Evergreen content is useful in a number of ways: it can be used at any time, it saves content creators from having to constantly generate new ideas and it is easy to refer back to when needed. When you think about video advertising content, the term “evergreen” rarely comes up, however. Video advertising campaigns tend to be more trendy, and there’s always the risk that the visuals will soon look dated — an issue you don’t face as often with the written word.

So how can companies capitalize on the increasingly popular video genre and still create reusable content? These seven experts from Ad Age Collective have experience in what makes for successful video content. Here they offer valuable tips on how a business can create video advertising content that remains relevant no matter the timing.

1. Focus on educating your audience.
I think you can create an evergreen video campaign if you focus on educating your audience. Based on the industry or niche you’re in, marry education and advertising content. This is the best way to create evergreen content, especially for video advertisements, which is not an area where old content ages well. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

2. Build around things you always help customers with.
Clients are experiencing pains specific to this moment in time. Many of those pains may be over next quarter. Often, where we help the most are with challenges that customers have faced since time began. Build your advertising around the things you always help your customers do better — independent of economic conditions, political cycle, global pandemic, etc. – Moira Vetter, Modo Modo Agency

3. Create ‘how to’ and best-practice videos.
The most consistently evergreen content are “how-to” or best-practice videos. They will be relevant as long as your product or service is relevant. Broadly speaking, educational video content tends to endure well because it is tied more to a functional need as opposed to relying on other important elements of advertising, such as creative, characters, timeliness, originality, etc. – Dan Beltramo, Onclusive (formerly AirPR)

4. Leverage a Q&A format.
Focus on Q&A. When you engage with a prospect, chances are even the most informed will have questions about you, your business and the industry at large. People are inquisitive by nature, so feed into that curiosity by answering those questions in video format. You’ll pick up the patterns of frequently asked questions, so evergreen videos are a great way to have ready answers available. – Patrick Ward, Rootstrap

5. Speak to the product’s uses and benefits.
It is possible to create an evergreen campaign, or at least one that a customer can refer back to, and this would be any campaign that clearly speaks to the product’s uses and benefits. A features and benefits campaign can be used to first launch a product, and when brand awareness lifts, it can then be used on digital channels to refer back to for product instructions. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising

6. Focus on constants rather than trends.
Focus on constants rather than trends and aim for a timeless visual style. Often, that style leads you to use animation (the side benefit of that is that it allows you to more easily take your content to international audiences). – Reid Carr, Red Door Interactive

7. Create memorable and relevant visuals.
Create memorable and relevant visuals for your campaign. Every script, prop and special effect needs to tie into your branding. You also need to entertain people or educate them so they will come back and rewatch, to absorb the message faster. Consider how one anti-smoking PSA won an award for conveying a rapid number of statistics within a musical number. It’s still popular and unforgettable. – Duran Inci, Optimum7