Your Marketing Budget is cut thanks to Covid 19. What next?

Let’s look on the bright side. The Covid chop to your marketing budget is painful, but it could potentially be a blessing in disguise. Hear me out. Let’s think of it as an opportunity to focus on the fundamentals of your content marketing strategy.

I know, strategy doesn’t sound sexy. But you could reap measurable and repeatable benefits if you:

1. Stop to refocus your content marketing strategy
2. Look closely at what your target customer wants and
3. Listen to what you’re saying to them.

Let me break that down real quick.

STOP

Yes, people are spending more time online. But don’t just make the reflex decision of shifting your remaining spend to social media. A budget cut should cause us to pause and ask some important targeting questions BEFORE creating new content.

What’s your primary goal? Are you building brand awareness, educating your audience or nurturing leads? Your content should be cool, but it should also solve a well-scoped problem. Being super clear on why you’re creating content is critical to achieving any Marketers’ top goals.

LOOK

How well do you know your audience?

If I ask you ‘Hey, who is your target customer?’ and you say ‘people with money,’ then Houston, we have a problem. Describe your target customer as a real person with needs. If you don’t know what they need, you won’t know what they need to hear.

Create a persona for an individual you’re talking to that represents your audience. Give her a name and a back story. Print a picture of her, and pin it on your wall across from your desk. Look at her before you create content for her. This is, after all, meant to be a conversation.

LISTEN

So let’s say you have a clear strategy and you know who you’re talking to. Fantastic! How do you know whether it’s connecting with your target persona? Pay close attention to how your content sounds. Marketing content that isn’t very targeted will:

1. Sound like a sales pitch
2. Sound like you’re shouting, not having a conversation
3. Use terms your target persona probably won’t understand
4. Sound like it’s from a brand voice that isn’t genuine
5. Talk about something that she’s not interested in

Monitor your engagement stats, but also listen to your content’s tone. If it doesn’t feel right, or you’re getting crickets, then acknowledging this is good! If we know that it doesn’t work, then we try again. Tweak your message rapidly at low cost until your results improve.

It’s possible to have targeted, engaging conversations that help meet the organization’s goal on a lower budget. A ‘Stop, Look and Listen’ approach can help you feel more confident about whatever you decide to spend your reduced budget on, while being helpful, human and hopeful.

Mission 2020!

I’m on a mission to talk to 20 Marketing Managers in 2020 who are championing digital technology in their marketing strategy. See a brand you think is immersed or fluent in digital culture? Link me and let me know!

Kenia is a founder of ListenMi, an animation and design studio that help brands attract their tribe through amazing storytelling, brilliant design and cultural digital products. Give this post some👏 👏👏 if you’re thinking about this stuff, and share it with others who do too.

Keep in touch with her on twitter, instagram, or see more of the team’s work on ListenMi’s instagram.