TCC #6: Content marketing in lean times

Will there be or won’t there be a recession in 2023? At this point, I don’t know anymore.

Author

Joshua Poh
July 21, 2023

Will there be or won’t there be a recession in 2023?

At this point, I don’t know anymore.

But what’s for certain is that tech has enjoyed a prosperous couple of years and we’re now in for some lean times.

'Making do with less’ in 2023 is what ‘we’re now in unprecedented times’ was in 2020. You see the phrase everywhere; maybe you’ve heard it in a couple of strategy meetings.

Or who remembers how ‘the new normal’ was EVERYWHERE in 2020?

Cringe.

What does this mean for content marketing?

Some stuff to remember before you start hitting pause on your marketing:

  • People are still looking for information and answers online

  • Even if people don’t buy now, they’re still researching, learning, and looking for solutions to pursue later

  • If you can provide helpful content that meets your audience’s needs, you’re more likely to earn their trust

  • Fantastic content lives online forever, driving traffic, interest, and sales while you sleep.

If all this news has got you down, always remember this too, shall pass. Economies and markets move in cycles, and downturns follow upturns.

But in the meantime, how do we adapt our content marketing approach to leaner times? My take:

Content marketing in lean times needs a different approach

1. Go back to the audience journey drawing board

How your customers think about your solution might be different when budgets are smaller, and people are more conservative with spending.

It’s a good time to check if your messaging and customer journey is still valid for your target audience during lean times.

Here’s former Head of Marketing for HubSpot in Asia David Fallarme on marketing HubSpot during a recession

“One of the things that I really love that we did at HubSpot was to recognise that budgets are smaller, people are more conservative, they’re more afraid of investing in a solution that would be a significant budget hit. “And so we just invested in education. And to turn the headwind into a tailwind we did a series of webinars about how to deal with recessions and what other companies are doing.

2. Make your existing content work harder

Do you have old blog content that’s a couple of years old?

Or a series of sales presentations or speaker decks you’ve spent hours crafting for your VP’s 15-minute presentation, only to never use again?

Guess what? Assets like these can be turned into more content ideas or social media posts with lesser effort. You’ve already done the hard work of fleshing out an idea, now to make sure it gets the mileage and visibility it deserves by repurposing existing content into new formats.

3. Scale content production and editing with AI

It’s important for content marketers to keep a close eye on the AI scene and be ready to test or adapt.

AI gives me a starting point to draft and edit my work. It’s been essential for my editing and ideation process.

AI is a great thinking partner.

But don’t take AI-generated content wholesale and plug it into your content.

Tools like ChatGPT speed up production, but be careful how you use it in your work.

AI text is robotic sounding and doesn’t tell you where it got its facts from.

And we haven’t got into the whole ongoing copyright can of worms yet.

Using AI content wholesale is like comparing AI-generated painting versus art painted by a human. The AI one wows you initially, but when you dive deeper, something feels… off.

Case in point: Someone on Twitter created a larger format of Van Gogh's Starry Night painting with AI. The comments are divisive - some say it blew their minds, while others say it’s a cheap imitation of actual art.

So here’s where you:

  • Fact-check

  • Add relevant examples to illustrate your point

  • Play around with storytelling or wacky comparisons

  • Inject your brand’s unique tone of voice

These are things AI cannot do (yet).

So when competitors go for mass-produced AI content, your brand can stand out by making your content into an experience - one that understands what your target audience needs and addresses what they want in an engaging journey.

3 thoughtful reads of the week

1. Bynder’s and SEMRush’s State of Content Report 2023

Good news for content marketers - according to Bynder's findings, brands are still investing in content to deliver value to their audience and aid brand visibility. Repurposing content is just one of the ways brands are delivering more results with existing content.

Besides Bynder's report, SEMRush’s 2023 State of Content Marketing report is packed with practical tips and content marketing trends. I like how SEMRush’s report paired trends with actionable stuff on how they’re applying the insights from the trend to their blog content.

What goes behind the creation of an annual benchmark report? How can benchmark reports be part of your content strategy? Metadata’s content marketing team talk through how they turned their proprietary data into original research reports, which powered multiple streams of content.

My favourite takeaway: “The gold standard is having data other people want too.”

Worth a listen if you’re a SaaS brand with original data you want to turn into a solid content pillar.

2020 was 3 years ago (time flies!).

But the advice here on navigating uncertainty in marketing is evergreen.

My favorite takeaways:

  • Even during a recession, it’s more important than ever to be visible online as people are still online looking for content and information

  • If you can provide that information and answers, you’re more likely to earn their trust

  • Brands adapted to COVID by changing the content they made for their audience to adapt to their audience’s changing needs

Erica Schneider knows her way around words, and she shares her knowledge generously. She’s put together a free database of 62 edits explaining her rationale behind each edit.

Amazing resource for editors, content writers and copywriters.

1 cool tool

Design better marketing personas with audience research data, based on Amanda Natividad's blog post from SparkToro. I recommend reading the blog post to make full use of the template, where Amanda goes into tons of detail on how she builds a marketing persona from scratch.Ev