5 types of evergreen content proven to generate engagement

0
Oct 23, 2015 / by
5 types of evergreen content proven to generate engagement

Content marketing is an important strategy for any business looking to boost brand awareness and create a loyal following.


The primary philosophy of content marketing is to give value selflessly, creating positive ripples as the content is disseminated; the result of which is an increase in site traffic, inbound links and, with any luck, more conversions. While publishing timely content is essential in order to capitalise on current industry trends, the advantage of evergreen content is that it will continue to accrue inbound links without needing to be continuously promoted.

Self-proclaimed marketing geek Pam Moore eloquently describes evergreen content as follows:

“Evergreen content is content that is timeless, sustainable and has a shelf life longer than the latest Facebook feature or favorite mobile application. Evergreen content is foundational to helping your ideal client and audience solve their smallest and biggest problems.”

If you’re looking to create some truly classic content which will be shared for years to come, try using these formats which have been proven to be successful.

1 – How-to guides

While there will always be a place for impartial, philosophical content, oftentimes the most valuable content provides actionable advice and leaves readers with a set of instructions that they can immediately implement to improve their lives (or businesses). If there are common problems in your niche where you have the expertise to help people, a well crafted how-to guide provides an optimal format for doing. By thoroughly documenting a process from start to finish, perhaps with some excellent visual annotations to improve comprehension, you are pretty much guaranteed to differentiate your brand from the pack by going the extra mile to deliver value.

Example: Quicksprout – The Advanced Guide To SEO

2 – Industry resources

If you’re in a particularly jargon-heavy industry, one of the easiest ways to provide value to people is to create a list of relevant industry terms and definitions that people can refer back to. While it might seem like a shameless plug, we are very proud of our comprehensive glossary of digital marketing terms here at Cambridge Web Marketing! Lists of niche blogs, directories and other forms of curated content can be compiled into highly valuable industry resource posts.

Example: Cambridge Web Marketing – Digital Marketing Glossary

3 – FAQs

5 types of evergreen content proven to generate engagementOpening a two-way dialogue with your audience and committing to answering their questions is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader. You may wish to post frequently asked questions as part of a blog series, but they also work remarkably well when conveyed as audio or visual content. For example, serial entrepreneur, author and marketing genius Gary Vaynerchuk hosts a podcast for the sole purpose of asking the many questions asked to him by his fanbase. Gary’s erudite (and highly outrageous) responses are the reason why the podcast is so hugely successful.

Example: AskGaryVee Episode 143: Unethical Investors Vs. Soft Entrepreneurs

4 – Trends

Okay, so trends don’t last forever (especially in the SEO world), but if you are able to provide insights on a trend which is likely to play out over the space of several years, this can be considered as evergreen content. Try delving into a relevant current trend, show how it has evolved and then predict what might be in store for the future – these types of posts tend to generate lots of engagement!

Example: SearchEngineLand – The Evolution of SEO Over 25 Years

5 – Annually updated posts

Similar to the aforementioned point about trends, having an annual blog post about a specific topic is a great way to provide a wider context around it. Popular fantasy writer Jim Chimes produces a blog post every year chronicling the progression of his income as a writer, providing an in-depth analysis of where exactly his money comes from. This provides huge amounts of value for anyone looking to follow in Jim’s footsteps and become a professional writer in the fantasy niche.

Example: Jim Chimes – Writing Income Series

Summary

Not so long ago, keyword stuffing and other underhanded tactics were effective at improving your site’s visibility – but not any longer. Google is now better than ever at determining what content is genuinely valuable and what has been published strictly to try and generate backlinks. In 2015, producing exceptional content is the best way to improve visibility, and there are no cheats for that. Fortunately, you can dramatically improve your chances by producing exemplary evergreen content which genuinely deserves to be disseminated far and wide.

Tags: / / / / / / /