As fast the world moves today, writing – in any form – is something you likely do as little as possible. Be honest, you use emoji’s because they’re fun and cute… but also because they can be a shorter to type for simple communication. Writing your thoughts out takes a lot brain energy by itself, and then trying to make those thoughts cohesive, impactful, and entertaining to your audience is outright daunting. How then, can I encourage all of you to take the time to sit and write meaningful localized content for your web sites, blogs, and organic social posts? My hope is by way of example.
Jackie Lipinski of American Classic Homes in Seattle is one of the marketers I am most fond of in our industry. She doesn’t self-promote (she’ll tell you she’s downright terrified of public speaking), she keeps the reigns pulled tight on spending, and she’s relentless about improving her craft. Have you had one of your Instagram photos reposted by Pottery Barn? She has. Marketed a new community that was over 70% sold out in a little over a week? Yep. So, it is not a surprise to me that the example of “writing worth doing” comes from her.
Note: I’m intentionally not telling you exactly what the article was about, because instead of learning WHY this is important most will focus on simply trying to figure out the fastest way to copy with the least amount of effort. That won’t help you in the long run at all.
In late 2016 Jackie organized and edited a great piece of hyper-local content. It was just over 1,400 words, and focused on providing value to the people who lived in the greater Seattle area, or those who were coming in to visit. It was about something that no one but someone who lived there could write about. We published it to her blog, and social media. It got a great response – without any money pushing it at first – on Facebook in particular, but it never reached critical mass.
Not until September of this year. Momentum continues to grow, and currently they average around 150 – 200 page views each day that Jackie pays absolutely nothing for. The impact on her overall organic traffic from this single post is immense as you’ll see below.
Not only are large numbers coming to her site (over 4,000 unique users in the past two months alone), but they are staying there for over 3 minutes each. This pebble of a post has created ripples that now are impacting the entire site (it is 10% of their entire site traffic). Was it luck? Did she pick the “just right” headline? Nope. There’s nothing sneaky or remarkable about her post at all. Except that it was written, and provides real value to those who live where her company builds homes.
This bit of content does not bring in new leads by the truckload. What it does accomplish is a huge impact on the overall authority and trust of the site by search engines. With more time, and additional regular posting, their site will move up for other keywords that will bring in new leads. This need for patience is the final reason that most of you will never use this strategy, and it the biggest opportunity your competition – and marketers like Jackie.
