The first time you heard the term Evergreen Content (which may or may not be right now) you were probably a little thrown off by it.  And if your mind works like mine, then you naturally thought, “When did we start talking about gardening?  I thought this was a conversation about blogs.”  Then you proceeded to ignore the rest of the conversation.

But if you did happen to stick around and listen to the rest of the conversation, you would have heard phrases such as how-to, quick tips, and top tens (basically anything you would see on BuzzFeed, Inc, and Entrepreneur).  Evergreen Content is online material, usually in the form of blogs, that people find useful and will actively seek out for years to come.  The topic is something many people search for and the content within it should be applicable both today and two years from now.

How to Update Your Operating System

5 Quick Tips to Stay Productive

Top Ten Ways to Keep Your Smartphone Secure

7 Apps to Manage Better

How to Keep your Technology Cost-Efficient

This is what good Evergreen Material looks like.  It doesn’t need to tie back to what you do, but it should relate to your industry.  Anything technology will do just fine for an MSP or IT Company and your content should be littered with SEO-friendly keywords; milk every ounce of coverage out of your content as possible.

You have to remember, though, that the main goal of Evergreen Content is to receive exposure, not to sell your business.  Many companies struggle with this because they have trouble understanding the ‘why’ behind it all.  Why wouldn’t I want to tie back to my product?  Why wouldn’t I want to write something that directly involves my business?  A simple way to avoid this struggle is to think about why you search out information and why you read the content you land on.

If you Google “How to bake a cake” and you end up on Betty Crocker’s website, you don’t want to be sold on their products.  You know what they do and what they sell, you just want to know how to bake a cake.  And if Betty’s blog promises to show you how, she better deliver.  If she doesn’t teach you how to bake a cake, you’ll be irritated and the next time you’re in a need of a cake mix you might opt for Pillsbury instead of Crocker.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t indirectly throw in a call to action or somehow tie back to your products.  You can use one or two strategically placed links that redirect the reader to your ‘contact us’ page or a specific solution.  Or say your blog discusses 5 ways to keep your technology cost-efficient.  At the end of your content, use a non-aggressive phrase like, “If you’d like to learn even more ways to keep your technology cost-efficient, visit this site.”  Link it to your “contact us” page or a service page.

Just remember to keep the content specific, useful, and everlasting.  Think of an Evergreen tree.  Evergreens lose their leaves gradually, but it takes time.  Each leaf has the potential to live through multiple seasons.