Are your web pages not converting? Contributor Jessica Foster explains how to create a brand message focused on SEO that builds trust and drives conversions.
One aspect of content writing that is rarely mentioned is writing brand content that is both user-friendly and appeals to your target audience. Form that perfect marriage, and you are well on your way to driving more conversions — one of the main goals of SEO — whether you are doing it for yourself or for your clients.
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In this article, you will discover why brand content is so important, as well as how to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.
SEO Writing: What does branding have to do with it?
I like to say “2018 is the year of personal branding” given the trends I see. While corporate branding on a larger scale is important, I find that more and more clients are looking to put a “face” to the company they want to work with. It’s not enough to generate traffic to your site or share a ton of articles on social media. You need to establish a connection with your audience that encourages trust and establishes you as an authority in your niche.
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Good SEO writing involves much more than just writing for Google, or even writing for your target audience. It’s a beautiful balance of both, and to do it effectively, you often need to think outside the box.
To break it down, SEO writing is a way of writing that is both user-friendly and speaks to your audience in a way that attracts and converts them. It’s not a means of simply plugging in keywords and walking away.
In fact, people often ask me about keyword density when it comes to my writing, and in reality, that metric rarely crosses my mind.
If you are genuinely sharing high-quality, accurate, and informative content that answers a question your audience may have, it is already on its way to being SEO-friendly. You just need to do the research to confirm that those terms (for example, ‘free iPad apps’) have the search traffic and level of competition you are looking for.
As I mentioned above, your brand message is an important element of SEO writing, as it is often overlooked by writers and SEO experts. It plays a huge role in how you write, who you write for, the action you want them to take, and much more.
So, how do you leverage your brand message to write SEO content?
How to Find Your Brand Message
Establishing a brand message is an important step in starting a business, even though many business owners overlook this step. Perhaps they have looked at the market, become aware of their target audience, and know what they offer, but they haven’t pulled it all together coherently.
The result is often a website and marketing copy that reads flat. It ends up being a lot of generic jargon and doesn’t really capture the essence of what the business is.
What’s the consequence? Well, even if potential customers land on their site, they won’t have a solid idea of what the site is about and how the services apply to them. If they don’t see the connection, they won’t convert.
In order to find a company’s brand message, there are a few fundamental questions to ask. Here are some questions that will help get the wheels turning when it comes to finding the right message for your particular audience.
1. What makes your service or product unique?
First, you need to define what you offer that sets you apart from your competition. Even if they have very similar services/products, there is likely at least one thing that distinguishes you.
For example, you may “not cut corners” when it comes to SEO, or the products you offer may be “locally sourced and organically grown.” Whatever it is, knowing what that one thing is that makes you different will help attract the kind of audience that your unique offering generates.
2. What value do you offer your customers or clients?
Think beyond surface-level value (like money or providing them with a product), and really delve into the value your business provides.
For example, it could be the convenience of outsourcing their digital marketing needs. Or it could be the relief of working with a trustworthy SEO agency that has their back. If you think about it, these two offerings could be slogans in themselves.
Often, you will find that your audience is not necessarily looking for more money, but much more than that. Your competitors may be pitching “more sales,” but how can you sweeten the deal?
3. Who is your ideal customer/client?
When I ask this question to clients, the usual answer is something like “small business owners,” “digital marketing professionals,” or even “creative entrepreneurs.” The problem with these answers is that they give you very little information to go on when it comes to creating a brand message that attracts your “ideal customer.”
You will want to create a more holistic profile around who this person/these people are by asking:
What kind of small business owner are they?
What are their problems?