Is It Better to Remain Evergreen or Jump on Trends in Content Marketing?

One of the most frequent pieces of advice in content marketing is to put together as much “evergreen” content as you possibly can. Evergreen content, as the name indicates, has the potential to remain relevant forever. Just as evergreen trees stay lush even in winter, evergreen content stays important even as seasonal trends come and then go — and even as the news cycle comes and then fades. However, trend- and news-centred content can also perform well, particularly if you nail the timing. So is it better to favour one over the other? Or should you try to mix the two?

Creating Evergreen Content Vs An Evergreen Topic

There is a distinction between having an evergreen topic to put together content around and actually making your content evergreen. A topic, such as ‘how to boil water’, can be evergreen however if the content written around the topic is no longer of relevance, your content is not evergreen. Let’s say it’s the year 3000 and there is a new stove which begins boiling water when you clap your hands. Your prior content is no longer relevant however the need to boil water still is. Have you seen a loss in traffic? If so, it’s not evergreen.

Why Do You Need Evergreen Content?

While both evergreen as well as  topical content play a crucial role in your marketing strategy, evergreen content remains relevant for the long haul. Its long-lasting value makes it a worthwhile marketing investment and strategic add-on to your SEO efforts.

Evergreen content is valuable in terms of backlinks. Putting together an in-depth, educational, as well as timeless publication makes a great resource for other authors to reference and then link back to. This distinction increases your possibility of being linked to other websites, blog articles al as social posts. Niche and beginner-focused ideas have an even higher chance of being tagged and circulated as these topics are so few and far between.

Not only is creating evergreen content phenomenal for organic traffic, publishing robust resources for your target audience, no strings attached, is a wonderful way to build trust, authority as well as  position your brand as an industry thought leader.

Where The Advantages Of Topical Content?

There are some major benefits to writing topical content as well:

• Capitalising on trends. If you’ve ever played around with Google Trend, you know how quickly a topic can explode in terms of relevance as well as popularity. Seemingly overnight, a subject can go from barely getting noticed to having millions of individuals engaged in conversation about it. This is a great chance to capitalise on interested traffic — however you won’t be able to do it with evergreen content.
• A (potential) competitive advantage. If you are able to beat your competitor to the punch and publish your topical content first, you can dish out an extreme competitive advantage. If you’re both a faster and a more reliable source of news, readers are going to prefer your content to your competitor’s.
• Engagement and discussion. Newsworthy articles and topical discussions are much more likely to capture the public’s attention and generate conversations. If you’re interested in getting your readers talking to you (and to each other), topical content may be the better bet.

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