Every year as the Super Bowl rolls around, “viral content” seems to be the buzz phrase thrown around. Companies dream of a YouTube video, blog post, or Instagram photo that is shared across the world and back again, leading to unparalleled exposure and increased revenue. Viral content can help brands gain large boosts in exposure in a short amount of time. Nabisco’s Oreo had amazing viral content success during the Super Bowl this year by taking advantage of the 30 minute black out. While this might be a huge instant win for Oreo, I think that there are better, more practical approaches to content marketing for small businesses. Rather than hoping to share 2013’s most prolific photo of the year for your business, maybe it is better to focus on creating evergreen content for your website.
Evergreen Content vs Everything Else
Evergreen content comes from blog posts and articles on your website that serve your audience with valuable information over a long period of time. You can expect evergreen content to almost always be relevant to your current and potential clients searching for your small business online.
An example of evergreen content for our Green Industry clients would be a blog post titled, “Low Maintenance Flowering Shrubs.” This is a post that will last through the years, and can become a powerful piece to your overall web presence. Content that might receive more social or immediate in nature would be titled, “5 Landscape Design Trends in 2013.” A post like this could be expected to provide most of its value during a certain period of time. The evergreen blog post, however, will last as a valuable resource for years to come.
Maximizing Evergreen Content Value
Evergreen content can be planned, or its value can be realized later on after launching it on the internet. Either way, the content might require very few updates overtime to maintain accuracy and value. Using evergreen blogs on your website will help internet users find your website using a larger variety of search terms. This exposes your web presence to more people over time, and increases your ability to become an authority in your market. Over time, websites in your niche outside of your market might share your evergreen content on their websites as well. This is another benefit of creating valuable content and sharing it on your website. Quality content often attracts links from other websites, which are like the original “Like” on Facebook for websites. Your blog posts will eventually lend credibility to your status as the expert for what you do in your local market.
Evergreen content provides a strong backbone to your overall internet marketing strategy that can last for years. There aren’t many marketing options available for small businesses that have the ability to impact exposure for years like evergreen content. How do you plan on making a lasting impression with your web presence for years to come?
Photo via Arthur Chapman
