3 types of content that prevent reader burnout

Publishing just one kind of content to your customers and subscribers over and over is a recipe for reader burnout, or content fatigue, in your audience.

That’s because not all content is created equal nor meant for the same purpose.

Generally, content falls into 3 buckets: content that’s always relevant, content that comes around periodically, and content based on current events.

Here are the 3 types of content and how to use them.

Evergreen content

Evergreen content offers information that will always be relevant for readers who have general questions and want to learn more. In other words, the information won’t change much over time or go out of date.

Because financial strategies don’t tend to change much, these topics offer something many readers can refer to again and again.

And this is normally the cornerstone of most financial brands’ content libraries.

General evergreen content might include:

• How-to posts
• Strategy explainers
• Case studies
• “Big picture” analysis
• Infographics and presentations

The benefit of evergreen content is you can refresh and expand any piece as necessary, or dive deeper into one aspect, then re-advertise it as an update.

Breaking news content

News presents an opportunity for your financial brand to appear on top of a high volume of news-driven search traffic in a short amount of time, especially if you have an email list (aka captive audience).

Commenting on breaking news can demonstrate you’re aware of how the event affects your audience and provide solutions or perspective that sets you apart.

For example, during the SVB banking crisis, a number of Finance Studio bank clients asked us to help write an immediate response to reassure customers and investors.

While advance planning for unpredictable events is obviously impossible, you can prepare for certain events, such as elections and economic reports. Taking a page out of the journalism handbook, you can outline preliminary content to modify and publish quickly later on.

Seasonal content 

Seasons aren’t just about the weather for financial brands. It’s about recurring and relevant thematic opportunities. Seasonal content is special because it can have elements of both time-sensitive and evergreen content.

For example, January may mark the beginning of tax-season content; companies release quarterly and annual reports; every four years marks a U.S. Presidential election — all these topics present opportunities to answer ongoing questions (evergreen) as well as new perspectives and updates (timely).

You can also address seasonal topics indirectly. This post from our parent company, Vested: “How Can Businesses Celebrate Earth Day Authentically?” linked here is a great example. The evergreen quality of the tips (no pun intended) can apply to many different holidays.

Seasonal content is another opportunity to expand on your content library, express authority, and most importantly, prevent your content from getting repetitive or dull.

More ways to mix

Just as blog posts don’t have to be the same word count in every piece, they don’t even have to look like a written post.

Presenting content in different formats such as videos, podcasts, infographics, and white papers, are another great way to create a compelling content mix and prevent reader fatigue.

Leveraging the three content types, along with using different kinds of media formats to present them, will prove to be a more effective way of keeping your customers and subscribers engaged over the long term, reducing unsubscribes to your list, and encouraging more trust with your financial brand.