Do you hear that? It’s the faint keyboard pitter-patter of thousands of copywriters, churning out content to keep up with the almost never satisfied need for original material.
Between your social media, newsletter, trade show materials and more, keeping up with content creation can be daunting even if you have a large marketing staff to take it on. And content output is not something that’s going away. They say we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data on the internet every day. 2.5 QUINTILLION! That’s a 1 followed by 18 zeros, guys. Now, not all of that data is original content…but it does give you an idea of the massive amount of information that is transferred every day.
In a world where Google is constantly updating its algorithm, competitors are outputting content and you’re growing weary of this seemingly never-ending content battle, what can you do?
The idea behind evergreen content is that it doesn’t have an expiration date. It is always relevant, always green... like a beautiful, beautiful fir tree in the dead of winter.
Most of the time, this should be your heaviest hitting content – pieces you or your team consistently give to customers. It should be hardworking, without the need for daily revisions. Written with a shelf life of at least a year, or more, it could take many different forms, from brochures, blogs, folder leave-behinds or even videos.
… you might not have your staple content pieces established yet. How can you determine what that content should be? Here are a couple questions to get you started:
Why create 15 rushed blog posts when you could just output one stellar e-book? The quality of evergreen content is another aspect of what makes it awesome. Since it’s intended to have a longer shelf life, you should take time and put resources into its creation. Treat your marketing materials intentionally; after all, it may be the very first interaction a customer has with your brand. You want it to be a great one.
Enhancing quality means really thinking through the strategy and purpose of the content before words hit the page. Then, make sure it aligns with your brand’s voice and style. Give it some design love to make it easy on the eyes. All of these little details will take your evergreen content to the next level.
Evergreen content is awesome, and definitely a valuable player in your marketing material lineup. But, deploying several evergreen content pieces doesn’t mean you’re done creating content forever. (Sorry!) Instead, it should be seen as checking off a major to-do list item by setting your content foundation.
Having a couple pieces of strong, evergreen content isn’t the magic bullet to all of your content strategy. While having these pieces in place is a great accomplishment, generating new content is still beneficial. For instance, timely content should be an integral part of your overall strategy and marketing plan, especially in the social media world. Since Google’s algorithm changes on the reg, fresh content can give you a leg up in search engine results.
So, next time you’re thinking about your content strategy, ask yourself if you have your hardworking, evergreen content perfected. It will change your life. Or at least… your content marketing.
