Why You Need to Incorporate Evergreen Content into Your Content Marketing Strategy

Are you looking to boost your business’s online presence and generate more leads? Consider incorporating evergreen content into your content marketing strategy.

What is Evergreen Content?

As an evergreen tree retains its leaves year-round, evergreen content is sustainable and timeless.  Evergreen content continues to be relevant to its audience and provides value long after the publishing date.

Evergreen content is created to educate audiences – whether they visit today or two years from now.  There is not expiration date on evergreen content and topics maintain consistent interest and search volume.

To make your content evergreen, you should:

• Answer frequently asked questions from your users
• Provide industry tips, “how to” instructions or advice
• Explain common industry concepts

Types of Evergreen Content

Evergreen content comes in a variety of different formats.  Evergreen content tends be long-form (more than 3,000 words), which performs better in search engines than 300-word posts. Here are some examples of the most effective types of evergreen content:

• How-to instructions – How to Write a Cover Letter; How to Protect Your Personal Data; Step-by-Step Instructions for Encrypting Your Emails
• Tips – Helpful Tips for New Homeowners; 9 Facebook Hacks for Small Business Owners; Secrets of High-Performing Employees; Productivity Hints and Tricks

• Guides –The Beginner’s Guide to Web Design; Advanced Guide to Real Estate Investing; Customer Support Handbook; Definitive Guide to Starting a Business
• Tutorials – Introduction to Project Management,YouTube Tutorial: Uploading Your First Video;
• Lists–Top 10 WordPress Plugins; 5 Ways to Declutter Your Home; The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas; 11 Free Scheduling Apps

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• Glossary – Common Financial Acronyms, Content Marketing Terms: A to Z;
• Questions and Answers – Frequently Asked Questions, Ask the CEO
• Checklists – New Hire Checklist; Online Marketing Tools and Templates

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Keep in mind, your content doesn’t need to just be text. Videos, infographics and podcasts can all be used to create evergreen content. Videos work great for tutorials and podcasts are great for interviews with industry experts or your leadership team. You can also mix different formats together. For example, your how-to instructions can be created as an infographic or your guide can use images and text to tell the story.

What Isn’t Evergreen Content

If your content has an expiration date, it’s not evergreen. News articles aren’t evergreen because they are generally time sensitive. For example, an article about a car accident or a big snowstorm is not going to be relevant for more than a day. Other examples of non-evergreen content include:

• Seasonal content
• Content based around a certain month or date (product launches, events),
• Current trends on a certain niche
• Statistics or numerical reports for a specific time period

Remember, evergreen content has no real expiration date. If you can’t imagine someone finding value in your content a year from now, it’s probably not evergreen.

Why Evergreen Content is Important

Any business hoping to have a viable website needs to have a mix of both topical and evergreen content. Some benefits of adding evergreen content to your content marketing strategy are:

• Improves search engine rankings
• Drives continuous traffic to your website
• Generates more prospective leads for your business
• Positions your company as an industry leader
• Takes less work since it doesn’t need to be updated frequently
• Remains a constant source of backlinks and social media shares

Tips for Creating Evergreen Content

The key is to create content people (and search engines) will look for when they have a question or interest in your business area. Make sure your evergreen content is high-quality, timeless and share-worthy

• Conduct keyword research on your target niche – Create your content around the relevant keywords your audience is searching.
• Find a new angle – Put your own unique spin on relevant topics.
• Create an FAQ page – Respond to your audience’s needs by compiling the most commonly asked questions you get from our users.
• Give your users what they want – Interview your existing customer to determine what engages them. Find out what they care about, what problems they are facing and what questions they may have. Base your content on their answers.
• Don’t be too technical – Beginners are more likely to be searching for your content. A good rule of thumb is to avoid technical jargon and make it easily understandable for someone not knowledgeable in your niche.
• Make it easy-to-read – Use simple words, short sentences and paragraphs, sub headers, bullet points, etc.
• Update your content – If your content includes any statistics or specific information for a given year, make sure to revise it so it continues to stay relevant. If you use screenshots, be sure to update if you make any product enhancements. Check for broken links.
• Share your content on social media – the more shares, the more website traffic you will continue to see
• Repurpose your content – Put a different angle or spin on a topic to make it fresh and new. If you write an article on Digital Marketing Best Practices, you can then create a blog post on Why You Need Digital Marketing or Common Digital Marketing Mistakes.You can also repurpose content formats. You can turn a blog post into a video or infographic, or a snip-it that is easily sharable on social media. A clever example of this is seen in I Am Networthy’s blog, where they create content “nuggets” that users can then post on Facebook, Instagram, Google+ or Pinterest, directly from the blog page.

• Narrow your focus – If the topic is too broad, readers will lose interest quickly. Keywords for broad topics also have more competition.
• Brag About Success – Use customer testimonials, case studies and lists of industry awards to offer proof of your business’s accomplishments.
• Package your evergreen content together – Create a resource center or training library on your website so all the content is one place.

Summary

Your content marketing strategy should include a mix of content with immediate relevance and long-lasting value. Evergreen content helps your business maintain a strong online reputation and increases website traffic so you get in front of more potential customers.