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If there’s one thing that many of us appreciate it’s that content marketing is becoming more vital when it comes to communicating our presence in the market the question is should our content be Evergreen or should it be COVID related?
[Excuse any rogue typing errors as this is a direct transcription from the podcast recording for your benefit.]
As a marketeer and the content writer for many organisations my natural advice is to write Evergreen content; that way any investment you make will bear fruit for years and years to come.
So, what we mean by Evergreen content is content that is not dated by time or events going on in the world. However, now the current situation is just slightly different as I’m writing and recording this podcast and blog post we are in the middle of one of the world’s most impactful pandemic’s this century and we are also in a world that is dominated by the World Wide Web.
Back in the day and the flu epidemic in the early part of the 19th century, we didn’t have Facebook or Google to answer our questions however today with so much uncertainty the majority of the world’s population have an intense thirst for knowledge.
Specifically, about what is going on.
- What can they do now to stay safe and earn a salary?
- How can they protect their finances?
- ……and in the recruitment world how do they either recruit that new team member that they need or,
- conversely how do they protect their job and ensure that they have a position to go back to after all this ends.
Here is the thing; if we continued our premise of only writing Evergreen content, we won’t be able to answer many of our clients and candidates’ questions that they have burning round in their head.
And if we don’t answer these questions then, unfortunately, somebody else might and we lose that opportunity to become the voice of reason in either their career or talent management focus.
That’s why we currently recommend to our training and content clients that they include an element of both types of content, by that I mean content that answers questions going on for their candidate and clients now and secondly Evergreen content that will be there as the word implies in an evergreen way to answer their questions.
Let me share some examples here.
COVID Content
As an example, if you are thinking about COVID content currently for your candidates here are some ideas.
- Advice on how they might plan their career moving forward in your sector.
- How they can use this time in furlough in the best possible way.
- How they can communicate exactly what they did during the COVID crisis to upskill and make themselves the best candidate possible or best employee.
When it comes to clients it is a case of flipping the context round as a business owner yourself, I’m sure you appreciate the many challenges being in this environment has brought to you!
- Who to furlough and who not?
- Will you need to make people in your team or certain departments redundant?
- How to engage staff currently and in a virtual environment?
Top tip: As these are questions you have it means your clients are likely to have exactly the same conundrums going round in their head too.
In honesty the opportunities to answer both your client and candidate questions in this environment are huge.
I saw a meme yesterday on Facebook that did make me smile it was very career-related. Remember that classic question; “Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?”
I suspect in 2015 nobody predicted seeing themselves here; I know for a fact I didn’t!
So, Evergreen versus current COVID content I personally am creating both for our clients and recommending our Superfast Circle and content clients do too.
Evergreen Content
When it comes to evergreen content people are still looking for roles and people still need to recruit so the classic questions that they have running round in their head can be answered by you their recruitment expert.
From a candidate point of view that might be:
- How do I develop my career?
- Who are the best clients to work for?
- How do I build my confidence ready for an interview?
- How do I choose the right role for me?
- What is the best way to prepare for an interview?
……….and the list goes on
When it comes to clients, they will have similar questions as they have always had.
- How do I grow my business?
- How do I create a talent pipeline?
- Do I recruit internally, or do I go external?
- Do I use an internal recruitment team, or do I continue to use a recruiting partner?
- How do I identify exactly who I need to scale my business?
- Recruiting isn’t my full-time job what help do I need?
- How do I improve my interview skills?
- What questions do I ask at an interview?
- What should I be looking out for in the CV?
- How do I conduct a telephone interview?
So the takeaway for today is content is becoming more important we live in a knowledge world and currently, people are scared, uncertain and they’re looking for answers it’s down to us to make sure that we support them by giving them the information that they need both now and in the future.
Thanks,
Denise
P.S. If you want help with how you market your recruitment company then join our free Facebook Group here.
