All About Content

The new normal, living and managing a business through a pandemic, has digital marketers in a tizzy today. There’s no rule book for this one, nor experience to fall back on. I would think with the lockdown and work from home becoming the norm, now is a good time as any to use interactive content to engage with your leads or customers.

Marketers and brand owners often ask me in today’s time of the COVID-19 pandemic: do we need to change our messaging? When they hear the affirmative reply, the next, inevitable question is: how? Here are some lessons learned in the first months of the virus.

Chances are subscribers of this newsletter may have never heard of automatic content recognition (ACR) technology. No problem. That’s why you have signed up for All About Content — the newsletter that brings you developments from the crossroads of content, digital marketing and technology. So today, let’s catch up with what is ACR, and its various consumer-facing applications. A heads up, this edition of the newsletter is all about how content is consumed rather than created.

In these times of the pandemic when most are in a lockdown mode, where clients have vanished and when an hour feels like 24, it is but natural to be in a blue funk. That’s one way of going through this phase of life. The other is to use the time to upskill. Based on some spot research, some trend-spotting, and some talk with a few content clients, I’ve come up with a list of the top 3 skills you can pick up as a content developer during the pandemic. When you emerge on the other side, you will be a well-rounded content professional.

Old timers can vouch for this — there’s no shortcut to developing quality content. As a content creator, you have only your skills and talent to rely on. Despite the advent of technology, the star will always be the human content developer.

In this podcast, I talk of "disappearing" content, which is a type of short-term messaging that's now gaining traction, especially among digital marketers.