attention. They are less distracted. They may not be travelling. They may not be sitting in coffee shops. They may not be chatting with their colleagues or a group of friends while checking out your blog post. They’re not as distracted as they normally were during pre-Covid-19 times.

Although the above-mentioned blog post from Marketing Land gives a broad advice to businesses and brands on how to manage their businesses in the changed scenario, since I provide content writing services, my main focus is, what sort of content can help you during the Covid-19 crisis: content that can help you survive currently, and build a strong footing for you when the machinery of the world begins to move again.

Here are a few things you can consider:

Write and publish content that will help your core audience

Even if you are a hardcore seller, aggressively promoting your products and services is not going to help you.

Even if people are not put off, they are in no position to either use your products or services (most of them) or buy them.

Take for example the advice given by the Marketing Land blog post, and even by this blog post that I’m writing. Publish advice people can use or at least get inspired from.

Of course, we are all experienced. We all know how to handle the situation. But when we read about it, when we come across blog posts and articles that talk about the same thing, it keeps us focused and helps us reorient our approach.

What if you don’t have something valuable to share with your audience?

Your genuine concern helps. People and businesses are publishing a ton of useful information on the Internet. Go through LinkedIn. Go through Twitter. Find useful articles and blog posts and then share them through your blog or your newsletter.

Consolidate your existing content on your website and blog

Since practically everyone in the civilized world is confined to home, you may get enough time to go through your website and blog and see what content you have been ignoring or didn’t have enough time to improve.

Maybe there are certain keywords and search terms you have been ignoring or you didn’t have much time to cover. Now you can cover them.

If there are certain topics you feel should have been on your website, you can publish them.

Should you publish information about the Coronavirus outbreak? Many websites are doing that.

It depends. If you have information that is not present on other websites, publish it on your website otherwise, just publish links to other, more useful information sources like newspapers or hospital websites.

Otherwise, focus on your core topic. There is no need to sell if you don’t feel like it. Just fill up your website or blog with lots of useful information that will come handy when people start buying again.