You’ve probably heard this marketing phrase before and dismissed it as nonsensical jargon, but evergreen content is the real deal. It’s a proven method used by publishers everywhere as a way to gain consistent traffic all year round, but its usefulness also extends beyond businesses in the media industry.
Any company that publishes content can benefit from evergreen content, and in the 21st century this should ideally be every company. Of course, not every business can allocate sufficient budget to a digital content strategy, so let’s back up a bit and explain why it’s worthwhile for all companies to invest in one.
Why publish content in the first place?
Online content can inform, entertain or resonate with its readers, but in a business setting its primary purpose should be to increase brand awareness and potentially drive sales or leads. To achieve this, companies should write articles about topics that are relevant to their target audience. More specifically, if your business provides a product or service that solves a problem, then write content that outlines ways to solve that problem and include your solution.
For example, a clothing label can publish content about current fashion trends with links to their catalogue, or an accommodation marketplace can post destination guides that encourage users to travel more. The point of content for these businesses is to drive traffic to their site – traffic that will then ideally be converted into sales.
This is also true for businesses in the youth market. Education providers such as universities, TAFEs and private colleges have the unique opportunity to publish content about final exams and the transition into further education. Employment agencies can post articles about finding work and the specific industries they serve. Young people who are already seeking out information about these topics will come across your site, be made aware of your brand and the opportunities that lie within it. This form of marketing will easily funnel engaged users towards enrolments or registrations.
If this seems like something beyond your scope, click here to find out how we can tailor a content marketing campaign for your business.
So what is evergreen content then?
Evergreen content is content that remains relevant throughout the year and continues to be read long after initial publication. It’s named after evergreen plants that keep their green leaves all year round instead of shedding them in the colder months.
Evergreen content on Year13
The point of this kind of content is that traffic grows steadily over time instead of dropping off suddenly once the topic stops being relevant. Typically, these articles are longer in length and cover a topic in greater detail. The idea behind this is that a longer article will provide more insights and value to its readers, meaning people continue to search for and read the piece no matter what year or month it is.
Evergreen content is also extremely important for SEO practices. Search engines will rank these articles more favourably than content that hasn’t had considerable traffic in recent weeks, and these longer, more detailed evergreen articles tend to garner more backlinks. More backlinks mean stronger SEO positioning and this results in more organic search traffic.
Any article that’s attached to a specific time or event won’t be evergreen. This is because after that time has passed, there will be little to no people interested in that subject, let alone searching for it. Examples of articles that are not evergreen include news stories, content based on statistics that will go out of date, various “Best _____ of 2018” type roundups, or holiday specific pieces.
The best kind of evergreen content is how-to guides that solve a problem that’s continually faced by your audience and intrinsically linked to your business. For example, a company behind a photography app can produce a comprehensive guide to shooting and editing amazing photos. Listicles, tips and step-by-step outlines are other examples of great evergreen content.
It’s important to note that while they’re a vital component of an effective content strategy, your output shouldn’t comprise entirely of evergreen articles. Producing highly topical content based on trending events or stories can help you attract a large amount of traffic that’s valuable to your business even if it’s not sustainable over time. Thus, effective marketing means striking a balance between timeless, evergreen content and topical articles that follow where the clicks are currently. 
Topical content on YouthSense
How is it relevant to businesses in the youth market?
As with regular content marketing, these concepts can be easily applied to educators and employers in the youth space. While there are a plethora of new issues facing youth due to advances in technology and increasing popularity of social media, there remains certain milestones and common emotions that every young person continues to go through; this means there are also content topics that will always be relevant to youth and thus opportunities for effective evergreen content.
One example of this is navigating the ATAR system and figuring out how subject scaling works. As such, many universities will have content published regarding subject choices and ATAR calculation. These topics are relevant to every student considering studying a degree, and so these evergreen articles are highly effective in attracting traffic to their site year in and year out.
As for employment companies, their evergreen content can focus on the issues many young people face when finding or starting work for the first time. These include casual employment rules and job hunting tips.
By addressing the timeless issues and concerns that young people face all-year round, you’ll ensure a consistent flow of traffic onto your site as well as establishing your brand as an industry expert.
For more information on how we can provide effective content marketing solutions for your business, download our Media Kit.
