Evergreen Content (What It Is & How To Use It)

14 May Evergreen Content (What It Is & How To Use It)

Posted at 14:23h in Marketing, Website by

What is Evergreen Content?

Content that is evergreen is always relevant and never becomes dated — much like the way evergreen trees retain their needles all year round. This type of content is perfect for the difficult times we are in right now. A lot of us want to help others in our community while still letting folks know that we are open for business without coming as a sales pitch. This is a tricky tightrope walk but it can be done!

We are going to give you a few ideas to get you started.

Examples of Evergreen Content

  • Lists
  • Top tips or FAQ’s
  • Instructional “How To” Tutorials (videos perform well here)
  • Encyclopedia-esque entries
  • Product reviews
  • Articles on parenting or how you run your business

Make sure anything you cover is relevant to you and/or your business and/or your clients. Instead of being sales-orientated, just offer some solid advice, let others know what has been working for you, or showcase what you’re good at and let your work speak for itself. When seeking out content it can be easy to go off the rails. Think back to your client’s pain points and create solutions. If you read or watch something and it helps you, it will help someone else. Share away!

One type of Evergreen Content that Advokate uses frequently is showing our completed works on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google My Business. Your followers are your people! These inner circle clients, friends, family, and colleagues want to see you shine! Showcase your work and tag everyone involved. This is how you put the social in social media and highlight your team. Sometimes we get so focused on the tasks at hand and are excited about showing what we are working that we forget to share our completed projects. Make sharing your work part of your process and add reminders for yourself in Todoist, Gmail, or on a piece of scrap paper. We also like to share moments with our family and out about in the community to remind us why we got into this business.

Don’t Write for the Experts – Sometimes you may feel the urge to write a piece showing off your expertise of a certain subject, but this can be a big mistake. Experts are less likely to be searching for help—your audience is primarily beginners, and you want to generate content aimed at them.

Avoid Overly Technical Language – Because most of your content is for beginners, complicated, technical language could scare them off, so stick with a more simple approach.

Narrow Your Topic – If you write about too broad a topic, your piece will be much longer, and more likely to lose the interest of beginner readers. Broad topics tend to be shorter keywords, or head terms, with more competition. Writing a broader piece also is more difficult for the writer. Simple, specific topics like “How to Design a Landing Page” vs. “Guide to Strong Landing Pages” are more grabby.

Link Posts Together – If you’re doing a complete guide on a topic such as “Guide to Logo Design,” divide that broad topic into narrow, specific pieces such as “How to Make a Mood Board” and “What is My Brand Aesthetic” and then link those articles together. This is great for search engine optimization (SEO) and lets readers solve a specific need while also guiding them to additional relevant articles.

Repurpose Your Best Content – When you create a great piece of evergreen content, look for ways to repurpose it into other formats. You can also take an Instagram caption and create a blog or e-blast around it. Or you can take an older blog post and create a fresh, new e-blast from it.

Evergreen content has the potential to continue to bring traffic to your site for many months, or even years into the future if it is true evergreen web content. The best content marketing strategy relies on a mix of both topical articles and long-lasting evergreen posts.

Topics that are NOT evergreen can include:

    • News articles
    • Statistics or numerical reports that are likely to change and go out of date
    • Pieces about a specific holiday or season
    • Articles focused on a current trend or pop culture fad
    • Coverage of current political or cultural happenings
    • Latest clothing and fashion trends
These still have their place and can be very valuable! You’ll want a good mix of current and evergreen content.

 

Want to learn more about anything you read here?
Need help adjusting your business to fit a “new normal?”
Let’s chat: Advokate.net/date
Caitlin Stedman
caitlin@advokate.net

In addition to being Advokate's Marketing & Communication Director, I own the film production company Snarky Aardvark Films, LLC, in Queensbury where I live with my dog, Vinny. Helping people succeed in a way that aligns with their values is my passion. I enjoy planning and executing anything clients may need to thrive. My work experience is varied but it all centers around community interaction and project management. I especially love Instagram!