It’s a strange world we’re living in these days, where a virus seemingly has the power to bring the world to a standstill, forever changing the way we do business, and sending economies directly into a recession.
Do not pass Go, do not collect two months worth of revenue…
The post-quarantine world is undoubtedly going to look, and work, very differently. The marketing industry, on the front lines of any recession, is going to take a significant hit during this economic downturn. Sorry folks, I don’t make the rules.
So what’s a motivated, go-getter to do in these confusing times, with the deck stacked against them?
Find an edge…
Chaotic times have the potential to wreak havoc in your life, but, depending on how your chips fall, they can also be times of opportunity, if you have an edge that allows you to operate successfully when others cannot.
Finding an edge, and limiting your exposure, is the best that anyone can do during periods of uncertainty. And that edge, as often as not, is the cutting edge of technology.
Content marketers in the post-Coronavirus world are faced with an increasing demand for content –good content- despite decreasing resources.
We need to produce more content with smaller budgets and less support.
This is obviously easier said than done…strategies for reliably producing “more with less” are few. You can try to secure a cheaper source of content, but that will inevitably lead to a decline in the quality of content. You can produce a high volume of short, “lightweight” content, but this strategy has its drawbacks as well.
But there’s a better solution; one that doesn’t require you to sacrifice the depth or quality of your content to increase the volume you’re producing.
I’m sure you’re skeptical that this is even possible, but let’s try to move that healthy skepticism to a state of cautious optimism with a short demonstration…
Using AI to automate research blog posts and other content marketing assets
In a couple of years, this will seem obvious. As in, “What do you mean you used to do hours of research to come up with content ideas for your blog?”
It’s a pain we’ve all felt…racking our brains for new ideas, Googling in circles, and the anxiety around deadlines that comes with it. No more! Now we can train bots to track the news that matters to us and only get involved when there’s something that warrants our attention.
And honestly, this is a game-changer…
I’m talking about a free content discovery tool called MarketChorus Resonance (sign up for free) that uses semantic search (NLP) to match your query to similar content from tens of thousands of trusted blogs and news sources.
Instead of brainstorming new content ideas, start by searching Resonance with a recent article on a relevant topic. Let’s say you’re creating content about webinars -a hot area of opportunity in this particular crisis.
You might start with an article like this one about how Zoom’s video conferencing solution is being blocked at certain organizations for security reasons, a timely and relevant issue.
In the results you’ll find a wealth of useful insights. Topics which receive the most (and least) attention, related to your search. Social media engagement metrics for each article from Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. What’s gaining, or decreasing, in popularity, and much more.
Read the most relevant articles to research the topic thoroughly before writing. Analyze the articles which garnered the most attention and optimize your approach accordingly.
If you’re not satisfied with the quality of the results, Advanced Search allows you to fine tune the query by requiring certain terms (explicitly or optionally), or excluding them, to find exactly what you need.
Pro tip: Activate the Related Trends on the right to add those terms as advanced search criteria, prioritizing any articles that contain those terms in your search automatically.
Finally, when your search results represent the type of content you want to monitor, save the search and activate alerts through either Slack or email, according to your personal preference.
Email alerts show a daily digest of the top 10 matching articles with links to view the rest of the results in the dashboard.
Slack alerts post messages to the designated channel in real-time, so you see every matching article.
How does this revolutionize my content marketing practice?
It seems so simple…how could this change your approach to content strategy?
MarketChorus Resonance is like a bloodhound; given a scent to follow it will hunt down anything similar and bring it back to you loyally, again and again.
Set up a few searches to monitor the discussions taking place in your industry. Activate alerts to stay informed in real-time, with no manual searching.
Track brand mentions, or competitors. Discover the top performing content on any topic, in seconds. Sort by relevance, engagement, date, and more. Curate to social media or export to CSV to use in other platforms.
It takes hours to research blog posts and to find content to share on social media. All that time translates to budget and resources that are in short supply.
Doing more with less means using tools to eliminate waste and get results more expediently.
It also means empowering your team with powerful marketing technology that helps them create more effective content in less time.
Analyzing the content that’s already getting shares, likes, and comments on social media will help you cut through the clutter, focus on what’s likely to drive results, and publish content that’s optimized for the target audience well in advance.
See the example search from above and try it out for yourself (free, no signup required).
