Evergreen or timely content, which one should I use?

Ben: Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. So excited to have you here. On the show today, we have Amy and Alexis, two rock stars when it comes to content marketing. So thank you both for being here. I really appreciate it. Amy: Thank you for having Alexis: Thank Amy: us. Alexis: you for the invite. Ben: Absolutely. Why don't you take a minute and just introduce yourselves to the audience, who you are, what you love about marketing, what you focus on, and then we can kind of dive into the subject for the day. Alexis: Awesome. I can kick us off Amy. So Amy: too. Alexis: my name is Alexis. I have a degree in marketing, been in the field for over 10 years. Most of that has been spent in the tech industry, but Amy and I have recently done the big leap of becoming co-founders of a new digital marketing agency called MKTG Collective. And it's focused on helping be an advocate for busy small business owners and getting them to thrive in this digital space, specifically focusing on content marketing and anything really in the digital world. Amy, why don't you go ahead and share a little about you too. Amy: Sure, I'm Amy. I'm coming up on five years experience in the marketing field. I also have my bachelor's in marketing. Alexis and I actually met at our previous position. We were together for about five years and when that wasn't anymore, we had the opportunity to work together and we couldn't be happier to be forming something that we really believe in. Ben: That's awesome. Alexis: Yeah. Ben: Well thank you for both taking the time. Before we were talking about the subject for today and I'm really excited because I think this is a component that really needs to take a place in marketing content strategy before you build out content. So today we're going to talk about when, or best said, when you should use evergreen content or when you should use more timely content. Just for anyone who may not know the term evergreen. Could you both take a stab at kind of explaining what evergreen means for everyone listening? Amy: Sure, I could take this one. Evergreen content is exactly what it sounds like. It's content that is relevant no matter what it is or how you use it. Essentially, it's anything that is consistently searched for and that won't require frequent updating. That expedites the need for those content. Ready, available, things that can, classics, pull them off the shelf and plug them in. Ben: Love Alexis: You Ben: it. Alexis: know, like dirty dancing. It never Amy: It's the Alexis: gets Amy: dirty Alexis: old. Amy: dancing of Alexis: You Amy: marketing. Alexis: know? Nobody puts baby in the corner. Ben: I love it. That's great. So maybe we could talk about now, when should someone use evergreen content versus more timely content? When does it make sense? When doesn't it make sense? Let's dive into that. What are your thoughts there? Alexis: Well, Ben, if you don't mind, maybe we could just share, like, it's, first of all, there's a timely portion of it, but there's still also identifying the potential of Evergreen content. And, you know, we wanna make sure that the listeners understand that there's some tools out there that can help them find the potential of those. So some of the ones that we really like, and most of these actually are free, but of course, if you wanna do a deeper dive. There is subscriptions out there. The ones that we tend to lean towards are Google Trends and SEMrush, Ares, Moz. I mean, even AI tools these days can help you, search for patterns and understand what may have the potential there. Amy: Oh, and on that note, there's also social listening, which can help you identify what people are talking about in the industry, what are pain points, and that can really help you solidify some of the content that's going to be forever relevant. Ben: Love it, very cool. So if you're using one of those tools that's showing some of this information, what are you really looking for on those platforms to really give you a good idea of opportunities for content? Alexis: High traffic, the ones that are just consistently, it's not the trending right now, this moment, and last week, this was a really low trafficked keyword or trend, you wanna find something that just month over month, possibly even year over year, you're finding those topics that are consistently highly ranked. Ben: it. Very cool. So when should you use timely content over evergreen? Amy: So when you're wanting to use, when evergreen content isn't so green for you and you're wanting to use other things, it's more so when you're trying to drive immediate engagement. That's when you're focusing on current trends, building a sense of urgency behind a campaign. If you have an event coming up or if you have a fundraiser or a holiday promotion, those are the times for that. And building your brand, community engagement, participating in those trending conversations that also fosters that feeling of community. And you can create that sense of togetherness and really draw people in. PR and damage control, which Alexis and I are very familiar with, would be the number one, I would say, to use for real-time data. You don't have the luxury of sitting around or pulling something off a shelf anymore. It needs to be addressed right now, and it needs to be very relevant. to be accurate and it needs to be on point. And then those are like think the main ones, Alexis, anything to add there? Alexis: I would say seasonal would be a timely one as well. Of course, you know, it'd be not the most best fit to be promoting some kind of Christmas or holiday related campaign in the middle of April. I don't think that would go too well, but of course, like there is a prime time. content. And that is really around like building your foundation is one of the starting points. Like for example, Amy and I, you know, we're still newbies in our new business and we're trying to build that content library and like essentially create that backbone. Of course, having some SEO goals and really trying to make sure that you are thinking about the content that is best for long term traffic engagement and driving traffic to your website. you know, sometimes not even use repurpose on a weekly, monthly, but yearly basis, is really beneficial to grow your, your S boost your SEO. Anything that's really educational. So we actually did this quite a bit in our previous gig where there was thousands of new users coming to our site on a daily basis and anything that's like how tos, tutorials, resource lists, things that are really about like you know, you know that these are going to be revisited time and time again. Um, of course, you know, some of these will still require some level of maintaining and updating, especially if it comes to, if you're working with an actual product where your product has a significant change and is evolving to the point where you need to be modifying, um, any of those long-term evergreen content pieces, but now, uh, let's say you have some screenshots on them that just don't resonate anymore. But even to that point, most of those are still not a heavy lift to update. It's not as much as starting a brand new content piece. It's just making sure that it's got that facelift on it so that it is still relevant. Amy: It's a much lighter lift for your team too. Ben: Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I mean, when we think of evergreen content, it's this concept often where we say, great, I wrote it, it sits there, it's got some links, it's got some traffic, I'm good. But you also have to remember content is meant to be read, not just by bots and search engines. It's meant to be read by people that sends them deeper into the funnel, things like that. So I love your thoughts about evergreen content. is not a set it and forget it kind of idea. Alexis: Exactly. Ben: Like go back, build a calendar around it and sometimes it's even more valuable to say, you know, rather than writing a new piece of content, let me take this month and go update all of my evergreen, those pillars you talk about, that foundational content, I love that Alexis: Absolutely. Ben: phrase. Can I go update those? And there are SEO benefits for updated content and not having stale content, but yeah, there's always a way to make like your top performing blog post. get way more traffic versus trying to create something from scratch. So I love those points. That's something I hadn't really thought of before. And I'm really bad on the evergreen side of just set it and forget it. So it's a good reminder to me on that front. Amy: For Alexis: Yeah, Amy: us, it's Alexis: and Amy: something Alexis: just Amy: that... Alexis: keep in mind in this really crowded digital space where everyone is constantly being fed information from all angles, at all points, that one, you're getting new users all the time, new visitors all the time. So even if that piece happens to still stand the test of time that you don't need updating, repurposing that content is still potentially reaching new users. And then two, we're... we're easily forgetting what we just took in last week. I mean, yesterday, let's be real. So like, it's always helpful to continuously be reminding people of this really relevant content that still is valuable no matter how much time has gone by. Amy: or how Ben: Yeah, Amy: many Ben: absolutely. Amy: platforms or how many times they've seen it. It's still consistent in driving home the message. And I think it's even more important to understand it's not just one or the other. You want to have your new information that's exciting and it's engaging, and then you wanna have those foundations again that you know are just going to be classics through and through. It's a compromise and a culmination of both. Ben: Yep, absolutely. And from like a really technical SEO standpoint, it's great to have your pillar content and then timely stuff linking in and out, talking about those subjects and kind of that variety of things as well. So that's a good point. Those two definitely play really well together. I love it. This is great. This is super helpful. Thank you. I mean, not only tools that you can use to find the subjects, but also when and how and why you should create the content that's both timely and evergreen. how evergreen isn't as set it and forget it and all that kind of stuff. So this has been super helpful, appreciate it. Again, these are meant to be short, quick to the point and help people get the tactics and strategies they need. So thank you both. Amy: Thank you. Ben: If anyone wants to contact or engage with you or continue the conversation, Amy and Alexis, how can they find you? Where can they go? Amy: They Alexis: You Amy: can Alexis: wanna Amy: find Alexis: go, A.B.? Amy: us on social media for sure. We are on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. And our website is up and running and beautiful. Not that we are a little biased or anything, but that is yourmktgcollective.com. Ben: Perfect. Alexis: Same as our handles Ben: Well, Alexis: too. And thank you Ben: love Alexis: so Ben: it. Alexis: much, Ben, for giving us the opportunity to share this information and have this awesome conversation with you. Ben: Thank Amy: this thing. Ben: you both, really, really appreciate it. Amy: Thank you. Ben: All right, have a good day. Alexis: Okay, Amy: years from. Alexis: thanks.