What is evergreen PR and why is it important?

Any brand looking to earn digital media coverage and build their brand online should integrate evergreen content into their PR strategies.

These are campaigns which are essentially ‘always on’. In the same way that evergreen plants grow and flourish all year round, evergreen content is not time-specific and is designed to be functional and sustaining throughout the year.

Many brands and marketing teams put lots of time, effort and budget into topical and trending content, which is absolutely essential for a well-rounded digital PR strategy. Seasonal periods, breaking news and new trends can be great ways to ensure media coverage – but these campaigns are often short-lived. Much of the time, they will have an instant big impact and then lose traction very quickly.

But evergreen PR is essentially the exact opposite, as it retains long-term value and can be repurposed, making it extremely valuable for brands.

The most successful PR and marketing practitioners will focus at least some of their efforts on evergreen campaigns. The timeless content allows PR and marketing managers to have endless success throughout the year. Essentially, evergreen PR is the gift that keeps on giving.

What is evergreen PR?

Evergreen PR refers to a public relations strategy that focuses on creating content and messaging that remains relevant and valuable over time, rather than being tied to specific events, trends, and news stories. With evergreen campaigns, PR materials retain their use and appeal long after their initial conception and creation.

One of the key benefits from using this tactic is the ability to build long-lasting relationships with audiences. Brands can establish trust and credibility by crafting messages that resonate overtime. An evergreen approach helps in positioning a brand as an authority, by creating content that will stand the test of time and still be applicable no matter the season or year.

An important factor to remember in any evergreen PR campaign is adaptability. While the core messages of the content remain constant, the way they are communicated can evolve based on changing circumstances, audience needs or advancements in the topic. This flexible approach means you can really get the most out of your PR efforts.

But, as with every PR campaign, the content must be insightful, relevant and topical for your target audience in order to truly drive results.

Why is evergreen PR important?

Evergreen PR is an integral part of any PR campaign, and should not be overlooked. Although it can be great to put lots of time and energy into fun, seasonal and reactive PR campaigns, evergreen content is really the bread and butter of any PR toolkit.

Without evergreen campaigns, a PR strategy would simply skip from one trend or season to the other, making it hard to create a good all-rounder campaign that really works hard in the long term.

Non-reliance on seasonal campaigns means there is less requirement to create new content all the time. Evergreen content provides long-term value, and working with PR experts can really help marketing managers to understand the importance of a steady flow of content for their brand.

Through evergreen content, your campaigns work twice as hard without needing to be pumped with loads of time or budget.

Examples of evergreen content

There are lots of ways evergreen PR can be included in ongoing PR efforts. Examples of evergreen PR include:

Non-seasonal case studies
Listicles
How-to guides
Checklists
Thought leadership and expert advice

Topic to stay far away from when trying to create evergreen content include:

Specific holiday and seasonal stories
Stories related to National or International awareness days
Any features on trends, whether it be relating to fashion and pop culture or industry-specific trends
Political stories related to certain elections or candidates
Stories about natural disasters or specific life events

How to make the most of evergreen PR campaigns

When planning an evergreen PR campaign, there are certain things to remember. These factors will help to ensure an effective campaign for your brand.

Focus on topic

It is important that our content stays relevant and won’t date. The best evergreen PR content focuses on matters your audience cares about right now and will continue to further down the line.

Think in the mind of your reader - what are they searching for? Stay away from short-lived trends, breaking news or seasonal stories and focus on providing helpful information. This will help encourage journalists to publish the content and can lead to increased coverage totals for your brand.

Optimise keywords

When planning evergreen PR stories, focus on a brand-relevant keyword. Make use of this keyword will always be relevant to your brand, and ensure it is included throughout the body of the text and win the title. By using the right keywords for your business, evergreen content has the potential to boost rankings on search engines, meaning more visibility for your brand. This also works to strengthen wider SEO strategies and tactics.

Driving awareness with evergreen PR campaigns

As evergreen content is essentially search-optimised, timeless content, it ensures a steady and sustainable flow of traffic and interest from readers.

Use data effectively

If using data within your campaign, make sure it is from a reliable source. Using data from a source like the Office for National Statistics (ONS), it is likely the same dataset will be available in a year’s time. Choosing reliable sources who update their information annually is essential. This allows you to update your content each year and re-pitch to journalists.

Generate leads

Evergreen content encourages audiences to click through and find out more about your brand’s products or services. Through this, any published content helps to drive traffic to your site - helping to attract and convert potential new customers.

Pitching repurposed content

When repurposing older evergreen content, you must make sure to adapt the pitch so that journalists know the content has new stats and information. Within your pitch, make it clear why the information is still relevant and topical and what has changed in the past 6 months - a year since the original story was pitched.

Extend your brand’s reach

Journalists are always on the hunt for relevant, valuable and high-quality content.Your article is more likely to stand out and be published by multiple journalists if the info is relevant to a wide-reaching audience. When ideating for PR, try and remember to focus on the ideas which are going to apply to the mass. This way, you can reach new audiences and spread brand messages further to reach more people.

Key takeaways

Evergreen PR is content that remains relevant and valuable over time, as it does not relate to specific trends or events.
Utilising evergreen content as part of your wider PR and marketing efforts can help to boost SEO, generate leads and drive traffic to your brand’s site.
Pitching repurposed evergreen content is a priceless way to make all of your content work harder - just make sure to update any data or stats to keep it relevant.

Want to know more about how we could help achieve coverage for your brand through evergreen PR? Please get in touch.