Nicola Balkind

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Revisit: Why You Need Evergreen Content

By Nicola Balkind

Evergreen Content
Image via http://blogs.constantcontact.com/

After a busy first half of the year – not least my time at Small is Beautiful – I’m taking a holiday.

While I’m away, I thought we’d revisit an important topic: evergreen content. Funnily enough, this post is evergreen in and of itself.

I hope you enjoy this refresher, and I’ll see you next week!

 

Why go evergreen?

When I talk to clients about the benefits of content marketing and how to get started, they ask a few key questions:

Question 1. What should we blog about?
Question 2. How frequently should we post?

Naturally, the first answer will vary by industry, and the second by availability of time.

 

To cover both of these bases, though, there are 2 hard-and-fast rules.

Answer 1. Cover timely topics, and evergreen ones.
Answer 2. Short answer: consistently!

Adding evergreen content to your editorial calendar can help immensely in both arenas. First, it vastly increases the amount of content topics you can pursue. Second, it means you’ll always have something to write about to publish on a slow news day.

 

News goes out of fashion — Evergreen content doesn’t

Evergreen content could be anything from instructional like how-to guides to information rich entries about your industry. These blog posts should be detailed and relevant to your audience.

The key way this helps readers find you is through search. How often have you begun a search query with “How to…”? These are the posts that add the most value to your users, over a long period of time.

When you solve a reader’s problem they are far more likely to share the answer, and by garnering reputation through these shares you’ll be more visible in social and in search.

As an added bonus, curated content can also go a long way. Why write a big post someone else has already covered when you can pick 5 of the best and share those instead? Be a curator as well as a creator for an even spread of the evergreen.

 

An evergreen checklist

How do you know a piece of content is evergreen? It should be…

High quality – If you’re going to spend a great deal of time on one piece, make it an evergreen one.

Informative or instructive – This is your chance to go big and get detailed.

Relevant to your audience – What does your audience really need from you? What are your frequently asked questions? Start by answering those.

Keyword rich – Especially in the headline. Again, keep your audience in mind. Get in their head. How would you search for the piece of information you are providing?

Shareable – Keep your writing snappy and break up the text with relevant headings, images, and illustrate any important data.

Long-lasting – While a piece on how to tie a winchester tie knot will be around for as long as ties are, a post about how best to update Facebook will not. Aim for topics that will last a year or more to take advantage of the SEO benefits.

 

Are you ready to invest in a content strategy with evergreen content built in? Get in touch.

 

––

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Filed Under: Social Media & Content Tagged With: evergreen content, repost

Evergreen Content: Why it’s Worth the Effort

By Nicola Balkind

Evergreen Content
Image via http://blogs.constantcontact.com/

 

So, we’ve already discussed how to plan your content.

Now it’s time to talk about what content to plan.

 

Why go evergreen?

When I talk to clients about the benefits of content marketing and how to get started, they ask a few key questions:

Question 1. What should we blog about?
Question 2. How frequently should we post?

Naturally, the first answer will vary by industry, and the second by availability of time.

 

To cover both of these bases, though, there are 2 hard-and-fast rules.

Answer 1. Cover timely topics, and evergreen ones.
Answer 2. Short answer: consistently!

Adding evergreen content to your editorial calendar can help immensely in both arenas. First, it vastly increases the amount of content topics you can pursue. Second, it means you’ll always have something to write about to publish on a slow news day.

 

News goes out of fashion — Evergreen content doesn’t

Evergreen content could be anything from instructional like how-to guides to information rich entries about your industry. These blog posts should be detailed and relevant to your audience.

The key way this helps readers find you is through search. How often have you begun a search query with “How to…”? These are the posts that add the most value to your users, over a long period of time.

When you solve a reader’s problem they are far more likely to share the answer, and by garnering reputation through these shares you’ll be more visible in social and in search.

As an added bonus, curated content can also go a long way. Why write a big post someone else has already covered when you can pick 5 of the best and share those instead? Be a curator as well as a creator for an even spread of the evergreen.

 

An evergreen checklist

How do you know a piece of content is evergreen? It should be…

High quality – If you’re going to spend a great deal of time on one piece, make it an evergreen one.

Informative or instructive – This is your chance to go big and get detailed.

Relevant to your audience – What does your audience really need from you? What are your frequently asked questions? Start by answering those.

Keyword rich – Especially in the headline. Again, keep your audience in mind. Get in their head. How would you search for the piece of information you are providing?

Shareable – Keep your writing snappy and break up the text with relevant headings, images, and illustrate any important data.

Long-lasting – While a piece on how to tie a winchester tie knot will be around for as long as ties are, a post about how best to update Facebook will not. Aim for topics that will last a year or more to take advantage of the SEO benefits.

 

Are you ready to invest in a content strategy with evergreen content built in? Get in touch.

 

––

Fancy receiving a free monthly newsletter from nicolabalkind.com? Sign up here.

Filed Under: Social Media & Content Tagged With: content marketing, content planning, evergreen content

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Testimonials

Nicola is an experienced creative copywriter, with a great ability to produce quality pieces quickly and at short-notice. She has a great knowledge of social platforms and ability to apply this knowledge. Nicola is an absolute pleasure to work with and brings her creativity and personality to everything she does.
Kaye SymingtonMint Digital & Stickygram
Nicola’s contributions to our projects for Channel 4 were invaluable: her huge knowledge of social media developments and online trends, together with her editorial flair and excellent writing skills made her invaluable in roles that encompassed community management, social media marketing, content strategy and product development. Her dedication, creativity, forward-thinking and attention to detail made her a major factor in the success of these projects. It was a pleasure to work with her, and I hope to work with her again!
Laura GraceMint Digital
Nicola has worked with Purplefeather on various social media and copywriting campaigns. She is creative, reliable and professional and can be completely trusted with the voice of your brand – rare qualities indeed!
Andrea GardnerPurplefeather
Nicola and I worked together across several projects in the Yomgeo community management team. Nicola is great to work with, her attitude towards projects is always amazing and she is incredibly efficient, Her work is always of the highest quality, and I’ve learned a lot from working with her.
Catherine CarriganYomego
Nicola has been my number one go-to for freelance community management. She is incredibly efficient, she is clear with costs, time estimates and invoicing and completely reliable. She is a breath of fresh air in an industry which is plagued by self-promoting “gurus”: her range of skills and experience is broad and authentic. I really appreciate the way Nicola is uncomplicated to work with: she asks quick, straightforward questions about what’s required then sits down and gets the job done without fuss. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Nicola and would certainly work with her again.
Annie MacfarlaneTOMS Europe
Nicola has been nothing but helpful, insightful, and an amazing force to impact our team. She exudes exceptional talent, and throughout working together I’ve been able to see first-hand her strength in organising and leading a team, attention to detail, and ability communicate with her peers and clients effectively. It has been a real pleasure to work with Nicola, and I can’t wait to continue working alongside and learning from her.
Jessica Yamamoto, Yelp
We’ve employed Nicola’s services several times at Yomego and every time she has been absolutely fantastic in both outputs and attitude. Supporting our community management team, Nicola has added invaluable expertise in creating customer focused strategies for our clients and helping to draft truly compelling content plans. I have absolutely no hesitations in recommending Nicola’s services for anyone that places important on ensuring outputs are consistently exemplary.
Sam Macleod
Nicola is crazy talented, knowledgeable and efficient when it comes to Social Media and Copywriting. I had the pleasure to work with Nicola on several online marketing projects over the course of almost two years. Not only is she a fountain of knowledge regarding latest trends and best practices for both Social Media and online writing – she is also able to put abstract ideas into action. Any team looking to improve their online presence would be lucky to get their hands on Nicola.
Eva MartinSERPS Invaders
Nicola was an important member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival Marketing Department and was key in the communication delivery of the Festival. In such a dynamic and demanding environment, Nicola delivered great content and was dependable throughout, an invaluable asset to the Festival.
Ross PerthEdinburgh International Film Festival
Nicola helped transform EIFF’s web vision at a time of change. She is assured and confident with her tactics in an ever-evolving industry and, more importantly, generates great content with results. Allied to Nicola’s strategic savvy, it’s a winning combination.
Colan MehaffeyEdinburgh International Film Festival

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