Content marketing is hard, but it’s not complicated. The idea is simple – use remarkable content to drive qualified traffic to your website, capture site visitors as leads, and convert those leads into sales.
How do you do that?
First, you produce compelling content centered around a topic your target audience is searching for online. Then you post that content on your site in a well designed and SEO friendly format.
Next, you create an opt-in mechanism for converting your site visitors into leads. This is known as a lead magnet, which is essentially bonus content that people can get access to in exchange for their email address.
And finally, you develop a lead-nurturing process designed to convert your leads into sales. That’s content marketing in a nutshell.
What’s the hardest part?
It’s not coming up with content ideas. It’s not copywriting. It’s not SEO, email marketing automation, or A/B testing.
The hardest part of content marketing is making good decisions about what to work on. In other words, being efficient.
No content marketing team has unlimited resources, so you have to look for what will give you the biggest return on investment. And you have to look for efficiencies.
As most content marketers know, evergreen content is one of those efficiencies because it doesn’t lose its relevance or value over time, whereas other content can become obsolete and stop driving traffic.
An evergreen blog article can continually grow it’s organic reach because it adds value to readers and stays informative whether it’s read today, tomorrow, or two years from now. With just a little pruning and upkeep, you can ensure your post is still as valuable to your site visitors as it was when you first created it.
This evergreen strategy can be applied to lead magnets as well. And more specifically, to content upgrades which are lead magnets with higher conversion rates, because they are uniquely tailored for a particular blog post or web page.
Here are five tips for creating evergreen content upgrades that never stop converting.
1. Segment your content by category and target audience
Content upgrades, unlike “site-wide” lead magnets, should be specific to the content site visitors are already interacting with on your site. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend time creating unique content for every blog article, podcast episode, or video you post.
If you segment your content into categories, you can develop a content upgrade that fits with each category’s ideal customer profile, rather than each individual post.
Because content upgrades still require a lot of initial work, it’s more important than ever to make sure they cover an evergreen topic, which we’ll discuss in the next tip.
2. Solve a specific problem your target audience wants to be solved
Picking an “evergreen” topic means choosing content that can hold its value indefinitely as long as it’s continually updated.
Evergreen does not mean set it and forget it. However, among other benefits, maintaining evergreen content is less work than creating an entirely new concept every time.
Here’s how to pick an effective evergreen topic.
The first step is to choose a topic that solves a problem for your target audience. If your content upgrade doesn’t address a real need people have, it won’t work.
The second step is to make sure your topic is super specific.
A generic content upgrade is not going to convert. The more precise you are about the unique value your content upgrade provides in relation to the site content your visitor is actively reading, watching, or listening to, the better your conversion rate will be.
And finally, test your topic by asking yourself “Am I able to continually update my content upgrade’s information so that it stays relevant over time?”
If the answer is yes, then you’ve chosen an evergreen topic.
3. Promise a quick win that’s easy to digest
The best content upgrades are easy to access. You don’t have to fill out a long form or jump through any hoops to get it.
They’re lightweight, unique, bite-sized pieces of content that directly relate to what people are actively consuming right then and there – think of a checklist, a cheat-sheet, or a handy ebook.
And most importantly, your content upgrade must promise (and deliver) a quick win for your site visitor. In other words, it should help them instantly solve, accomplish, or achieve something.
4. Use a copywriting formula to increase conversions
Not every content marketer is a world-class copywriter. And that’s okay because world-class copywriters have created copywriting formulas we can steal.
What are copywriting formulas?
They’re step-by-step recipes that help you write good copy by eliminating the guesswork that makes a lot of bad copy bad copy.
They’re perfect for creating persuasive content upgrades that get your site visitors to convert.
Take one of the most reliable formulas ever invented, PAS. It goes like this:
Problem – Present the problem your site visitor feels.
Agitation – Poke at that problem until it’s visceral.
Solution – Present your solution to that agitated problem.
For example, if you bring up a problem, like how to fly somewhere as cheap as possible, you must present a solution in your article. It’s not always enough to tell the reader what to do. Sometimes it’s worth it to provide a solution.
For example, if you wrote an article about cheap flight tickets, you can embed the calendar widget from the travel affiliate program, such as Travelpayouts. This is how you can present a solution and earn on every flight ticket sold. It’s a win-win model.
Check out: 15 Proven Writing Techniques that Work GREAT in 2019
5. Schedule time to regularly revisit and update your content upgrades
This should go for all of your evergreen content. When your website visitors consume your content, be it a blog article, podcast, or how-to video, it should demonstrate your expertise and unique value proposition.
If your content is outdated or inaccurate it will destroy the trust you need to turn leads into customers.
Part of having a set of evergreen content upgrades is regularly revisiting them to determine which ones are working well and which ones need to be updated. Every new year is a great time to refresh your content.
Keeping your content fresh ensures site visitors and search engines will continue to value it. Which means you’ll keep driving traffic, capturing leads, and converting sales.
Greg Roth
Head of Marketing and the Editor
Greg Roth is the Head of Marketing at UniTel Voice and the Editor of Startup Stockpile. As a marketer and an entrepreneur, he loves helping businesses discover new apps and use technology to grow.