As a small business owner, you'll probably have heard of 'evergreen content' and how this is a great thing to create for your brand.
But what is it and why do we need it? And how do we get started in creating it? In this post I'm going to be exploring exactly this.
What is evergreen content?
If you've ever felt at the mercy of social media to generate leads or felt stuck in the freelancer feast / famine cycle because you've taken your eye off the ball in terms of your online visibility, then evergreen content may come as a breath of fresh air.
So what is it?
Evergreen content is content that remains relevant and useful over an extended period of time, rather than being tied to a specific event or date.
Rather than creating content that will be posted once on social media and then disappear into the ether, this type of content is specifically designed to have a long shelf life, and it is typically focused on topics that are timeless rather than current events or trends.
Examples of evergreen content include articles about basic concepts in your niche, how-to guides, resource lists, and informational content that doesn't age.
What it's not is a blog post announcing current availability, because that will be out of date very quickly.
Why is evergreen content important?
1) It helps build authority and trust
Evergreen content is used to establish your brand or website as a reliable source of information on a particular topic, so it's an important part of our content marketing strategy. By creating evergreen content you're also confirming your viewpoint on topics / themes within your industry, which helps with the strength of your overarching message.
2) It's great for discoverability and search engine optimisation
One of the benefits of evergreen content is that it can continue to drive traffic and generate leads for a business over an extended period of time. By creating evergreen content around the topics that our ideal customers are searching for, we have more chance of being discovered in organic search results.
Google loves it when we create useful and relevant content for our audience, and rewards us when we keep our website fresh and in this way Evergreen Content could be your secret weapon in discoverability.
3) It means we don't have to be visible all of the time
This can be a more gentle approach to marketing your business because rather than having to be visible and out there actively promoting ourselves 24-7, we can let our content do some of the hard work for us. This makes evergreen content (and content marketing in general) much more energetically sustainable for us.
4) It's a more efficient use of our time
Whilst creating evergreen content will take some time and focus as you build your foundation, because this type of content is timeless, you will continue to reap the rewards of your efforts long after it's been published.
Most of us didn't sign up to be content creators or social media managers, but sometimes it can feel like that when you're on the social media treadmill. But when used in combination with Content Repurposing, Evergreen Content can help you kill multiple birds with one stone.
5) It allows us to target specific locations or keywords in our niche
Want to rank for a particular search term? Don't overlook the potential of lesser searched long-tail keywords - because these searches are less common and more specific in their nature, there is much less competition - so it is a lot easier to rank.
So by creating a blog post to target a specific keyword or term, we can increase our chances of appearing in Google rankings for those searches. The people who are searching on longer tail keywords are highly intentional in their searches, so it is very likely that once they find you, they will be clicking on your site to find out more.
If all this sounds promising, then it's the next thing to ask is...
How do you create evergreen content?
Define your niche and who you will be creating content for.
Choose your platform. You need to somewhere for your content to live and this could be a blog, podcast, YouTube vlog or Substack (or somewhere else). When choosing where to host your content, think about your strengths and what you enjoy. Do you love writing? Try blogging. More into talking things through? A podcast or Vlog may be a better fit.
Define your content pillars and brainstorm subtopics within these pillars. Keep an eye out for an upcoming post on how to find brilliant topics to cover.
Survey your people to understand what they are struggling with and consider how you can create helpful content to address these struggles. This is particularly important if you're a Human Design Generator, because it allows you to sample opinion so that you can create in alignment with your strategy which is to RESPOND.
Create your content. Share your opinions and views on your areas of expertise to position yourself as a trusted partner. This is how you put your unique stamp on your content.
Publish and promote your content. Once you've published your content, you'll want to let people know about it by posting links across social media, Google for business and via your newsletter etc.
Repurpose your evergreen content for social media. You've done the hard work in creating at source and now you can chunk it up into bite sized pieces for multiple social media posts. You can read more about how content repurposing can speed up your marketing efforts here.
On an ongoing basis, be a perpetual learner and never stop learning and researching in your area of specialism so that you can identify potential topics that will interest and engage your community.
10 evergreen content ideas to get started with
How to guides and instructional posts.
Beginners guides
Foundational / cornerstone content - commonly asked questions in your subject area / niche.
Case studies
Interviews
Tutorials
Buying guides
Common mistakes in your niche and how to avoid them
Addressing a common myth in your industry
Product or service spotlight
I hope you've found this interesting and it's got your juices flowing about how you can start to incorporate elements of this into your marketing strategy.
Evergreen content is something that I am starting to focus on as I lean into marketing my business in a way that is most aligned for who I'm - it's a melding together of marketing and Human Design which I am calling my Conscious Marketing Experiment.
Blogging is by far the easiest way to get started in creating your Evergreen content because it's so easy to add a blog to your website - if you'd like any support with your blog or website then please feel free to get in touch. You can read more about my Wix website design services here.
About Lucy:
I'm a brand designer, photographer and Wix website designer based in the UK. I help female business owners and career changers build their brand and online presence through photography and web, brand & human design, so that they can turn their passions into the business they dream of.
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