What Your Influencer Marketing Might Be Missing: Evergreen

Get the most out of your influencer marketing campaigns by leveraging the power of evergreen content.

During a recent call with a potential new client, The Motherhood’s leadership team outlined a variety of social media marketing services and shared a few case studies to demonstrate clients’ successes with past campaigns. When the presentation ended, the potential client made an interesting comment. “We can see the power of what you’re doing,” he said. “We’d be foolish not to take advantage of it.”

More and more brands and organizations have come to the same conclusion. As traditional online advertising loses potency due to the rise of ad blockers, more of them are turning to influencer marketing and sponsored content campaigns to share information about their products and services with target audiences.

However, with the online space becoming saturated, it’s more important than ever to find ways for brands to get the most out of their campaigns: While traditional influencer marketing tactics focus on the “now” (sales, impressions, link clicks, etc.), there is unlocked potential in “evergreen” influencer-driven content that serves as a digital bookshelf for brands over a long period of time.

What makes content evergreen? Evergreen content lives on in searches and continually generates traffic to your site. It provides information that is not tied to one particularly timely “hook” or event and is not likely to change in the near future, meaning it can continue to provide value to the reader over time.

In a recent study distributed by The Motherhood, bloggers repeatedly mentioned that both their blogs and the brands they work with get more value from content that is authentic and evergreen. We see brands starting to catch onto this theme, and we believe that evergreen content will become even more prevalent as its value is realized.

Why is influencer-driven evergreen content powerful? It offers brands:

1. Long-term Results: Content grows in popularity over time, continually drives traffic to your site and increases brand awareness.
2. Search Engine Optimization: It helps achieve search rankings for industry terms as well as improving SEO results for the brand through link building.
3. Credible Voice: Influencer content can serve as a landing page for a brand other than its official website, building the brand’s reputation and providing increased value for users.
4. Resources for Customers When They Need It: It is always available and is sought after by potential customers when they are further along the path to purchase.

With easy access to online resources and others’ opinions, consumers no longer put all of their trust in brand advertising and marketing without also doing their own independent research. In fact, based on a recent survey by The Motherhood, consumers trust family, friends and customer reviews 44% more than retailer and company websites.

Brands can create and publish their own evergreen content, but influencer-created content – shared by someone their readers feel they know and can trust – adds an extra layer of authenticity and often gives consumers the confidence they need to take the next step to purchase the product or service. When brands find an influencer who genuinely loves their products or services and can share that information with her readers, it’s a relationship that provides a natural avenue brands can tap to build trust with consumers.

Bloggers in The Motherhood’s network know the power of evergreen; here are some real-world examples!

Example #1: Bloggers Become Top Traffic-Drivers

Blog posts from an influencer marketing campaign served as one of the top drivers of traffic to a healthcare client’s website. Many of the influencers’ blog posts have generated hundreds and even thousands of monthly visits to the company’s site.

Here are some key learnings from the blog post that performed best over the long term:

• It contained practical tips on the general topic with a naturally flowing product link at the very end
• One year after the blog post went live, it was still generating an average of 400 daily views
• The highest source of traffic to the blog post was Pinterest

Because of these evergreen blog posts, the client has continued to see a high level of referral traffic to the site long after the original campaign ended, and the client has become an industry leader in online conversations. Through The Motherhood, the client has also maintained a working relationship with key influencers to repurpose content and collaborate on additional campaigns.

Tip: Focus on authentic conversations that can be optimized for search and authentically share product information.

Example #2: Annual Holidays and Events Generate Recurring Traffic

The Motherhood’s blog received a boost in traffic this October from a Halloween-themed blog post published back in 2011! With primary traffic to the post coming from organic search and Pinterest, the post generated an 88% increase in page views from September to October 2015. Each year around Halloween, this blog post generates a higher number of page views.

Furthermore, a 2010 blog post written by The Motherhood on Halloween safety tips, sponsored by Energizer, was picked up this year by a municipality and sent to all residents in that area, generating a huge spike in traffic to the post.

Tip: Take advantage of reoccurring events such as holidays, rather than one-time events or occurrences.

Here are a few suggestions on how you can engage influencers to write evergreen content for your brand:

1. Share Stats and Data
2. Invite Product Reviews / Consumer Insights
3. Provide Expert How-to Guides or Tips
4. Offer Strategies for Common Problems
5. Storytelling through Personal Anecdotes

Before initiating a campaign focused on generating evergreen content, be sure to keep the following points in mind:

1. Be authentic. Pinpoint influencers who are a good fit for your brand and focus on quality of their content and professionalism of their work rather than simply looking at their numbers.
2. Fully identify goals such as search rankings and keywords. This is probably the hardest step, but it is extremely important to have in place before moving forward. These terms must be effectively communicated to the bloggers so that they can seamlessly work them into content during the writing process.
3. Add value. Bloggers and influencers have an interest in creating quality content and bringing traffic to their blog and your content. Be sure that the content you are asking influencers to create will provide value to readers and presents information and insight other than what is provided in traditional marketing practices.
4. Use a blogger network/agency. Consider leveraging the expertise of an agency, which has existing relationships with influencers in your space, along with experience crafting campaigns focused on authentic long-term content.

Most importantly, remember that patience is a virtue. Evergreen success does not happen overnight; you have to allow time to reap the rewards!

The Motherhood is a social media marketing firm and blogger network with extensive experience in the space of influencer marketing, and has continually been a leader in innovation within the industry. To work with The Motherhood’s network in creating branded evergreen content that will live on in users’ search results, you can reach us at contact@themotherhood.com.