When it comes to content creation, jumping on trends is a great way to get eyeballs on your content. But creating evergreen content is a better long-term strategy, because this type of content is more useful over a longer period of time.

What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is content that is intended to last and keep working for you for a longer period of time as compared to short term content that focuses on current trends. Usually, this time period will last at least a few months, but in some cases it can pretty much last forever. The other good thing about evergreen content is that it is almost always relevant, of interest to your audience, and something that they find value in.

It’s your decision as a business owner whether to make your evergreen content free or paid. I find that a mixture of both usually works pretty well. If you think of using evergreen lead magnets as free content, you can then add an evergreen low cost upsell and if you do it right, you can have a passive option for building your list once everything is set up.

It’s this idea that drives a lot of small online businesses to create evergreen content because they know they can make sales every day and not just when launching something new.

5 Reasons for Creating Evergreen Content

Creating evergreen content is important for your business for many reasons. A few of these include:

• audience building
• traffic building
• lead generation
• building trust and authority
• asset creation

I could write a whole article on each of these, but for the moment let’s quickly look at why and how evergreen content helps with each of these:

Audience Building

If your audience likes your style and the topics you create content around, they’re going to want to keep coming back to see what else you have. And new followers are going to want to see what else you’ve created besides the original piece that got them to your site.

By creating helpful, relevant, and engaging evergreen content, you always have something for them to come back to. This allows you to build up a loyal audience over time and these people usually will be happy to like and share your content, helping you grow your business even more.

Traffic Building

This is where the long-term effects of evergreen content come into play, especially if you use proper SEO techniques and get your articles indexed in the search engines. Evergreen content that is easily found in search engine results drives traffic to your site long after you initially create it.

Lead Generation

I personally love list building and lead generation. And using evergreen content is one of my favourite ways to build my list. My best lead magnet is still a piece of content that I created about 5 years ago, because it was promoted by several affiliates who used different social media sites to share it.

Having several different lead magnets, content upgrades, and even opt-in forms on your evergreen articles and blog posts gives people who are looking for what you have to offer an excuse to sign up and get on your mailing list.

Building Trust and Authority

This one is pretty straightforward. The more high-quality evergreen content you create, the more you show your audience that you know what you’re talking about and you’re not going anywhere.

Asset Creation

Evergreen content becomes an asset over time. It’s a powerful marketing tool that can help drive traffic, generate leads, and build a loyal audience. Lead magnets and products that are based on evergreen content and also produce revenue for you give you actual assets you can point to over time as well.

5 Tips for Creating Evergreen Content

Tip #1 – Know your audience

Before you can create evergreen content that appeals to your audience, you need to know who they are. At the very minimum, you should know who you are talking to, and what their needs and interests are. Only once you have this information will you be able to create evergreen content that resonates with them.

Tip #2 – Choose evergreen topics

What you’re looking for here is topics that will be relevant and interesting to your audience for a longer period of time. Look for topics that have broad appeal for your audience where the information is not going to change much over time. For example, if your topic is “how to start a business” the details might vary but the basic concepts are not going to change much from year to year.

Tip #3 – Make your content compelling

I’ve been seeing a lot about creating compelling content in the past few days. It goes without saying that you want to ensure that you’re creating content that your audience wants to consume and recommend to their friends. Whether it’s written, audio, or video content is up to you, but the concept remains the same regardless of the medium you publish in.

Tip #4 – Promote what you create

I hate to tell you this, but the days of “publish and they will come” are long gone. If you want your evergreen content to really work for you, you need to be promoting it consistently. This is another one of those topics that I could create volumes of content on, but for now the easy way to start is by sharing on social media, and emailing it to your list.

Tip #5 – Pay attention to your numbers

The last thing you want to do is create a bunch of content that doesn’t get results. So, always keep an eye on your analytics so you know what content is working and what isn’t. Once you know that, the simple rule of thumb is to create more of what works, and let go of what doesn’t.

Final Thoughts

Evergreen content should be seen as an asset for your business. You can use it to build your audience, generate leads and income, and build up your credibility and authority. When you create content that your readers want to consume and share, it makes it easier for you to build your business, and create the success that you deserve.

Title Banner Photo Credit: Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash