It’s far from over yet, but 2020 will already be remembered as the year when everything changed.

And the pace and scale of this change are making it increasingly difficult for brands to market themselves and engage with their target audiences respectfully and effectively. 

Tragedies and natural disasters happen every year, but the true impact of these events tends to be isolated within specific populations. Not this year.

Countries the world over continue to be drastically affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and events like the murder of George Floyd have sent shockwaves through countless communities, triggering not just concern and platitudes, but ongoing activism and action. 

The global scale of these events means that no content is created in a bubble anymore. After all, even materials that don’t directly address or relate to current issues are being viewed through the eyes of people living through them, so an ill-thought-out word or phrase could be hurtful or offensive. The point is this:

As situations evolve, your marketing playbook has to evolve with them—requiring constant education, reflection, and re-evaluation. 

The result is that marketing has become both a sprint and a tightrope walk. Move too slowly, and you risk putting out material that feels outdated before it’s even been published. Move too fast, and your content may lack nuance—or, worse, come across as uninformed or tone-deaf. 

With that in mind, here are a few strategies you can use to evolve your marketing playbook during this period of rapid, unpredictable change.

Know what matters right now

Having a keen understanding of what’s on your audience’s minds at any given moment is at the heart of any agile marketing approach. 

This is true even when you’re dealing with a topic that has been and will be around for some time, like the coronavirus. The public’s level of comfort and understanding is constantly changing, and their anxieties and concerns change in tandem.

This means timing and relevance are everything when it comes to the content you publish. It’s no good providing answers to questions your audience figured out a month ago. Think and look ahead, creating content that’s reflective of the present situation, and delivering solutions to problems as (or even before) they appear. 

Example: Choosing a Content Marketing Strategy

Let’s say your company offers a service that supports remote work, and you’re looking to increase your content marketing. Sharing tips around adjusting to working from home may feel like white noise today when many people have long since made the transition. 

However, some of your existing and prospective clients may currently be considering extending their remote work policies indefinitely. Providing insights to help them do this successfully can position your company as a valuable resource they can trust.

Publish more, shorter content 

One way to deliver more timely content is to switch lengthy campaigns for faster, leaner content cycles. Rather than spending a month creating and sharing content around a particular theme, consider condensing each campaign into a single week. It might be short blog posts or a series of social posts. Comment on a strategic topic every day instead of building anything too robust. 

These micro-campaigns can shorten the content creation timeline, making it easier to keep your marketing efforts fresh, sharp, and on the ball. They will also help get as many eyes on your content as possible before it loses relevance. 

The unfortunate truth is, a lot of the content you produce during this period will have a relatively short shelf life. Getting comfortable with that fact—and strategically reducing the time you spend creating marketing content—will make your efforts more sustainable and more valuable.

Don’t react. Respond.

Rapid change often elicits knee-jerk marketing messages. When these messages come across as insensitive or clumsy, they can leave a permanent stain on a company’s reputation. On the other hand, remaining silent about or glossing over issues affecting your industry or your core demographic can make your brand feel out of touch. 

Agility is the key. Being agile means being responsive to what’s happening in the world, but not reactionary. For issues that need to be urgently addressed, consider putting out a statement in a timely fashion that at least acknowledges what’s happening. This initial statement doesn’t need to (and probably shouldn’t) outline any grand plans, because it’s almost impossible to come up with a nuanced strategy or response in a matter of hours or days. But proceeding as if it’s business as usual may cause some onlookers to lose faith in your brand.

Even if your company doesn’t plan to address a particular event or issue directly, be sure to review any existing marketing content in your pipeline to ensure it still aligns with the current landscape. This might involve editing or temporarily shelving content that no longer feels appropriate. You may also want to add a short “update” section to any recently published related content to either inform readers that it was written before certain changes took place, or advise them how those changes affect them. 

When change is constant, agility is essential

None of this is to imply you should be profiting off the back of current crises, of course. But unless you plan to pause your marketing efforts altogether for the foreseeable future—which could be damaging to your business—it’s critical to ensure the words you’re putting out into the world are appropriate and empathetic, backed by an agile strategy.

Developing more agile marketing practices will also benefit your business in the long run, giving you the ability to make adjustments on the fly and making change feel more manageable. But if you need some help adjusting your approach, we’re here to help.

We’ve been lucky. As copywriters, the logistics of going remote were as simple as cleaning out the office fridge and setting up makeshift desks in our apartments. When I think about my uncle working round the clock in the ER and my brother frantically restocking shelves at the local supermarket, I’m grateful that my team can seamlessly work from home throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

That doesn’t mean there haven’t been challenges. Like many companies around the world, we’re still adjusting to going fully remote. We’re learning how to optimize our productivity at home, which looks different for everyone. And perhaps most importantly, we’re figuring out how to keep our team connected and our company culture alive and well.

One in five remote workers reports that loneliness is the biggest struggle they face when working remotely. In comparison, only 8% said that staying motivated was their biggest issue, and 3% named WiFi troubles. And while that might not sound particularly serious in the face of a pandemic, when you consider how long this period of self-isolation may go on for—and how much higher everyone’s stress and anxiety levels are right now—the potential impact on employee mental health should not be ignored.

But we’re doing our best to keep calm and carry on—and to help each other get through this. And since we’ve been so inspired by the creative tactics that other companies use to foster a sense of togetherness while their team is apart, we thought we’d share a few of our own. We hope they’ll help your team make social distancing feel a little less, well, distant. 

1. We get our (virtual) stretch on

The daily stretch has been a beloved MarketSmiths tradition for some time now. As with most office workers, we spend a lot of time sitting down, which can quickly lead to sore necks and aching backs if we’re not careful. To combat this, our resident wellnessSmith, Kirby, began leading the team in a tailored stretching session at 3 o’clock every afternoon. 

That standing appointment is still on our calendars, but the daily stretch looks different these days. Rather than standing around our conference table, we find a comfortable spot in our bedrooms (or in some cases, kitchens) and jump on Zoom. We’re still led by stretch guru Kirby, and there are still plenty of laughs and wobbly legs. And as an added bonus, we get a peek inside everyone’s fortresses of solitude. 

The daily stretch isn’t the only team-building activity we use video conferences for. In the two weeks since we went fully remote, some team members have begun scheduling virtual coffee breaks and touch bases with each other, and there’s already been talk of taking our monthly happy hour online. Because as nice as it is to work from bed occasionally, it’s even nicer to see your colleagues’ smiling faces when you’re feeling the solitude.

2. We sync up our tunes

The copywriting office is often filled with music, and even when we have our heads down and our headphones on, we love sharing what we’re listening to. That hasn’t changed since we went remote—it’s just moved to our internal messaging platform, Slack. 

In our #songz channel, we share albums and playlists that we’re vibing to and seek recommendations when we want something new. Of course, everyone’s tastes are very different, so the channel is also full of friendly disagreement (my love of Icelandic technopunk, for example, is not widely shared). But from time to time, we all find ourselves jamming to the same tune, and for one wonderful moment, it’s like nothing’s changed.

3. We’re compiling a collaborative cookbook

MarketSmiths love to cook, with varying degrees of success. Jean Tang, our fearless leader, is a former food writer, while I only recently learned how to turn on my stove. 

Since we’re not leaving the house these days, the team is cooking a whole lot more. And since we were always fond of swapping recipes in the office, it didn’t take us long to start compiling them in a living document to ensure the team eats well in isolation. 

True, we are no Michael Psilakis (and this story may move you to tears). But we are still happy about the MarketSmiths Cookbook. Here’s a peek at one of the recipes the team has shared:

The best thing about the cookbook is not that it’s encouraging us all to try new recipes (although it is), or that it makes your mouth water (although it does). It’s the fact that you get a sense of each team member’s personality and sense of humor as you’re scanning it for something good to eat. And if I can’t joke with my coworkers about my culinary antics while I wait for the office microwave to be free, this is the next best thing.

4. We’re sharing the love from our pets

Few things are more effective at cheering people up than cute pictures of animals. So, when someone on the team seems in need of a quick pick-me-up, we’re quick to fill Slack with fluffy goodness. 

Unfortunately, thanks to allergies and strict landlords, not everyone is lucky enough to have a furry friend at home. Those of us that do try to share the love: 

On the left, you’ll see Buddy the dog. On the right, that’s Jasper. And while you may not be able to reach through the screen to pet them, doesn’t your day feel just that little bit brighter for knowing them?

Keep your distance, but stay close

The coronavirus situation is going to take a toll on us all, but we owe it all to ourselves and our coworkers to stay connected and stay positive during this challenging time. Together, we’ll get through this.

We hope these insights into our newly remote culture help your team stay close while social distancing. We’d love to hear what strategies you’ve found effective, too. And if we can help your organization hone its messaging (or if you just want to see more pictures of our pets), get in touch.

Tearjerkers. Listicles. Celebrities behaving badly. 

Trying to understand why some pieces of content go viral and others don’t is often an infuriating task. Before long, you’ll find yourself screaming into the void, “Why did so many people share this garbage when great content languishes in obscurity? It doesn’t make any sense!” 

Except, it does make sense. People go to the effort of sharing content for a reason. And while it’s not an exact science by any means, considering the motivations behind those shares can increase your business’s chances of creating content that really takes off. 

Yes, numbers in titles often increase readership, and yes, influencers and clickbait can make all the difference. But maybe there’s something deeper going on. 

All human motivation is dictated by a hierarchy of needs—whether we’re fighting for survival or sharing funny memes

In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow published “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological Review. In it, he laid out the framework for what he called the “hierarchy of needs.” Usually represented as a pyramid, this hierarchy shows the most fundamental human needs that need to be met—including physiological needs like water, food, and sleep, and safety needs like our health and well-being—before our motivations shift to fulfilling our highest desires (like the desire for intimacy, belonging, and self-esteem).

At the top of Maslow’s pyramid is self-actualization—or as Lizzo might put it, taking a DNA test and finding out you’re 100% that b*tch. We all want to be our best selves and live our best lives, but we can’t focus on achieving this goal until we take care of our more basic needs. 

Our motivations are always in flux, of course, and one person can be driven by multiple high and low needs at any given moment. But when we feel comfortable and safe, we’re always going to chase our more aspirational desires. 

So what does all this have to do with viral articles? Turns out, just about everything. 

Emotional and aspirational motivations drive most of our shares

Chances are, when you’re scrolling through Buzzfeed or Twitter, your most fundamental physiological needs are being met. You’re fed, watered, and have had enough sleep (mostly), or you probably wouldn’t be looking at content at all. 

The next motivational rung on Maslow’s pyramid is safety. While this certainly explains why some content is shared en masse—like fear-inducing headlines about terrorism, or worrisome content about the economy—most of us feel safe enough when we’re staring at our devices. 

The rung above safety is love and belonging, and this is a biggie. From stories about political parties we detest to hot gossip about musicians we follow, many of us share content simply to reinforce who we are and which groups we want to associate with. It’s about convincing others we belong, but also convincing ourselves. 

Even seemingly altruistic shares can have selfish underlying motivations. I might send a friend planning a holiday a post about cheap flights because she’ll find it helpful, but also because it will make me seem helpful. That motivation might not be at the top of my conscious mind when I’m doing it, but the powerful desire to be loved and to fit in still drives my cursor toward the share button. 

Above love and belonging is esteem, and this is where our ego takes the wheel. Be honest—we’ve all shared at least one post because it made us feel good about ourselves. Whether it’s joining in with the general outrage sparked by a controversial political decision (that you’ve only just heard about) or sharing a reassuring article about why bald men are sexier (an article that actually did go viral in 2016), we crave that self-assurance that, yes, we are good people and we look great. 

And what about self-actualization, the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy (at least until he added self-transcendence, but we’ll get to that later)? The desire to reach self-actualization shines through when we share content that we perceive as helping us reach our fullest potential—and showing others that we’ve made it. For someone who longs to be an amazing parent, this could involve plastering their Facebook wall with stories about child psychology and parenting tips. For a business owner, it could be LinkedIn content about the secret to success. 

Most people are self-aware about the motivations underpinning their sharing habits

You can learn a lot about a person from the content they share—about who they want to be, and who they think they are. But this shouldn’t be all that surprising, especially if you’ve ever shared content yourself. 

In an intensive study of 2,500 people, The New York Times discovered that, on the whole, most people are aware of their sharing habits. The five main reasons people said they shared stories online were: 

• To bring valuable and entertaining content to one another
• To define themselves to others, giving people a better sense of who they are 
• To grow and nourish relationships and stay connected with others 
• For self-fulfillment, to feel more involved in the world
• To get the word out about causes they care about

People generally know what motivates them, and they recognize that desires like belonging and self-actualization are behind most of their shares. Turns out all our sharing habits are a little bit selfish, and that’s okay. It’s only human. 

Appealing to readers’ intrinsic motivations may be your best shot at going viral—but awe will always come out on top

For businesses, reflecting on your own desires is a great place to start when it comes to crafting share-worthy content. Ask yourself, “What would make me share this? What deep desire would I be fulfilling by sending it to a friend or posting it to Twitter?”

Emotion plays a large role. Your content has to make your reader feel something to get a reaction out of them. And for them to share it, it has to be something they want others to feel, too—or something they want others to know they feel. 

Articles that go viral run the gamut of emotions from sheer joy to unfiltered outrage, but do you know what one of the most powerful human emotions is? Awe. Why? Because it’s an “emotion of self-transcendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than the self.” And if you’ve been reading closely, you’ll remember that I mentioned self-transcendence as one of the highest human needs Maslow identified. 

The above quote about self-transcendence comes from research by the University of Pennsylvania. In a study looking at the most-emailed New York Times articles, researchers discovered that, surprisingly, sex and fear weren’t nearly as juicy topics as most writers at the time assumed. Instead, articles with positive emotional themes were the most share-worthy—especially those that inspired awe. 

The researchers speculated that sharing these articles was a way for readers to create an “emotional communion” with people—a goal somewhat loftier than just trying to belong to a group or impress their friends. 

Content that transcends clickbait

When Maslow added self-transcendence to the very top of his hierarchy of needs in 1969, he viewed it as a need beyond all selfless desires. He saw it as an attempt to “become relatively egoless”—to embrace one’s own sense of selfhood while simultaneously stepping outside of it, no longer consumed by the selfish needs of the ego or the performance of identity. 

If it sounds like a spiritual experience, it is. Most of us will never get there, and Maslow said that’s fine; you can still lead a healthy, fulfilled life without seeking experiences of “Being-cognition.” But in those moments when we find content that gives us a reverential moment of reflection, which we share simply because we want others to experience it, too—those are the moments when we know ourselves and the world best of all. All thanks to a few words on a page. 

At MarketSmiths, our deepest desire is to create content that stops people in their tracks and stirs their highest desires. We’re on a mission to go above and beyond—and we’d love to leave you awestruck. 

Take your content to the next level. Contact us today.

Our guest writer Isabel Wahono explores why a little research goes a long way when it comes to separating your business’s copy and content from the crowd. 

There’s a common misconception that successful copywriting speaks only to the heart. That facts and figures are boring. 

While it’s true that hard data can be dull when used excessively or poorly, people aren’t just a jumble of unruly emotions incapable of rationally thinking through their buying decisions. People buy with their heart and their gut—but they justify those decisions with logic. 

Feelings, meet facts. Here are three solid researching tips to help you strike the perfect balance in your business’s copy and content. 

1. Dig deeper than surface-level search results

Remember when you had to go to the library to research a topic? Yeah, me neither. Google has changed the face of researching—but just as you wouldn’t confine your research to the first page of the first book plucked from the library’s shelves, don’t limit your reading to the first page of the search results. 

That’s not to say you shouldn’t start by casting a wide net. This can give you a feel for what’s already out there, ensuring your content won’t be just more of the same. 

From there, gradually narrow your search until you hit the lesser-seen layers of wisdom that lie beneath. Google’s advanced search settings can help, allowing you to specify key phrases you want to see and weed out unhelpful results. Doing your due diligence can result in the discovery of hidden gems, such as the technical detail copywriter David Ogilvy famously unearthed and incorporated into his ad copy for Rolls-Royce: “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

2. Tap subject matter experts for interesting tidbits

Whether you’re the CEO or you work on the marketing team, chances are, you don’t know every single thing about your company’s products or services. From the nitty-gritty technical specifications to the results of user testing, no one person can know everything—which is why it’s useful to connect with subject matter experts (SMEs) from different teams before writing your copy. 

While SMEs are often busy people, putting 15 minutes on their calendar to talk can take your copy to the next level. The key is to keep probing, because what they consider to be a mundane detail could be a complete revelation to your and your target audience. Often, when an SME begins with the phrase “I don’t know if this will be helpful to you…” you’re about to be gifted with an interesting fact or story you couldn’t get any other way.

One thing to keep in mind when interviewing SMEs: they may use a lot of jargon. Repeating that jargon is a surefire way to lose readers’ interests, so be sure to ask clarifying questions and seek examples so you can translate industry-specific terms into reader-friendly insights.

3. Source and sprinkle statistics strategically 

We’re all inundated with content these days. It’s made us skeptical, and rightfully so. Advertising has a reputation for exaggerating or twisting the truth—but you can avoid this association by backing up your claims with meaningful evidence. 

If your company has conducted internal research or leveraged an independent research body, this is a great place to start. Make sure you’re highlighting the statistics that will matter most to your target audience and connecting the dots between the numbers and the real business impact. Avoid a data dump, as this will only turn readers away. One truly compelling stat will do more than a dozen vaguely interesting ones ever could. 

What if you don’t have company-specific research to rely on? That’s okay—there are other options available to you to give your copy and content a little extra credibility. Look for relevant statistics from reliable, non-competitive sources, such as consulting firms. Pay attention to dates, as the research may have been conducted much earlier than the article in which it’s cited. While some research is evergreen, a great deal—like data around public sentiment and purchasing habits—can become outdated and irrelevant fast.

A little research goes a long way. So hit the books (or the search engines) and give your target audience the evidence they need to justify their decision—to themselves and their stakeholders. 

At MarketSmiths, our copywriters are master researchers, harnessing every tool at their disposal to write copy that speaks to the heart and the mind. Need proof? Contact us today.

Based in New York, soon-to-be MarketSmiths staff writer Andrea Valentino has written for a range of publications including The Economist, The Telegraph, and the BBC. Here, he explores the resurrection of the endangered apostrophe.  

A few weeks ago, after decades of battle, the Apostrophe Protection Society admitted impending defeat. Exhausted by the constant misuse of the punctuation mark in everything from storefronts to political placards, the organization announced it was closing shop. To quote founder John Richards, the society was ultimately ground down by the “ignorance and laziness” of modern times. 

He might be right. According to one recent survey, nearly half of Britons struggle to use apostrophes correctly. But if Richards is abandoning his dream of grammatical perfection, copywriters, at least, will persist. After all, apostrophes have always been fundamental to both the grace and accessibility of marketing copy, turning even the most technical pitch into one that customers want to engage with. 

Apostrophe catastrophes

Pedants we’re not. The main point of grammar is to make writing intelligible. This truth is amplified with apostrophes: use them inaccurately, and risk losing your audience to an unintended meaning. In a business like copywriting, where pithiness and accuracy go together like hot chocolate and a snug winter afternoon, this can quickly cause difficulties. 

Suppose you’re writing copy for a company offering a new way of diagnosing cancer, and you’ve been tasked with explaining a new type of blood test. Now suppose you’re thinking of a path to reassure potential customers that this test is less pricey than any alternative. Now suppose you’ve forgotten all about the apostrophes you studied in middle school. So you boldly intone that “our patient’s finances don’t determine the quality of their care.” 

Well, the phrase is fine as far as it goes. But it hardly inspires confidence. After all, it implies that this miraculous therapy has only managed to lure a single person to the clinic for treatment (patients’ is what you’re looking for). 

Not that the problems of the misplaced apostrophe end there. Grammatical mistakes are bad enough in any corner of marketing, but in copy on such a serious topic, it’s disastrous. How can anyone possibly trust a firm to keep them safe if it can’t even bother with the basics? 

This emphasis on tone is important in another way too. Whatever you might read from some copywriters—with their interminable focus on ‘benchmarks’ and ‘scalability’ and ‘synergies’—the best marketing keeps things simple. That’s true of most writing generally, come to think of it, but especially when you’re trying to convince someone to fork over hard-earned cash for a service.

In practice, the best way to do this is to write the way people actually talk. Condensing words is a natural part of language, as speakers gradually slide towards cutting out letters, both to save time and keep their mouths from unnecessary contortions. That’s where apostrophes come in. Why say “could not” when you could just go for “couldn’t”? Why say “should not” when “shouldn’t” works just as well? You save space and keep your readers from stumbling over words they’re not used to pronouncing. 

Do it for the gram(mar)!

Even better, all this feeds into keeping your writing as light and airy as a bottle of Chablis with friends. If a potential customer glances at your website and is confronted with a wall of stodgy, formal text—all “could not” and “did not”—they’re unlikely to get very far. Imagine meeting someone who spoke like that at a party? On the other hand, using apostrophes can tug your audience down the page and gain their trust, making the actual act of marketing far simpler.

Now at this point some of those ‘synergy’ types are probably fretting that apostrophes look ugly, or unsophisticated. To that I’d give a few answers. First of all, who cares? Writing is to be read, not framed and hung up in a gallery. Second, this idea that dropping apostrophes somehow makes you seem clever only started because snobby writers convinced themselves it was true. The moment you think critically about what apostrophes actually do, you realize they’re just a grammatical tool like any other. 

Finally, and perhaps most compellingly, apostrophes have enjoyed a place of honor in literature for far longer than copywriting has even existed. To put it another way, if apostrophes were good enough for Keats (“For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells”) or Shakespeare (“If I could find example of thousands that had struck anointed Kings And flourish’d after I’ld not do’t”) I think they’ll do fine gracing the website of an IT firm or management consultancy office. 

So next time you’re faced with a new client, don’t be afraid to drop a letter and pick up an apostrophe. You’ll be continuing a splendid literary tradition and making your writing more approachable to boot. And who knows, maybe you’ll even teach your reader a thing or two about how these enigmatic punctuation marks actually work, carrying on the struggle for John Richards and the Apostrophe Protection Society without even realizing. 

Suffering from grammar gremlins? At MarketSmiths, we know our commas from our colons—so contact us today.