Beyond the Buzz: Creating Evergreen Content Strategies for Steady Growth

Most website articles have a short lifespan, especially those related to trending topics or seasonal events. This sets evergreen content apart in utility and value for a business seeking steady growth. As a result, however, it comes with numerous challenges.

Hiring a fractional CMO for professional services eliminates these troubles. This article discusses how:

• The role of evergreen content in business growth.
• Three methods of finding high-value niche topic ideas.
• Three steps in writing high-quality evergreen content.
• Effective strategies to market evergreen content.
• Fresh and relevant content pages.

There is much to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

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Evergreen Content and Its Role in Effective SEO

Evergreen content refers to timeless topics that provide constant and consistent value over long periods, making it a cornerstone of good search engine optimization (SEO). These are the articles, guides, or videos that address basic questions or common issues that people have.

Given the nature of evergreen content, it raises your brand’s value for leads and potential clients looking for solutions online. This increases website authority, which raises online visibility and drives traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs). Its value and effect do not wane, either.

Articles on tax laws are great examples of valuable niche, evergreen content topics for law firms. It works especially well to divide the topics into separate articles for local, state, and federal taxation. Content gaps also make good topics because they make your website more complete.

For instance, language barriers create massive content gaps within a brand’s website and among the industry as a whole. In the case of law firms, publishing translated content puts them at a competitive advantage in serving residents whose first language is not English.

Three Ways to Find Evergreen Topics for Your Brand

Producing evergreen content is not as simple as it sounds, so this type of content is essential to top content marketing services. Play smart in finding topics that resonate with your target market. Below are three ways that a fractional CMO for professional services does that:

     1. Conduct In-Depth Research for Topic Ideas

Any worthwhile content strategy begins with market and competitive research to identify ideas and gaps within existing content. This applies to both your body of content and your top competitors. Your industry's forums, blogs, and social media pages are good sources.

For example, dentists who want to find evergreen topics should start by reviewing their website to catalog what content they have or have not covered. Compiling dental health misconceptions on social media and debunking them is another evergreen content idea with great potential.

With their total mastery of research methods, a fractional CMO for professional services also helps with the discovery process. They collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data as a way of measuring the existing demand and supply for SEO content on a given subject matter.

     2. Begin with Basic Topics or Recurring Issues

Common sense is another source of ideas for evergreen content. This might seem illogical, given that research is central to all content strategies, but it has merit. To illustrate, professional services often write and publish evergreen content as guides.

The context behind this is that all of their users will look for the same information at one point or another. By making a section for frequently asked questions (FAQs), ideas for valuable and timeless content come naturally. Lawyers, accountants, and marketers often use this tactic.

It might also seem counterintuitive to hire a fractional CMO to manage this strategy, but they add their expertise about customers and industry insights into the mix. For instance, a CMO can scout social media to gather the input of their client’s target market, which itself requires strategic planning.

     3. Prioritize Content That Helps Your Customers

Part of researching content ideas is knowing how to sift through potential topics for ones that fit your business goals and customers’ needs in one stroke. The fine line between these two tends to blur and requires a keen sense to set them apart. Perspective plays a significant role in this sorting process. 

A common mistake that inexperienced marketers make is emphasizing business and profits too much. People are cautious of brands that are in a rush to make a sale and have more trust in those that prioritize solutions. The difference comes through crystal clear in the content topic.

For example, “10 Tips to Keep Your Dog Healthy” and “10 Yummy Treats All Dogs Love” display different intentions. A fractional CMO greatly helps with this process and ensures that your evergreen content reflects the best image of your business to customers. Trust is important for your growth.

Three Steps in Developing Evergreen Content

Top-notch content stems from a well-developed and well-executed content strategy that follows SEO best practices. For instance, keyword research doubles as a way to find content topics as well as a way to fuel better SEO. Below are three strategies for optimizing evergreen content:

     1. Know Your Audience, Know Your Content

Evergreen content works best when it directly answers and accurately matches people’s search queries. Start using keyword research tools to find topic ideas, then narrow them down to the ones that matter most to your target market. Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes helps.

Focus on long-tail keywords that reflect common questions, problems, or needs related to your brand or industry. Cross-reference your list of topics with what already exists on search engines. Niche topics that serve your target market are best, but they do not have to be exclusive to you.

Small business bookkeeping guides are a dime a dozen. Every sensible accounting firm has or should have one. However, this does not take away from its value as evergreen content. It actually highlights the need for information and is one way to set your business apart.

     2. Improve Content Quality with SEO Tactics

A high-level topic is not the only thing that matters in content marketing. You also have to optimize all SEO aspects to attract readers to your business website. Optimize title tags, headings, and meta descriptions with your target keywords and use them throughout the body text.

This helps provide clearer context around your article’s subject matter for search engine crawler bots, making it easier to match your content with user needs. Structured data markup is another SEO trick that gives your content pages extra appeal by enhancing their appearance in results.

Working with an SEO agency reduces the difficulty of applying SEO strategies. They know how to identify topics that increase website traffic, and they are well-versed in on-page, off-page, and technical SEO practices. The substantial returns offset the cost of content marketing services.

     3. Format Pages for a Better User Experience

Coverage is typically a key aspect that sets evergreen topics apart from transient content pages because the main goal is to keep them valuable for a long time. Diving deep into your chosen topic is one common method to achieve this. Use various angles when discussing subtopics.

Provide in-depth insights, statistics, and examples that demonstrate your expertise by using visual aids for ease of use. Charts, graphs, and infographics also create breaks between long blocks of text. This gives your audience a more dynamic and engaging experience with your business.

Dividing your primary topic into subtopics under their own subheadings also makes it easier for the user to navigate (i.e., skip) to the section containing the information that they need. For instance, you can divide evergreen content on basic dog grooming according to hair length and texture.

Setting up Your Content Distribution Channels

Content might be the main star of your website, but its reach is limited without digital marketing channels to bring it to your target audience. You need a well-planned distribution network to get the most out of your evergreen content. Here is how to set up your marketing channels:

     1. Reach New Markets Using Social Media Apps

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are reliable tools for opening up your content to new audiences. Depending on the customers you want to reach, one or more of these apps are your best bets. For instance, LinkedIn is often used in B2B marketing.

This step is complex because of the complicated logistics and formatting changes between channels, which muddy the process. Leveraging the experience of a fractional CMO for professional services ensures that you use the most lucrative options for your business and market.

Developing a content calendar and adapting content to what works best on a platform is second nature to a seasoned CMO. They are also adept at creating recognizable branding to keep posts consistent with your business. Creating an action plan to convert leads is necessary too.

For example, LinkedIn yields better results for an IT specialist whose top clients are mid- to large-sized business owners and corporations. However, turning their evergreen content on simple data security measures into TikTok videos puts them in a good position to reach brands as well.

     2. Put Emails to Good Use in Content Marketing

For most (if not all) people, convenience is a major factor that affects brand loyalty. Delivering content straight to their email inbox can pull someone on the periphery of your business to your website. This content marketing tactic puts you in a better position to slowly convert your leads.

To start this process, give visitors the option to sign up for an email newsletter and, if possible, allow them to select which messages they want to receive. This guarantees, to some extent, that they open, click, or respond to your email. It also makes building a mailing list go smoothly.

Adapting evergreen articles to an email marketing strategy is relatively easy because it does not require a reimagining of the main content. Lifting snippets or condensing the core idea just enough to draw interest works well. This gives you enough of a segue to the full article.

For instance, an afterschool tutoring service can build an effective marketing email by adapting its article on emerging techniques in education into a fun quiz. The challenge has the benefit of grabbing attention while simultaneously highlighting the value of the content and service.

     3. Team up to Grow Your Audience and Authority

In today’s marketing environment, going solo to achieve goals is insufficient. Partnerships and collaborations are the new normal for businesses that want to grow. A prime example of this is influencer marketing, which has become realistic for small businesses in recent years.

Over the long marketing history, celebrity endorsements and major news publications were the go-to outlets for widespread exposure. Today, bloggers and content creators are just as capable of swaying public opinion and driving sales. Networking is, therefore, integral to steady growth.

A fractional CMO can craft a solid outreach plan and advise your business on maintaining close relationships with partners as part of its content marketing services. Appearing on high-traffic platforms such as news outlets, blogs, events, podcasts, and videos boosts visibility and reach.

For instance, presenting the top talking points of their tax filing guide on the local news exposes an accounting firm to a captive audience who might or might not be looking to hire their services. It raises brand awareness at the very least and draws phone inquiries from leads at best.

Keeping Evergreen Content Fresh and Relevant

Although evergreen content is timeless by design, it is not entirely without an expiration date. An article’s value is defined by its accuracy in relation to currently available information. In other words, evergreen content becomes stale when new evidence overturns past knowledge.

At a minimum, perform a content audit annually to review evergreen pieces and refresh their accuracy and relevance. Mention any significant changes that have happened since you previously wrote it. This keeps the article fresh and tells search engines that your content is updated and valuable for users.

Revisiting old content serves another purpose: it justifies reposting the same page (with a note saying it was updated and when) and bringing it to the forefront of your website again. Website management and content marketing software, such as HubSpot, is an invaluable tool for this.

Integrating it into your business processes is no issue with HubSpot Agency Partners, who will fully train your team to utilize its various features. Having a central hub for all marketing data makes monitoring, correcting, and updating your content strategy effortless on your part.

Summing Up

Growing your business through SEO is a long game. Nothing illustrates this better than evergreen content. Professional services offer solutions to longstanding problems, making timeless guides a logical strategic choice and a natural magnet for new customers. 

In a sense, evergreen content also allows people to explore your website and learn more about your business and services. It sits midway between engaging and informing, serving as a reliable resource for potential customers and is a valuable tool for building authority.

Need help creating an evergreen content strategy for your professional services business? Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) today to learn how we can help.