SEO Copywriting: How to Create Branded Content That Ranks

The traditional way of marketing has seen a decline in engagements throughout the years. Today’s consumers are more likely to get hooked by content that speaks and relates to them.

Luckily, marketers created a strategy called branded content. It has been so effective that some say it can help 86% of consumers to recall a brand.

However, we believe that branded content partnered with SEO copywriting will yield a much greater result. 

The content will receive more engagement, and at the same time, search engines will also see it as valuable to its users, thus increasing its chances of being ranked.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create branded content and how SEO copywriting can amplify the great results it gives to businesses. 

Although SEO might take some time to see results, the benefits of it can’t be overlooked. So if you’re ready, then let’s get right to it.

What Is Branded Content

Branded content is a marketing technique that involves creating content that is focused on the brand itself. This particular content isn’t talking about the product or services of the brand, but rather it is about the business’s values, what it stands for, and the principles that it operates on.

In fact, branded content is used by companies to grow their businesses further. Many growth marketing examples are available online to see how multinational companies use branded content to convert prospects and increase their reach.

Branded content has provided success and engagement for businesses throughout the years.

It is seen to be 22 times more effective than display ads and other forms of advertisement.

Most media groups have caught up on the wave, and 90% of them expect their branded content revenue to increase in the next 12 months.

But why does branded content give such high numbers and positive results for businesses? What exactly does it do to consumers?

Well branded content isn’t like any content out there online. It’s not focused on products and services. When consumers read or see branded content, it doesn’t feel like they’re being sold to. 

Branded content usually tells a story and evokes an emotional response. It’s not boring, but rather it’s entertaining, inspirational, and heartfelt.

This type of content is focused on involving consumers and building trust between the brand and its market.

Now that you know why branded content is received well by many, it’s time to understand SEO copywriting.

What Is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting takes into consideration search engine algorithms and appeals to the readers. Basically, it is the practice of creating content that search engines can understand while at the same time it is engaging and something people want to read and share.

Businesses do SEO copywriting to increase brand awareness since ranking on search engines can greatly help a business scale.

But how is SEO copywriting different from traditional copywriting?

The difference between the two is SEO copywriting gives importance to keywords or keyphrases. While traditional copywriting only worries about how to make a reader act.

When the content focuses on keywords, it increases the authority and relevance of your content and eventually improves its ranking in Google. 

SEO copywriting is different from the rest because the content produced here is optimized with the use of keywords. The challenge here is to use the keyword as naturally as possible.

Any digital marketing course or class will tell you that keywords and key phrases are important for any SEO endeavor. 

This is because it helps search engine algorithms know that your content is talking about this certain topic. When your content receives a ton of engagement and drives a lot of traffic to your website, search engines will see it as a relevant source of information. 

For example, you’re a real estate website. You created a blog post on how real estate agents can get a license in California, and you made sure that the keywords relevant to that topic were used naturally on your content. 

And after a few weeks of posting, the blog has been receiving many backlinks, traffic, and shares. Google’s algorithm might see your blog as a good source of information when its users search for keywords like “guide to getting real estate license in California” or “how to get a real estate license in California.” 

This then increases your chances of ranking on Google’s first page.

Why Combine SEO Copywriting and Branded Content?

When branded content is combined with SEO copywriting strategies, it will increase the chance of the content being more successful. 

Not only is branded content more engaging and appealing to people, but with the added help of SEO copywriting, the reach of the content can be much broader. 

When content ranks on search engines, it helps with the visibility of your business. This will ultimately land you more clients and convert prospects to paying customers. 

Imagine you have branded content that showcases how your business treats its clients and puts them as a priority. 

Not only will it be received well by your customers, but it can also be globally seen due to the SEO copywriting techniques you’ve included. 

What was once content just for your audience is now exposed to millions if it ranks on search engines.

Now that you’ve seen the possible effect of combining these two elements, it’s time to know how your content can land on the first page of search engines.

How to Create Branded Content That Ranks

1. Optimize your branded content

To see your branded content globally through search engines, you need to make search engine algorithms see it. A way to do so would be to optimize the structure of your content.

Title tags – Well thought out title tags are the ones that can rank on search engines. These titles usually contain the keyword that it is trying to rank for. It tells search engine algorithms that this post is talking about a certain topic.

Meta Description – A meta description tells your readers what the content is going to be all about. It gives them a glimpse of the topics you’re going to discuss in the content.

Headings – In properly structuring content, you need to utilize your headings correctly. Know when to use H1, H2, and H3. These headings make your overall content be organized and well structured. It lets readers understand what topics and subtopics you’re going to talk about.

Images and videos – Using images or videos at the proper stage of your post are crucial to engaging the readers. An engaged reader is someone that’s loving your content. This increases the likelihood of your post being shared on different platforms.

Although optimizing content can take up a whole blog post on its own, the points above are the basic elements that you can start with.

2. Convey emotions

The best-branded contents out there are the ones that convey emotions to people. These are the ones that get the most likes and have the potential to be shared the most. 

Even advertisements of online events, products, and services now use emotions to hook their target audience.

Remember, people like sharing content that they relate to. They share videos, retweets, posts, and quotes if they seem it’s talking to them.

A way to convey emotions through content is by storytelling. It’s a proven strategy to appeal to your customer’s emotions. 

Storytelling is always compelling because people use stories every day. They hear stories from people, and they also tell stories to others.

So when creating branded content, you can tell how your brand relates to your audience or how your business understands them. Tap into a particular emotion of theirs and elicit a customer response.

When including a story in your content, it shouldn’t be about your brand alone. Involving your audience makes it engaging. Asking questions or talking about a shared experience can be enough to hook them or pique their interest.

Now you might question how tapping emotions help your content rank?

Again, if people relate to your content or see value from it, they won’t hesitate to share it on different platforms. 

With the keywords you’ve used and the engagements the post gathered, search algorithms might see that as a good source of information about your brand, topic, and keywords relating to it.

3. Try A Different Approach For Every Platform

Just like how sales teams with their predictive dialers change their script for every subset of their audience, the same applies to businesses with multiple social media platforms.

Gone are the days of a one size fits all marketing campaign. Every great brand designer knows that consumer behavior differs for every social media platform. Given this fact, it is important to have different strategies for every application.

Branded content on Instagram

Instagram is an image-first platform. People are attracted to a post, not because of the description written but because of the image presented. 

In Instagram, your image is essential to hook your audience. That’s why some businesses are looking for Instagram presets to enhance their image and make it look professional.

What’s great about Instagram is it has innovated its platform to also cater to video posts. You can now create short branded content videos as well.

Instagram also created a guide on how your business can create branded content on its platform. Learn more about it here. 

Branded content on Facebook

It’s no secret that Facebook is one of the most used and influential social media platforms available for businesses today. Being one of the most used pay-per-click platforms that PPC services use and having 1.84 billion daily active users, it’s just too big of a number to pass up.

Using Facebook’s platform, you’ll have more leeway to write well-thought-out branded content to reach your customers. 

You can showcase how your business operates and strives to reach a great customer experience. 

It also gives you more room to explain your political or environmental stance, which can sometimes greatly affect your customer’s perception of your business. 

With Facebook’s share function, your customers can do all the marketing for your branded content. If you’ve hit the right emotional strings and connect with them emotionally, you can have a viral post at your hand.

Learn more about branded content on Facebook through the article they’ve written.

4. Keyword Frequency

Keyword frequency refers to how many times a keyword has been mentioned in your content. This ranking element is a bit tricky since no one knows the ideal times a keyword should be mentioned.

Even though marketers don’t know the ideal keyword frequency, this shouldn’t stop you from testing things out. 

Aura is an Amazon repricer tool for Amazon sellers. When you Google the keyword “repricer,” this article of theirs shows up on the first page.

Upon further checking how many times they’ve used the keyword “repricer”, it shows they’ve only used it around 22 times. 

Some websites would have a keyword frequency of more than 30 and would still rank on Google.

This just means that keyword frequency isn’t the only thing that gets you on the first page. 

What most marketers know is the idea of keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is the practice of loading a web page with keywords that the page is trying to rank for. This makes the whole page spammy, too promotional, and unnecessary.

Search engines condemn this type of action. They don’t want spam web pages on the first page of their search result. A lot of marketers believe that doing keyword stuffing can do more harm than good.

5. Leverage Your Top Distribution Channels

Leveraging online distribution channels is part of any content marketing strategy. These channels can be blogs, emails, or social media platforms. 

The top distribution channels may differ for every business and brand. That’s why some businesses invest time and money in market and user research.

To know your top distribution channel, you can check your content metrics and compare each channel. Objectively seeing how your campaigns are doing will give you an idea of what distribution channel works best for your business.

Some might see that emails are still their go-to distribution, while others find more engagements on Facebook or Twitter. 

If your competitors are using other platforms, it doesn’t mean that you are also tied to using the same platforms. It all boils down to where your audience engages with your content the most.

With Inflow Inventory, even though most businesses in their industry use Facebook, they know that they get the most interaction on Youtube. So rather than creating long posts or blog content, they use videos and leverage Youtube since it’s the top video platform out there.

Advantages of Creating Branded Content

I. It is noninvasive

A good characteristic that branded content has is it’s not invasive. It’s an ad/content that is not “in your face,” and that’s unwanted by many.

This is unlike traditional digital ads like banner ads that are displayed on the sides of websites which can affect a user’s web experience. Or those sponsored ads that pop out of nowhere.

When creating branded content, you’re naturally attracting people to check and see your business out. You’re not forcing it on news feeds and timelines. It doesn’t put your business in a bad light for your customers.

An excellent example of this is how Mixam casually placed a graphics video that talks about the customers’ frustrations in their industry and how their business can make it easier for them.

This branded content was not intrusive and can only be seen if the customer visits their website.

II. It puts your business in a better brand positioning

Brand positioning refers to how a business is identified and seen by consumers. It is the act of designing the company’s image to occupy a place in the target market’s mind.

If your business is all about new technological innovations, the image you want to portray is a brand on top of all new innovative technologies.

Suppose your company is about being updated on the new diet and muscle-building research. In that case, the image should be the most knowledgeable and reliable source of information in this space. 

Brand positioning alone can be the sole factor that your market chooses you over your competitors. 

If you’re able to connect with your audience and convey emotions through your branded content, this will put your business in a better position with your customers. 

They can think that their money is well-spent with your business; it also can be that doing business with you will exceed their expectations.

Most branded content showcases its value to its market. Businesses use it to let people know that “this is how we do our business”.

III. Increased consumer confidence

One of the things that businesses need to establish for them to scale is trust. And when your business shows that what you advertised in your branded content is true, your market’s confidence in you will increase. 

Increased consumer confidence will do wonders for the bottom line of your business. Remember, a confident customer would be willing to spend more than a doubtful one.

When your business lives up to the expectations you’ve set in your branded content, this will also result in customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty is a powerful thing to achieve since these customers are the ones who will keep coming back to do more business with you. 

Just look at how Key West Aloe made a customer remember their products even if the purchase was five years ago. Living up to its hype, the customer remembered how great their service and products were.

Conclusion

Branded content can help any business that’s looking to have a social boost. Through this content, the business can showcase who they are as a company and what makes them different from their competitors.

With the additional help of SEO copywriting, the visibility of that branded content can be increased. It will have a chance to rank on search engines that global users can see. This exposes the business to the broader market.

By using the strategies above to optimize branded content, you’re on your way to making those search engine algorithms find your content.

Author Bio

Burkhard Berger is the founder of Novum. You can follow him on his journey from 0 to 100,000 monthly visitors in novumhq.com. His articles include some of the best growth hacking strategies and digital scaling tactics that he has learned from his own successes and failures.