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Want to know the key to continuously bring in new inquiries? It’s evergreen content. Within the last half year or so, I have not been marketing my photography services on Instagram or any other platform. The main way I’ve been marketing is just by having my organic website search and also the evergreen content I’ve created over the years.
This is such a powerful way to get out of that rat race of having to constantly post on Instagram, and so I want to teach you how to create evergreen content for your own business so you can bring in new inquiries in this organic way.
You are going to learn what evergreen content is, how to know if you’re creating a good piece of evergreen content, how to even create it, and how to use Pinterest in conjunction with your blogs to optimize for SEO even further.
Evergreen content is search-optimized content that is continually relevant and stays fresh for a long period of time. As the name implies, evergreen trees live throughout many seasons, and they usually live a long time, so this is what you want to think about whenever you are creating your evergreen content.
Evergreen content is different in that it’s something people could search for literally forever. Yes, you may need to make some tweaks or updates, but the content pretty much stays the same no matter the season, the year, or how much you evolve as a photographer or entrepreneur.
Think of evergreen content as staple foundational pieces of information that never become irrelevant.
When you create blog posts that are evergreen, you are creating a way for your dream clients to find you online through search engines. This is powerful because they’re searching for the foundational stable information you’re providing. When you pair that with your content marketing, this allows your readers of the blog to get to know, like, and trust you.
Additionally, if and when someone joins your email list or follows you on social media, they’ll hear from you again and again, which creates something that we like to call “top-of-mind awareness” in marketing. This just means that they think of you first when it comes to your area of expertise.
So, no matter your niche, when you can provide valuable information that helps people solve their problems, they will want to use you and your business because they know it works and they know they can trust you to deliver on the promise that you’ve given them.
With that being said, I do want to mention that just because your content is evergreen, that doesn’t mean you should stop producing new content. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t really market my services on Instagram, but I do market in other kinds of ways to continue to be relevant to anyone who does find me from my evergreen content.
And side note – Google actually loves to see you update old blog posts and loves to see you create new content.
Your evergreen content needs to be in-depth. You want to have 2000 words or more in your blog posts or on a landing page. An example of an evergreen blog that I wrote was The Best Colorado Wedding Venues. It’s actually my top-performing blog. I’ve gotten bookings from that blog and I know this because my clients have told me they have found me through it.
So, whenever I say your blog or evergreen piece of content should be in-depth, what I mean is that it should just answer every question your potential client could have about that blog topic. For my Colorado wedding venues blog, I have the capacity for the guests, how far away it is from Denver, my top description words for each venue, and even image examples.
Your content should also be regularly updated and fresh. For example, if you’re writing this blog on the best Colorado wedding venues, if you end up shooting at a venue you didn’t think was so great, or maybe the venue isn’t in business anymore, you want to go back and update it so it’s relevant to the reader whenever they get to it.
Finally, you want to make it as easy as possible for your potential clients to share with their friends and family who they think might be interested in what you’ve written. It’s a good idea to have a catchy headline that will get them excited, and then a short but informative description of the post and everything they will learn inside of it.
The very first thing is you want to do the research on your dream clients and what they’re looking for online so you can create this SEO (search engine optimized) content. For example, when you have the best Colorado wedding venues blog, you’ll actually have people searching “best Colorado wedding venues” and your blog will be the one to pop up as long as it’s optimized for Google and for the search engine.
This is the most important step because there’s no point in creating evergreen content or any kind of blog if it’s not optimized for the search engine. If you have no clue about SEO, I want to welcome you to check out my course Book It. There is an entire lesson on SEO and I’ve had many students tell me it’s their absolute favorite just because of how packed with information it is without being overwhelming.
How do you do this research? The first way you can do this is through keyword research. I also recommend asking your past clients, or even current clients, what they were searching for whenever it came to X, Y, and Z. You could also post on Instagram stories and utilize the polls and ask your audience there. If you have an email list, you could send out a survey to any of your subscribers about what their biggest struggle was when it came to topics so you can write content for them. Once you get enough information, it’s time to start creating that content.
The next thing you should do is create a list of blog post ideas you got from your clients or the keyword research. Then, evaluate each type of blog post that you have written down just to see what feels the most relevant and pick one to start with.
The next thing you’re going to want to do is create the outline for your blog post. How I usually do this is to ask myself the question, “What is the end goal/result of this blog for the reader?” Writing down an outline of your major talking points will help you stay on track and make sure your points are hit. This will ensure your content is helpful and valuable because chances are you want them to take some sort of action, like downloading your freebie or inquiring with you.
Next, it’s time to write your blog once it’s outlined. This is the part that overwhelms most people, including myself, but it can actually be very simple. Just build on the major talking points you laid out in your outline. You can also use examples, stories, ideas, statistics, and photos to illustrate your points.
Don’t forget to include external and internal links. This is super important because it helps you get better rankings on search engines and it helps your readers learn even more relevant information about the topic they’re trying to learn about, which again, creates that top-of-mind awareness and marketing.
Your next step is to create your blog graphics that you can pin to Pinterest. Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your website and blog posts because Pinterest is based on SEO and keywords. Plus, it has over 450 million active users. When you utilize Pinterest properly, people will be able to find you and your content, which means more awareness for your business and more inquiries.
The best part about Pinterest is that this is where evergreen content thrives. Pairing your blogs with Pinterest is a powerful way to have more organic leads coming in on the daily without you having to actually be present or consistently posting on Instagram.
When you do create these graphics, you want it to be very clear what they’re going to get whenever they do click through your pin. So, make your graphics on brand, make them clear, enticing, and interesting for them to want to save your content and pin so their audience also sees your pins.
You don’t just have to use graphics. You can absolutely include your photography as well with an optimized title and description that has a bunch of keywords in it, but just know that graphics can be even more powerful than just a photo because it tells them immediately what they’re going to click.
Next, you’ll want to optimize for SEO if you haven’t already. Optimizing your blog post for search engine visibility will have a significant impact on the number of inquiries your content generates. If it’s not optimized for SEO, it’s not going to show up, so be sure to choose the right keywords.
The final step is to publish your new blog. This is the exciting part! I will be the first to tell you I have absolutely published blogs that are done, but not perfect. Remember – done is better than perfect. You can always go back and add new things or edit them. Also, keep in mind that it does take Google a bit of time to actually crawl through your blog and index your website so it will show up on Google.
So, it’s really important to start working on your blog posts and publishing them as soon as possible that way you can start bringing in new inquiries. If you never publish, you won’t see new inquiries come in. To give you a realistic time frame, it can take anywhere from 3-6 months for Google to actually start showing your new blog or even a new page on your website in the Google search. So, keep that in mind, publish it, get it out into the world, keep making it better, and keep updating it.
You have done it, my friend! You have posted your first evergreen piece of content. And truly, this year is when I started to notice that I’ve had even more traction on the SEO work I’ve done with this evergreen content, so it does take time. Some of the blogs I’ve written that are now showing up on page 1 of Google took about a year to get there, so don’t get discouraged. This is a long-term marketing strategy and a long-term game for your business.
If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me on Instagram @itsclairehunt. You know I would love to hear from you!
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