Marketing is tough. Not only do you have to create engaging ads that draw your customers in, but you also have to do it time and time again.
Don’t you wish that you could create content that requires little to no maintenance, content that could stand the test of time?
Well then, you’re in luck, because today we’re going to be talking about the timeless practice known as “Evergreen Marketing”.
In this article, we’ll show you what evergreen marketing really means, and give you 4 foundational strategies you can use to create compelling content that can be used indefinitely.
Let’s get started!
What is ‘Evergreen’ Marketing?
If the term evergreen reminds you of the smell of fresh pine on a beautiful holiday morning, you’re not imagining things.
The term ‘evergreen’ in marketing refers to content that is always fresh and new – just like the annual nature of evergreen pine trees themselves.
While your content can be ‘old’ (aka written months or even years ago) certain types of content – like testimonials or how-to videos – can remain relevant and seemingly ‘new’ without changing much over the years.
Not only is this content fairly easy to create, but it’s also something that you can build pillar content around in your website, and -like we’ll be discussing here today- in your Facebook ads content.
Zero Pain, All Gain
There are 4 main types of content we’ll be discussing here today, but if you’d like to learn more about this topic check out our webinar from Aaron Zakowski on March 26th!
With a deep knowledge of digital advertising, an incredible set of personal skills, and the ability to come up with innovative and refined marketing strategies, Aaron Zakowski helped leading SaaS companies to accelerate growth and achieve scale through Facebook Ads.
And he wants to help you too, by sharing his 9 Evergreen Marketing Principles for Creating High-Converting Facebook Ads in 2020 and Beyond.
Click here or on the image to reserve you FREE seat
In this webinar, you are going to learn how to easily and effortlessly apply evergreen marketing principles to your ad creation process that will never become outdated and can be used for any ad platform.
Here’s a selection of what Aaron will share in this Masterclass:
- 9 proven marketing messages that work for any niche or product.
- The 10 reasons why people really buy
- The A3C framework for creating effective ad campaigns
And there’ll be much, much more to learn.
An incredible amount of priceless knowledge and pro tips that will boost your business results at zero cost for you! All AdEspresso webinars, in fact, are absolutely free!
If you can’t make it, we’ll send a replay directly to your inbox after it airs.
What are you waiting for? Click here and reserve your seat now!
Now, back to the article!
Evergreen Marketing Strategy #1 – Use Customer Testimonials
In 2011, Google found that on average every person consulted an average of 10.4 sources before they purchased a product – and this includes the opinions of friends and family.
This means that customer testimonials are some of the most powerful pieces of content you have available at your disposal.
In fact, a study found that conversion rates increased by as much as 64% when testimonials were added to the checkout page.
AdEspresso even features some on our own checkout pages and throughout the website:
That’s money on the table you can’t afford to leave behind. The same goes for your content marketing strategy.
A simple way to create your first evergreen campaign would be to create different ads based off of real testimonials by your customers.
This will allow people to effectively communicate what makes your product/service great from the mouth of your buyer personas themselves. You can look at an example from the Better Back Co:
Their first ad started off with copy that was more driven towards sales, which garnered a CPA of $65:
After some help from our concierge team, we used testimonials from Better Back to share how their product helped improve the quality of life of their customers:
The ad above had a CPA of only $19.60, meaning the CPA was slashed by an amazing $45 decrease in the amount of money spent to make a sale. This is just one of the many ways you can use testimonials in your evergreen marketing strategy.
Evergreen Marketing Strategy #2 – Features & Benefits
It’s no secret that in this day and age, consumers are more informed than ever when it comes to the ability to research features and prices before they purchase a product or service. This number increases dramatically for online purchases, where 78% of people spend more time on research than an in-store purchase.
While features themselves can be quite boring, if you tie your product/services unique features into the benefits of said features, it will allow your customer to more intimately understand why your company is more beneficial than the competitors. Take the ad below form Kinsta, for example:
Kinsta could have spouted off with boring numbers and figures on how they can increase speeds, what tech they use to do so, etc. While some people want to know that information, chances are they aren’t looking for it at 2am while scrolling through Facebook looking for cat pictures.
Kinsta has made the consumer’s job easier by letting them know just how they plan to help the customer, and what sort of benefits they can expect by using the service.
Another example from Snapchat below shows the same feature/benefit style:
Again, Snapchat doesn’t go into the metrics of exactly what ages, or how you go about creating the ads on the platform. They let you know the benefit you’ll receive (targeting those who are just starting to form brand preferences) and that it only takes a few minutes to do so.
When you’re creating copy for your own business, focus less on the tech specs and more of how it will tie in with your customers’ ultimate goal – solving their problem with your product or service.
Evergreen Marketing Strategy #3 – Awards and Recognitions
Everyone likes to be awarded for a job well done. Not only that, but we like to share our success and recognition with the world. On the business side, sharing your awards and achievements with your customers can also be a fantastic way to create another type of evergreen marketing strategy.
Over the years, I’m sure you’ve hard car commercials and the like boast their J.D Power Awards – but car companies aren’t the only ones using awards or titles as proof positive that they have ‘the goods’. Take this example below from Disney:
Not only are they using testimonials about the Onwards movie, but they’re also using the fact that the movie is currently the #1 streaming movie in the world as well. Talk about a double whammy of content!
If your company has recently won an industry award or some other title for great service, make sure to highlight it in your Facebook Ads, too. Bonus points if you can tie this in with testimonials AND features/benefits!
Evergreen Marketing Strategy #4 – Tutorials
“He who can does; he who cannot, teaches.”
We’ve all probably heard this phrase over and over, but the truth to that statement is something that we shouldn’t ignore. If you go to YouTube right now, chances are you can find a video tutorial for absolutely anything.
From basic car repair, to how to paint with watercolors, there’s years worth of how-to videos at your disposal for any topic you can think of.
This is where another fundamental part of evergreen marketing comes in.
Instead of constantly pushing sales or one-sided interactions that ‘talk at’ your customers, you can try a different tactic entirely – helping them with their problems for free by giving them a step by step tutorial. This will build a sense of value with your online persona, but will show you care about things aside from how much money you can make from your customers.
Take this example from SweetAmbs below.
SweetAmbs is a baker who sells a variety of pre-made cookie dough mixes and accessories for designing stunning sugar cookies. With her page, she also creates dozens of tutorials on how to not only work with the products she sells, but how to create things cheaply without. A win/win for her followers for sure.
With this tactic, she not only has loads of content for any ads she chooses to create in the future, but she also has a plethora of valuable content that keeps her followers engaged and happy in the meantime.
Conclusion
Coming up with a compelling ad campaign is difficult and time-consuming, especially when you’re expected to do it over and over and over again. So why bother?
Give yourself a little breathing room and some space with Evergreen Marketing.
Whether its a tutorial, testimonial, or even a briefing of your platform’s features; Evergreen marketing can stand the test of time and give you the rest you need to recharge your creative juices.