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Build Your Brand with Employee Generated Content

Getting your audience to notice your content is easier said than done. Your message is one of thousands seen each day. Breaking through the noise is a challenge, even for the most beloved brands. Content is the lifeblood of your SEO strategy and a way to provide information about your brand. Modern customers don’t only face a mountain of promotional content, they’re also cynical. One way to reach an audience is through employee generated content. In fact, you may be already be reaching your customers through EGC without even realizing it. Let’s explore this type of content and its benefits.

An Email Subject Line that Called for Action Against Racial Inequality 

The changes that have occurred since the May 25 death of George Floyd have been ground-breaking. On Juneteenth, the AP Stylebook changed to capitalize Black when it’s used in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense. Statues that glorified white supremacy have come down. Millions of dollars have been pledged to fight racial inequality at every level. School Boards are rethinking how they’re using local police. These changes are certainly overdue. One viral email from a Goldman Sachs managing director demonstrates that every person and business needs to address racial inequality. Content is such a big part of your marketing strategy, it pays to take a deeper look into your own emails, blog posts and other marketing material.

Your Content Must Reflect Diversity, Inclusion and Equity

The peaceful and not-so-peaceful protests in the past few weeks following the tragic death of George Floyd have revealed the systemic racial division across the United States. Fortunately, people all over the world, including here in Canada and several European countries, are recognizing that we have to work together to fight racism. We must speak out against police brutality, racist policies, and bigotry. Our children need to be taught to be kind and fair, regardless of race, skin colour, gender, or socio-economic status.

In any major building project, it’s a banner day when the cornerstone is laid. The cornerstone determines the entire scope of the foundation for the building. Cornerstones are often engraved with the date and major players in construction. How does this process translate to an SEO strategy?

Make Sure Your E-Commerce Content is Search and User Friendly

Under COVID-19, more businesses are having to focus on their e-commerce platform. Traditional marketing is no longer sufficient for most organizations. If you’re building your e-commerce site to compete in the marketplace, you need to focus on quality content. SEO content drives search, which brings customers to your site. Content that is relevant to customers converts into sales. Customer engagement on your website boosts your SEO results. Content will be the driving force behind your digital marketing efforts as you transition your brick and mortar business to compete online. 

Make Sure Your Email Marketing Content is Ready Too!

If your business is getting ready to reopen as coronavirus restrictions lift, you’ve got a lot of things to consider. Being proactive can save you some steps and protect your brand’s image under the new normal. As you’re buying more sanitizer and cleaning supplies, getting inventory ready and confirming details to reopen your onsite business, make sure to check your digital marketing status. Emails that aren’t sensitive to customers or provide tone-deaf communications can embarrass your business and reduce your response rate. Your audience is being bombarded with emails about COVID-19. Keep your message from being deleted in an over-crowded inbox by getting your digital marketing strategy in order before you reopen.

…Empathy

Most organizations in the world today are trying to figure out what is the new normal. Consumer behavior is changing. We saw it after Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession of 2009, and 9/11. Smart businesses adapt their marketing to these changes. Whether it’s social media, print or email, your communication needs to be sensitive to your consumers. Empathy should be the overarching theme and tone in your emails during a crisis.

If it's Too Long to Read, it's Too Easy to Ignore!

The Neilson Norman Group, a company that studies user-experience, estimates that most users, on an average web page, only read a maximum 28% of the words. According to NNG, “more realistically, users will read about 20% of the text on the average page.” New users tend to read less, while an established audience may read more. Longer content isn’t always consumed by the reader. The TLDR syndrome, otherwise known as “too long; didn’t read,” is real. The solution is finding ways to keep the user engaged, rather than just posting shorter articles.

How to Maintain Quality and Communicate Positively

Even though many states are beginning to lift shelter-in-place regulations, COVID-19 will continue to be a major influence on consumer priorities and business trends over the next few months. The way you market your business and communicate with customers should reflect your brand and the current state of the economy. Here are content marketing guidelines that you can use to stay relevant to your audience and still maintain a strong online presence.

Say, it, Show it, Reciprocate it

Doctors, nurses, first responders, food delivery personnel, grocery chain employees, postal staff, and a host of frontline workers are out there, helping to keep the rest of safe, comfortable and well-served through these trying times of the Covidian era. Never have our hearts filled with as much gratitude as we feel now, every day, day after day. You see it all around—blue ribbons tied on trees, lights shining at a certain time every day, window decals and stickers, messages on sidewalks and driveways—all saying, "thank you", "stay safe", "we appreciate you", and so on.