When brainstorming ideas for new content, you may immediately lean toward catering to what is trending at the moment. However, while staying on top of what is trending is important, it is not always beneficial when it comes to the long-term success of your brand.
However, if your brand's goal is lasting, long-term success and engagement, you can create another type of content — evergreen content. Read on to find out what evergreen content is and how it can benefit your brand not just for now but for years to come!
What Is Evergreen Content?
To put it simply, evergreen content is always relevant and searched for, no matter what is trending or happening in the world. The opposite of this is timely content, which is content that relates to what is trending and popular at a given time.
The problem with timely content is that the internet and its trending topics are changing more rapidly than ever. While timely content may boost your engagement rates for a few days, that spike will drop off quickly once the subject of that content stops trending.
Think of a topic or song trending on your favorite platform right now. Now ask yourself this- will you still think about that topic or song two months from now? How about two years from now?
The answer is that you will have more than likely moved on to thinking about new trends, leaving the old ones behind to be forgotten. This is where evergreen content can benefit you.
Creating content that will still be relevant for two months, two years, and maybe even two decades from now gives your brand a better chance at maintaining steady engagement no matter how much time and how many trends have passed.
Why Does It Work?
In an age where trends seem to control the world, you would be forgiven for thinking evergreen content creation is not worth your time! However, this is far from true. Evergreen content will do the following:
Grow your audience by appealing to countless people from different generations.
Make your website appear more credible and as a valid source of information instead of just a brand.
Generate consistent engagement instead of temporary, inconsistent spikes and drops.
Make It Work For You!
No matter what your brand is and what it offers, you can take advantage of evergreen content. There are countless forms of evergreen content you can make, including the following:
FAQs
How-to posts
Tutorials
Articles on the history of something
Think about your target audience and the questions they will always be looking for answers to, and use that as a starting point. Here are a few examples of what evergreen content could look like throughout different industries:
Focused on fitness? Instead of covering the latest fad diet, make a video that guides your audience through a basic 30-minute ab workout that will gain millions of views a year for years to come!
Selling craft supplies? Write an article for your website with a step-by-step guide for beginners on how to knit or thread a needle. If done effectively, your audience will come back to these tutorials every time they start a new project!
Run a food blog? Put together lists of the 10 best recipes to bring to any event. Extra points if the recipes included are from your site!
As you can see, there are many ways of making evergreen content work for you and your brand. If you aren’t sure where to start, try a few things out and see what sticks. Now it’s your turn- create some evergreen content of your own and establish your brand for years to come!