Stephanie Donelson

Last month I did a post on how to repurpose your content, but what if you don’t want to repurpose your old content but just give it a boost?

If you have a good library of blogs and evergreen content you can still find fun and new ways to promote it and improve its ROI. Evergreen content is sustainable and relevant long past its publication date. 

Evergreen content is:

• How-to content
• History of…
• Reviews
• Top tips or best practices
• Comprehensive guides

Evergreen content is not:

• News or current events
• Holiday or seasonal content (unless it’s like the history of Christmas in the US)
• Pop culture or latest trends

Evergreen content is designed to be lasting pieces that have no expiration date. It’s not the “10 things to do in New York City in summer 2020,” it’s the “Review of the Four Seasons in New York City.” 

Think about keywords and topics that are always popular and searched for, and content that doesn’t need to be changed or updated. 

Now that we know what evergreen content is, let’s learn about eight ways to give this content the attention it deserves well after it’s been published.

How to promote evergreen content

1. Inventory your content

You can’t really promote old content when you don’t have a list or inventory of it!

Make a new spreadsheet where you track:

• Content title
• Publication date
• Category, product/service, or brand focus
• Content type: how-to, checklist, best practices, FAQs, history of…
• Content format: blog, video, podcast, infographic 
• Link to the content
• Google URL builder campaign name
• Keywords or hashtags
• Supporting graphics or assets

Be sure to only track true evergreen content in this spreadsheet and label it well so you can quickly find it when you want to use one of the promotion methods below! By having a catalogue of content, you can see how it can be used in new marketing campaigns. 

2. Tag related content

Use blog categories and tags appropriately to pull in older, but still related content in a section on your site, such as the scrolling box titled: You might also like or Related content.

Not only does this help website visitors find the content they’re looking for but it also builds your credibility on that topic and keeps them clicking through to new pages of your site.

Worst case scenario? Manually link your content at the end of your new blog post. 

3. Social media

Add lines in your social media content calendar for evergreen content to ensure it gets shared but isn’t overpowering new content or campaigns. I always include a post every other week for older, evergreen content to ensure it’s reaching new followers and being put in front of our customers.

As long as you’re not promoting the same piece of content week after week, it’s okay to re-share older pieces. 

4. Advertise old content on social media

Have great evergreen content that consistently performs well over time? Give it a boost by advertising it on social media! If it’s doing well organically, it’ll probably be successful when a few dollars are behind it. 

Maybe you have a great piece of evergreen content and an industry event is coming up and that piece of content relates well to the event. Run an ad promoting both the event and your piece of content, like:

Counting down the days until Industry Event? Start the education early by downloading our free report on these Industry best practices!

Relevancy and value are the two keys here. The content you’re paying to put in front of people has to be both relevant and valuable to your targeted audience. 

5. Email campaigns

There are two ways to sneak old content into new email campaigns: newsletters and nurture campaigns.

With your monthly or quarterly newsletter, you could devote a section to “most popular blog content” and add links to popular evergreen content to give it a quick boost, or you could do a Throwback Thursday style where you tell people this is older content but still relevant to today’s landscape.

Another option is to promote evergreen content in drip email campaigns. Say you’re a florist and you have two great evergreen blog posts on what flower colors mean and what flowers are right for each season. You set up a drip campaign for people who contact you about weddings.

Email 1: Thanks for your interest

• Thank you message and timeline of when you’ll follow up
• Quick video introducing you and your business
• Link to seasonal flowers post for planning purposes and a new piece of content
• Social media links

Email 2: Checking in

• Follow up on contact query
• Link to flower color meanings 
• Photos of recent bouquets you’ve done and their meanings
• Social media links

Email 3: Final check-in

• Still interested message
• Link to seasonal blog again to learn more about their wedding details
• Social media links

Evergreen content can be extremely beneficial for nurture campaigns and gaining a new subscriber’s trust.

6. Add links on thank you landing pages

If you gate content, the thank you page is a great opportunity for directing people back to popular and evergreen content. Make sure the content is relevant to what they just downloaded though. 

My thank you pages for gated, downloadable content include a link to the content they want, a section of links to relevant blog posts, links to social media channels, as well as an email sign up form. 

7. Roundups

Revive old content by sharing links to it in new content by creating roundup-style posts. 

These are often done in the form of:

• Best reads of 2020
• Popular content on X
• Best of X topic
• A deep dive into X topic
• Everything you need to know about X

Roundups are great pieces of content as they’re fresh, show authority, have a great internal linking profile, and are super easy to put together. 

8. Get employees involved

Have your fellow employees share evergreen content on social media or with industry associations or networking groups. Obviously ask them not to just spam every network, but having employees share your content ensures it reaches new audiences and shows that your employees are invested in the brand and care about what it does or has to say. 

How else do you get more ROI out of evergreen content? Share your tips and ideas in the comments below or give me a shout on Twitter!