Effective Content Marketing for Landscape Businesses
You'll hear and read it frequently that you need content for your marketing to work.
OK…. So what does that mean?
Back in 2007 I started blogging about the projects I was doing in my landscape business. Rather than having a picture portfolio I wanted to not just show the work, but also tell the story behind it. I felt we were doing things differently -- in a way that mattered.
I didn't realize at the time, but I was beginning to use an aspect of content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is using all forms of media, such as text, images, video, audio, etc., to:
Attract people to hear what you have to say
Deliver your message in a purposeful and strategic way
Continue guiding them (with content) to eventually do business with you
Fundamentally, content marketing, when done correctly, builds relationships where people get to know, like and trust you (and your company).
If you think about it, isn’t that what exists among all your best clients? They know, like and trust you.
And here’s the best part. Content marketing can start and develop those relationships without your direct involvement. Plus, it can deliver those effective messages consistently, 24/7.
This is what I realized early on with blogging about my landscape projects. I could show and say the message I wanted, while answering the questions I knew people would be asking.
Content marketing gives you (and your company) control over your messaging, eliminating the random and ineffective pieces of communication that are so common.
But blogging is just one of several aspects to a content marketing strategy. Each piece, whether it’s a blog post, email, social media post, etc., should have purpose and convey your company’s core messaging.
Create Content With Purpose
From a business standpoint your time is so valuable. Efficiency and purpose underlies everything you do. Content creation fits strategically under that goal.
Producing content with unplanned topics and without a goal in mind is an inefficient use of your time and money, and not likely to get any results.
On the other hand…
Producing content with a desired effect – one that evokes a certain feeling or action from the person consuming it – gives you a marketing asset.
And what’s so valuable about creating content with purpose is you’ll have a growing resource that can be “repurposed” in multiple ways. It’s your marketing collateral that you can use to communicate your company’s brand, products and services.
Create Content Around Your Core Messaging… Your Brand
If there’s one overarching point to make about your content strategy and creation it’s to be consistent with your core messaging. And in a nutshell that’s:
What is it that you do?
How will it make my life better?
How are you different or why should I choose you?
Keeping your core messaging in mind ensures your content will have a “strategic” purpose to attract the right clients and lead them to do business with you.
For my landscape design business the core messaging I created content around has been competence, trust and client advocacy.
Create Content for Where Prospects are in Their (Buying) Journey
If you think about it, people interested in landscape work are each at a different stage in their “journey” to possibly hire someone.
On the one end you’ll have the unaware – or those with a general idea they have a problem or a need.
And at the other end of the journey you’ll have the prospect that’s most aware of your product or service, and only needs to know “the deal”.
In between these two stages are interest and consideration.
Just like when you’re speaking to prospects in person, you’ll adjust how and what you’ll talk about based on where they’re at.
Create Content for Your Clients Too
This is the customer journey stage that’s “post sale”. This stage is often overlooked and is arguably your best source for additional sales. The content you create for this category is for customer retention (continued sales) and to promote referral business.
Ideally you have content that is speaking to both prospects and clients at the “stage” they’re currently in.
And with marketing automation (e.g. email sequences) you can have additional content delivered that continues to keep your company top of mind and guide your reader through the next stages.
Content Strategy
At its core we want to create content that addresses what people need to know to do business with us. But also what they’re asking and searching for… in their own words.. This is where your content strategy comes in and brings us back to:
Where and how are people looking for this information (Search, Reviews, Social, etc.)?
Where are prospects in their journey (unaware, interest, consideration, most aware, etc.)?
Are you clear on your core messaging… your brand?
Your content strategy is an integral part of your marketing strategy. Know your goals -- your content must be purpose-driven.
And include analyzing your competitor's content while auditing your own. You can learn what’s working for them — and fill in the gaps they’re not covering.
This is the foundation you’ll build your content strategy and its tactics on.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
I remember early on in my blogging that using certain industry terms and phrases was not helping communicate with prospects. Worse yet, it didn’t help the search engines connect my articles with what people were searching for.
Understanding SEO and keyword research helped me to not only choose the right words to use, but also the topics people were most interested in.
As business owners you know to make your products and services fit what your ideal customers are looking for. It just makes sense that your content marketing does the same.
All the search engines today are evolving so rapidly, especially with AI. More than ever they’re able to realize a searcher's “intent” for what they’re looking for.
This still requires us to use smart SEO optimization, but also to create content that’s highly differentiated. Your content should include original experiences, your perspective and opinions.
“It’s one thing to just write content… And it’s another to write content that is optimized both for humans and search engines.”
Google (and the other search engines) now have to contend with the deluge of generic content produced by AI. To help combat this Google uses a standard called E.E.A.T., which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness
“We can be pretty sure that Google will continue to find ways to prevent low-value AI content from ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and it makes sense that E-E-A-T will play a part in this.”
Create “Evergreen Content” for Your Best ROI
If you’re not familiar with the term, evergreen content is content that’s timeless. It’s designed to be relevant and beneficial over the long term.
It’s foundational information to your topic and business that rarely (if ever) changes.
It’s content that your ideal customer needs for a solution to their problem or desire.
It’s content that consistently conveys your brand & messaging
With these powerful benefits in mind, the majority of the content I produce is evergreen.
For the outdoor living industry so much of what’s talked about stays relevant from year to year.
Yes, a few things may change like design trends, construction techniques, new plant varieties – but essentially the fundamentals of the industry stay the same. Contrast that to other industries that are constantly evolving.
From a content marketing standpoint, evergreen content has the best ROI.
When planned effectively, each piece of content you create adds to an ever-growing resource that you can put to work in various ways in your marketing.
Articles for SEO and Search
Main topic hub-pages for the Resources section on your website
Landing pages to get prospects (and clients) to take action
Sales pages
Email marketing
“The list goes on…”
It’s clear that evergreen content is where your focus and investment should be. But does that mean it’s a set it and forget it asset?
For long-term optimum performance the answer is no. And this is where updating your older content comes in.
Updating Your Older Content – Is It Necessary?
The last piece of content (or update) I posted to my design/build website was in 2017. Up to that point I was fairly consistent writing new articles and updating older content. With 236 posts and 20 pages the site performed well in Search.
Not long after stopping my attention to the site – including creating new content and refreshing the older – my search rankings began dropping off.
So yes, creating new content is important, but so is updating the older. Google places a higher priority on sites that update their content.
And here’s the thing. Generally speaking, updating content takes less time than creating new content and it’s a relatively easy way to maintain and even add traffic to your site.
Key Takeaway:
An effective content strategy steadily builds a library of marketing collateral that’s specific to you and your business. It’s your voice. You’ll use it consistently and in multiple ways to attract, convert and retain your best fit clients.