Why Evergreen Content Should be a Staple in Your Marketing Strategy

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is simply content that doesn't become outdated as time passes. Writing about the newest iPhone would be an example of content that's not evergreen because that blog post won't be relevant to readers in a year or two.

If you wanted to turn that into evergreen content, you could focus on smartphones as a whole or offer tips on saving battery life with any type of phone. The goal is to create content that provides value to readers whether they're reading it a week, a year, or a decade after it's written.

One thing to remember is that creating perfectly evergreen content isn't always possible. Let's say you create a lengthy guide that offers tips and tricks for building a website.

Even if you focus on creating evergreen content, there's no guarantee that web design best practices will remain the same. If that's the case, you can always update small parts of your blog post to make sure it's in line with the latest information.

Another thing to keep in mind is that not all content has to be evergreen. When you're writing a roundup of popular products for the year or talking about upcoming trends, that content isn't going to stand the test of time. Standard content still has a place in your marketing strategy alongside evergreen content.

Always include evergreen content in your marketing strategies

While you can't make all your content evergreen, you should always include evergreen content in your marketing strategies.

Evergreen content gives you long-term value because it's relevant to your target audience well after you write it.

Relevant content tends to earn you higher search engine rankings that lead to more traffic, and people are more likely to share your content if it provides something of value.

No matter what kind of business you're running, you should include evergreen content alongside your other content. It's fine to talk about a new product when it's launched or let readers know about a current sale, but you should always create some evergreen content.

Why is evergreen content so important?

We've already talked about how evergreen content is vital to your content marketing strategy, but why?

Not only does evergreen content provide value over time unlike other types of content, but it can also save you valuable resources.

No matter what kind of business you own or what demographic you're targeting, you should use evergreen content in your marketing strategy. Check out some of the key benefits below.

Drives traffic to your website

If you want to sell your products or services, you need to start by driving traffic to your website. The more traffic you have, the more opportunities you have to discover and nurture leads and convert them into sales.

Evergreen content helps drive traffic to your website because it's relevant to a wider range of readers. There might be some people searching for content about an older phone or laptop, but the majority of traffic is going to be focused on content that's not outdated.

When you write content that doesn't date itself, you can count on that content remaining relative for longer. Along with on-page SEO, creating evergreen articles can drive a significant amount of organic traffic to your website.

Establishes you as an authority in your industry

When people read your content, you want them to view you as an authority in your industry. You don't have to be the largest or most successful company in your industry, but your readers need to know that they can count on you to provide reliable information.

Evergreen content is a long-lasting testament to your wealth of knowledge. Whether you're covering the basics of different types of engines or offering heating and cooling tips, readers will trust that you know what you're talking about.

When people trust your business, they're also more likely to trust the products and services you offer.

Generates leads and conversions

You need to make sales to turn a profit and grow your business, and that starts with generating leads and conversions. When you create content that drives more traffic to your website, you're also making it easier to generate leads.

Evergreen content also helps in this sense because it helps people build trust in your business. The more legitimate leads you have, the more opportunities you have to nurture those leads to eventually become sales.

Lead generation is a part of marketing plans that a lot of people struggle with, and nurturing and converting those leads can be even harder. Creating the right content is a big part of generating leads.

Saves you time and resources

At the end of the day, it's not easy writing enough content to drive traffic to your website and keep your readers interested.

Creating content takes time, and you have to keep up with a busy content schedule if you want to keep your content fresh.

Evergreen content is so great because it stays fresh for a lot longer, so you don't have to constantly churn out content to keep things from getting stale. You can even update small parts of your content a little bit at a time to make sure you're providing up-to-date information without having to write new blog posts.

How to create evergreen articles for your business

Now that you know how important evergreen posts are for your business, let's talk about what you can do to create that content.

Creating content that stays fresh isn't as simple as avoiding dates and other time-sensitive references — though that's part of it. You need to design your content for freshness from start to finish, which includes choosing a topic that's not going to become stale after a few months.

Check out some of these tips to find out how you can create long-lasting content for your website.

Choose a relevant topic with lasting value

The first step is choosing a topic that's not going to become stale anytime soon.

When you're writing about a trendy new product or a current event, you have to consider that readers may not be interested in those topics in a few years or even a few months.

Think about the questions people have been asking for decades — how to lose weight, how to change a tire, how to build a fire — those are the kinds of topics that you can write evergreen content about.

You can always update your content down the road if some of the details within it need to be changed, but the content as a whole should remain the same.

Conduct thorough research to ensure accuracy

When you're trying to create content that stands the test of time, accuracy is crucial. You want people to view you as an authority in your industry, so you need to do your research before you write to make sure every detail is right.

If somebody's reading a how-to guide you wrote and they spot an incorrect detail, why should they trust the rest of the guide? It might seem like a lot of work to research and make sure every detail is accurate, but that's what you have to do if you want your content to last.

Use a variety of media formats to make engaging content

You don't have to stick to traditional written content to create evergreen posts. In fact, using different types of media can be a great way to create content that provides lasting value to your audience.

Videos are particularly effective because they're engaging, but you can also use infographics and other media. Content has to be engaging if you want it to last, and creating engaging content should be a primary focus of your content marketing strategy anyway.

Don't be afraid to mix it up with different types of media.

Optimize for search engines

Whenever you're creating content with the goal of reaching a wide audience, you need to optimize that content for search engines. Choose a good video title and description and make sure any content you write contains keywords without keyword stuffing.

SEO is one of the biggest keys to increasing your search engine ranking, which leads to more organic traffic that helps you generate leads and conversions. You can find free keyword research tools that help you pick the best keywords (with a high search volume) for your content, and there are tons of helpful guides about SEO.

Keep in mind that SEO best practices may change from time to time, so it's a good idea to do your research before making any big decisions.

Regularly update and promote your content

Last but not least, you need to stay on top of updating and promoting your content.

Just because you chose an evergreen topic doesn't mean the content within that topic will stay relevant over time. Take a look at your content every now and then to look for outdated information, and update that information as needed.

You can also promote this content on social media every once in a while, so you can attract new readers as time goes on.

Tips to build a successful evergreen content strategy

It can be tough to figure out how to consistently create long-lasting content, which is why you need a content strategy that's specifically geared toward evergreen content.

To start, you need to learn more about your target audience and what they're looking for in terms of content.

Looking for gaps in competitors' content can be a good way to figure out which evergreen topics you might want to cover.

To stay on top of things, you should have a content calendar that you can follow to a T. Here are some tips to help you build an effective evergreen content strategy.

Define your target audience and their needs

The first thing you need to do is define your target audience as well as their needs. You can use analytics tools to learn more about your target audience and what kind of content they might be looking for, and behavioral targeting can help you create even more personalized content.

The goal here is to figure out what kind of content you need to create to keep your target audience engaged and reach more people within that target demographic.

One thing to remember is that you may need to adjust your content strategy as time goes on and your target audience changes.

Creating content that's specifically designed for your audience is one of the best things you can do to simplify your marketing strategy, so take your time to learn more about your target audience so you can deliver the best content.

Create and follow a content calendar

No matter what kind of content you're writing, you should make sure you're following a schedule to some degree.

There's no exact rule that says you have to create a certain amount of content each week or month — the real thing you should focus on is staying consistent. Figure out what kind of content you want to create and start small with your content calendar.

Once you have a better idea of how much content you can create on a weekly or monthly basis, you can ramp up a bit.

Identify content gaps of competitors

If you want people to keep coming back to your content and getting value out of your content, give them something they aren't getting from competitors.

No matter what industry you're in, there are plenty of evergreen topics that people simply haven't taken the time to cover. If somebody did cover those topics, that information might be outdated and useless to anyone who's searching for it today.

It's your job to figure out what content your competitors are missing and deliver that content to your audience.

By creating unique content that's well-researched and comprehensively covers a topic, you can offer lasting value.

Repurpose content for wider reach

In addition to maintaining a fresh feel, evergreen content should also be designed for a wider reach.

One of the best ways to do this is to create comprehensive content that's useful to lots of different groups. You don't want to exclude beginners with overly advanced information, but you don't want to bore experts with information they already know.

Evergreen content is most effective if you can figure out how to make your content appeal to a wide audience.

Measure performance with analytics tools

Creating evergreen content is a good start, but that doesn't do you a whole lot of good if that content isn't performing well.

Once you start rolling out some of that content, use analytics tools to see how it performs and figure out if you need to make any changes. Your initial content strategy isn't always going to work, so it's important to be ready to adapt based on analytics.

On the other hand, you know you can stick to the content you're creating if the analytics say that content is performing well. The more you learn about different types of content and how they perform, the easier it will be to fine-tune your content strategy.

Always look for new ways to refresh and reuse evergreen content

From utilizing automation to creating evergreen content, finding ways to save time is so crucial when you run a business.

Content that stays fresh not only saves you time, but also positions you as an authority in your industry and helps drive traffic to your website. This is why it's so smart to refresh and reuse evergreen content when you can.

With tools like our Content Optimizer and Behavioral Targeting, Mailchimp makes it easy to create evergreen content to boost your content marketing strategy.