As the world begins to slowly (and cautiously) re-open for business, one of the most common requests we get from clients is to help them pick up where they left off.

That can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes, it’s helping them complete a whitepaper or thought leadership piece that was pushed to the backburner when COVID-19 tightened the company purse strings. Other times, it’s finishing case studies that had to be paused when a particular client closed up shop for several months. And other times still, it means completing a high-value content asset begun by a totally different partner that’s unfortunately no longer in business.

COVID-19 has changed the way we all view content marketing. Even some of our largest and most solvent clients pumped the brakes on content marketing when revenues began to stagnate, choosing instead to focus their time and money on more “core” areas like sales and operations. But with vaccines becoming widely available and market competition once again starting to ramp up, content marketing has come roaring back with a vengeance.

And with it, some new challenges and considerations for brands.

Content: To salvage or to scrap?

Lots of brands are looking at their pre-COVID content roadmaps and wondering if they are still valuable, valid, and worth salvaging—or if it would be faster and easier to simply dump them and start from scratch.

In our experience;

 Eighteen months ago, perhaps you were executing a growth strategy within your existing accounts, trying to increase lifetime value and adoption rates for a few key customers. Fast forward to today: is that still your goal? If so, the bones of your content roadmap may yet hold plenty of value, with content likely only needing to be tweaked here and there to acknowledge how things have changed, rather than completely rewritten.

On the other hand, if your path to revenue growth now requires bringing on as many net-new logos as possible to bridge the gap, you’ll probably spend less time and money, and have fewer headaches, starting with a new strategy rather than trying to fit a pre-pandemic peg into a post-pandemic hole.

Hiring a “cleaning crew” is just fine

At Wordsmithie, we’re problem solvers. And we’ve been getting a lot of requests to come in and clean up some post-COVID messes—not with buckets and mops, but with pens and laptops.

Many brands, for one reason or another, are deciding that the agency or partner that started working on their content is not the partner they now want completing it. Maybe the reason is resources, time, or budget. Maybe they’re looking for something new in a partner. Or maybe that partner just isn’t around anymore. But many seem almost shy about asking us to clean up, complete, or take over another agency’s work.

I speak for all of us here at Wordsmithie when I say: Bring it on! We’re not an overly prideful shop. We understand the way business goes, and we never take it personally. Our goal is always—and only—to help brands tell their stories better and achieve their content goals. And whether that means finishing incomplete assets (check), conducting follow-up interviews for never-completed case studies (check), or revamping old content that another agency created (check), we’re happy to jump in at any starting point to help deliver for our clients.

So as businesses everywhere begin to emerge from this pandemic hibernation, and the sun starts to shine on your content marketing efforts once again, remember: the stories you tell matter, and we’re here to help.