What if you shared one blog or social media post that brought new ideal customers or clients to your website every single day for years?
That’s totally possible when you create evergreen content for your small business.
What is evergreen content?
Evergreen content is an answer to your ideal customer’s questions or needs. It provides timeless value on a topic that your audience is always interested in, regardless of the years or the season. That’s what makes it evergreen; it’s never going to go out of style (or, at least, not any time soon!).
If you get overwhelmed or burned out by constantly feeling like you have to churn out new content for emails, social media, or your blog, evergreen content can be a big relief. Once you create some good evergreen content, it will always be out there working to attract your ideal audience.
For example, this blog post has brought me new ideal clients pretty much every day since I published it more than a year ago. Business owners and content creators consistently search “how to create content pillars” on Google (this is an example of SEO, or search-engine optimization). It’s a timeless need that brings new people to me all the time.
Evergreen content is the backbone of your organic content marketing (sharing free content to engage an audience without paying for ads) and it should never expire. You can still create content that is seasonal or trendy, but balance it with evergreen content!
Best evergreen content
The best evergreen content tackles a specific topic that is relevant for your customers or clients, and walks them through how to handle it. You can choose to make your evergreen content look like:
Tips or Tutorials (written or video)
Guides
Checklists
Glossaries
FAQs
Pick a format that you’re excited about and that makes sense for your ideal customers or clients to consume. You can always recreate your evergreen content in more than one format, too, like making a written, step-by-step guide into a YouTube tutorial
Pro Tip: Pinterest and YouTube are great places to find evergreen content inspiration
Examples of evergreen content
How to create evergreen content
Your evergreen content will attract your ideal audience and keep them engaged on your email list, community, or online store when you:
Step 1. Nail down a problem, inconvenience, need, curiosity, or desire
Your evergreen content should take your ideal customer or client from Point A to Point B. For example, a guide to choosing indoor plants would take readers from unsure about which plant to buy to confident enough to order a plant ASAP.
If you’re not sure what your ideal customers’ or clients’ needs or desires are:
Write down or revisit FAQs (frequently-asked questions)
Do some light keyword research
Ask your audience, like in a Facebook Group or in your Instagram Stories (“What questions do you have about __?”)
Step 2. Walk them through the transformation
Next, in your evergreen content, make it easy for your audience to get the results. Walk them through the steps to solving a problem, or give them a list of things they need for the solution.
For example, in the pick-your-paint-colors blog post, the author lists steps like:
Choose cool or warm
Put your paint chips on the table together
Choose the mood you want in the room
Guiding your audience through the process helps them achieve a little win and shows your value and credibility.
Step 3. Write it in a way that will always feel fresh and relevant for a new reader
Your evergreen content will be a first impression for new ideal customers and clients. So, write your content in a way that assumes they don’t know anything about you or your business. Also, try to avoid:
seasonal examples (Easter, Thanksgiving)
trends that will go out of style
using specific dates
referencing products or services that may be retired at some point
So, if someone clicks on and reads your evergreen content in 1 or 2 years, it will still feel fresh and timely. As soon as the post feels dated, they’ll tend to click away.
Step 4. Include a call-to-action
If your reader likes your evergreen content, we know they’re probably a good fit for your business, and we don’t the relationship to end there! Include a call-to-action (CTA) in your content that tells your reader exactly what to do next. Try to make your CTA:
easy
specific
simple
low-risk or -investment
Examples of calls-to-action (CTAs) for your evergreen content:
Download this free __
Schedule a free consult
Read more about __ here ..
Subscribe to our email list to learn more about __
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to make your CTA evergreen, too! Don’t offer something that you may take down or discontinue
Step 5: Share your evergreen content where your ideal customers’ eyeballs go
Lastly, get your content in front of the right audience. Share it on:
social media (Instagram, LinkedIn, your Facebook Group)
a podcast episode
your blog (this is where SEO comes into play!)
search engines like YouTube or Pinterest
in your marketing emails
Pro Tip: If you see your evergreen content perform well, share it more than once, like once or twice a year
Why does evergreen content matter?
The answer is simple: You will attract your ideal audience organically (without paying for ads!) f you address things they want and need in your evergreen content. And, if you have a CTA in your evergreen content, they’ll:
book
buy
subscribe
Your content is what:
makes your first impression with your audience (organic content marketing)
shows them what you can give them
motivates them to commit (like Add To Cart)
You can come back and update your evergreen content as you learn more about your expertise and your audience, to make it more valuable and relevant, and you can share it more than once because it's always going to be meaningful for your audience.
Example of evergreen content for small business
Yoga and stretch business
Nail down problem: Stiff shoulders from sitting and working
Topic: 10-minute stretch routine to take your shoulders from tight and stiff to loose and relaxed (5 steps)
Content: If you end the day with knots in your shoulders or tension headaches from sitting and looking at your computer (a timeless problem for our age), here's what to do to fix it ...
Call-to-action: Download this free video guide to after-work stretches
Share it: On blog, YouTube, Pinterest