How to adapt your content during the pandemic

Pandemic or no pandemic, keeping your digital content curated and relevant remains essential for business success. 

In fact, it can even be argued that it’s even more important to pay attention to what you post online during difficult times. You can’t just “trendjack” for the sake of likes, shares, and comments.

While it can boost your traffic and engagement, it can also harm your long-term credibility. That being said, here are a few suggestions on how to adapt your online content, keeping it sensitive, tasteful, and relevant during the pandemic:

Be Mindful of the Design Elements

Brands with a fun, playful identity might find it difficult to create relevant content using the same vibe. However, it’s not impossible. 

Work with a reputable graphic design company so they can make creative, visually appealing graphics that are still on-brand but socially conscious. Remember: you want to increase engagement but you don’t want to be callous (or be branded as a bandwagoner).

It’s also a good idea to study the materials being released by your competitors and the response to such content. 

Pay special attention to colour schemes, typefaces, and visual elements such as icons. This way, you know what kinds of materials to create in order to get your desired results.

Strike a Balance Between Timeless And Trending

In just a few short months, the pandemic has changed everyone’s lives. Nevertheless, it will still end sometime in the future. 

With regards to the pandemic, people may even feel that they’re “over it” and are already starting to move on. As such, you need to strike a careful balance between pandemic-related content and evergreen ones. 

You can’t talk about COVID-19 on all your posts; it can get tiring, annoying, or even depressing for your followers. In addition, people will become less and less interested in such topics as things slowly get back to normal.

If you don’t have one yet, create a content marketing calendar and allocate a smaller portion of it to pandemic-related posts. The rest should be focused on creating what’s called evergreen content that could be useful and appealing to everyone (even non-followers) at all times. 

Doing this can help convert the interest and concern over COVID-19 into brand growth.

Don’t Force It

Modern consumers are smarter than you think. They can easily tell if you’re simply latching on to trending topics as a way to get more attention and sales. 

Indeed, it can help to exercise empathy and practise careful judgement when creating your content. In addition, be mindful of the way you craft your marketing materials (as discussed in the first point). 

You don’t want to suddenly become viral for all the wrong reasons.

There’s definitely something to be gained from riding the so-called trend waves, but make sure that the connection feels natural. 

Again, modern consumers are smart. Your current and potential customers may be turned off if your content is forced and comes off as insensitive. 

Pick the Aspects That Affect You Directly

Content that’s written from experience tends to offer more emotional resonance and communicate authenticity. After all, you can’t talk about what you don’t truly know. 

This can be critical for audience retention. In addition, it can also help your content stand out from other pandemic-related pieces your customers will undoubtedly see as well.

By writing about how the pandemic has affected your business and its employees, you aren’t just giving them a unique perspective into your business. 

You are also helping create a human connection that is sorely needed in these trying times.

Stay Positive

Sharing fear-based content may get you more impressions, but it can also be unsustainable. While it’s true that the pandemic is an extremely serious matter, remember that the media has been covering it extensively. 

There’s more than enough negativity and worst-case predictions going around. Thus, the interest in this kind of content can quickly dwindle out even before the pandemic ends. 

By keeping things upbeat and factual, you can create positive feelings around your brand even as the worst happens. This kind of emotional pull tends to last longer and may help your content do well beyond the pandemic. 

It will also be easier for you to transition back to positive, non-COVID-related posts if you maintain a more positive tone.

Remember that while content marketing could be heavily influenced by current events, they also aren’t the only factors that affect rankings and social impact. What matters most is that your content is relevant, helpful, and well-crafted. 

Pay attention to the sentiments of your target market and strategise accordingly. You should also keep in mind that major disasters will affect different organisations in different ways. 

Thus, there’s no cookie-cutter method of adapting. Besides, blindly following what other companies are doing can spell trouble for your brand. 

Study the trends and take account the unique position of your business to create your own opportunities.