The Role of Content Marketing in a Remote-Only World

Content at its best—reliable, helpful, timely, honest—is what we need right now. As the world’s teachers, journalists, government agencies, and medical workers respond to the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic, they are reaching the public through content. 

The same is true for any brand or business. With physical stores shuttered and events canceled, traditional ways of connecting with customers are no longer possible. Companies are pulling spend from paid display and social in a bid to tighten budgets. And a sharp reduction in media advertising is causing outlets to cut staff along with coverage. As a result, the most effective way to reach your audience today is through your content marketing strategy. 

If your content isn’t responding to changing customer needs during this pandemic, you’re moving too slowly. If your Content Management System (CMS) isn’t able to support large traffic spikes and high-tempo publishing, you’re at risk of losing your online audience—your only audience at this time.

Yet, as content marketers know, capturing the zeitgeist through a website equates to chasing a moving target. Updating homepage copy, creating landing pages, adjusting site design, and adding fresh calls to action takes time and input from various stakeholders. The design backlog is typically a roadblock, as is going through specialty CMS operators or filing a ticket with IT. Rapid iteration and testing is near impossible in a traditional (and now remote) marketing environment, and the lack of clear ownership leads to a convoluted, lackluster workflow. 

Now Is The Time To Change This Status Quo 

According to our own data at Pantheon, internet usage is changing significantly as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. More than 17 percent of our enterprise sites experienced a 20 percent jump (or more) in the number of site visits during March, compared to averages of the three months prior. Seven percent of enterprise clients saw an increase of 50 percent or more during the same time period. This uptick is across a diverse range of clients, and can be attributed to people working from home, purchasing goods online, and settling into this new way of life. 

At Pantheon, we can help you serve this growing audience with WebOps. Our platform allows anyone who touches the website—content marketers included—to publish quickly and test results. WordPress and Drupal, the two leading CMSs, are already built in, and our Structured Agile Workflows facilitate rapid experimentation so design isn’t a blocker. These benefits are found alongside high-performance, serverless hosting to ensure your site continues to perform through traffic spikes and ongoing iterations. 

No matter your industry, this is a time to reconsider your website processes. It’s not the strongest or the largest companies who will come out of this successful; it will be those who are quickest to adapt.   

At its most effective, content marketing is an agile process owned by WebOps professionals who have mastered brand voice and understand the target audience. Giving content marketers the tools to change the website quickly, without breaking anything, is the path to serving content at its very best. Content that is reliable, helpful, timely, honest, and exactly the reason your audience is online.