Content Marketing

We’ve all Googled ‘How to Change a Tyre’ or ‘How to Fix a Leaking Tap’ when we’re at home and need help with simple everyday tasks. Even if you didn’t realise it at the time, this is evergreen content and is useful and relevant to us at any time. This type of content tends to hang around on Google for years, which is great news if you’re the creator of that content! Here’s our guide to evergreen content and how you can use it to fuel both your content marketing and SEO strategies.

What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is content on your website which stays relevant and popular over a long period of time with search traffic even growing over time. In the same way that evergreen trees keep their leaves all year round, evergreen content remains useful and relevant to internet users for a long period of time.

Your typical blog posts might generate a short spike in traffic during the first few weeks in which it’s published. However, evergreen content is not only optimised for search engines, it helps to continuously drive traffic over the long-term.

Evergreen content formats include:

• Lists
• Tips
• How-to content
• Product reviews
• Videos

These formats tend to lend themselves more to evergreen content than other formats. Think instructional videos which provide useful information such as how to change a tyre which have greater longevity.

Evergreen content does NOT include:

• News articles
• Statistics or reports with data that is likely to date or change
• Seasonal pieces
• Latest trend articles

 

How do I write evergreen content?

When producing evergreen content, always ensure that it’s relevant to your business, products and services. For example, if you own a plumbing business, guides or videos on how to repair a leaking pipe or tap are relevant and will always be searched for online as people look for solutions to their problems.

Here’s how to produce evergreen content that will help to drive traffic to your website over the long term and stay relevant for search engine users and your brand.

1. Choose keywords

Longtail keywords and questions tend to work better for evergreen content so always make sure you do your research to find the topics and questions that your target audience is asking and searching for otherwise there is no point in creating the content!

2. Optimise for SEO                                                                                                                                                      

Once you have researched the keywords you want to include in each piece of content, make sure you optimise the content for SEO. Include the keyword in the title, URL and throughout the body copy of the piece but, be careful not to keyword stuff and keep the content as user-friendly as possible.

3. Write for Beginners

When writing how-to guides or any other type of content, always assume that the readers of the content are complete beginners. Avoid using too many technical terms and make the content as easy to read as possible. Technical language is likely to scare readers off and will put them off reading further. Remember that it’s unlikely that experts are going to be searching for how-to guides based on your industry.

4. Be the Ultimate Source of Information

Spend more time on evergreen content than the regular content you include on your website. Make sure that your evergreen content is thorough and covers every aspect of the topic. It should be the best resource for the topic that you’re covering.

5. Answer Questions 

Make your content a reliable and valuable source of information for your target audience by answering their questions. Use a tool such as Answer the Public to find out what they’re looking for. Creating these articles helps you to build credibility in your industry and means that your content will appear when they type that particular query into the search engines.

What are the benefits of evergreen content?

Higher search rankings

Evergreen content works extremely well as part of your content marketing strategy but combining it with your SEO strategy makes it even more powerful. Make sure you base your evergreen content around the keywords you would like your website to rank for and optimise the content for those terms. Search engines tend to place more value on evergreen content because they can see that it’s valuable to searchers and is relevant to those terms.

More traffic

As evergreen content ranks much higher than your other content, it follows that evergreen content will work to drive more traffic to your website. If someone searches for keywords related to your business and your website is optimised well, no matter when the content was published, it will always show in the search results, directing more traffic to your website.

In addition to remaining relevant in search engine results, evergreen content is also more likely to be shared on social media over time.

Please contact our content team for more advice about writing the best content for your business.

When writing online content, it can be difficult to strike the balance between creating engaging content that your target audience will find informative and writing content that optimises your keywords and helps your website to rank in the search engines. However, getting your content to rank highly in the search engine results will significantly increase your chances of being seen.

Did you know that the number one search result on Google receives 33% of search traffic? And page one of the results page receives 92% of all traffic? You might be able to create well-written and informative content but, without carefully optimising it for your chosen keywords, it’s unlikely to rank on Google. On the other hand, a piece of content that’s simply stuffed with keywords and doesn’t appeal to your audience isn’t going to achieve the conversions you’re after. So, how do you make sure your content is optimised for both your audience and search engines? Here are a few of our tips and tricks for writing content that ranks highly without sacrificing user experience.

1. Choose Keywords Carefully

Every day, Google processes over 40,000 search queries. How do you cut through the noise and make sure that your website is visited and your content is read? The simple answer? Find the keywords and phrases that YOUR customers are actually searching for. If you’re active on social media, use it to research current trends and take a look at the terms your target audience use around your product and services.

Research your competitors too. They might be targeting keywords that you hadn’t thought of and they’re likely to be using some of the words your customers are searching for. Tools such as Ahrefs allow you to see which keywords your competitors are ranking for and their position. If you find keywords that are relevant to your business too, make sure you include them in your content.

Remember that when your customers are searching, they’re likely to use long tail keywords or questions. When people search online, they’re usually looking for a solution to something so the search terms are often question-based. 70 % of all search traffic is made up of long tail keywords so they’re certainly not to be ignored! Using long tail keywords will give you more chances of being seen as the shorter keywords tend to have much higher competition. In addition, those people who are searching for terms such as ‘red shoes with buckle size 6’ rather than ‘red shoes’ know exactly what they’re looking for and are further down the customer journey. These people are more likely to convert when they reach your website.

2. Weave keywords into your content seamlessly

Once you have a list of keywords and you know the subject or theme of the blog posts and landing pages you want to create, it’s time to start writing. In the interests of creating content that appeals to your audience, you must make sure that any mentions of your keywords are naturally integrated into the content. It’s also important to create content that will be informative and hold your audience’s interest long enough for them to take your desired action.

To increase your chances of ranking highly, your primary keyword should feature in:

• Title
• Headings and subheadings
• URL
• Image Alt Text
• Meta description
• Woven through content

Be aware of keyword stuffing because this will lead to your website being penalised and will affect your rankings negatively. If the keyword usage is not natural, the user experience will be compromised and customers are less likely to convert.

When writing ANY content, ALWAYS write for humans and not for search engines. Your content should answer their questions and compel them to take action in order to progress to the next stage in your customer journey.

3. Create easy to read posts

Most consumers digest content when they’re on the go or when they’re searching for fast answers. This means that your content needs to be easy to read and digest, especially on mobile. The average attention span of the modern consumer is around 8 seconds so you don’t have long to engage them! Most people scan content for the answers they need so formatting it well will make it much easier for them. Elements such as subheadings and bullet points make your content much easier to read and scan.

With this in mind, you might think that shorter posts are the way forward however, search engines prefer to see longer content which gives you more room to add your keywords and phrases.

4. Internal and External Links

We all know that links are an important aspect of SEO as they signal to search engines that your content is not only relevant but trusted too. Don’t be afraid to link to the posts of other experts in your industry – it gives your audience more relevant and useful information to answer their questions but it also signals to search engines that you have researched your content which means that it’s backed up and more likely to give your customers the information they need. Plus, other content creators might link back to your content, further strengthening your link building techniques.

In addition to linking out, make sure you link internally too. Not only does this help to keep customers on your website, reducing bounce rates and increasing the chances of conversion, it also helps search engines to crawl your website more accurately. Only use links that enhance your content and offer further value to your customers.

Blogging. Everyone’s doing it but is it right for your business?

Unless you’re really stuck for relevant content ideas then there are not many cases when blogging wouldn’t work for your business. As long as you bear in mind that blogging is about keeping your customers and website visitors informed with information and not a direct selling tool, you’re already halfway to success.

53% of marketers state that blog content creation is their top inbound marketing strategy. Traditional interruptive marketing techniques have given way to inbound marketing techniques and blogging is a huge part of this. It helps your customers to find out more about you and your products or services when THEY want to and keeps them engaged during and after your sales process.

The best bit about blogging is, as long as you have a website or blog page, it’s completely free! Although it might take up your time or other resources, the return on investment for blogging is huge.

Many people believe that creating a blog will simply help them to rank highly on Google. And, although that is a huge advantage, there’s SO much more to blogging. Read on to find out more about how beneficial blogging can be to your business.

Position your brand as an industry leader & build trust

By regularly blogging about your industry, products and services, you set yourself as an industry leader which helps you to build credibility with your customers and others in your industry.

When you create blogs, it’s likely that you’re answering the questions or concerns your customers have about your products or services. By consistently creating this content, you will become an authority in your customer’s eyes, making them more likely to purchase from you in the future.

Drive traffic to your website

Every business wants to gain more website visitors but how do you find them? They could type your business name straight into the search bar but that means they already have to know about you. That doesn’t equate to more traffic because it’s just the people who already know about you.

Blogging and optimising the content with keywords that you know your customers are looking for will help you to appear in search engines and make sure they find you when they’re searching for solutions.

Works for SEO

Search engines like web pages that are regularly updated with content that’s interesting and relevant to your customers. How often do you update your ‘about us’ or ‘contact us’ pages? A blog page is a great way to keep your site updated and favoured by the search engines. In addition, if the content’s engaging and you have customers sharing and liking it, even better! Plus, if customers are taking the time to read your blogs, your bounce rates will be lower which is also good for SEO!

Convert traffic

Did you know that your blog content could help you to convert your website traffic? 70% of consumers learn about companies through their content rather than ads and blogs are the 5^th  most trusted source for accurate information online. As customers read your content, they come to trust it and your brand and so are more likely to buy from you. A good blog answers their questions and helps to lead them through your sales funnel subtly. After reading an initial blog, you might ask for their contact details so that you can send them emails and further interesting content. These website visitors then enter the top of your sales funnel and are led through your sales process!

Someone might visit your website to read your blog content but might not be ready to buy from you yet. Regularly updating your blog gives them a reason to keep coming back until they’re ready to make a purchase.

Support social media

Without good content to share, it’s very difficult to maintain an active and engaging social media presence. You can share others’ content but this isn’t going to direct any traffic to your website. Your content can help to spark conversations on social media so don’t miss the chance to take advantage of such a huge audience.

Greater understanding of customers

As you build up a good bank of content, make sure you monitor your analytics to see which posts resonate the most with your customers. This will help you to get a better understanding of what your customers like and want to know, allowing you to create more of this content and attract more of the same traffic.

Stay up to date and relevant

In order to keep your blog up-to-date, that means you have to too! To be able to comment on your industry and developments in your business, you need to know about them.

At Rare Digital Marketing, we have a team of content experts who can help you to grow your business through creating relevant and informative content for your website visitors. Please contact us to find out more.

The use of user-generated content in digital marketing has seen rapid growth over the last few years. With the average consumer bombarded by over 3,000 brand messages every day, it’s easy to see why they no longer pay attention to or trust brand advertising messages.

User-generated content is any content related to your brand that is voluntarily created by happy, satisfied customers. Photos, videos, reviews and social media mentions are all types of user-generated content that consumers like to see and share. Your happy and satisfied customers, those who have had a good experience with you, are much more likely to inform their peers by sharing their experiences online. However, you must also remember that those who have a bad experience are also likely to shout about it!

Using user-generated content to promote your brand is an inexpensive method of promoting brand awareness and building trust with your potential customers. Happy customers will shout for free so all you have to do is offer exceptional service!

Now that so many people search, buy and socialise using their mobile phones, user-generated content is more accessible than ever. Informing your customers about your brand whilst they’re on the go will keep it in the forefront of their minds until they’re ready to buy from you.

How can User Generated Content Benefit You?

1. Your Customers Promote your Brand

Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as personal recommendations? They trust other customer’s opinions far more than branded content because it’s much more honest and reliable. Customers know that branded content portrays the product or service in its best light but, as content such as reviews is usually produced with no incentive for the customer, it’s perceived as being much more honest.

Reviews, photos, videos, questions and answers give your customers immediate access to information around their pain points and concerns about your brand, product or service. You can share all of these pieces of content in your customer emails, social media channels and your website in order to have maximum impact.

2. Engage with customers even when they’re not shopping

User-generated content spreads awareness of your brand even when potential customers are not directly looking for you. Customers use social media even when they’re not actively shopping so having high visibility for your brand increases the likelihood of your product or service being in the front of their minds when they come to need it.

3. SEO

That’s right! User-generated content can provide a great boost to your SEO rankings. Firstly, it provides unique content for your website. Regular updates in the testimonials or comments section tell search engines that your site is active and providing a valuable service to your website visitors.

In addition to keeping your site active, comments, testimonials and reviews show you exactly how customers are talking about your products and services. This is a great way to find long-tail keywords for your SEO strategy. Have a look at the language your customers use and try to incorporate it into your other pieces of content in order to create more targeted campaigns.

Now that you know HOW customers are talking about you, why not think about WHAT they want to know. User-generated content can help you with content ideas for your website or blog. You can then create the content they’re looking for by answering their questions or concerns.

4. More engagement

As consumers trust each other more than brand, user-generated content tends to get more engagement and so further promotes your brand. Consumers are twice as likely to share user-generated content with their friends or family.

5. Build trust

Having your customers generate content helps to build trust with your prospective customers and really helps to humanise your brand. In addition, it also helps to reassure customers that they’re making the right decision by buying from you. Customers who see and interact with user-generated content are 97% more likely to convert than the customers who do not.

6. Get a better understanding of your target audience

Seeing what customers are saying about your brand helps you to get a much better understanding of what they’re looking for from your brand, the terms they’re searching for, their pain points and the processes they go through when deciding to buy from you.

Contact our team of experts to find out more about how user-generated content could benefit your brand.

Content marketing has become one of the most important and effective methods for communicating with existing and potential customers. Consumers no longer want to be bombarded with advertising messages, they want relevant, useful information when they’re searching for a solution or something specific. The best way to get your business in front of them at this time is by providing the information they need at that exact moment. If you want your business to succeed in the digital age, you need to do so much more than provide a product or service, you need to offer advice and high-quality content. Provide customers with enough information to allow them to get to know, like and trust you enough to buy from you.

Here are just a few of the major advantages of content marketing for your business:

1. Build Brand Awareness

One of the biggest benefits of content marketing is its ability to help you build awareness of your brand online and drive clicks to your website. Producing regular, high-quality content allows you to showcase your expertise and build trust with customers until they are ready to buy from you.

Content can be used across a range of marketing channels and helps you to draw people into your website, let them know how you can help them and lead them to eventually buy from you. The more consistently you produce content, the more customers will see and interact with your brand, making them more likely to think of you next time they need your services.

Content also gives your audience something to talk about. If they’re talking about you, they’re telling others about your business and their experiences too. Shareable content helps you to continuously drive visitors to your website through search, social media, PPC and other marketing messages. Other marketing strategies you have in place will be much more effective with good quality content behind them. Carefully crafted ads are great but if there’s no relevant content to steer your customers when they land on your website, your conversions are likely to be low.

2. Advance your Sales Cycle

Businesses who understand content marketing and who have an effective strategy in place, understand the role it plays in every single stage of the sales process. Before undertaking any marketing strategy, take the time to research your target audience and find out exactly who should be receiving your messages and at which stage in your sales process to ensure your efforts are as effective as possible.

If you can provide relevant, informative and interesting information to your customers from the moment they land on your website through to the moment they finally purchase from you, you have the ability to funnel your customers and convert them more easily.

3. Drives More Conversions

If you can attract someone to your site who is actively looking for a solution to a problem and you can solve it for them with your content, you will receive high-quality visitors to your website who are more likely to convert. Again, use your existing knowledge of customers and speak to your employees to find out what questions your customers are asking. Use this to build web copy, blog posts and articles to attract traffic and help visitors to find the information they need.

4. Become a Trusted Expert 

Continuously providing advice and guidance to your prospective and existing customers about your industry and what you do will help you to establish yourself as an industry expert and build trust with your customers.

If there are 10 builders in one town but one of them regularly provides helpful information to local people, that particular brand is more likely to stand out from competitors and more people will come to them in their time of need. By continuously demonstrating their expertise, this brand has removed the need for prospective customers to question their expertise or research the brand. As a small business offering free advice, they will also earn trust from their prospective customers.

Trust is one of the most important aspects of getting people to buy from you and content is one of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise and build those all-important relationships.

5. Great for SEO 

There are over 3.5 billion Google searches every day, all from people who are looking for an answer to their question. Google works hard to bring the most relevant information to the searcher so if you can match your content to your customer’s searches, Google will recognise your content as useful and your website and blog pages will rank higher in their searches and bring more traffic to your website.

If you’re looking to improve or implement a content marketing strategy, please contact us to find out more about how we can help.