Here's how you can evolve your role as a content leader in the new world

Content is back in sharp focus amid the current pandemic crisis that has forced the world to come to a halt. Some argue that they are navigating this crisis with whatever they have learnt so far on the job while some feel all the past learnings were not enough and they had to use the hit-and-try formula on the go. Starting from marketing priorities to audience needs and interests to even career opportunities, suddenly everything needed to be viewed through a new lens.

Every content marketer we spoke agreed on how this crisis brought an ample amount of invaluable learning.

Sapna Arora

“The lockdown period has been a time of precious lessons learnt and notions challenged across all disciplines and content management has been a key one. If previously, there was a 70-30 split between planned content and off-the-cuff one, the ratio has possibly flipped for many marketers,” said Sapna Arora, Chief Marketing Officer, OLX.

BuzzInContent.com asked several content leaders what specific skills and practices they adopted during the crisis or they intend to adopt in the near future that can expand their career opportunities. The experts share their learnings that you won’t get to study anywhere: “Steps you can take to evolve your role.”

Covid has tested the abilities of content management teams to balance intuition, take risk, assess business objectives, be consumer sensitive, think out of the box and work within umpteen constraints—all at the same time.

Explaining how the OLX teams are open to taking learnings and grow from the experience, Arora shared four-point guiding principles:

Flexibility of communication: The pandemic arrived with no global playbook, high consumer anxiety and survival concerns. During such times, there is no better tool than keeping one’s ears to the ground to gauge the nature of conversations, applying one’s own judgement and then seeing the fit between the brand’s equities and consumer needs. It helps to keep the communication approach fluid and ready to adapt according to the macro developments. Taking a cautious yet flexible approach by constantly leveraging an array of analytics tools across platforms comes in handy.

Flexibility of channels: As digital usage shot through the roof, we have also been experimenting with new-age platforms. Prior to any campaign, its best to evaluate the best possible channels to reach out to the consumers – the choice of formats and delivery methods has burgeoned. Restricting the plan to one particular way does not make sense any more.

Zero flexibility on customer centricity: Brands can only ride this storm out if they listen intently to their customers. Customers across the country have different needs hence a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. At OLX, they monitor the requests and feedback from customers in real time and tailor the content approach.

Working in tandem with agency partners: The value that the agency partners bring to the table is priceless. They have the advantage of being exposed to multiple industries and can bring valuable insights from the ‘outside’ world. Cross-pollination across categories can lead to creativity in unparalleled ways. 

Rajesh Kumar

Rajesh Kumar, VP, Head of Marketing, Uipath, B2B Marketing Leader, Startup Mentor, Board Advisor, strongly believes it is time to put ourselves in the customer’s shoes and be empathetic.

“They are looking only for relevant messages, simply told. The focus of investment has come back to core areas of business – increasing the revenue, reducing costs, keeping continuity and building resilience against any crisis in future,” he said.

“We, therefore, concentrated our efforts on developing use-cases that organisations need to solve the challenges posed by current environment, e.g. managing loan moratoriums, disbursal of Govt grants, managing essential operations without a manual handoff, streamlining employee access to workplace besides targeted solutions for health sector and governments. The approach to communication is simple, direct and personalised in 1:1 or small group format,” said Kumar.

Sunil Kumaran

Sunil Kumaran, Country Head, Product, Marketing and Thwink Big, Big FM, has been utilising the extra time at hand to gain relevant knowledge that complements his work and helps him advance in his endeavours.

Being a voracious reader, he has indulged in books such as Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life by Dave Asprey, Simple Habits for Complex Times by Jennifer Garvery Berger & Keith Johnston, The Advice Trap by Michael Bungay Stanier and The End of Marketing by Carlos Gil. He recommends everyone to spare some time and read these books.

Kumaran attended some informative webinars such as TED Seminars – Different Perspectives of the Evolving World, Digital Business – Gaming and on data-driven culture.

“While these books and sessions have been extremely insightful, my major learning has been that the situation around is ever-evolving, it is very important to be informed and hear different perspectives. Perspectives open up our mind to a world of possibilities and opportunities,” he said.

The pandemic has revolutionised the working model of several companies across the globe, resulting in businesses to take note of what they need to add, improve and discard. During these trying times, the consumer has turned to content for entertainment, solace, and knowledge. With more time at disposal, consumption across platforms and mediums has witnessed a tremendous surge, making storytellers and content creators across the world to remodel their narratives to suit their audience’s preferences.

“As a content creator and marketer, an in-depth understanding of your audience is key as only then the content pieces will start resonating with them. As a credible and reliable medium, it is upon us to be a constant companion to our listeners by giving them hope and helping them adapt to the new normal,” Kumaran said.

Today the audience is sensitive about the messages or content that they are exposed to and are building deeper and stronger perceptions, affinity and emotional engagement with brands. Content creators and marketers have had to quickly bring out the ‘empathetic side of their brand’, if not done earlier.

Aashutosh Katre

Aashutosh Katre, Director and Stuart Little at Yellow Seed, said, “We are exploring formats of storytelling that connect with the audience emotionally. We are witnessing a surge in ‘digital living’ and online consumption of news and entertainment. We are also seeing a higher rural audience online now, which is leading to a heightened need for the creation of regional content. ‘Vocal for Local’ is a need for content marketing and certainly an area that requires building quality resources and understanding."

Archana Tiwari Nayudu

Archana Tiwari Nayudu, Director, Content & Communications, upGrad, believes that one should never sit in our thrones and decide what our TG wants. It never works and it will not work at all during this hyper-dynamic environment.

“So, as you curate content, it is critical to check how well do you 'feel' these emotions, how intently you understand the problems of your TG, what's your brand's solution for your TG's problems, how do you employ context, creativity, EQ, and humility along with the real value in your messaging as a solution to your TGs problems,” Nayudu said.

We learned that the magic of messaging is in understanding the pain points and the mental and emotional mood of your TG and then respond with a brand solution while platforms, tech tools, formats and conversions are all aiding and measuring mechanisms, she said.

Payal Shah Karwa

Payal Shah Karwa, Content Director, The Word Jockey, believes that there is a lot to be learnt on the content marketing front as it is not taught in B-Schools yet. Agencies, content creators and brands need to upskill themselves either through courses and training at the theoretical level and industry-level case study discussions at a practical level.

“As a content creator, I have signed up a content marketing course by Hubspot during my free time to learn the basic theory and some international case studies. As an agency, we have set up our own training/ education endeavour in content creation and content marketing for aspirants and professionals under the name The Content Campus," Karwa said.

Karan Kumar

DLF CMO Karan Kumar’s approach to content marketing is to understand what individual anxieties are. He said, “At this point in time, those anxieties are much higher. There is no shortcut or a course that teaches it. It is something you do while on the job. One has to be alert in picking up what these anxieties are. Go and sit with the customers, understand what they need. It has to be a very practical and hands-on approach. Understand what the new reality is, and then create content that answers those anxieties.”

Angad Bhatia

Angad Bhatia, COO of Indiatimes Lifestyle Network, said, “What has evolved tremendously over the past few months and what we have been able to drive sharper focus on are two things that we feel are least dependent on external factors. First is the understanding of our community and how it behaves across platforms, and second is the format with which these stories are created.”