The term “evergreen” comes from evergreen trees, which retain their leaves throughout the seasons. Just like the tree, an evergreen marketing strategy is not tied to specific dates, periods, or current events. Instead, it addresses the ongoing needs and interests of a target audience.
If you’re a business owner or a digital marketer, you know that keeping up with trends can feel like a marathon. But trends come and go, so having a strategy that can stand the test of time is important. Evergreen marketing is a smart solution because you can reap long-lasting benefits from your strategies.
Today, we’re taking a deep dive into evergreen marketing and exploring some strategies to get you started. Keep on reading to learn more.
What Does Evergreen Marketing Mean?
Have you ever asked yourself, “What is evergreen in business?”
Evergreen marketing involves creating and promoting content and campaigns that remain relevant and valuable to the target audience over an extended period. In other words, this strategy can stand the test of time.
They’re timeless, which makes them a great choice if you want something reliable and sustainable when promoting your brand.
Picture this: You run a cooking and lifestyle blog, and one of your evergreen marketing strategies is to create a series of classic, healthy recipes that cater to different dietary preferences. These recipes can stay relevant for years and provide your audience with practical information they can use at any time!
Evergreen marketing contributes to long-term success and sustainability for businesses. Below are some of its benefits:
- Long-term value: Unlike trending and seasonal content, evergreen content retains its value for a long time. This makes it more cost-effective in the long run.
- Lead Generation: Evergreen content can be used as a lead generation tool because it can attract individuals who are genuinely interested in your products or services.
- Consistent traffic: Because evergreen content is relevant to your target market, it continues to attract visitors to your website or blog over time.
- Builds trust: Evergreen content can help establish your brand as an authority in your industry. This creates trust with your audience in the long run.
What Evergreen Marketing Is Not
As a timeless approach, evergreen marketing is the opposite of strategies that are built around trends, events, or time-limited opportunities.
Here’s what it’s not:
- Trending content: This focuses on topics that are currently popular, but might lose relevance quickly. Some examples include pop culture references, social media dance challenges, and meme-driven content.
- Seasonal marketing: Seasonal marketing is centered on content that is relevant only during specific times of the year, such as holidays or festivals.
- Limited-time offers: Flash sales, one-time promotions, and limited-time offers may effectively generate quick sales, but they’re not sustainable long-term.
- Event-driven campaigns: Evergreen marketing is not driven by specific events, announcements, or launches. These include limited-edition product drops, movie show premieres, or election season campaigns.
Evergreen Marketing Strategies That Work
Successful evergreen marketing strategies focus on campaigns and content that your target audience can relate to for years to come. Here are evergreen marketing examples that are effective:
Blogging
Blogging involves creating and publishing written, visual, or multimedia content on a website. This may be done in the form of articles or blog posts.
The reason blogging is considered an evergreen marketing strategy is because of the lasting value it can provide to your business. For instance, you can use it to develop topics that can attract traffic and generate quality leads long after its initial publication.
Let’s say you’re in the travel and adventure niche. There are plenty of evergreen blog topics that you can consider, such as:
- Solo traveling destinations and tips
- Ways to travel stress-free
- How to protect your belongings while traveling
- Tips on traveling with children
It doesn’t matter what business or niche you’re in — evergreen topics can be covered in a variety of content formats. These include:
- How-to guides
- Tutorials
- Product reviews
- FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
- Expert interviews
📖Blogging is part of a broader strategy called content marketing. Click here to learn about content marketing for lead generation.
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves sending targeted messages via email to a group of recipients. Its main goal is to build relationships while also promoting products, and driving conversions.
As another evergreen marketing strategy, email marketing can be used to send timeless content to subscribers over an extended period.
For instance, you can create an educational series of emails that provide valuable information — such as sharing healthy recipes and meal prep ideas and showcasing before-and-after stories.
Aside from tips, how-to guides, and other evergreen resources, email campaigns can include promotions that are relevant for a long time. This includes discounts, loyalty programs, or other value-added services.
📖Learn the benefits of email marketing for small businesses here.
Ongoing Giveaways and Evergreen Prizes
Giveaways can be an effective marketing tool for your business because they attract attention and promote audience participation. More people are likely to interact with your brand when they know they can win something!
To make a giveaway “evergreen,” the prize matters.
For example, let’s look at Amiel Riss and his wife’s campaign.
Although this campaign happened during the pandemic, they gave away free multiplication table worksheets which are always in demand in the education niche.
Here’s his signup page:
Through this campaign, Amiel was able to generate more than 7900 leads, and almost 60% of those came from referrals!
Another example is Stacked Marketer’s evergreen, multi-tiered referral milestone using UpViral which attracted over 5,000 free leads.
Unlike most contests, this referral campaign was not time-limited. In other words, there’s no end date! To encourage more participation, Stacked marketer made sure to reward their participants based on the number of referrals they would generate:
One of the actions was for people to join their “Insiders FB Group.” Although it had the fewest points (5 points) to unlock, it grew their community!
If you’re interested in running similar campaigns using an evergreen marketing approach, here are more tips to keep in mind:
🎯Set Clear Objectives
Establish specific goals for your campaigns. For example, you might want to increase your email subscribers, promote a new product, or boost social media engagement. Having a clear objective can help guide your campaign.
🏆Choose Evergreen Prizes
Pick rewards or incentives that remain relevant and appealing to your audience regardless of the time or season. Gift certificates or discounts allow winners to choose the products based on their preferences. These are universally appealing and well-received prizes you can offer anytime.
Understanding and researching the preferences of your target audience will also help you choose the right evergreen rewards.
For instance, if your target audience is fitness enthusiasts, one example of an evergreen reward is high-quality fitness equipment. For book lovers, a collection of classic books or an e-reader device will be appealing. Lastly, home cooks and chefs will love basic kitchen appliances, such as blenders or stand mixers.
Social Media Marketing
The main goal of this strategy is to create content across social media platforms — such as Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Instagram — that your target audience can find shareable and relevant to their interests and preferences.
Social media marketing can be an evergreen marketing strategy, but the key is to focus on timeless content. Although trending content is valuable, evergreen content that addresses the enduring needs and interests of your target audience offers long-term value.
Evergreen content or social media platforms include how-to-tutorials, educational guides, FAQs, and free templates. These are effective and relevant regardless of trends in the industry!
Case Studies
A case study is an in-depth examination of a specific campaign, situation, or success story. It is a real-life example that can provide readers insights and practical lessons.
Case studies can be powerful marketing tools because they demonstrate past successes. They showcase your expertise in solving problems and challenges within your industry. This helps you establish your expertise and credibility among potential customers.
For example, UpViral case studies show examples of successful campaigns, strategies, or implementations using the UpViral platform. If you’re interested in learning how businesses have utilized UpViral for viral marketing, visit this page.
Final Thoughts
To wrap it up, one key reason why you should consider evergreen marketing is the sustainability and long-term impact it provides. When done right, this marketing strategy can retain value and relevance for years.
If you plan on doing giveaways for lead generation as a part of your evergreen marketing strategy, be sure to pick our “Ongoing Email List Growth” template inside UpViral! This template allows participants to earn rewards by inviting their friends to join the email list.
Use the template to add one or multiple rewards. For instance, you can set up multiple rewards as milestones to be achieved! The more friends they refer, the bigger the reward. A milestone campaign is the perfect option for an evergreen giveaway without an end date.
