Back to Normal

Different sectors have borne the brunt of the coronavirus in very different ways. While travel and aviation may take years to recover, for some in the technology sector, the last few months have been boomtime.

While it looks like the post-pandemic “normal” isn’t going to emerge any time soon, it seems clear that when it does arrive, the “new normal” won’t look the same for everyone. Some effects do hold true across industries though.

Prioritising the Digital Transformation

In May 2020, a survey carried out for IBM found that more than 50% of workers would like to continue remote working after the pandemic. The fact that remote work is possible highlights the real digital transformation that has taken place over recent years and that has already changed so much about the way we live and work.

For many businesses, the pandemic has served to fast-track this digital shift. Those organisations that fared better in the early stages of the pandemic are the ones that were already a good way along their own digital transformation journeys. Technological laggards had a difficult time trying to catch up on years – or even decades – of digital transformation in a few weeks or months.

Supporting your Team with the Right Tools

At a time when organisations need to communicate thoughtfully and tactfully with their audiences, responsive content marketing platforms that enable remote collaboration and consistent content publishing across multiple channels make this possible.

This presents a challenge for businesses to ensure that the right tools are in place to allow for a smoother shift and reduce the bumps along the road. The importance of these tools is likely to increase once the pandemic is behind us. With economies under pressure, content marketing delivers strong and demonstratable return on investment. This is vital when competing for funding in a time of constrained budgets.

Adapting to the New Normal

The new normal isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all approach: we’re going to need to be agile, flexible and open to hybrid approaches. The content marketing and other agile, collaboration tools that have helped us through the pandemic will be further embedded into our organisations and our marketing plans during this second phase of change.

If we haven’t already, we will all need to start adopting the right digital tools and working with the right partners to gain the necessary flexibility and mobility. It is becoming ever clearer that this type of investment needs to be locked into any successful operation – content marketing or otherwise – whether people are working from the office or at home.