Online marketing when life gets tough

Back in the spring of 2021, I was pregnant and making plans for my maternity leave. I was on track to get the high-level design and strategy work wrapped up before I cozied up for 10 weeks with a newborn.

Then, baby decided he just couldn’t wait to meet the world, and came out 14 weeks early.

That was obviously not part of the plan. Still, business had to keep running whether I was available or not. And, that included marketing the business, so our pipeline wouldn’t suddenly dry up a few weeks or months after life pulled me away from my desk.

Sometimes, life just happens, whether we’re ready or not. Still, it’s worth having even a rough plan in place for what to do when you’re suddenly unavailable.

Ask for help with the heavy lifting

My birth experience showed me how important it is to know where to go for help. I was in the hospital for several days, but my team basically said, “focus on yourself and your family. We’ll handle the rest.”

If you don’t have a team, consider who’s in your network that could help lighten the load. When I was wrangling NICU visits, I reached out to a contractor I’d worked with for help. I was able to hand off tasks and check out of work knowing that it was all in good hands.

Don’t know anyone who has the marketing skills or the bandwidth? Simply asking for help can go a long way. One email to your past clients asking for referrals takes far less time and effort than running a full-scale launch campaign.

Similarly, Janna Carlson of The Co-Promotion Club found herself mid-launch when she had to deal with a personal loss. She felt understandably overwhelmed at the idea of launching, but she didn’t have to handle it alone. A handful of folks in her audience were willing to be affiliates for the launch, which eased the pressure of marketing and selling during a difficult time.

In Janna's words, "I think there was something specifically meaningful about the vulnerability. ...I was honestly surprised at how enormous and immediate the response was. Even though I wouldn't have been able to promote well on my own anyway, it felt like it gave me the freedom to just not worry about that stressful piece."

Use content repurposing for quicker updates

Creativity in our work never feels harder than when we’re dealing with an emergency or processing grief. Content repurposing is already a tactic I use regularly, but it’s especially useful for taking the burden of creativity off of ourselves during complicated times.

Content repurposing can be as simple as reposting or resending content you shared previously. You’ll want to choose an evergreen piece of content, and ideally it’ll be something relevant to what you’re promoting during that timeframe.

As a starting point to prepare, keep a backlog of content that has performed well for you in the past—emails with good open and clickthrough rates, social media posts that got good engagement, etc. You can even pick something that may not have performed quite as well, but that you felt particularly passionate about.

If you want to build a more structured (and searchable!) library, Kronda Adair’s Content Marketing Pot O’ Gold is a great tool– it includes a detailed walkthrough for how to set up the tool for your own purposes, and it kinda made me fall in love with Airtable, too. 😉

Planning ahead can save your online marketing

Planning ahead is the first and best thing you can do to stay ready for unexpected situations. Not only will you have content ready to go if you have to suddenly step away from work, you’ll also be better equipped to turn your handful of posts into a more cohesive strategy. 

Keeping a content calendar lets you be more intentional about what you post and when, and promote offerings at the right times. You’ll be less likely to go too heavily on sales messaging, or put out too much content without a clear goal. 

Content batching is the easiest way to start building a bank of items to share, especially if you’re doing social media. It’s often easier to settle in for an hour and draft two weeks’ or a month’s worth of social media content than to create posts one at a time, even when everything’s normal.

It’s also good to take advantage of slower work periods, or bolts of inspiration. If I have a lighter workweek, I’ll often try to draft some extra newsletters or posts. Or, if I feel fired up about a timely topic, I’ll write that up, and nudge other content I have planned to a future week.

I know, it's not exactly fun to plan for when bad things happen. Still, every little bit of planning you can do now makes one less thing you’ll have to think about when your mind is heavy with other concerns.