The world has undergone a tectonic shift from the way it was just a few months ago. The global economy has come to a screeching halt, bringing down customer demand with it. Customer demand and marketing analytics are both skewed right now, and not in a good way.

People are trying to make sense of a new world where the old rules just don’t apply anymore.

In such a time, content marketing offers a unique opportunity for businesses to cut through the noise by communicating in a way that is measurable and leads with empathy. But what is the return on investment (ROI) of content marketing in a world that just doesn’t follow the same rules anymore?

In this article, we’ll try to answer this question and more.

Everyone knows that good content attracts customers and builds businesses. This holds even more true in our post-pandemic economy which is rife with uncertainty and confusion. Good and clear content is greatly underrated at such a time. And smart B2B marketers realize that and invest accordingly.

What Is the ROI of Content Marketing From a Numbers Perspective?

In all likelihood, your content marketing analytics numbers changed before your content marketing strategy did. What you considered normal analytics only a few months ago doesn’t hold anymore. And that’s okay!

Things are bound to change as whole industries go through an upheaval. Move from vanity metrics that might be pleasing to track and report, to revenue metrics. Your ROI is determined by the business outcomes your content marketing strategy has achieved and in a time of contracting consumer demand, you’ll have to revisit your business goals as well.

Conversion rates need to be prioritized over open rates, social shares over page views, post impressions over page followers, and so on.

Talk to your customers, not at them

At its core, content marketing helps you communicate better with your customers. Each channel that you use to disseminate your content is a point of interaction that offers the opportunity to provide your customer with a perspective that can change her life for the better.

In current times, this means leveraging content that helps your customer, empowers them and reassures them of business continuity. Sales focused marketing will not survive in the current market. That is the wrong move!

Now is the time to showcase leadership. Things will go back to normal and the brands that led by example will be the ones that will still be in the memory of customers.

But how do you lead by example?

Here’s an example – ahrefs made its ‘Blogging for Business’ course for free. This is an $800 course and a fair dollar amount that they are forgoing by offering the course free of charge. What they are missing out on in the short-term, they will make up with the long-term loyalty and goodwill they’ll generate from their customers.

Evergreen vs. Time-sensitive content

You might be at a crossroads right now – should you create evergreen content or content that is pertinent for the times and resonates with your customers?

Creating time-sensitive content right now makes sense and is something that you should do, but it will direct investments from plans you’d have otherwise pursued. You need to find a balance.

That balance resides in creating content that is general in overview but has a section that touches upon the current situation to keep it relevant. This pandemic is a shared global human experience that will stay in our memory for years to come if not decades. Content relevant to the current situation will have short to medium-term significance for your customers.

To get the most out of your marketing strategy have a healthy mix of evergreen and time-sensitive content. Evergreen content will give you the most ROI in the long-term but time-sensitive content will give you the most bang for your back right now!

Evolving Content Consumption Habits

What is the ROI of content marketing you say? Well, it is determined by the type of content you create obviously!

And the kind of content you create should be determined by what your customers need. With the world working from home or stuck at home, living in a state of fear, you need to create content that supports and engages them during this time of crisis.

What’s changed? Quite a lot. Content trends have come up which were unimaginable just a few months ago:

• Virtual Experiences – Webinars, virtual conferences, virtual tours and more
• Live Video – Facebook Live and Instagram Live views doubled in a week in Italy according to Facebook!
• Collaboration – People are coming together across the web to share their expertise in the form of webinars; collaboration with micro-influencers to co-create content has increased.

Work with an agency that can help you crystallize these ideas into actionable plans and help create the content your audience wants to consume right now.

Your investments in your content marketing strategy right now will reward you with benefits that will last you much longer than the pandemic. In 2020, content is everyone’s job. Whether you tweaking your approach or just starting from scratch, it is an investment you will not regret.