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3-2-1 Fridays: How to run content marketing in a recession

3-2-1 Fridays: How to run content marketing in a recession

11 Nov

Hey friend, welcome to today’s issue of Efikó. This newsletter by Dozie Anyaegbunam helps you make smarter decisions in content marketing and life. Anyway, hello, it’s good to see you. You’re doing great 😀

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Hello folks,

It’s been a topsy-turvy week in B2B SaaS.

Layoffs, news of an impending recession, and the general moody outlook when the economy looks like it’s going to bust.

So, it’s probably a good time for everyone to do more encouraging and less criticizing.

Write a Li recommendation for a friend or colleague.Send a short note to a colleague who just got laid off about how great they are at work.Send someone a job posting you think might be a perfect fit.Got recruiters foraging in your DMs but not looking to move? Recommend your colleagues who just got laid off.

Let’s put out some good cheer in the world today.

Minions Cheerful Party iPad Wallpapers Free Download

3 Things I Learned About Running Content Marketing In a Recession

Things don’t look great right now. Consumer spending is dropping. Closed won rates are increasing. Budgets are getting slashed.

As content marketers/writers, it’s time to adapt. What does that mean?

It’s time to do more with less.

Well, here’s how I am thinking about it.

i.

Content distribution is more critical than ever (I’m looking at you, Amber). Ross Simmonds's “create once, distribute forever’ mantra is apt.

Our ability as content strategists/marketers to squeeze more juice out of a single piece of content is critical.

So…

Bake distribution and repurposing into your piece before writing. This could be through:

Your design requests
Calling out sections you want to use on social
Highlighting key points from your SME interviews (you do that, right) that you can cut into clips or standalone posts

If you’ve the budget, Justin Simon’s Content Repurposing Roadmap gives you a step-by-step plan to create, distribute, and repurpose your content.

ii.

Your clients or boss is probably looking to slash the new content production budget. Fair enough.

A reduced or non-existent budget doesn’t mean you can’t do magic.

Remember, one of Google’s ranking factors is “freshness.”

So, update your old content with new information.

Here’s a quick hack from Jonas van de Poel, Head of Content Marketing, Unmuted:

1) Go to Google Search Console2) Find and select pages that are already performing, or seem to suffer from content decay3) Set the date to the past 90 days4) Use the following custom regex filter ^(who|what|where|when|why|how|was|did|do|is|are|aren't|won't|does|if)[" "]5) List all the questions the page is already ranking for6) Add these as subheadings and answer them succinctly7) Republish your content for a quick performance boostBonus step:8) Some of the questions you found might be better as standalone pieces. Add them to your content backlog.Extra super special bonus step, just for reading this post all the way down till here:9) Use the following custom regex filter to find keywords that are eight or more words for that long-tail juice 🧃([^” “]*\s){7,}?

iii.

And if you still have some budget to create new content, you are better off focusing on content that calms your customer’s fears.

No one is looking to try a shiny new toy right now. All they need is to make sure what they currently have works well and can see them through uncertain times.

So, create more valuable content.

Case studies
Customer stories
Job-to-be-done content
How-to guides
Templates or playbooks

You want to be known as the brand that provided answers and a guiding hand in these dark times.

Sheesh, that sounded so Lord or Ringsy.

2 Things I am Thinking About

i.

ii.

"One of the common trappings of success is overproducing.

Companies make money and rapidly expand their product line. Authors become popular and churn out books at a faster clip.

Scale can empower, but it can also dilute. Something is lost when quantity is valued over quality.

You must maintain your standards even when all the forces around you seem to be calling for growth. Push back against more, more, more and remain committed to better, better, better."

James Clear