Evergreen Content — the Stuff That Never Dies

Content marketing has been a hot topic for years and is one of the most effective ways of increasing traffic and generating leads for your website. But what is evergreen content? And how can you create evergreen content that people will love? Writing evergreen content – content that is always useful to your readers – is one of the best ways to build authority. It’s also a smart strategy for making sure you don’t get left behind by your competition. Evergreen content is about creating content that will always get attention and never gets old. Content about ‘How to do X for Christmas’, or ‘This week new legislation was released’, or ‘This weeks top topic’ is not evergreen. It can only be shared during a certain period of the year or is out of date by the time you publish it. It is fine to post this content on your blog, but if you want to re-use the content over and over again on Social Media and drive traffic to your website over and over again, then you need evergreen content. Evergreen content can be shared on social media lots of times, so you get more bang for the buck from writing evergreen content. It’s not all about creating evergreen content about your company. It’s about creating evergreen content for your audience. What does your audience want to know about? What will they need a reminder about next year? What will your new audience in the future need to know about that will establish credibility and you as an expert in your field? Evergreen content is a type of content that is created to continue to educate and inform consumers about your industry long after its initial release. The Long-Term Effects of Evergreen Content The term “evergreen” refers to long-term, non-changing content that is created to be viewed over a long period of time. This type of content will always be useful and relevant to a given audience. If you’re creating content with a specific goal in mind – such as generating a certain amount of traffic to your website or driving sales – then the best content to create will be evergreen content you create to achieve those goals, as it can be referred to time and time again. Evergreen content can provide a long-term positive impact on your bottom line. In fact, Evergreen content helps boost sales by building your brand authority and increasing your credibility and trustworthiness, which is key when it comes to attracting leads. You can put it on your website or in your printed material such as sales letters, catalogues, brochures and so forth. The possibilities are endless. You can use it in a number of different media also such as radio and TV infomercials, podcasting, video and social media posts and status updates. The possibilities are endless. You should use this type of marketing content in all your marketing efforts. Use it consistently and it will pay you back tenfold. It will help you to become more credible and it will improve the quality of leads and customers that come to you. It will always be there for you when you need it. Evergreen content is often thought of as “quick-win” marketing, with the goal of getting attention and generating leads or sales in the near term. However, it is also important to understand the longer-term effects of evergreen content. By consistently providing value, your brand will be much more trusted and much more highly regarded by your customers. They will come to know and love your brand for the long term, and this will have a positive impact on your bottom-line profits. Is Evergreen always Evergreen Evergreen content doesn’t necessarily have to be something that you create once and never update again. It can be something you create and update from time to time, but which continues to remain relevant over time. Changes in legislation, technology and best practice are always going to happen, but a website article about “Evergreen Content” (like this one), will always be relevant. The value of evergreen content isn’t just about the ability to create it. It’s also about how it helps you meet the needs of your audience. It’s about being able to show visitors that they are getting value from your site or business even after they’ve left. Three Suggestions for Evergreen Content Evergreen content is simply content that remains valuable over time. Think about all the things you learned in school that are still important today. All successful marketers should be collecting and creating evergreen content. There are many benefits to creating evergreen content. Chief among them is the fact that it tends to increase the longevity and overall visibility of your website. But what exactly is evergreen content? 1. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) These are questions that come up over and over again. If your site gets a lot of traffic, the chances are very high that at least a few of those readers will have asked one of these questions. Answering them in an informative manner will not only help them but also future visitors who may have the same question. How many times are your asked questions by your clients? Get those questions and turn them into a blog. People will be searching the internet for answers to those same questions. This blog was created as a client asked me, what is evergreen content? 2. How To’s There’s almost no limit to how many times you can repurpose the same how to. While the how-to will eventually become outdated, it’s good to periodically refresh it with the latest tips and tricks. What interesting task did you do last week? Turn this into a blog. What was the request? What was the thought process behind the solution? What was the solution? How was your client after the solution was delivered? Yes, this may give away some secrets ‘for-free’, for also drives traffic to your website for people also wanting to know “how to do this”, but also demonstrates to your potential clients that you know your stuff. 3. Case Studies Similar to how-to’s, case studies can be used over and over. However, unlike how-to’s, case studies should focus on real-world situations and not just theoretical information. What interesting project did you complete last week? Turn this into a case study. Who was the client? Did they give a testimonial? What was the project? What was the thought process behind the project delivery? What was the solution? How was your client after the project was delivered? Conclusion Evergreen content is considered gold in publishing. Evergreen content is content that is timeless, and it’s also what we see popping up on Facebook and Google. For example, the posts that show up in your feed as you scroll down your timeline are almost always evergreen content. Yes, you can publish an event, or a seasonal special offer on social media (which is not evergreen), but the effort that goes into creating that new content is quite high. Especially when compared to just repurposing content that you have already created. Re-publishing your evergreen content is a much faster process and therefore cost-saving. Especially when you provide a service where people are not ready to buy right now – it’s good to give them a gentle reminder that you are there when they are ready. Evergreen content has the ability to keep on giving. If you need any help with further ideas for evergreen content, and assistance with publishing your content to your website or social media, we’re here to help!

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