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Performance Marketing

How To Create Content That Connects, Not Alienates

April 7, 2020 | by Nantale Muwonge
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Businesses can build a relationship with audiences by informing and helping without triggering fear through content during a pandemic. Here are 3 ways.

Businesses everywhere are coming to grips with a delicate issue during the coronavirus pandemic: how to maintain a relationship with their customers, especially through online content as people remain at home and their use of digital increases.  As content marketers, we know how important it is to inform without triggering fear – to inspire a sense of calm and to offer comfort.  There are a number of ways that businesses can build a relationship with their audiences by informing and helping. Here are three of them: 

1. Be Mindful of Emotional Contagion

The American Psychological Association defines “emotional contagion” as the rapid spreading of an emotion from an individual or a small group of people to several others. The fear triggered by news of COVID-19 has resulted in panic-buying and shortages, rationing, stock market fluctuations and strained mental health, among other effects.

“One of the things we also know from the research literature is that negative emotions, particularly fear and anxiety, cause us to become very rigid in our decision-making,” Dr. Sigal Barsade, management professor at The Wharton School, said during a segment on the Wharton Business Daily show on Sirius XM.  “We’re not creative. We’re not as analytical, so we actually make worse decisions.

“Emotional contagion affects everyone, which means that it can also affect leaders. It can affect policymakers. They have a little bit more protection, because at least the policymakers and experts really have good knowledge of the facts. But if you’re not aware that emotional contagion is influencing you, you could make poorer decisions,” she added.

How to Minimize Emotional Contagion in Your Content

  • Watch your tone: What’s the tone of your content right now? Consumers will remember how you made them feel, and if the experience is negative, that feeling may linger for well after this global event has passed.
  • Monitor for bias:  What checks and balances do you have in place to avoid bias in your messaging? Consider creating a checklist with problematic language to be reviewed during the QA phase of content production.
  • Check on your people: If your staff is panicking, their state of mind may come across in the messaging they’re creating. Offer wellness resources and strategies like distant socializing to help them maintain a positive outlook during this time.
Email sent to IDX staff to promote connection during COVID-19 social distancing

2. Avoid Information Overload

Be concise. Consumers are being inundated by alerts, news updates, misinformation and social media notifications. You are competing with a sea of content being delivered to an overexposed audience.

If your messaging isn’t targeted, tight and optimized for enhanced readability, it will be indistinguishable from the noise.

3. Practice Conscious Marketing

“As marketers, we are the message and we set a lot of standards that dictate how people feel about themselves, how they feel about their families, their jobs, all of these things,” Nichole Kelly, chief consciousness officer at Conscious Marketing Institute told MarketingProfs. “When you're marketing consciously, the intent, ultimately, is that after someone has seen your advertisement or seen your email...they feel better about themselves or about their position in the world than they did when they started.”

Seize this opportunity to help improve your customers’ quarantine experience by presenting solutions[2] . By doing so, you open them up to the possibilities, leaving your competitors to discuss limitations without offering any silver lining.

How to Implement Conscious Marketing

  • Share insights and advice: Speak to customer concerns during this time, especially if COVID-19 will affect your ability to deliver on brand promises. Offer assurances, workarounds or indications that you have considered the position of your customer and are working to meet their needs. Radio silence is not an option.
  • Use empathetic language: Strive to avoid insensitive or triggering language and convey compassion in all pandemic-related messaging. Tangentially related messaging should be treated with care too, since your customers are likely hypervigilant.
  • Inspire a positive outlook: Seek to elevate the status of your customers and foster optimism at all touchpoints.

Contact IDX

Content can be a conversation that invites positive engagement and encourages relationship building. If you need help adapting your content marketing strategy to the current climate, contact IDX today.