How COVID-19 Hasn't Changed Content Marketing At All

Temporary lifestyle changes in response to the coronavirus will not be temporary. Social distancing and obsessive hand-washing must become lifelong habits. The sudden, forced experiment into online learning may end the K-12 "snow day" forever -- so thinks my observant teenage daughter -- while thoroughly scrambling the existing model of higher education. Spectator sports -- which may have rapidly accelerated the pandemic in Europe -- thrive, like concerts and festivals, on shared physical experiences that are forever altered.

Content, and content marketing, aren't immune to changes. We're streaming more content and even watching more broadcast TV. Brands urgently demonstrated their sensitivity to mankind's pandemic-related challenges with emails and TV spots, seeking to distinguish themselves and failing.

Brands also are mulling when, and how aggressively, they can resume acknowledging their capitalistic side. It's a critical question for businesses during a recession. This is where content's credibility serves brands well. Informing and entertaining through content displays empathy in a way selling can't.

How should brands tackle this in a pandemic-influenced world? They could create a coronavirus content hub, pin a relevant social post to the top of a news feed, or use content to drive a virtual event. It's all good advice, if somewhat incomplete.

But during a time of continual uncertainty, brands should remember above all the one content truth that never, ever changes:

Stories always win.

Human Interest Stories Remain Eternal

This was true before SARS, monkeypox and the 2009 swine flu pandemic. It was true before 9/11 and after 9/11. It was true the last time the Chicago Bears had a good quarterback and will be true the next time it happens, if ever.

Dig for the compelling human interest stories within your brand's universe and anchor your strategy there. If you're creating content ideas for your brand during a pandemic by scrolling subreddits or searching Google Trends, you're creating empty calories. People associated with your brand are doing incredible things, right now. Ask questions and find the stories that move people to act.

You can do this without a haunting piano intro or using the words, "now, more than ever." I promise.

John Krasinski understands this. He's not necessarily a brand, but the star of The Office and the Amazon Jack Ryan series launched a YouTube channel called Some Good News to curate and even create upbeat stories from around the country as people cope with the pandemic. In its first two weeks, the channel garnered about 35 million video views and almost 2 million subscribers.

For sure, it helps to be John Krasinski when you try to pull off something like this. You can interview Steve Carell, or you can help arrange for healthcare workers from a Boston hospital to get lifetime Boston Red Sox tickets and a salute from Red Sox legend David Ortiz. But more than its connection to a famous actor, Some Good News thrived simply by finding and sharing stories that connect with human beings. It went so well that the busy Krasinski sold Some Good News to CBS Viacom after what was described as a "bidding war" among major content providers.

Stories always win.

Human Interest Stories, Corporation-Style

A brand doing this well without John Krasinski's star power is General Electric. GE is finding and writing the stories of employees and departments across its divisions that are searching for treatments or helping communities maintain a semblance of normalcy.

Some examples: GE delivered a more energy-efficient, 529-ton turbine from France to Germany as COVID-related lockdowns complicated an already delicate effort. In Spain, doctors adapted GE ultrasound machines to help triage the hundreds of COVID-19 symptomatic patients who poured in daily during the first wave of the pandemic. In Haverhill, Mass., GE automation software allows the local water plant to run overnight on a skeleton crew.

GE has crafted dozens of such stories chronicling how its people and products are connected with COVID-19, along with weekly updates, titled "5 Ways The World Fought Back", dedicated to promising news in the fight against COVID-19.summarizing their work. Surely there's a Very Important PowerPoint deck floating around GE outlining its COVID content strategy, full of corporate word salad and maybe even a somber piano intro, but it's not the star of the show.

This is a simple message, but in the most difficult times, basics come to the fore. Stories win. They always win.

Matt Schroeder is the President of Footnote Communications LLC, which provides digital and print content services to sports, manufacturing, and service industry companies.