Both evergreen and one-off content benefit a social media marketing strategy. One-off or topical content provides instant exposure and a sense of urgency or timeliness for your audience. However, its usefulness and influence is short-lived. Evergreen content, on the other hand, has a long shelf-life that gives value to both old and new readers.
So which should you choose when launching your product?
Create a Buzz Around Your Launch
One-off content is designed to be newsworthy. As a result, it provides a high rate of shares in a short period of time. This also means it suffers from a high decay rate.
This type of content is linked to an event or season and is likely to be viewed by lots of people, dropping off just as quickly as it started. Anyone who comes across this content outside of the relevant period will think they have outdated information and move on. This is the case even if it contains some useful gems that are evergreen. That said, one-off content can leverage attention for your business or product if you are quick enough to link it to specific events or include an opinion on trending issues.
Provide Longevity for Your Content and Products
Evergreen content is the kind that is useful to your audience for months or even years. It is informative and beneficial to the reader because it is not tied to a specific event or date. These types of articles will gather backlinks over time, helping not only the article but also your overall SEO.
On the other hand, it is difficult to create a sense of urgency or scarcity with evergreen content. When launching a new product, encouraging potential customers to act immediately is difficult. If it’s not tied to a specific season or issue, they are less motivated.
Evergreen or One-off Content – Which to Use?
Both evergreen and one-off content have their place in a marketer’s toolkit. Which you use will depend on the type of promotion you are planning and your longer term marketing strategy and goals. These three areas should be considered when making your decision about creating one-off or evergreen content.
- Workload – One-off content means putting in a lot of work before the launch, and then getting to enjoy a lull as the campaign plays out. Evergreen content requires a sustained approach that is spread out to create a consistent feed of useful articles.
- Financial peaks and troughs – One-off content will create a buzz and a sense of urgency that translates to high sales whilst the content is fresh. After this, though, sales will drop off as the content deteriorates. Evergreen content usually garners lower per-month sales that are spread over a longer period. To combat this, an effective email sequence and sales funnel can generate more sales with evergreen content.
- Momentum – A sense of urgency and relevance is easier to create with one-off content. The purchasing window is smaller so your audience is more likely to take action quickly. Evergreen content is about continual promotion and keeping your product relevant to your buyer demographic year-round. Additional pushes with evergreen content to create pockets of urgency and increase momentum can be created with a little thought.
Regardless of which type of content strategy you pursue, a new product should be lauded across your brand’s online presence: newsletter, social media, website, etc. To ensure everyone on your email list is getting the news, be sure to use an email cleaning tool. Reducing bounce rates and reaching customers is the best way to let them know about your new product, and giving them a chance to purchase the item directly through email.