So just what are these two primary types of content, what are their advantages and disadvantages, and when should each be employed? In this article, we’ll take a deeper dive into all of these questions, providing valuable insights on how brands can use evergreen and seasonal content to reach new audiences and provide them with valuable information.
What is evergreen content?
Evergreen content refers to timeless, enduring pieces of content that retain their relevance and value over an extended period of time. Unlike news articles or trending topics, evergreen content remains consistently useful and informative to audiences regardless of when they encounter it. It can be any written, video, audio or graphic-based content that addresses enduring questions, solves common problems or provides fundamental insights within a particular niche or industry.
With examples including timeless blog articles, case studies, tutorials, product reviews, infographics, how-to videos and podcasts on enduring topics, evergreen content often serves as a foundational resource for users, generating ongoing organic traffic and engagement. By focusing on evergreen topics, brands and content marketers can establish their authority, enhance brand credibility and foster long-term relationships with their audiences. Evergreen content’s longevity and enduring appeal make it a cornerstone of effective content marketing strategies.
The pros and cons of evergreen content
Evergreen content offers several advantages, as well as some potential drawbacks for the brands and content marketers who leverage it.
Some of the pros of evergreen content include:
- Long-term traffic: Evergreen content consistently attracts organic traffic over time, as it remains relevant and valuable to users.
- Sustainable ROI: Once created and deployed, evergreen content can continue to deliver returns on investment without requiring frequent updates or revisions.
- Added authority: Evergreen content can help establish your brand as an authoritative source within its niche, enhancing credibility and trust among consumers.
- Enhanced SEO: Evergreen content tends to perform well in search engine rankings, helping drive sustained organic traffic to brands’ websites.
- Repurposing opportunities: Evergreen content can be repurposed into different formats such as videos, infographics or podcasts, extending its reach and lifespan.
Some of the potential cons of evergreen content include:
- Saturation: Popular evergreen topics may become saturated over time, making it challenging for brands employing it to stand out amid competition.
- Potential for outdated information: Despite its enduring nature, evergreen content may require periodic updates to ensure accuracy and relevance, which can be time-consuming.
- Limited trend relevance: Evergreen content often lacks the immediacy and novelty of trending topics, potentially resulting in lower engagement rates during certain periods.
- Audience expectations: Audiences often expect fresh, up-to-date content, and relying solely on evergreen content may fail to meet these expectations.
- Initial investment: Creating high-quality evergreen content often requires significant up-front investment in research, writing and multimedia production.
Overall, while evergreen content offers numerous benefits in terms of sustained traffic, authority building and repurposing opportunities, content marketers must carefully consider its potential drawbacks and incorporate a balanced approach that combines evergreen content with timely, trending topics to maximize engagement and long-term success.
When to use evergreen content
To reach its peak effectiveness, evergreen content should be strategically planned out and integrated into a comprehensive content marketing strategy. One powerful approach to leveraging evergreen content involves using it to establish your brand’s expertise in its niche and to attract steady traffic to its website. These timeless resources can be published strategically, such as during slower periods, to maintain consistent consumer engagement and provide valuable information to new and existing audiences.
Additionally, evergreen content can serve as a pillar for content clusters or topic hubs on a brand website, where related articles, videos and other content are interlinked to enhance SEO and the user experience. In these cases, repurposing evergreen content into different formats or updating it periodically helps ensure its continued relevance and longevity. Further, leveraging evergreen content in email newsletters, social media campaigns and lead-nurturing efforts can extend its reach and maximize its impact. By incorporating evergreen content strategically throughout the buyer’s journey and across various channels, your brand can capitalize on its enduring value to drive sustained growth and engagement.
What is seasonal content?
Seasonal content (also known as topical or timely content) refers to marketing materials created specifically to align with particular seasons, holidays, events or trends that occur periodically throughout the year. Unlike evergreen content, which remains relevant over time, seasonal content capitalizes on the unique opportunities presented by specific times of the year or by current events to engage with audiences in a timely and relevant manner. This type of content often reflects the themes, sentiments and activities associated with a particular season or holiday, catering to the current interests and preferences of the target audience.
Seasonal content can encompass various formats, including blog posts, social media posts, videos, infographics, email campaigns and more. Its goal is to leverage the heightened attention and enthusiasm surrounding seasonal and timely events to drive engagement, increase brand visibility and generate conversions. Often employed as part of a brand’s seasonal marketing efforts, effective seasonal content is characterized by its timeliness, creativity and ability to evoke emotions that resonate with the audience during that particular time of year.
The pros and cons of seasonal content
Seasonal content offers several advantages for brands and content marketers, as well as some potential shortcomings:
Some of the pros of seasonal content include:
- Timely relevance: Seasonal content allows brands to connect with their audiences on topics that are top of mind during specific times of the year, helping increase relevance and engagement.
- Capitalizing on trends: By aligning with seasonal events, holidays, sports seasons or trends, brands can leverage the increased interest and enthusiasm among consumers to capture more attention and drive added traffic.
- Enhanced brand personality: Seasonal content provides opportunities for brands to showcase their personality, creativity and values by crafting content that resonates with the emotions and sentiments associated with particular seasons or holidays.
- Increased shareability: Seasonal content often evokes emotions and nostalgia, making it highly shareable across social media platforms, thereby amplifying brand reach and visibility.
- Promotional opportunities: Seasonal content can serve as a vehicle for promoting seasonal offers, sales or promotions, helping drive conversions and revenue during peak periods.
Some of the potential cons of seasonal content include:
- Short lifespan: Seasonal content has a limited shelf life and relevance, as it is tied to specific times of the year, which may result in decreased engagement and traffic once the season has passed.
- Oversaturation: During peak seasons or holidays, the volume of seasonal content increases, making it challenging for brands to stand out amid the competition and capture audience attention.
- Potential for audience fatigue: Excessive or overly promotional seasonal content may lead to audience fatigue or disengagement if not balanced with valuable, meaningful content.
- Intensive resource usage: Creating high-quality seasonal content often requires significant time, effort and resources, particularly for brands aiming to produce unique, creative campaigns that resonate with their audience.
- Limited relevance to longer-term goals: While seasonal content can drive short-term engagement and traffic spikes, it may not align with long-term strategic objectives focused on evergreen content and audience growth.
While seasonal content presents opportunities for brands to capitalize on timely trends, engage with their audience and drive short-term results, content marketers must carefully consider its limitations and integrate seasonal campaigns into a broader content strategy to maximize its impact and ROI.
When to use seasonal content
As with evergreen content, effectively leveraging seasonal content involves strategic planning and execution to maximize its impact and relevance. One of the best ways to use seasonal content is to align it with key dates, events or holidays that are relevant to your brand’s audience members. Timing is crucial, as this type of content should be published and promoted leading up to the peak period of interest, ensuring it reaches audiences when they are most receptive. Additionally, brands should strive to strike a balance between promotional messaging and providing valuable, engaging content that resonates with the seasonal theme or sentiment.
Leveraging multiple channels such as social media, email marketing and blog posts allows your brand to amplify the reach and visibility of its seasonal campaigns. Further, repurposing successful seasonal content from previous years can extend its lifespan and capitalize on past successes. By integrating seasonal content seamlessly into its overall content strategy, your brand can leverage the unique opportunities presented by specific times of the year to drive engagement, increase brand awareness and foster stronger connections with your audience.
Elevate all of your marketing content — with help from TBA Outdoors
No matter your outdoor brand’s content needs — from blog articles and emails to videos, social campaigns, display ad messaging and beyond — the data-driven content strategists at TBA Outdoors are here to help you meet and exceed your content marketing goals. As a professional content marketing agency staffed by outdoors-obsessed copywriters, videographers, social media managers and more, we know the subject matter and the outdoor consumer well, and we know how to hit the KPIs that matter.
Further, our fully integrated marketing firm can cover all of your outdoor brand’s marketing needs — all in one place. Whether you’re looking for help in areas like content strategy, research, analytics and branding strategy or need assistance with creative, social media, e-commerce, public relations, video production and more, we’ve got you covered. To explore how we can help your outdoor brand elevate the effectiveness of all of its marketing efforts, contact us today.
