Here’s my answer: Yes!

There are seven key types of evergreen content that every content marketer needs to know and use as part of their content marketing strategy. The first four in this list are evergreen human experiences, the last three provide an evergreen knowledge base.

1. Origin Story. The origin story connects you to your audience in two important ways: It lets them see how you got started and it should also tell them why you got started. What drove you to creating the company, product or service you now offer? What value do you hope it brings to the market? The origin story provides a compelling glimpse behind the scenes that few readers can resist.
2. Journey Story. The journey story highlights the ups, downs, bumps, bruises and exhilaration of the path you are took to get where you are today. It travels from where you started (the origin story) to where you are now, and even points to where you are going. It connects to the audience through the shared experience of the journey. It promotes trust, authenticity and appreciation of your brand.
3. Biggest Mistake. This type of content also plays to the shared experience of the audience. Everyone remembers their biggest mistakes. Depending on content goals, this could be people-focused and talk about your team or be directly related to your product or brand. If that’s too close to home, choose a company or brand in your industry that made a mistake and talk about how you would do it differently.
4. Highest Achievement. Another riff on the journey story, this shines a light on that moment when it all came together. It could be the date the product launched, achieved a specific milestone, received industry recognition or won an award. The difference between the news angle (we won the award) and the evergreen approach (the achievement moment) is the context or setting provided. Evergreen content focuses on the experience more than the event.
5. The How to. How-to articles work best for those fields and industries that are always attracting new people. They are great for introducing rookies to industry skills, history and jargon that will increase their experience. Less used (but often more valued) is the “How-to” article aimed at the experienced reader who is not yet a true expert but is striving to get there.
6. Top Ten List. This is a perennial favorite across all industries from technology to entertainment. Keep the lists evergreen with regular updates. Tie them to annual award shows or seasonal events for longer, better reach each time that event rolls around.
7. Best Practices. As with the how-to, best practices articles are actively used and searched regularly. One strategy for keeping a best practices article evergreen is to highlight changes in best practices over time, say annually. Linking back to the previous year keeps the topic evergreen by extending the shelf life of both the old and new article.

Making Evergreen Content Work for You

Evergreen content on the Web requires more than just a good core topic like those above. It needs to attract both the human audience and search engines. To do that, it should be:

1. Highly searchable. Use a key word tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Wordstream, Wordtracker or Moz to see what people are searching for over time. If you are truly trying to be evergreen, search for that term over at least two years and evaluate the trend.
2. Of general interest. Certain topics like healthy eating, pro sports, travel and investment advice are naturally evergreen because they are of continuous interest to a wide population.
3. Of specific interest. The opposite is also true. Very niche topics – especially how to and best practices articles – are evergreen, albeit to a smaller (yet typically more dedicated) audience.
4. Produce consistent traffic over time. The point of most content is to drive traffic to a Website, landing page or offer. Most good content will create a traffic spike when published and then fade away. Evergreen content should continue to provide traffic over a long period of time.
5. Universally applicable across generations, geographies and languages. Extend the evergreen quality of your general interest content by considering generational, language and location differences and similarities. Breaking down language and cultural barriers is a major advantage of evergreen content.
6. Timeless. Where possible avoid references to specific dates and times to give your content that timeless feel. If evergreen content is a key part of your content strategy, consider leaving dates off your blog or post to avoid a time/date association.
7. High quality. The bottom line is, and always will be, quality. Even if all the other strategies listed here are followed, if the content is not well-researched, well-written and engaging, it will not stand the test of time.

With these strategies in mind, evergreen content can become a core part of your content marketing program.

The post 7 Strategies for Developing Evergreen Content appeared first on Relevance.

To give you a leg up on this front, let’s discuss how long-tail keywords could be the key to standing out and connecting with the people that matter most to your brand.

Why Bother with Long Tail Keywords?

Generic, broad keywords offer up major results to the top players and are competitive for a reason, right?

While there’s no denying that if you rank well on targeted keyword terms you’ll be raking in the views and digital marketing reach, Rocco Baldassarre of Search Engine Journal points out that that’s a pretty big “if” to rely upon when it comes to connecting with your audience – especially for smaller organizations.

Instead of getting bogged down following the same path as your competition and targeting broad keywords, Baldassare notes that there’s plenty of untapped potential waiting for those who are willing to specialize in long-tail keywords that pinpoint the unique traits of relevant demographics.

Take Advantage of the Web’s Many Tools

What’s the best way to begin identifying useful terms and building content around these offerings? Inc. magazine’s Jeff Haden suggests putting the web’s many great tools to use. From WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool that generates long-tail suggestions based on your industry and content orientation, to Google’s Trends analyzer – figuring out which terms work doesn’t have to be a herculean undertaking. If you’re willing to explore your social side, things like YouTube’s keyword suggestion page and even a good, old-fashioned search on Twitter can help give you an idea of what your audience is looking for.

Don’t Let Consumer Analytics Go to Waste

Haden goes on to point out that your consumer analytics is definitely a force to be reckoned with when it comes to long-tail keyword generation and content optimization. Whether you’ve worked hard at harvesting this data first-hand, or you’ve bought into the world of “Big Data,” this information can often point to high-impact phrasing and keyword terminology that hasn’t yet become highly targeted or sought after by the rest of your industry. Naturally, keeping this data current is a must, but doing so is well worth your time and effort as it helps out on a variety of digital marketing fronts, not just long-tail keyword development.

Being Specific Goes a Long Way

Once you’ve started to map out some potential long-tail winners, Caroline Moore of Business 2 Community suggests getting even more specific to further refine long-tail keyword selections. Use powerful adjectives to qualify the phrase with location detail, colors, make, model, size, and more. Framing the keyword into a searchable question with the help of “what,” “why,” and the rest of the “Five Ws” also works wonders.

Keep an Eye on the Competition

Finally, Moore advises keeping a close eye on the competition as you build a stable of optimized long-tail keywords. Not only does this help clue you in on keyword variations that have passed a similar gauntlet, but it can also serve as another avenue for uncovering keywords that have either gone underutilized or unexplored. At the very least, keeping a close watch on the competition will keep you up to date with what the rest of your industry is doing in terms of content and search optimization methods.

Dipping into the world of long-tail keywords and building relevant content is a lot to digest in one sitting, but it’s never too late to start working toward a more efficient and refined usage of your content marketing budget. Whether you’re looking for more information on this subject, or you’re ready to take the plunge into the world of long-tail keywords – don’t hesitate to connect with the experts at Article-Writing Co.

The post Making Long Tail Keywords Work For You appeared first on Relevance.