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The Evergreen Nature of Content

there's something that we call the evergreen nature of content in in marketing and is it's the idea that the content you produce it creates a cycle it creates a never ending cycle as long as a content you're producing is relevant and valuable and not just stuck in that moment in time and I'd liketo not only talk about the evergreen nature of content but also related to the evergreen nature of your clients and the evergreen nature so the evergreen the definition really refers to the fact that an evergreen tree is always green where's the trees bloom blossom and then die in bloom and then blossom and die and we want the content that we create want the value that we add one of the stories that we tell toe live on and to continue late to continually nurture rather to just be a one hit just the same as we want our customers to continually live on with us and not just be a one hit and then move on so our content we want to create content that is evergreen that it could will continue to provi...

de value no matter what over and over and over again just the same and it's the same model as we want work with customers in a way that will always create an organic luke that they'll always be wanting to refer us and it will always be able to give in their lives in a valuable way um the more content you produce the more loops that you set up the more customers that you work with the more loops that you set up it's really fun to go back sometimes this is where it is fun to go backwards and look at a couple and watch they referred them and then they referred them and they referred them and them and then they refer them in them and them and then and watch it flush out that's a client loop content same thing your customer your lead can go on read this block post and go download that guide and then go read that block post and then go and and they could make this huge continuous loop if you're content is constantly providing value at every single step along the way and constantly intersecting to solve a problem um yes question um okay so I have these five phases or and am I sending a blood ge that's going to only be interested to those pre engaged people I mean I have five different phases for these customers are they seeing all of the same block because I'm a wedding photographer question yeah it's a great question through same issues are being asked online somebody says when I want to solve the problems they don't know they have you mean send out a public blood post for example or only to that specific customer because all your customers are in different phases all the time exactly now we're getting all the strategy it's a great point so one of the one of the ways to address that is to understand where each phase consumes content so for example post back of back of step so post customers married post customers they tend to consume best via email and on the block everybody does look at your block so let's just start with that but post married I recommend using email to be your primary vehicle communication as the years go on they're going to stop checking your bloggers frequently as the years go by email is going to the best method to get in touch with them for these guys I recommend using guides for this phase that engaged and the married that are already customers I recommend guides because that's the best way to solve a problem they don't know that they have for these guys the engaged lead it's going to be all hands on deck every method you got give give give with everything you got use everything you can with these guys right here the pre engaged lead it's social media sharing your messages to a broader audience that doesn't know about you yet so I think the best way to look at it is the medium you deliver with is actually more specifically focused on the phase daring but the message is the same everywhere even if I am already married well past your services I khun still lean into a good story that touches me about a bride from for you that just got married that even though I was four years removed from it the message is still going to be relevant and valuable to me it's just a matter of how I choose to consume the content and what content medium and what content delivery is best for the phase does that help um okay so I'll give you a quick little example of this we all know this brand so it'll be very easy to cement it in a knot so those photographers we all have kind of versions to the knot check the door for right now let's look at it from my wife's perspective which is who brought this up to me and you unveiled this to meet my wife when we got engaged uh six seven years ago my wife one of first thing she did was signing for the not all of her girlfriends recommended it does not give you a wonderful little countdown clock and planner and man they do content marketing at its finest they are content market engine they're all about solving your problems and giving to you as a bride my wife loved them leaned in them trusted them they solve her problems some of the problems before she even knew she had them we getting we get married okay no need for that anymore right ah but not has something right after that it's called the nest has ever heard of the nest why do they have the nest because after you get married you make a home and what does it not do perfectly transitions to your next life cycle by providing value again the nest now my wife is in getting engaging with the nest to find tips and how to decorate the home all this stuff around again you know where that goes do you know what else the knot has is part of their product lines the bump what does that solve the next phase of you guys they have done this perfectly they have addressed solving the problems at every step along the way pre engaged engaged married married post customer they have the playbooks right there guys I honestly I just encouraged you to sign up for the the knot and watched the whole thing play out they have done a wonderful job even if we all have our own versions of the knot as photographers so remember guys let's go back to the basics of the course attract nurture profit you have to use content in the right way to nurture your customers but you have to be targeting it at the right market which is the attract portion if you don't have the right brand message you're just talking to everybody if you have the right message authentically based on you you attract the right people when you track the right people then you deliver content not just images but images with everything that goes behind them the stories the advice the expertise you solve problems with it you wrap that up into a business model that allows you to do these things that allowed you to shoot and to market and then you trust others to help you with the areas of your business you don't have to be a vital part of that you don't have to authentically represent yourself in and that's how you profit in today's market that's how you profit in today's business world you have to spend the time on this it does take the time first the timeto authentically brand yourself based on a message that is unique that is polarized that actually doesn't try to track everybody but tries to really focus on who you need to attract and who is best suited for you then it takes time to build out all of the content that goes along with the images it takes time to build out the system because you have a system it's going to fall apart at some point and if you don't build a system that allows you to focus on shooting and allows you to focus on marketing if you're constantly doing all the other things if you're constantly doing the bookkeeping send out the invoices answering emails entering all your images color correcting uploading saying out slide shows designing albums all the stuff that you don't necessarily have to do one hundred percent of if your constant doing that you won't get to marketing you won't get to this and it'll fall apart but it will change your business if you do get to it will change your business if you deal but do build a plan that allows you to market and shoot first and foremost based on that authentic message maybe one thing that I have been seeing a little bit of discussion of again continuing is the difference between wedding photographers and other first you want to address that maybe one more time yeah to take what you're teaching and apply it broadly to whatever their specific niches it's all about understand the life cycle and then applying the life cycle back to the target market you're talking tio let's look at if you're a senior reporter photographer the life cycle is they become a senior in high school that's the point if you're looking at the separation in the pre engaged and the engaged pre senior year senior year if you are an event photographer maybe a bar mitzvah in a bar mitzvah photographer it's pre time where you would become ready you know for the bar mints with obama's post that's the segment break even if you aren't necessarily a a photographer you're a videographer you're a graphic designer there's still points when somebody triggers from not being your customer potentially to potentially being your customer and then they're in the process of being your customer and they enter a stage they're not your customer anymore but you still need engage him that's what we're talking about breaking apart in the life cycle phases are before they become qualified as your customer qualified to become your customer and then your customer and then after being a customer and so if you can break down whatever business you're in whatever creative professional business you're in if you can break it down to define those stages where what is the different one of the definitions you know if I'm a senior reporter photographer it's pre senior year senior year post senior year remember people can go off until senior seniors can go off to college come back they still have friends in high school they have younger sisters they have younger brothers their moms have friends you know all these things they all still applies how can you solve their problems how can you give to them before they even know they needed to before they even know they have a problem to solve how can you give them to solve the problem that they already have how can you make yourself a brand that people can fall in love with and so it really applies across any creative space you just have to do the homework of defining the segments where they break and then how you can solve the problems for them at each segment each spot along the way so I would love to just as a quick kind of exercise together talk about quel beau sixty who says how does any of this apply to wildlife photographers talking stuck maybe early on it's people who love animals and love nature and just are generally interested in that sort of view I think it's great and then you talk about people who are in their homes and looking and meeting art yes or people who are maybe magazine editors who need art for their wildlife magazine depending on what your niche is whether you're selling exactly I mean what what makes me you know where does that customer tend to buy what triggers them by is it that they go on a vacation and then they want to then decorate their house of wildlife or is it more they've always dreamed of this you have to tap into that you understand the niche you talked about is it people or is it editors understand who's your target is it editors or is it people they're going to target all of them good luck if you're going to target one of them understand more about them what triggers an editor to look for a photo and what are the problems that they're trying to solve you know in within wildlife photography is your specialization active really you know athletic animals almost like those you know bears grabbing fish out of the water lowers it more like landscapes flesh wild life where it's the animal in the forest and you and you see the grand mountain behind them what's your niche and I'm sure that there is different editors who are looking for have different problems that we're trying to solve for each of those different types you know I mean again it all goes back to when you start to really define everything and flush it out you know it was a lot easier the second time around with shootout at it that it was the first time around phone photographers it was pro wedding photographers five weddings or more believe in fast make business their priority meaning that they want their business to grow all these things are things we know about the wedding photographer that is best suited for shoot got at it versus something else and so it allows us to build content that is solely focus at solving their problems if we were just a company that you can see now we were a company that edited every kind of photos we'd have to publish content for everything we have to have a huge budget and we'd never know what problems were actually trying to solve so if you're just a photographer for everyone if you're just a photographer in the northwest just a wedding that are in the northwest you're gonna have an uphill battle because unless you have an entire team and you know everything about all those types of people it's a hard road but is your niche down as you build a message you're going to understand more about how to solve these people's problems because you understand more about exactly who they are and where they are at that time