One thing marketers and business owners struggle with is the type of content they need to create. There are many different mediums you can use. You should be blogging. Video is on the rise. You need to be on social media, and infographics are very popular.
What subjects should you be writing and talking about though? Many business owners pick very timely topics, plucking information out of newspaper headlines or chatting up new technology or upcoming events within the company. While all of these subjects are good for your marketing content queue, you also need what’s known as evergreen content.
You’re probably aware of the importance of having fresh content for your audience. A new post might be one of the greatest things you’ve ever created, but it will eventually get a little stale. Timely topics will soon become irrelevant. The longer it’s been up, the more likely it is people have moved on to the next thing.
This is especially true if you’re creating content around the latest headlines or a recent conference. Yes, this content is great for being timely, but it has an expiry date stamped right on it. News gets old in a couple of hours now, and your conference will happen and then fade into memory.
All the content you’ve written about recent news and upcoming conferences are now outdated. What was once “green” content is now withered and browning.
This is where the concept of evergreen content comes into play. Evergreen content is like the pine trees in northern forests. They don’t change colour in the fall nor do they lose their leaves. Rather, they stay green all year ‘round, hence the name “evergreen.”
You want at least some of your content, if not most of it, to be evergreen. While writing about the latest headlines is great to drive clicks while everyone’s talking about the subject, your article will quickly show its age. Evergreen content has no expiry date, which means it can keep entertaining and engaging your audience long after you’ve posted it. Someone stumbling on an article a year or two later will be just as excited to see this information!
The easy answer to this question is you create it. The longer answer is you steer away from the topical, timely subjects. While news reports are great in the moment, they put that expiry date on your content.
Evergreen content steers clear of the timeliness issue. It has staying power with your audience. Think about the questions you’re constantly being asked. Chances are your clients ask you the same questions over and over again. They’ve been asking these same questions for years!
The phrasing of the question might change, and your answer might also change. An example is “what is inbound marketing?” Your clients have probably been asking this for a few years now. As more people become aware of inbound marketing as a tactic, they’ll ask this same question. Your evergreen content can provide the answer, whether the person is asking in 2018 or in 2021 or 2028!
Evergreen content does, to a certain extent, expire still. Statistics change. The idea behind inbound marketing stays the same, but the tactics might change. You might talk about the importance of blogging this year but move on to the importance of vlogging next year.
Nonetheless, an article on the definition of inbound marketing isn’t really going to become outdated the same way talking about Facebook’s new 2018 algorithm is going to. Keep a good mix of evergreen content and timely subjects in your content marketing strategy, and you’ll attract your ideal audience.