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Building Your COVID-19 Content Marketing Plan

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This is the third in a series of Special Guest posts designed to share ideas from industry consultants and financial advisors. The insights from these industry leaders, we believe, may be helpful as you consider next steps to managing through this volatile market and coming out stronger on the other side.

We welcome Laura Garfield, co-founder of Idea Decanter – a video marketing firm. Laura started her career in broadcast journalism learning how to ask the right questions to get to the heart of the story. Her experience, from small market TV in Hastings, Nebraska all the way up through positions at CBS News in New York and then CNN in Atlanta, gives her unique perspective on digital storytelling. In 2014, she co-founded Idea Decanter to help those in financial services use video to connect with prospects and convert them to clients.

In the midst of the unknown, planning your marketing message is about as easy as finding toilet paper at the store. Both are mission critical. Neither are easy. More than anything else, your clients will remember how you made them feel during this crisis. This is your opportunity to reach them with content that connects.

How do you put together a plan when you don’t know what’s coming next?

Take 15 minutes and go through these 4 steps. Then you’ll be armed with a communication plan to get through the coming weeks.

1. REVAMP YOUR CONTENT CALENDAR.

Take everything you have planned and push it down the calendar 4 weeks. You’ve opened up room on your calendar to talk to clients about what matters right now.

2. STOP THINKING EVERGREEN.

The situation is fluid and your messaging is too. In late February, making comparisons to other epidemics made sense. Today, in the midst of a pandemic, that message is outdated.

If you worry about your content being stale in a few weeks, you’re going to stop yourself in your tracks. Shift your mindset to: How can I add value to my clients’ lives right now?

3. BRAINSTORM WHAT MATTERS.

There’s so much doom and gloom that’s it’s easy to fall down that rabbit hole. You can help your clients be proactive and focus on the positive. Start a list of things you’d like to tell (or recently told) one of your favorite clients.

  • Is it tips to do with their kids since the family is quarantined at home?
  • You might want to share ideas about refinancing mortgages.
  • Or maybe you’d like to remind clients that now, more than ever, those estate planning documents are key.

Take your list and prioritize it. What makes sense this week? Which content works next week?

4. SET A CADENCE OF COMMUNICATION. 

Let clients know how often they can expect to hear from you. Pick what’s do-able right now. Is it once a week? Twice a week? Set that expectation with your next blog, video, or email. Then stick to it. For more tips on messaging during a crisis, visit this blog.

 

If you’d like to learn more from Laura,please connect with her now.  To hear and read more content like this, subscribe to The Flexible Advisor Podcast or to receive an email when new briefs go live.

*These special guest briefs are meant to provide information from a variety of industry experts, and are not an endorsement by FlexShares Exchange Traded Funds of any firm, service or product.

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