Rashida
As an unprecedented year, 2020 caused organizations to shift dramatically in many ways. eCommerce adoption skyrocketed, and businesses focused on omnichannel strategies that combined online ordering with curbside pickup. For most employees, the changes lead to remote work.
For marketers, the changes meant something different: delete your entire content schedule.
That’s right, if you were a marketer all of the content you planned for the year was suddenly rendered obsolete. It either made no sense anymore in the context of social distancing, or it wasn’t appropriate given the graver issues at hand.
While creating a content calendar and planning ahead are important in marketing, 2020 exposed the crucial vulnerability that marketers face. The world is always changing. It’s not always possible to anticipate what will happen next or what you need to cover with your content.
Many marketers went back to the drawing board crafting relevant content for the midst of the pandemic, but they also learned the value of evergreen content.
Evergreen content is essentially always relevant. It includes the likes of “Productivity Tips to Beat the Afternoon Slump” or “5 Bedtime Habits to Help You Fall Asleep.” Evergreen content is the stuff that is timeless and will continue to gain traction no matter what unpredictable events are happening in the world.
The biggest marketing takeaway from 2020 is to create evergreen content. Let’s dive into how you can do it.
Why You Need Evergreen Content
It’s certainly important to address trending topics and relevant current events in your content, but a pillar of marketing content should be evergreen. For one, the world is unstable. You can’t know all of the crazy events that will unfold. If you wait for the world to throw ideas at you, you’ll always be playing catchup with your marketing strategy.
Aside from the difficulty of always creating content on current events, evergreen content is effective. In the long run, it is what will drive traffic to your site and build your brand awareness. Recent topics can help you catch some buzz in the moment, but it won’t always attract your target audience. Additionally, that content will quickly become outdated and irrelevant, no longer attracting users.
On the other hand, evergreen content offers an incredible return on investment because it continues to gain traction over time. It does not date quickly, and retains its relevancy for a long time. The end result is more traffic and leads over time.
Repurpose Old Content
The first method for creating evergreen content is to revisit old content. Look through the blog posts you already have to find evergreen content you created in the past (maybe without even knowing it!) Check for posts that attract the most traffic.
Once you’ve found some of your evergreen content, reinvigorate it. Find ways to improve upon it and make it better. Maybe you can expand on a point, add new sections, or rework the wording in some areas. Add photos and videos to enhance the content as well. Just start by improving the original piece to provide even more value.
After updating the piece, you should repurpose it. Turn the blog post into a simple video, several social media posts, quotes, etc. Pull key phrases or stats from the post to use for social media graphics or captions or create an infographic from the main points. Break down the original content into several pieces of content that you can use elsewhere, each time linking back to the post.
How to Come Up With Evergreen Topics
After you’ve done what you can to improve existing pieces and repurpose them, you’ll need to come up with new topic ideas. Here are some methods for generating new evergreen content ideas:
Keyword Research
One helpful strategy is to build evergreen content around relevant keywords in your industry. Start with some keyword research to find topics to blog about. There are many keyword explorers to choose from that will show the search volume. Rather than super short words, look for phrases that you can use. These phrases will give you some ideas for ways to expand into full posts.
People Also Ask
One of the simplest ways to find relevant ideas for your evergreen content is to search for some keywords in Google. Then, check out the “People Also Ask” section. This section is filled with questions related to your keyword and can give you headline ideas.
For example, if you search the keyword “mini skirt” you see questions like:
- What age should you stop wearing mini skirts?
- Can a 40-year old wear a mini skirt?
- Are mini skirts appropriate for work?
- Who made the mini skirt popular?
When you expand for answers, Google will also show more and more “People also ask” questions that can inspire your content.
Top Search Results
Research some of the relevant keywords and broad topics in Google. Examine the top search results, especially the ones related to your industry. For “lawn care” the top blog posts (shown after lawn care service pages) are:
- The 10 Best Lawn Care services
- The Basics of Lawn Care
- Lawn Care Tips for Beginners
- Lawn Care 101: Lawn Maintenance Guides and Tips
Use the top results as inspiration for your own original content. Think about ways that you can improve upon the information shared in the top posts. Add any tips they are missing, improve the organization, add rich media, and more.
Examine Your Current Content
Evaluate your existing content. Which pieces have done exceptionally well? Make note of the posts with the highest volume and engagement. Then, analyze the broad topics. Are all of these pieces about the same general topic, or different topics? Either way, you can look to create more posts within the same topics of your top-performing ones.
Create Part 2
Another thing you can do with evergreen posts that are doing well is to create additional parts. Maybe you shared 10 productivity hacks the first time, create a part 2 with 10 more and link it at the end of the first post.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you listen carefully, your audience will often tell you what kind of content they want. Pay attention to the questions your audience asks, then think about ways you can answer their question with evergreen content.
Recurring Events
Some marketers claim that content about holidays or once-a-year events is not evergreen, but it certainly is. While that content may only be relevant for a set portion of each year, it is relevant every year. Around the same time each year, people are looking for “easy DIY Halloween costumes” or “ways to give back this holiday season.” Plan some content that is evergreen for recurring events, like major holidays or industry-specific events.
Pairing Evergreen Content with Time-Sensitive Content
Evergreen content is now more important than ever, as marketers have seen how quickly their content calendars can be upturned. However, the best strategies marry evergreen content with time-sensitive content. While evergreen content will be the pillar of your strategy, content about recent events keeps things moving and puts your brand in the spotlight.
It’s important to create evergreen content while still leaving time and room for timely content. The most successful marketers from 2020 were able to quickly adjust and cover the most relevant topics at the time while also relying on evergreen content for steady exposure. To succeed in the new normal, you must balance evergreen content with trending topics.
