Weidert Wednesday: What is an Evergreen Content Asset?

Every marketer wants to get the most value out of their efforts as possible. In inbound marketing, where a good chunk of your resources are spent on content development, this often translates to creating “evergreen” content assets. Very simply, evergreen content assets are content pieces with long lives — they retain their relevance and economic value over time and continue to attract prospects to your website who can then be converted into opportunities. This longevity lets you do more with less, which helps your editorial calendar and your budget. Watch the Weidert Wednesday video above for inspiration on evergreen content you can create and see how it can play a key role in your inbound marketing content strategy.

Transcript

When we’re developing an initial inbound program for a new client, we’ll often introduce the idea of evergreen assets, and make sure we emphasize how important it is to consider the potential that evergreen assets represent.

The concept of evergreen is pretty simple: as the name suggests, evergreen assets are content pieces that hold their relevance and value well over time. As an example, Weidert Group’s most popular blog post is something we published 6-7 years ago, and have updated 3 times since. It’s a timeless subject that continues to be searched, even though the answer to the question has evolved over time.

Here’s a couple of simple examples of evergreen content for consumers:

• Best macaroni and cheese recipe. Could include “crockpot” in the title.
• How to change a headlight in a Toyota Tundra pickup.
• 10 Tips for maximizing college financial aid awards.

What these have in common are their obvious utility and helpfulness to the person searching, and the fact that the answers will likely remain relevant over time. At the same time, each are candidates for updated answers in a repurposed version that will refresh and enhance the value while still addressing the original search term.

Once you start to understand what it means for content to be evergreen, it’s not hard to see what it could look like in your B2B industry. Here are a few starter ideas:

• 5 Maintenance tips to Extend the life of your ________ machine or system
• How to compare the total cost in use of ___________ equipment
• Top 10 Considerations When Writing an RFP for _____________

As with the earlier consumer tips, even though the answers in each post will evolve over time, the questions that searchers start with are relatively timeless and therefore make these pieces great candidates for updated content that just adds to the value of the original evergreen content.

If you follow this line of thinking in your content planning, you’ll be well-prepared for the question from your CFO about marketing spending, because you’ll be ready to talk about the sustainable value of the marketing assets you’ve been creating.

Conclusion

Evergreen content is a sustainable way to attract leads to your website, educating readers and viewers about important topics while staying relevant, with updates, over time. Such content continues to provide value long after it’s originally created.