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Evergreen Content On YouTube

01 Dec, 2022
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You have probably seen videos that don’t go viral or end up in trends, but at the same time they keep bringing views and subscribers year after year. This type of video is commonly called "evergreen".

You have probably seen videos that don’t go viral or end up in trends, but at the same time they keep bringing views and subscribers year after year. This type of video is commonly called "evergreen".

The creators devote a ton of time on topics that have to do with quick results, algorithm hacks, and overall tricks to achieve incredible results. But there is nothing magical about their success. In fact, the truth always comes to the surface.

Every YouTuber has to focus on three types of content:

  • videos to draw attention (Hero content);
  • videos to maintain audience loyalty (Hub content);
  • evergreen videos, tutorials, answers to questions (Help content).

Let's focus on the last type of content in this article.

What is help content? These are videos that are created based on the most frequent search queries of your target audience. These queries tend to maintain their relevance for decades, and also bring many benefits.

A huge number of large brands base their content strategies on this type of content, because normally, viral and exciting hero videos require high budgets. Evergreen content, on the other hand, has usefulness as its major priority. This type of content is relevant over a long period of time, not just for a moment.

Evergreen content benefits:

  • long service life
  • easily searchable
  • generate views while you sleep
  • require less effort and budget
  • as a result, the channel can grow exponentially
  • solve simple problems for your viewers and/or answer their simple questions.

Evergreen content is content that will always be as relevant as it was on the day it was released.

However, these videos also have some drawbacks. For instance, they may need some time to get to the top of search. And often for this reason, many creators underestimate them, because on the first day they do not start trending and don’t gain a fabulous number of views. However, this is not the essence of evergreen content.

Types, formats and themes of evergreen videos

Please note that every creator who wants to grow and develop on YouTube should come up with ideas for evergreen content. For those who are especially hardworking, these videos should be prepared beforehand.

Important: Clickbait is not allowed for evergreen content. If the content is not useful and is more situational it will quickly lose its relevance.

What formats are evergreen?

  • "Frequently asked Questions". These are the so-called FAQs that you can find on almost any website. It’s quite simple here - these are videos that answer questions. This format of videos also includes tutorials, because in fact they also answer frequently asked questions.
  • “How to do…” or “How to…”. There is a huge range of niches here. See what you can explain to your viewers.
  • Any question format. This format is different from FAQs. This includes any videos that begin with the question: what, why, where, how much, why, etc. All of them are increasingly becoming evergreen content.
  • Lists, tops, charts. These formats solve a crucial task for the viewer, which is how to achieve the desired result step by step or faster, what method/subject or format they should choose to achieve this result. Videos with lists and practice videos are two of the most evergreen formats.
  • Reviews. For channels that rely on this content format, all videos can easily be evergreen. Due to the huge variety of products or services, people increasingly need an expert review or opinion to make it easier to make a choice.
  • Reviews and alternatives. We will cover this in a separate paragraph, since this is a slightly different category of reviews. These videos are relevant alternatives. For example, a product disappeared from sale, was blocked, outdated, is too expensive, etc.
  • Life hacks. It can be both the topic of a separate video, and a whole channel with similar content. These kinds of videos help solve audience problems faster and easier.
  • Research. A fairly common format for evergreen videos. Research is a very important element that is based on authoritative data in educational content.
  • Podcasts. As a form of content, podcasts will always be relevant because it is convenient for people to listen to them in the background. However, their evergreenness depends on the topic. For instance, videos on psychology never become outdated, since people have approximately the same problems and will seek ways to solve them.  
  • Videos for beginners. Every author should have videos for beginners. There are many newcomers to any niche, and they will always appear again and again. Let's imagine that you run a channel about playing the guitar. Even if your viewers get carried away and quit playing music over time, your videos on how to learn how to hold elementary chords and choose your first guitar will bring views for years.
  • Interview. The “evergreen” factor, just like with podcasts, will depend on the topic of the interview, as well as the personality you have as the interviewer. If you are interviewing a historian about a view of current events, then he will also be addressing issues that will always be relevant. This also applies to interviews with celebrities - they are listened to and reviewed, regardless of their relevance.
  • Infographics and presentations. These definitions refer, rather, to how the video will look. In this case, infographics and presentations always add excitement to a video and although it’s a rather old format for creating video content, it always stays relevant.

Another interesting thing. Videos with titles including "2020" or "2022", that is, some kind of current year at the time of release, as a rule, are evergreen. Although, it would seem, we put ourselves within the framework of just one year, right? However, statistics show that a good evergreen theme with the year will be relevant for several more years in a row. And some creators even edit the title of the video for the current year, because the information does not change.

What is the point of setting the year then? For instant views. It is these clips that help content gain more views immediately after uploading. But keep in mind that you should not abuse this kind of move, viewers may consider it clickbait.

What is not included in the concept of evergreen content?

  • Statistics are constantly changing and are rarely relevant for more than a year.
  • News:  this content refers to working with constantly updated topics.
  • Entertaining content: most funny videos are based on current events, memes, gags, and jokes.
  • Some types of reviews: if you do a review, for example, on iPhone updates, then take into account that this will no longer be relevant after the new update comes out.

How to deal with evergreen themes

Ironically, but it is extremely important to update evergreen videos from time to time. And the point is not that the information is outdated, but that over time you will grow in quality, and, of course, it is possible that you want to add new information.

When looking for evergreen topics, you should focus not on trends, but on the basics that help your video become evergreen. And make sure to follow the three golden rules: your video must be dynamic, entertaining, or informative. You can select only one, but it would be ideal to combine two rules in the video.

To begin with, the creators should carry out research on topics, niches in order to find the videos with the least competition, but more search volume. Without using your analytics to gain insight through data it will be hard to progress on your YouTube journey.

Optimization. When working with evergreen videos,  SEO will be the decisive factor. And if the video does not succeed, then it’s more likely not well optimized.

Completely different strategies can work to promote evergreen videos: you can share it everywhere in the first couple of hours, upload it to niche communities and groups on social networks, send previews by newsletter. Or you can leave it alone and wait for organic growth to start. For a faster start you can promote once a month with ads so that the video begins to grab the attention of your target audience. Keep in mind that Provigate’s service can help with this.

Besides being useful for any channel, evergreen videos will help with some of the important goals of a channel's strategy. If you are just starting out on a channel and still don't know your audience well, then when you search for evergreen topics, you will somehow begin to study the needs of your audience. When you focus on creating evergreen content, you'll quickly come to grips with the portrait of your typical viewer and subscriber.

However, your evergreen videos may not be directly related to the topic of your channel, but also be in demand. For instance, on the Prodvigate channel, the most popular video is only indirectly related to the channel's niche - in it we are discussing the best editing software. Our main focus is YouTube and promotion, but since the potential audience is interested in more than the platform itself, we discuss loosely related topics. Editing software is an ever-relevant issue for vloggers.

Evergreen and searchable content may not be the most compelling, but it is stable and sustainable. Because if you get into trends with some relevant video, it is difficult to control when it will end and it is difficult to influence the results. For instance, almost every channel on YouTube at one time considered it their duty to make a video for the Mannequin Challenge or Harlem Shake. And at that moment it was impossible to guess whether the video would succeed or not. But even if it became popular, after a while it could forever lose its ability to bring views and subscribers.

50 evergreen videos are better than one. It’s better to shoot a bunch of these videos at once and publish them from time to time. If one video is capable of helping an entire channel, then the results of many evergreen videos will greatly enhance your content catalog. Even if not all of them become popular, it will still work. 

If you follow closely on how channels on top trending topics have been developed, you can see their gradual decline. This is where the benefits of evergreen content come in. With this style of content you can develop your channel for years.

Another benefit of stocking evergreen content is that your evergreen videos can be held for vacations or unforeseen circumstances that may require you to pause your channel.

Evergreen videos are a long-term investment. So investing in this content is always beneficial in terms of saving time, effort, and finances. And, of course, these videos will be a source of constant organic traffic.

But keep in mind that there will be no immediate results. Results in this niche can fluctuate, because the increased interest in the topic will rise and fall overtime. 

Good luck!

Author
Author

Sasha Lerman

Copywriter, writer, editor. Development and promotion on YouTube, as well as many other exciting topics.

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