How do you create evergreen content?

Evergreen content is a term that refers to any content (from social media posts to books) you create that’s as true today as it will be next year or 5 years from now.

Making such content the foundation for your marketing will save you time and help your current and future clients understand what you do and how you can help them.

Why do you need evergreen content?

When you create ephemeral content (material that’s only true and useful for a short period of time), you might get a quick win or lots of likes, but you’ll have to keep creating new stuff.

However, if you focus on evergreen content, you can reuse it. Why does that matter?

First, it saves you time and energy. If you have a growing bank of reusable content, you won’t have to keep creating new stuff to post on social media or to put in your newsletters.

Instead, you can just repurpose some of your evergreen articles/blog posts and put your message back in front of your audience, confident that what you’re putting out is well-crafted, relevant, and useful.

Does this mean you’ll be repeating yourself a lot? Yes, and that’s a good thing.

Most of your audience don’t see every piece of content you put out into the world. So, by repeating yourself, you increase the chance of the right people seeing it.

Also, most people need to see the same message more than once before they’re ready to act on it. Not only will they not be annoyed by your repetition, they likely won’t even notice it.

How do you choose topics for evergreen content?

Start with the questions your clients and potential clients ask you regularly – your FAQs (frequently asked questions).

When you take the time to listen to your audience, you’ll find that they’re telling you what content they want to see from you. You don’t need to spend time agonising over what to write. Just give them what they’re asking for.

Here’s how I choose topics:

• Consider what I’ll be promoting over the next few weeks/months
• Look at my FAQs and identify ones that are relevant
• If I don’t have enough FAQs, I look at the list of questions in the ‘People also ask’ section in a Google search
• Finally, look at the list I’ve generated and chose the topic I’m most excited to write about

Make it evergreen, or at least perennial

Since I write about writing, and that’s not a seasonal activity, how I approach my chosen topic in December will be the same as how I’d approach it in June.

If you do something that is seasonal, you’ll need to remember that some of your content will only be reusable in the season in which you wrote it.

For example, if you take people out forest bathing, some of what you do, like discussing how to listen to the sounds around you, pay attention to the plants you can see, and notice what you can smell will be the same whatever the season or weather (though what you hear, see, and smell will change).

However, if you’re discussing how to dress comfortably for a forest bath, that will be very different on a hot summer afternoon than on a cold winter morning.

There’s nothing wrong with perennial content (content that’s as useful this winter as it will be next winter, for example), but you need to reuse it carefully. It would be jarring for your audience to see a post about staying warm in winter while they’re sweltering under the July sun.

Reusing your evergreen content

I discuss how to repurpose content at length in ‘Repurpose Your Post’, so I won’t reproduce that here. But I will emphasise that you need to let go of any fear of repeating yourself.

As I said above, people need to see the same message more than once. Also, social media is inherently ephemeral, meaning posts are forgotten quickly.

While you don’t want to post exactly the same thing week after week on LinkedIn, no one will notice if you reuse a post a few months after you initially post it. Change the image and the hook, if you wish, but don’t feel you need to start from scratch.

Doing that will only cost you time and energy. What’s worse, your audience won’t notice or appreciate the extra work.

How can I help?

If you live in or near Hampshire, you can join me for my new Content Retreat (£300 – payment plan available). I’ll help you plan and write 3 months of evergreen content and 12 (mostly) reusable get-to-know-you/behind-the-scenes posts.

If you can’t join me in Hampshire for the in-person retreat, my content club (currently my Blogging Club, but I’ll be changing the name soon because we discuss a lot more than blogging) includes the same planning meeting every quarter. Instead of the in-person retreat days, you’ll get weekly cowriting sessions via Zoom to help you write the content you plan. This option requires more discipline on your part, but it is cheaper at only £50/month.