As small business owners, we often have to take on many different roles including that of being our own marketing department. But for those with no previous marketing experience, the concept can be daunting and overwhelming. Especially when you find yourself navigating through the many terms and buzzwords. To help you get started, let’s take a moment to discuss the benefits of evergreen marketing for your business and how you can get started.
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What is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content refers to online content such as blog posts, social media posts, videos, and podcasts that will continue to be relevant to your audience over a long period of time.
This content focuses on topics that aren’t tied to a specific date or time. If someone were to come across your post in a search 6 months or a year from now, it would prove to be just as valuable as it would have been reading it today.
Often evergreen content is focused on educating your audience. Examples include how-to guides, tips and tricks, tutorials, product reviews, case studies, and listicles.
What is Evergreen Marketing?
Evergreen marketing is a form of content marketing focused on developing and distributing evergreen content. This is used strategically to bring traffic to your business website, build your brand reputation, and introduce potential customers into your marketing funnel.
Due to the fact that the content itself is evergreen, it allows your marketing strategy to continue utilizing the same content effectively.
How Can Evergreen Content Benefit Your Small Business?
Whether you are hiring a freelance writer or creating your own content, both your time and money are valuable. By prioritizing evergreen content in your marketing efforts, small business owners will see a greater return on their investment.
This is content that can be used to market your business year-round. As a result, you don’t have to worry about creating as much content to stay relevant to your customers.
For example, if you own a dog treat company, you could market at Christmas with a post about the best Christmas gifts for your dog including your product. When the holiday season is over, that content is no longer relevant until the holidays roll around once again. But an article about the nutritional benefits of some of the ingredients used in your treats will be relevant all year. This means that you can continue to use it in your marketing efforts.
Long story short, it’s a great way to save time and money. That way, you can free up your resources to focus on growing your business and achieving greater success.
Evergreen Content Vs Timely Content
Another term that you may hear in the world of marketing content is ‘timely content’. Where evergreen content is made to stay relevant for a long period of time, timely content is tied to a specific timeframe or event.
This includes seasonal content, breaking news, trending stories, or any promotions you may be running.
Timely content takes advantage of any trends or interests at the moment. It catches people’s attention and allows you to keep your audience informed on everything going on in your business in real-time. If you’re running a sale, for example, you want your customers to know.
Both forms of content have a role to play and should be included in a well-rounded content marketing plan.
8 Tips for Creating Evergreen Content
Remember your Brand Message and Voice
When creating content, or contracting someone to create content, don’t forget the message and voice of your brand. This should shine through in everything that you create. If your brand voice is friendly and laidback in everything else that you do, create content that also showcases that tone. Each piece of content that you put forward should be cohesive and contribute to your goals and efforts as a company.
Keyword Research
The secret to performing on Google is to write content that targets the search terms that your prospective customers are searching. These terms, known as keywords, will help tell Google that your content is relevant. For example, if you are selling camping gear, you may want to rank in Google searches for “the best tent for large families”. Use keyword research tools to verify that the keywords you choose are terms that people are searching, providing you with a real opportunity for traffic.
Create In-Depth and Detailed Content
When selecting evergreen content ideas for business, choose topics that are related to your niche market or the products and services that you offer. Focus on offering value by going in-depth with this content. Not only is this going to offer more value to your audience, but it will help to position you as a source of knowledge and information in your industry. If you are seen as an expert, potential customers are more likely to move through your sales funnel, trusting the advice that you offer.
Keep Your Audience in Mind
While you are making in-depth content, you also need to keep your audience in mind. If you are writing for other experts in your field, you may be able to get away with including more technical language. However, if your content is to help educate the consumer, you should avoid terms and abbreviations that they may not understand. Try to simplify the information in a way that they can easily follow along with what you’re saying.
Create Content Clusters
Content clusters, or content themes, are broad topics that relate to your business or industry that can then be broken down further into more detailed topics. Usually, this is done by creating one piece of pillar content that gives a brief overview of the broad topic and then links out to all the detailed pieces. These pieces should also link to one another to make it easy for those who find your content to move from one piece of content to the next. Content clusters help with search engine optimization (how you perform in searches like Google) as well as to improve the user experience for those visiting your site.
Repurpose Your Content
Continuing to use evergreen content doesn’t necessarily mean just sharing the same link on social media every couple of months. Instead, take your content and repurpose it to get even more value out of your investments. A single blog post can be used in a variety of ways including infographics, informational videos, email newsletters, podcasts, and more.
Showcase Evergreen Content on Your Website
Have you put together a detailed guide or resource that would benefit your potential customers? If so, make it easy for people to find it when visiting your website. This could be a link in the main menu, a banner feature on your homepage, or a mention in your sidebar. Don’t forget to include a CTA at the end of your content that then brings your audience along on the journey through your sales funnel. Try introducing your mailing list with a signup form at the end of the article or directing them to further information on your website.
Revisit and Update Your Content
When your evergreen content has been published, the work isn’t over. There are certain parts of your content that will likely change over time. Data and statistics change, recommendations evolve and improve, and new products will come to the market. Set a reminder for yourself to go back at least once a year to revisit the content that you have created and identify any updates that are needed. This will ensure that it continues to be relevant for your audience moving forward.
Do you incorporate evergreen marketing into your business marketing efforts? If so, I would love to hear more about the content you are sharing in the comments!
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