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This week’s post and podcast are about content marketing, particularly the differences between evergreen and just-in-time content for recruitment businesses. As we move into summer, it’s an ideal time to review your marketing strategy, especially with many Australian listeners starting their new financial year in July.
Suppose you’re new here, welcome! Reviewing your marketing approach becomes even more crucial as we progress through a challenging year for many businesses worldwide. I recommend doing so if you haven’t completed our interactive scorecard yet. It takes 3-4 minutes and provides a personalised report based on our 18+ years of experience working with recruiters.
Evergreen vs Just-In-Time Content
If someone held me at gunpoint and forced me to choose between evergreen and just-in-time content, I’d always select evergreen. Just-in-time content can quickly raise awareness in your market, but it’s rarely sustainable or long-lasting. Evergreen content, however, remains relevant and valuable for months, even years.
For example, several of our clients still have blogs I wrote about interview skills and talent pipelines that remain their highest-performing website content, ten years later! That’s the power of evergreen content. It addresses fundamental questions that people consistently ask over time.
Evergreen content requires minimal updating. We have a post about lead generation on our website that’s been there for nearly 14 years. I update it annually, and it’s still our highest-performing blog and podcast. Examples of evergreen content include how-to guides and foundational concepts around interview skills, workplace confidence, employer selection, and interview performance.
Understanding Just-In-Time Content
Just-in-time content is different—and I’m not saying you shouldn’t create it—but consider your time investment versus the impact. Given our turbulent times, you might write something about current political events or economic tariffs. While this might generate a traffic spike, will it remain relevant in a year? Probably not.
Just-in-time content has a much shorter relevance window, capitalising on trends, searches, and timely interests. Examples include industry news analysis, trend reports, and seasonal guides. Depending on your market, some topics might be considered either evergreen or just-in-time. For instance, if people in your region typically look for new roles after summer, that could be an evergreen topic.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, ideally, 70-80% of your content should be evergreen, with just 20% being just-in-time. This gives you the optimal content split for maximum effectiveness. I occasionally write about things like Facebook or LinkedIn algorithms, knowing they might change completely in 2-3 years. However, they’re important topics now, making them valuable just-in-time content.
Content Planning For Success
Before getting excited about creating your content plan or jumping into AI tools, consider who you want your content to reach. Think about the buyer cycle—people are at different stages of decision-making. We’re taking people from being unaware of you to being aware of you, and then through the consideration process before they decide to work with you.
Different types of content have an impact at various stages. If you go to our website and search, you’ll find several podcasts with ideas on where to start. For additional guidance, check out the “Standing Out on Social Media” post or our YouTube channel.
Generally, there are three content themes to cover all your bases. First, positioning content helps you stand out as an expert in your competitive market. Second, promotional content showcases your jobs, services, and results through case studies and social proof. Third, personal and company branding content helps people connect with you and your values.
Using AI For Content Planning
Planning is so much easier now thanks to AI tools. I use Claude (the Pro version), but many people use Chatgpt effectively. I’ve created a prompt that asks the AI to generate a content plan for me based on the types of content I want to share and when I want to share it.
This is particularly important if you have clients across different time zones. For example, if you’re in the UK but work with clients in the US and Australia, you’ll want your content to reach people waking up in San Francisco and others getting ready for bed in Sydney.
The more specific and detailed your prompt, the better output you’ll receive. I ask the AI to create a plan with different content types for other days and times, then I follow that plan. It’s remarkably simple and effective.
Measuring Your Content Marketing Success
While everyone wants more clients and candidates, measuring the inputs that lead to those outcomes is important. One of our Superfast Circle clients recently increased his LinkedIn posting frequency and saw his impressions jump from a few hundred weekly to nearly 4,000 in just one week.
Key areas to monitor include:
- Website traffic – use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track performance
- LinkedIn impressions – especially with Creator Mode, which shows how visible you’re becoming
- Connection metrics – track how many people accept your LinkedIn connection requests
- Email campaigns – monitor open rates and click-through rates
Interestingly, the more emails you send in a structured campaign, the better your open rates. I’ve noticed that many people who eventually become our clients have been watching our content for years without ever commenting. Don’t worry too much about engagement; focus on impressions—how many people are seeing your content.
Thanks
Denise and Sharon
How We Can Help
At Superfast Recruitment, our Superfast Circle programme has helped hundreds of recruitment business owners implement effective content marketing strategies.
From providing ready-made content resources to offering personalised guidance on content planning and measurement, we give you everything you need to position yourself as an expert in your field. I
If you’d like to learn more about creating a content strategy that works for your recruitment business, book a call here.
