Evergreen vs. Trending Topics in HealthTech: What’s the Right Balance?

In the fast-paced world of healthtech, it’s easy to get swept up in the latest news about regulations, innovations, or healthcare crises like the pandemic. Leveraging trending news — a strategy known as newsjacking — can certainly capture readers’ attention and drive a surge in traffic. Who wouldn’t want that?

However, these short-term traffic spikes don’t necessarily translate into long-term content marketing success, as newsjacking often fails to attract your ideal audience.

So, should you focus solely on evergreen content instead? Not quite. For a healthcare technology audience immersed in constant news and advancements, relying entirely on evergreen topics isn’t the ultimate solution either.

Discover the perfect balance between trending and evergreen content for your healthtech company and understand the unique value each type brings to your strategy.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is appealing and engaging to your audience both now and in the future. Like the trees it’s named after, it’s consistently fresh. This type of content covers foundational industry information, best practices for solving problems, and tips to improve operations. The value of evergreen content endures, regardless of the news cycle.

An evergreen topic provides value for the long run. It doesn’t depend on what’s happening in the news; it depends on what matters to the prospects reading your content based on their work in the healthtech field.

While evergreen content might not produce the traffic spikes that trending, news-driven topics can create in the moment, an evergreen piece that is optimized well for search can pay dividends for years to come. Search engines favor fresh content, but they value in-depth explanations and expert insights even more. And it’s very likely your prospects do too.

Your prospects want in-depth explanation of a concept that matters in their professional lives day in and day out. They want your perspective on long-term, pressing issues. Not to mention they’ll trust you more if you share content that shows real expertise on its subject.

The big caveat here is that to truly show expertise and authority on an evergreen topic, your content needs to be remarkable. And that takes a lot of work. Keywords for significant industry terms – especially in the healthtech space – are often highly competitive, so your remarkable content has to include a very strategic approach to keyword optimization. But when you get it right, engagement grows, search engines give that piece of content more authority and rank it higher, and your site gets more traffic. 

What does the healthtech marketer need to know?

When you are choosing topics for evergreen content, pay close attention to the target keywords your company wants to own and build authority around those. Once you win one of those topics by landing on the first page of search results, don’t just celebrate and move on. Go back to your piece regularly and optimize/refresh to maintain that coveted Page 1 ranking. 

Consider a topic like, “How healthcare organizations can improve efficiency with virtual patient observation.” That content will answer a question for potential customers that then informs their research. Research that ultimately informs their purchase decision. That’s the kind of evergreen content you want to prioritize: content that moves prospects favorably through the buying cycle.

Keep in mind that there can be ways to relate “virtual patient observation” from my example above to a trending topic as well. Look for ways to link subjects together and further build on those key terms you want to own. This works whether it’s with evergreen content or a quick-hit trending topic on a similar or related subject.    

What is trending content?

Trending content is relevant right now. It focuses on a topic that creates a frenzy of conversation and coverage in the moment, but it generally becomes irrelevant quickly, over a period of months or even weeks.

When your company creates content related to a trending topic, doing so often creates spikes in readership. And those spikes can feel like big success in the moment – you’re getting more visitors to your site, right? Isn’t that the goal? But those users are largely the fly-by-night type. They arrived for that piece related to today’s news. Their visit to your site doesn’t mean that you have built a relationship or any trust with them.

Once that trending topic becomes stale, your traffic will dwindle. Many of those new visitors will be gone. Too much focus on trending content may mean you’re focusing too much on the “now” without any plans for engaging that audience.

So why even bother with trending topics?

Trending topics aren’t useless. They show readers you are paying attention to what your industry is talking about. Your regular audience feels confident they’ve made the right choice putting their trust in you because you have the answers they need for new developments. Also, keep in mind that while many of those fly-by-night users who come for a trending topic may never come back, a few good ones may stay and read more when they realize you really know what you’re talking about — if you market to them properly.

What does the healthtech marketer need to know?

In healthtech, you have to include some trending topics in your content mix. And depending on your business niche, you may want to include quite a few depending on current issues. But regardless of the percentage of trending topics you plan for, you shouldn’t always leave them to grow stale once the trend you covered is replaced by the next hot topic.

In some cases you can update content on trending topics, especially subjects that seem to be ever-changing. This was absolutely true for COVID- related content. For those pieces, your should refresh them with updates on new guidance or information, such as how healthcare organizations have found interesting ways to use a particular new technology you covered.

You can also create a completely new but related piece of content to update your audience. If you made a prediction about how a certain healthcare technology was going to be used in ICUs at the beginning of COVID, create a complementary piece that compares what you thought would happen with what actually happened — or what you think will happen next. Link back to that original piece, of course, and make sure you’re always linking out to the most reputable sources (like the CDC or NIH), especially when discussing health guidance or regulations.

What’s the right balance between the evergreen and trending content?

Well, the answer to that depends on exactly what your company does in the healthtech realm and what’s going on right now in the world.

If your product or service is directly related to and used by clinical staff in addressing a trending issue, you should focus more on what’s developing daily and being covered in the news. This means you need a defined and quick approval process internally. You don’t ever want to be the last to talk about a subject where your type of product or service can be a solution. Show that you are cognizant of the impact a crisis may have on frontline caregivers and healthcare organizations as a whole.

One important note: The more sensitive or urgent a situation is, the more you should be focused on educating. Not selling. Goodwill can evaporate quickly by focusing on revenue when education and assistance are what’s called for.

If your company’s products and/or services are less involved in the healthcare frontlines, you can focus more on educating and establishing thought leadership with evergreen topics. The occasional nod to emergent subjects, though, is important to show that you are paying attention to what’s happening in the larger landscape.

A good balance of trending and evergreen topics makes for a well-rounded content marketing effort. Plus it shows your audience that you understand who they are and what they care about. Establishing a smart balance of trending vs. evergreen topics is also further proof that you are a thought leader in the space.

The actual balance of the two areas depends on many factors, but the moral of this story is that you do need both in the healthtech space.

Want to learn more about how your healthcare technology company can plan for content marketing success? Download our eBook, “Build Your Content Marketing Plan: A HealthTech Marketer’s Guide.” 

Editor’s note: This content was originally published on August 19, 2021, and has been updated to maintain its relevance.

About Yvonne Lyons:

Yvonne Lyons is Right Source’s vice president of creative services, overseeing content and design for all of our clients. She ensures that all creative produced at Right Source is of the highest quality and is aligned with our clients’ business strategy and goals. Yvonne received a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in writing and literature and has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, branding, and communications.