Firs. Oaks. Pines. Any tree that keeps its leaves green all year round, as the name ‘evergreen’ suggests. 

But what about evergreen email marketing? Did you know that it’s possible to write an email sequence that could start at any time of the year for a recipient, and always be relevant and intriguing? It’s a sequence you could write once and execute over and over again with superb results.

Well, that’s if you do it right…

Take a seat, and let me tell you how evergreen email marketing campaigns could save you time on your sequences. 

The Problem With Email Marketing

If you’ve ever written marketing emails for your business, you might be familiar with the general aches and pains that come along with them. Coming up with a new email every week, fortnight or month can be tricky when you are a time-poor business owner. 

How do you keep on top of the current marketing trends? How do you find the time to write the damn things? And what if you want to refer back to previous content, not knowing how hot or cold your leads are?

Don’t get me wrong – email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to market during these hard economic times. With more and more people working remotely or in a hybrid style, now more than ever, your consumer will be refreshing their inbox more times a day. 

And email marketing is reasonably cheap when compared to other forms of content (for more information on how much email marketing costs, check out our unbiased review of your options here.)

But is there a way to get the best of both worlds? Low-cost, high-return marketing that isn’t super time intensive?

Enter stage right, the evergreen email campaign. 

Evergreen Vs Broadcast

So, what’s the difference between ‘normal’ email campaigns and evergreen email marketing?

For starters, they work in different ways. 

With a broadcast (regular) email campaign, you write content and send it out on a set day to your entire list. Everyone – regardless of when they signed up to your newsletters – is on the same timeline. Whether they’ve just joined or whether they have been a customer for yonks plus ages. 

No big deal, right?

Hold up. 

But what if you want your emails to lead seamlessly into one another like a long, strategic river? What if you want to take your prospects on a journey? After all, at some point, they have to go from completely cold leads to converted, paying clients. And you’ll struggle to hit the right spot with both old and new leads in the same email on the same day. 

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are one of your prospects… 

You stumble across a site and stay on it for more than thirty seconds (congratulations if your leads are doing this, by the way! It’s harder than you think). You sign up to an email list which promises useful advice from industry experts, as well as freebies such as helpful blogs attached. 

Sounds great!

When you hit that ‘subscribe’ button, behind the scenes, an automation plays out. If your business sends out one email per week, this move will trigger week 1’s content. Then a week later, it’ll be week 2. Followed by week 3’s email. And so on, and so forth. 

There are many different types of evergreen campaigns that include (but are not limited to):

• Year-long sequences – when you have a 52-week-long set of emails. The beginning of this ‘year’ is not necessarily January, but the first week that the prospect subscribed. 

• Tripwire sequences – usually a short email sequence for when a new lead signs up, taking them from the introduction to your company up to a sales call, meeting or purchase.

• Follow-up sequences – sent after a customer has bought from you in order to encourage them to become repeat buyers.

• Re-engagement sequences – sent when a customer hasn’t opened your emails for a while. For more on this, check out our blog all about how to run a successful re-engagement campaign. 

Why This Works

The benefit of doing evergreen email campaigns is that you don’t have to grapple with different temperatures of leads. 

With normal emails, you’ll have repeat customers and strangers alike reading the same content with different levels of knowledge – which can produce a mixed bag of results, especially when your business is scaling and seeing a rapid overturn of customers. 

With evergreen emails, everyone will be on the same journey, so you can streamline the ‘eyeing to buying’ process. If your lead feels like their pain points and problems are being addressed in a logical order, you can create a bond of trust. 

Better than just chucking information at them via email when they’ve only just found you, right? 

The other major perk to evergreen email campaigns is that you don’t have to keep up with whatever is trending. 

No seasonal posts for holidays, no scrambling to come up with a new schedule every month or quarter. Your plan is made once and executed over and over again – so you can spend time on the things in your business that can’t be automated. 

Not to mention, if you’re outsourcing your content marketing, you could hire someone just to write a sequence of emails for you. They only have to do it once, so you don’t have monthly bills from a content writing agency or freelance writer! This can be more cost-effective if your aim is simply to educate your target audience. 

Where Evergreen Emails Fall Short

Of course, there are downsides to doing it this way – most of which involve time and resources.

While it is undoubtedly easier to plan an entire year of content in one go in the case of a year-long evergreen sequence, it is still extremely time-consuming to plan, write, proof and upload a year’s worth of content. If you don’t have someone in-house with this much time to give, you might have to hire a content marketer or freelancer to plan, write and schedule the emails for you. 

Need some help with deciding who should write your content? Check out our useful post weighing up the pros and cons of freelancers vs content marketing agencies.

Aside from the time element, you also have to consider which email software you’re using to manage your email lists. 

Is it capable of automation, such as moving a contact from one list to another? After all, you don’t want a lead to drop off because you didn’t have time to put them onto your regular nurture list manually. 

Make sure that – whatever software you pay for – it is simple enough for you to use to streamline your evergreen campaigns and keeps you compliant with current GDPR requirements. 

If your business relies on rapidly changing information and trends, such as eCommerce or a specific product, you might find that your deals or products change regularly. This is where evergreen emails may not work for you. If you have to update your preexisting sequence constantly, it’s almost easier to just write a new email every month, fortnight or however frequently you’re in touch with your prospects. 

Evergreen Tips 

The good news?

Your marketing doesn’t have to be either/or.

When used together, live nurture emails and evergreen campaigns create a beautifully holistic marketing strategy for your clients, without scaring them away. 

So, how do you maximise an evergreen campaign’s efficiency? Here are some top tips…

Avoid Seasonal Content

You have to make sure your evergreen content is just that. It’s got to be relevant all year round – no matter what. Ideally, your prospects shouldn’t be able to tell whether it was written last year or last night!

Answer Your FAQs

What are the most common questions you receive in your industry? Is there any way you can answer these gradually, based on the exact timeline when objections to your product or service normally crop up? Use this to your advantage and write emails that overcome those pain points and objections. 

Recycling Content

60-70% of content is recyclable! Why not repurpose a blog post into an email – then link that blog post to it for extra info? It’s a great way to make your prospects feel enriched and valued, with less stress on your part, too!

Super CTAs 

Speaking of blogs, make sure you include them where they’re relevant. Got something you think might work with a particular email? Use it as your call to action. And if not, link it to something free that your list can read or consume in some way. Remember – a nurture sequence is there to generate interest; not to outright sell. 

And there you have it. Evergreen campaigns that don’t lose their leaves – I mean, leads! If you think this would be a good tactic for you, why not book a FREE Discovery Call today to see if we can get your open rates soaring through the roof? 

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