"So many marketers are looking for the perfect dashboard, system, process, and distribution plan for their content marketing. It simply doesn’t exist," he says in a blog for the Content Marketing Institute.

He's worked with hundreds of small and large brands around the world, and says only one thing has been consistent throughout: each plan is different.

"Why? It’s simple: The mixture of communicating what your business offers, delivering on your customers’ informational needs, and sharing your own corporate story is impossible to duplicate — the output from your particular blend of attributes and goals should always be different and unique."

At Snappy we specialise in great written content – from blogs and SEO copy for websites to first rate press release and daily news articles. 

For us it's the words that matter and communicating this to businesses is our mission. If we can get our message across to you, think how we can help you to reach your customers through great words and great content.

As Econsultancy points out in informative blog post, content marketing as a discipline is still in its infancy.

"While marketers are generally agreed that ‘putting useful and interesting things on the internet’ seems to be a good thing, we’re still tying a lot of our efforts to campaign-style engagement," it says.

Addressing the problems associated with a lack of resources or expertise is vital for businesses.

Econsultancy is a publisher – not just in the content marketing lingo, but an actual bona fide publisher. So its experiences tell us a lot about what works and what doesn't.

The problems it has seen is that when it publishes a report about a topic, for example, SEO copy writing, it will generate interest on social media – new Twitter followers etc, from people wanting to know more about that area.

But its reports could be on a range of topics – from paid search and blog writing to infographics and Pinterest.

So those new followers who were keen on SEO copy writing ebbed away – increasing the company's social churn.

That is, in essence, the problem. It's one that businesses in many other sectors face. And without unlimited resources it's impossible to keep producing all the content around all the topics you want to.

The answer, according to the Econsultancy blog, is evergreen and specialist content:

"While it’s almost impossible to consistently produce content on a single subject (for those of us with more than a single-product offering at any rate), it’s easy to invest in content that has legs.  

"While the brand content they cover may evolve, the strategic insight remains consistently useful. We’ve also found that posts about tools and services that help readers accomplish specific tasks may not provide a huge initial traffic rush, but do have a long tail and appeal to broad and specialist audiences.

"Meanwhile our higher-end technical SEO posts attract specialists and advertise the depth of our content."

Our earlier post on evergreen content explains a little more about this area, which is proving increasingly important for brands to pay close attention to.

It's time for businesses to stop being afraid of content marketing. It's a simple formula – produce engaging content that people want.

"Content should be good, but it doesn't have to be incredibly time-consuming to produce: articles, images, hangout videos - all of these are inexpensive and can be produced regularly," says Econsultancy.

We are indebted to Doug Kessler, a founder and Creative Director of B2B marketing agency Velocity and his superb guest blog on Econsultancy.


He says:

He goes on to say you should pretend every word you publish costs you a euro and that the world's "nastiest editor" is sitting right outside your office and he is hungry and very impatient.


Suffice to say, the message is that you should not just post any old muck online. Not only is a waste of time, it dilutes the good stuff that you do manage to produce.


Think before you post anything. Check it a lot. Don't post the same old stuff you always do and try to imagine that what you are writing will be eyed critically.


Above all, in whatever you are doing, try to be the best. When it comes to content marketing, that mantra matters more than most.

OK links are fabulous and you may well get a lot more with genuinely great content, but only over time.

Ask yourself, no matter how good your content is in terms of readability and interest - is it relevant to the search query you are targeting. After all despite Google's attempts at making search rankings more dynamic and more human there is simply no way to get around keywords - they are still the major marker points for search engines.

The reason I'm saying all this now is because of a tweet I was drawn to earlier today. As the screen shot in the link reveals, keywords are still beating everything else when comes to climbing search rankings.

It reminded me that while we delve into the realms of generating truly wonderful content, those that keep bashing away at good-old keyword-based articles continue to win the game.

I'm not talking about keyword stuffing or so-called 'black hat' SEO. No it's all about bona fide content - just remember to get those keywords in or you won't boost SEO or improve your website traffic any time soon.

Evergreen content – it's got a nice ring to it, but what is it? The easiest way to describe it is by saying what it's not.

Evergreen content is not:

News or current trends 

Facts and figures liable to change

Topical stories of any kind

Evergreen content is all about creating content that lasts. It sticks around because it stays relevant for its entire life-cycle, which can be anything from a few months to a few years.

Usually, evergreen content takes the form of guides, how-tos, tutorials, lists, advice, tips etc – this piece is a good example (I hope) of classic evergreen content. The explanations contained should be just relevant in 2023 as 2013.

Great evergreen content reinvents itself, however. Once you have the content there, it's possible to amend, adjust and adapt to changes without radically altering the piece or having to commission your writer to create a new one.

That's one of the best things about evergreen content – you get your money's worth. It continues to pull in visitors for months and even years.

Advantages of evergreen content

Link building: as the content sticks around, you can build up links to the page over time. Gradually the more people find it the more people will link back to it.

Shares: the more your content is picked up on, the more social media shares it will get. A topical news piece may only have a few days to attract traffic and likes, but evergreen content has much longer.

Authority: with long-lasting content attracting attention over time, you are building up your brand's authority of a certain topic. More and more people will come to your site for what they can see is trusted information.

Topical news remains vital

But don't forget that well-optimised topical stories remain vital. Regular updates with news articles that show your site is up to speed with latest developments must not be ignored. News also allows you to build up a large archive of articles that can site alongside your evergreen content.

Getting the best of both

You can take a list of the best beach destinations as an example. It's going to quite topical when you release it in summer – perfect content in the run-up to the holidays.

Next year, it's going to be just as valuable, if not more so as it will hopefully have attracted a few shares and links. You may want to remove Egypt from the list from last year and replace it with somewhere else, but the basis of your content remains the same. 

Ultimately, to derive maximum SEO value from your content marketing strategy, you need to have a good mix of topical stories and evergreen content.

After just five months we have made it to the first page of Google for FOUR of our main keywords!

Not a bad effort so far but we obviously want to keep on pressing to the very top of the search rankings.

The phrases you guys can find us most easily with are:

web content writing service
website writing services
content writing services
content writing agency

Obviously, we are also keen to see improvement for content marketing keywords, but it's a pretty decent start for a new business in a world full of websites clamoring for attention.

Well done to everyone involved - let's keep up the good work and show other businesses how to use content to climb the Google rankings.

Alex McLean

Snappy Content Writing

You don't just have to populate your own website with great content, you can write for other sites with equal results. Indeed guest posts could be even more effective than articles written on your own pages.

First up, there is the obvious advantage of linkbacks. We know linkbacks are one of the core concepts behind SEO, so it's vital to get as many as possible. Not only will a guest post on another site allow you to take your brand to a new audience – one that may never have considered your services or products – it also allows you to have a linkback for nothing more than the time it takes to write the article.

But it goes well beyond linking. Guest articles for other websites have other key advantages, as a recent article in Forbes points out. It notes that guest posts can be highly targeted. For example, posts can be all about content marketing on a small business forum. You bring in your expertise in way that helps people but also directs them to your service.

One golden rule is never to push products. "This is where the quality issue comes up – sleazy/low-quality content never works. Customers know if you are trying to sell them something versus educate them. Generate high-quality content that’s not solely intended to sell your product, and you will have better success," says the Forbes article.

After all, this what content marketing and post-Panda SEO comes down to – creating high quality original content that people want to read and find useful. Guest posts are no different – your attitude when writing it should be: how can I help the reader? How can I impart my knowledge to boost the confidence the reader has in my skills? 

That's the message being spread across every SEO tips article right now. It's something we all know – since Google Panda and Penguin, it's not even up for debate.

The latest to promote the "content content content" mantra is Penny C Sansevieri. In a nice blog post for the Huffington Post, she explains just why content has taken over from pure SEO.

"We know that we need to create helpful, unique, insightful content but more often than not, we just don't know how. Or we create a few posts and think, 'this is great', then the idea well runs dry," says Sansevieri.

We know content is king. Without content a website is nothing. Engaging, insightful and useful content is what it's all about. But as our blogger points out, it's not as simple as it sounds.

She says: "Let's face it, when you have to generate content it's often not an easy process. Additionally, we all have other things to do like run a business, write the next book, or just have a life."

The most important thing to remember, however, is that the payoff is "huge". Just consider how many leads you can generate when content is shared. Consider how many more visitors your site will get if it's on page one of Google.

Content marketing is so much more than just writing the odd article to keep your website updated and found by Google. Content covers everything, from videos ands blogs to white papers and infographics. 

"Do not become solely reliant on sharing items found on the internet and release the fear of creating your own," says Amanda Ryan in a blog for Business2Community.