Did you ever think you would miss going into the office every weekday?
Even for those of us most enthusiastic about working at home, it’s easy to pine for the days of human interaction, company-bought coffee, or even a commute that gives you a chance to catch up on your podcasts.
In short, we’ve all worked hard to establish new routines and adapt… but fatigue is inevitably part of that process. But we can’t give in to the ennui. We all want the health crisis to be over, but until it is, we have to stay engaged — both professionally and personally.
This week’s roundup starts with tips on fighting your personal fatigue, and continues with advice on keeping your content fresh and relevant for your buyers. For additional advice, check out these three LinkedIn tools to help your brand connect with the community.
1. 7 Things That Are Killing Your Content Marketing Productivity
Most content creators had a productive routine figured out at the office. In a work-from-home environment, these routines have been thrown into disarray. After a few months, it’s worth examining whether our new routines are helping or hindering our ability to get the work done.
Vengage’s Ronita Mohan offers plenty of practical, empathetic advice for marketers who feel their productivity is taking a hit right now. These tips are good advice for any writer, but are especially relevant during the current crisis.
First, Ronita advises writers not to edit as they create. “The best way to keep your productivity up is to write your entire piece first, and then go back and revise,” she says. “Write it completely, do an immediate revision to catch smaller mistakes. Come back the next day with a fresh viewpoint to add in points you may have missed, or to improve the flow.”
Working from home gives us a strange combination of hyper-focus and easy distraction. Time slips by amazingly quickly, whether we’re writing content or sucked into a social media crawl. Ronita suggests taking frequent breaks, but also taking steps to minimize distractions, such as putting a social media blocker on your browser and putting your phone out of arm’s reach. “It helps to build a timeline of the daily tasks in front of you and their deadlines — refer to it whenever you feel too distracted, to get you back on track,” she says.
Overall, Ronita says the best way to stay productive is to focus on a single content creation task, get the writing done before you edit, and take all the breaks you need for your health and well-being.
2. A Quick Audit to See If Your Content Passes a COVID-19 Exam
For many brands, writing specifically about COVID-19 was off-brand or irrelevant to their audience. Even brands who have been writing successfully about the pandemic may find that their audience is getting fatigued with the topic. This article from CMI’s Jodi Harris is all about making sure your non-pandemic-related content is still sensitive and relevant as the crisis continues.
“To pass consumers’ COVID-19-era litmus test, it’s a good idea to do an interim audit of your popular, recent, and upcoming content assets,” she says. “A million little content details perfectly acceptable in December might feel passé, awkward, or downright irresponsible today.”
Jodi provides a list of specific types of content to audit, and what major faux pas to look out for. Some are obvious: Don’t make jokes about the pandemic, and make sure your brand’s actions match up with your messaging. But some are more subtle. Jodi recommends auditing your visual imagery, to “Pay attention to the subtle or nonverbal messages to ensure that they don’t conflict with your carefully considered copy. For example, including older photos of happy diners gathering closely in your restaurant … puts the credibility of your social distancing messaging in doubt.”
Jodi suggests starting with a simple three-step processes:
- Create or update your content inventory
- Review your audience insights and goals
- Set your audit priorities
She also offers a detailed guide to collecting data for a deeper dive into what your audience wants and how well your content is serving them.
3. What B2B Buyers Want from Tech Vendors Right Now
We can be sure that B2B buyers are feeling much the same types of fatigue that marketers are feeling. While we’re under pressure to meet revenue goals, they’re challenged to make the right investments to help their businesses weather the crisis.
Fortunately, we don’t need to speculate entirely what these buyers might want from us: LeadMD just published a survey of over 200 B2B tech vendors that asked them directly. On the MarketingProfs blog, Ayaz Nanji offered some key takeaways.
There are some promising findings for B2B marketers. Over half of the respondents said they’re in the market for B2B products and services, and most of them have new interests due to the current crisis. Over half also said it is appropriate for vendors to continue to market technology products and services right now.
It’s important to note, however, that 44% wanted to know how to get the most out of their current solutions, while only 16% said they wanted to know what they could purchase to be more effective. And only 3% wanted to hear about how businesses are supporting charities and the community.
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