If you want to develop a successful and well-structured content marketing strategy for your own brand, then the best place for you to start is to study the success of other brands that have already achieved your desired goal. Here is a list of 15 clever and creative content marketing examples that have experienced awesome results from their strategic endeavors:
Babylist
Most first-time parents use the Internet as a major source of advice, helpful information and overall encouragement. This is the market that Babylist tapped into with its own effective content marketing strategy – especially when it comes to the brand’s “best of” section that covers an extensive list of popular, frequently-searched topics. Since most of the content is made available for free, this creates a major stream of flowing traffic for the brand which in turn boosts its SEO ranking and overall popularity.
What made this a great content marketing example? It spoke to the specific challenges of the site’s visitors, offering insight and great informative value.
Simply Business
A solid content marketing example of a blog that has generated awesome results is from the largest insurance broker in the United Kingdom – Simply Business.
Simply Business strives to break the mold in this regard by attracting prospective leads and existing clients with engaging content. For instance, the company’s website features an extensive list of helpful guides – such as business blogging how-to manuals, road maps for success in social media, and a guide to increase email productivity. The key was to focus on providing useful content that had nothing to do directly with insurance. Doing so allowing Simply Business to increase the ranking of such primary keywords as “public liability insurance,” “employer’s liability” and “professional indemnity.”
What made it great? The solid informative value.
SalesForce UK
SalesForce UK had to think outside of the box to generate awesome results from the brand’s content marketing strategy. As a CRM solution, SalesForce was already recognized as the largest vendor of CRM services around the globe. However, major adjustments were needed to breathe life into the company’s content marketing strategy – adjustments that were accomplished with a little help from video marketing and other informative yet engaging presentations (such as the first stop-motion slideshow).
What made it great? The unique video marketing approach.
HubSpot
The content marketing strategy used behind the scenes at HubSpot played an integral role in the website’s overall success and high SEO ranking. The primary objective of HubSpot content is to drive traffic towards their funnel by featuring high-quality content tailored for businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. Since most consumers are always looking for how-to guides and tutorials, HubSpot features an extensive list of these informative resources – covering such topics as social media, SEO, blogs, and other types of well-structured inbound marketing.
What made it great? The helpful content.
Nerd Wallet
Nerd Wallet is a popular finance website that teaches investing and financial management with a host of articles, blogs, infographics and other engaging media types. The brand’s online presence even features a popular series of engaging videos that teach viewers key principles for budgeting, investing and taking full advantage of diversified portfolios.
Acorns
Acorns Investment provides another clever content marketing example by providing a vast amount of informative and insightful content related to reaching financial goals. The blog “Grow from Acorns” provides consumers with everything that they need to start investing their money – including how-to guides, news articles, “Money 101” basics and expert interviews.
General Electric (GE)
GE is another brand that capitalized on useful content with a little help from social media influencers to boost exposure and drive traffic to its online presence. GE developed an Instagram content marketing campaign that relied on six top Instagram influencers and a host of superfans to post pictures of themselves touring the manufacturer’s facilities and hashtagging uploaded photos with references to the brand. This campaign resulted in the addition of 3,000 followers and 8,000,000 views.
What made this great? Relying on user content to bring home engagement and results.
Charmin “Sit or Squat” Restroom App
Chances are that you never would have thought Charmin (the company that brands adorable bears using toilet paper) would ever need to create a popular app. For most potty-trained people, toilet paper usage is a simple concept that does not need a walkthrough tutorial or mobile assistant. However, the challenge is when you are out & about searching for a public place to use toilet paper. Charmin’s “Sit or Squat” mobile application is essentially a GPS for public restrooms. As a bonus, it even allows customers to rate and review the restrooms used.
What made this great? The unique approach.
“Celebrate with Hershey’s” Mobile App
Hershey’s is another popular brand that tapped into clever content marketing with the help of a mobile app and microsite. You can find anything you need – such as recipes and DIY projects – as well as other types of fun games and candy-related entertainment. This effective content marketing tool provides valuable information (i.e. recipes, DIY projects, etc.), engaging entertainment and brand recognition.
What made it great? Infinite creativity that drove users in.
IKEA Furniture Placement App
Another helpful mobile app from a major brand is the IKEA Place app, which is designed to show consumers how IKEA furnishings would look within their homes long before it is purchased, shipped and assembled. In addition to boosting brand loyalty and overall awareness, this type of social media and video marketing provides usefulness and value to prospective and existing IKEA customers alike. It also helps to promote IKEA furniture options and increases sales conversion by eliminating minor skepticism and buyer reluctance.
What made it great? The great value offered to customers.
Coca-Cola “Share a Coke” Campaign
The concept was simple. Personalize soda bottle labels with customer names. That’s all Coca-Cola had to do to create the highly-successful marketing campaign known as “Share a Coke.” Before long, consumers around the world were posting pictures of their personalized soda bottles and sharing them online. Thanks to its popularity on social media, this witty campaign caused Coca-Cola sales to skyrocket. This proved that personalization of any engaging and appealing product is attractive to consumers.
Single Grain
Single Grain targets tech startups with its content marketing strategy – including a blog that focuses on everything related to online marketing and a helpful section of resourceful guides, webinars, courses and even infographics that present appeal and value to interested consumers. In addition to its viral posts, Single Grain has been able to successfully convert visitors into regular subscribers and paying customers in addition to boost organic exposure for its online presence through starting conversations based on their provided services.
Nike
For years, Nike has been a leader of effective content marketing. From the simple slogan “Just Do It” to its growing collection of engaging documentaries and televised commercials featuring popular athletes, there are more than enough clever content marketing examples that you can pull from when examining the brand’s past track record.
WP Engine
WP Engine focuses on WordPress users and is not very helpful for people who do not use WordPress. However, when you consider the millions of people and professionals that use WordPress blogs and websites, it makes sense why this specific website is growing in popularity. The website teaches a truckload of principles and best practices for WordPress website development and blog creators.
Wisita Video Marketing Documentary
Wisita capitalized on the video marketing industry by appealing to the video marketers with limited resources. Whether the marketer is strapped for time or cash, he or she can find a wealth of helpful information through the brand’s 4-part series that focuses on limited budgets ranging between $1,000 and $100,000. Everyone loves behind-the-scenes featurettes. Therefore, having a behind-the-scenes view of the world of video marketing is more than enough to draw a big crowd of interested viewers.