Are you tired of constantly churning out new content to keep up with the ever-changing marketing trends? Well, I’ve got some good news for you: evergreen content is here to save the day (and your sanity)!
You might be thinking, “What the heck is evergreen content, and how can it help my (insert your industry) small business?” Don’t worry; I’ve got you covered.
Evergreen content is like that trusty ol’ plunger in your toolkit—it’s always there when you need it and gets the job done without a fuss. In the marketing world, evergreen content is any content that remains relevant and supports your business growth with minimal changes over time.
Not really, in the traditional sense of “set it and forget it.” While optimization should be a significant part of any content marketing process, there are ways to make your content more evergreen, meaning it stays relevant with minimal changes.
For small service area businesses like yours, evergreen content can take many forms, such as:
- Service pages that highlight your expertise and unique selling points
- How-to guides and tutorials related to your industry
- Customer testimonials and case studies showcasing your excellent work
- FAQs that address common customer concerns and questions
- Videos demonstrating your services or providing helpful tips
- Email nurturing sequences that build trust with potential customers
The beauty of evergreen content is that it continues to work for you long after you’ve created it. It’s like having a 24/7 salesperson who never takes a break or asks for a raise!
Evergreen content is a widely used phrase in marketing, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all formula. It’s entirely subjective. Defining content as evergreen depends on what that content means for your business and how it fits into your marketing strategy.
For example, evergreen is often used to describe SEO components, especially with long-form blog articles. But other types of content can also be considered evergreen, including:
- Ad campaigns
- Imagery
- Landing Pages
- Whitepapers
- Case Studies
- Events
- Social Media Content
- Help guides
The list goes on—almost any type of content can be evergreen. So, what does that mean? Personally, I’d define it as any content that has the long-term goal of supporting your business growth with minimal changes needed over time. Its content remains relevant as the world changes.
This can be difficult in today’s fast-paced environment, which is why I use criteria to help define evergreen content:
- Primary Purpose — Does it add something to your marketing strategy? Is it created for a specific channel or campaign type? Avoid creating content just for content’s sake.
- Target Audience — Is it created for a specific audience rather than everyone? Ideally, an audience you want to generate or capture demand from over the long run.
- Ease of Repurposing — Can the content be easily repurposed from the primary channel into secondary channels?
- Related KPIs — Have you identified KPIs like traffic, engagement, and conversions? This won’t happen overnight but can be optimized over time.
- Content Longevity — Can content remain relevant for long periods? Trendy or seasonal content loses value quickly, while evergreen content is meant to last for at least several months if not years.
- Long-term Channel ROI — Does it continually generate ROI for long-term marketing efforts? The more you can use content, the more evergreen it’s considered.
I would consider it evergreen if you answered yes to the above for a blog, image, case study, or even an ad campaign. Content that isn’t will need to be updated and refreshed more often.
5 Tips for Creating Evergreen Content That Performs for the Long Run
Now that you know what evergreen content is and why it’s essential for your small service area business, let’s dive into some tips for creating content that stands the test of time (and those pesky algorithm updates).
1. Define Your Content Purpose
Before you start cranking out content like a plumber fixing a leaky faucet, take a moment to define the purpose of each piece. Ask yourself, “How does this content fit into my overall marketing strategy? What specific audience am I targeting, and what do I want them to do after engaging with my content?”
Don’t base it on random ideas or trends. The static content piece is meant to be read and engaged with for as long as possible.
For example, if you’re a plumber, your content might target long-term keywords like “how to prevent pipe bursts” rather than the latest trend in bathroom fixtures. These topics stay relevant longer and continue to attract traffic over time.
2. Focus on Long-Term Interest Topics
When it comes to evergreen content, you want to focus on topics that your audience cares about consistently. Think about the common pain points, questions, and concerns your customers have related to your services.
For instance, if you’re a roofing company, topics like “How to Maintain Your Roof” or “The Benefits of Regular Roof Inspections” will always be relevant to homeowners looking to protect their investments.
An evergreen content strategy focuses on topics your audience cares about regularly. These topics will be connected to their pain points, your service USPs (unique selling points), and content pillars.
3. Filter Your Target Audience
To create truly effective evergreen content, you need to know your target audience inside and out. What are their specific needs, preferences, and challenges? Tailor your content to address these factors head-on.
Let’s say you’re a moving company targeting young families. Your evergreen content might include topics like “10 Tips for a Stress-Free Move with Young Children” or “How to Choose the Right Neighborhood for Your Growing Family.”
It’s one of the best ways to make your content more effective over time.
If you’re a pest control company, focus on creating content for homeowners dealing with common pests in your service area. This targeted approach ensures your content remains relevant and useful to your audience.
4. Angle Topics for Multi-Channel Repurposing
One of the best things about evergreen content is that it can be repurposed across multiple channels, giving you more bang for your content creation buck.
For example, let’s say you’re a home cleaning business, and you create a video titled “The Ultimate Guide to Deep Cleaning Your Kitchen.” You could:
- Embed the video on a blog post and optimize it for SEO
- Share the video on your social media channels
- Create shorter video clips for Instagram Stories or TikTok
- Transcribe the video and turn it into a downloadable PDF guide
- Use the video content as the basis for an email series
By repurposing your content, you can reach a wider audience and keep your evergreen content working for you across multiple platforms.
This is much more efficient for your content strategy, as you won’t have to make new content from scratch consistently.
Once you’ve got your content, you can adapt it for multi-channel success.
According to Statista, in a 2022 survey, over 7 out of 10 marketers from across the globe stated that they used social media (organic) to promote their content. Over 5 out of 10 also said they used email marketing and paid ads on social media.
So, let’s say you host a webinar on “How to Choose the Right Home Cleaning Service,” record it, and want to promote the recordings. You could create an evergreen landing page for the webinar and then share it on social media. With strategic SEO, it will get organic coverage, but you can extend the reach with paid ads. You could also send the recording via email and drip feed-related content afterward for nurturing.
To take things even further, write a blog article about the webinar and embed the YouTube recording to take things even further. Then, optimize the video for organic YouTube traffic and share it.
From one webinar you’ve repurposed content from one webinar for multi-channel sharing across four to five different platforms. That’s exactly what we did with the webinar on How to Harness the Power of Multi-Language SEO With Localization.
The content can live on for years by being repurposed. Since repurposing often takes minimal effort compared to new content creation, I would also consider this a definition of “evergreen.”
5. Optimize It Over Time
Just because your content is evergreen doesn’t mean you can set it and forget it. To ensure your content continues to perform well, you’ll need to optimize it over time.
This might include updating statistics, adding new examples or case studies, or refreshing the formatting to improve readability. By keeping your evergreen content up-to-date and optimized, you’ll continue to attract and engage your target audience for the long haul.
The point is that it requires less maintenance and resources compared to quick conversion content that’s only used for a few weeks.
With the right optimization strategies, evergreen content should be live and in use for years.
Optimize UX/UI based on engagement data, improve related KPIs through conversion optimization, and compare performance to the rest of the marketing strategy. Long-term optimization has the biggest impact, but it’s still important to consider the contribution of ROI to the entire strategy.
It’s important to remember that ALL content needs to be optimized to continue performing well, even when it’s evergreen.
Build Evergreen Content, Build for Long-Term Content Marketing Success
If you want to achieve long-term content marketing success, one thing is clear: You need to build evergreen content. By adhering to some of the best practices above, your content will be able to weather the shifting tides and trends of the marketing industry while contributing to your company's success.
If you have any questions or need help creating evergreen content for your small service area business, feel free to reach out to me. I'm here to help you navigate the world of content marketing and create content that will keep your business thriving for years to come. Let's work together to build a strong foundation of evergreen content that will attract, engage, and convert your ideal customers!
