Evergreen videos: here are the videos your audience won’t forget

In digital marketing, video is the highest performing media.

When we talk about video marketing strategies, we focus on the challenges related to gaining the attention of your audience…people who are constantly bombarded with stimuli.

However, there is another equally decisive aspect that we risk missing! 

This has to do with the duration of a video: not in the sense of minute length; but an aspect that is far more important:- of maintaining its visibility and effectiveness over a long period of time.

Evergreen videos meet this very complicated challenge, especially in today’s increasingly accelerated world.

In the next section, we’ll look at the main characteristics and benefits of evergreen videos and we’ll highlight 5 types of video content that have the greatest potential as evergreen video content.

Evergreen video – characteristics and benefits

We’ve said it before: an evergreen video is one that can stand the test of time. 

In short, it remains fresh, engaging, relevant, and useful even months or years after it was first published.

Typically, these are videos that manage to get into people’s heads…and stay there: and people will go looking for them, to watch them again, but also share and spread them, spontaneously.

It’s almost superfluous to highlight the enormous load of benefits that this brings. 

Here are just some of these benefits:

– An excellent, solid, and lasting image for the company, the brand, but also the eventual individual product or service at the center of the video. 

– A deep connection between the brand and its target audience. 

– Great optimization, also from an economic point of view and in terms of the energy expended: a quality video that continues to perform for a long time is much less expensive than many videos that “expire” into oblivion within a short time…this is evident.

– An evergreen video is capable of driving traffic (in addition to calls-to-action and related landing pages) to the other content on the same channel. Just think of what happens on YouTube. 

– An evergreen video can be repurposed in different formats and on the most diverse channels. 

To learn more about how to repurpose your video content, its benefits and best practices, check out our eBook on this topic.

It’s clear that this list could go on and on; and that each point we have identified reinforces all the others in a virtuous circle.

Now, however, let’s take it a step further. 

How do you create an evergreen video?

As we often repeat, there is no universal recipe…and it’s all the more so in this case. 

However, there is an important core around which everything else orbits. 

For a video to stand the test of time, you have to focus on its added value to the audience, to individuals.

Everything is at stake here. 

It’s a matter of quality, usefulness, and memorability.

5 types of evergreen videos

Now, without getting lost in too many theories and further premise, let’s go right to the 5 types of videos that are best suited to become evergreen videos.

1. Webinars and virtual events

Offer added value, be useful to the viewer, make something “valuable” accessible to the audience. In this sense, there is nothing better than recordings of webinars or virtual events. Of course, they should focus on topics that are consistent with your company’s identity and interesting to your target audience.

A word of caution: avoid content from paid webinars or other events, as this risks upsetting users who originally paid for this content.

2. Educational content

This second type of content is related to the point above. 

In general, it’s important to inform before selling. 

And it’s a good rule to proceed by staying close to your brand.

Imagine that you are a producer of high-quality wines. 

It may be a good idea, initially, to talk about the area where you are located. This allows you to focus on the wine vocation of that same territory, from a historical and contemporary point of view.

Then, you could focus on the specifics of your company, talking about your values, your vision, your production processes, and the people who work with you. 

Finally, you could focus on talking about a single product, a particular bottle of wine, perhaps with a sommelier describing its characteristics.

In all of these cases, this is educational content that can stand the test of time.

Beware: it’s more likely that more “generic” content will turn into an evergreen video (in our example, the first one, related to telling the story of the territory). 

This is because it communicates a more disinterested and less “advertising” effect. 

Just make sure to include your brand, even discreetly, in this story.

3. How-to videos

According to official YouTube data, how-to videos attract the most attention from customers. More than music videos and more than gaming-related videos (thinkwithgoogle.com). 

What’s more, it is a format that can easily turn into an evergreen video.

After all, if you think about it, it is a more specific subcategory of educational videos.

In this case, the added value that is provided to the viewer is very concrete and practical: The presentation of a problem and consequently, its resolution.

We can divide how-to videos into two macro-categories: 

1) Videos focused on general instructions. From gardening to gaming, from making a recipe to make-up, to knot-tying instructions…and the list goes on. 

2) Videos focused on how certain products or services work, offered by a specific company.

What we pointed out above also applies here: the highest probability of becoming an evergreen video is related to instruction, the one that is more general and not perceived as “advertising.” 

So, again, watch out for brand positioning.

3. Video testimonials

A testimonial video is one where a customer promotes a company; often, even more specifically, a particular product or service. 

This is a very old format that continues to be highly effective even in the digital video marketing arena.

Again, there is a link to the previous point. 

After the chosen testimonial, it’s a matter of highlighting a problem (a common problem that the target audience can identify with). And from the problem move on to the solution, provided by a particular company product or service.

We have devoted an entire blog post to the topic of video testimonials and the analysis of benefits and best practices, read it here. 

Here, we’re limiting our discussion of the use of video testimonials to focus on exposing a problem and solving it. Kind of like how-tos.

It’s critical to never forget to tell a story: utility should always be complemented by entertainment and an empathetic component. Especially if you plan to turn your video testimonial into an evergreen video.

4. About us videos

Speaking of the importance of telling a story…among the most successful videos—and those that manage to prolong their effectiveness over time—are those that tell the story of a brand or company. 

They are sometimes also referred to as “company story videos.” 

This is a perfect format for improving brand awareness.

Pay attention to these 3 decisive elements:

1) Focus on even the smallest details of the script. To be interesting, it’s not enough to just tell a story. 

You need to be able to masterfully handle everything related to storytelling. This is all the more important when we are talking about long videos.

2) Sure, a company story video always mentions the brand at the center of the story: that’s a given. 

But not everything has to be explicit.

In fact, the brand must also be perfectly recognizable by its tone of voice and stylistic choices, starting with graphic and design aspects. 

The goal is to make people feel the brand’s presence even on a subliminal level, from the very beginning of the narrative.

3) The main goal of a good About Us video is to “humanize” a brand or company. So, in addition to your story, show the behind-the-scenes, give voice to employees and collaborators, be as “intimate” and close to those on the other side of the screen as possible.

To delve deeper into the topic of company story videos, check out this post from our blog, where—in addition to best practices—we share 3 success stories.

We said it right from the start: meeting the challenge of standing the test of time is very complex. By building on these pillars, you will have a great chance of success.