Content marketing has been the rage for years now and all the right reasons! Brands out there in the digital world are crushing it with world-class, tongue-in-cheek content marketing strategies.
That being said - it’s not as easy as it may seem. Content marketing is more than just actively publishing articles, posting social media updates, and sending mailers. Producing quality content that sets you apart is hard work.
To put things in perspective - Zazzle media’s study reported that close to 60% of companies find it hard to push out content consistently and almost 65% struggle with producing engaging content. As alarming as this could be - clever content marketing strategies is the fix you need here.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing the way we see it, is all about great storytelling. Stories that will elevate your brand’s image and get everyone talking about the solutions that you have to offer.
Sure enough, you can weave words that read like poetry but the trick here is to build content that offers real value to your users. Content marketing is different from regular marketing. Think of it more like a hook that will not only attract visitors to your business but convert them into customers and eventually retain them for the long run.
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing high-quality, relevant content in various formats such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, social media posts, etc. Pretty much anything that helps you cut through the noise and stand out. (Yup, roaming around with a signboard on the streets could also get the job done for you!)
So why all the fuss about content marketing?
If you look around, especially on social media you’ll notice how brands are always in a mad race to get your attention. With Google and social media platforms refining their search algorithms from time to time, you need to bring your A-game to shine through.
Creative content marketing tactics will help you do just that. Content marketing is all about providing users with content that they are craving to consume! Creative content marketing will not only put you on the map but will have other businesses raving about your work. Here’s what we are talking about:
Puts your brand in the spotlight: Great content that is distributed in key locations will help you get more eyes on your brand. With all eyes on you, people start to look forward to your content. They even go ahead and share your content. All this makes conversations with your users simpler and conversions happen on the go.
Establishes trust and credibility for your brand: With great content comes even better SEO rankings and dominance. With your brand gaining visibility in all the right places, not only will you earn the trust of your users but you will also get a better EAT score on Google. All you need to do is build ‘expert, authoritative and trustworthy content that delivers genuine value to your audience.
Gives your sales a good boost: So here’s the deal, once you’ve generated leads - the next step is to push them down the funnel by creating some great written and visual content pieces. With inbound leads having a higher close rate of 14.6% compared to 1.7% for outbound leads, creating valuable content can surely help you with your sales.
Drives up your SEO efforts: If your content marketing tactics are in line with Google’s proven framework and best practices, you’ll start seeing better results and higher rankings. With all that traffic coming in, you stand to gain in more ways than one.
Helps you repurpose content: While you are out there publishing great content, you all get the opportunity to repurpose, refresh and reuse this content in ways that your users will love! From converting podcasts and webinars into blog posts to turning blogs into infographics and videos - you are spoilt for choice here.
Content marketing examples - 8 brands that are nailing it
1 - Wistia’s “1, 10, 100” project
Wistia’s out-of-the-box take on the “1, 10, 100” project has to be first on the list. Being a video hosting platform, they took on the task to help businesses discover how much money they should be spending to make great videos. What did they do?
They challenged Sandwich Video to produce three video ads at three very different price points - $1k, $10k, and $100k.
The result? The $10k video emerged as the best performer across all platforms.
What made this content marketing strategy so great is that Wistia took the plunge to be transparent and give businesses clarity on what budgets they should be working on.
The results proved that the size of the budget doesn’t matter here. When videos are ruling the internet, this clever move by Wistia comes as a relief for many businesses struggling with big-budget video ads.
2 - ChurnZero’s Churn Monsters
ChurnZero’s Churn Monsters was an absolute breakthrough for the SaaS industry as this creative guide helped them battle churn and grow customer retention like never before.
Churn Zero built characters that are the common reasons for customer churn, or in other words ‘Churn Monsters’. From ‘Disengaged Dave’ to ‘Black Swan’ these monsters come with interesting personas that SaaS businesses can easily identify and relate to.
Churn Zero also shared combat tips and interestingly positioned themselves as the ‘Hero’ that helps businesses slay these monsters with their best-in-class solutions.
3 - Morning Brew’s amazingly engaging Twitter game
You’ve gotta give it to the man himself - Toby Howell, the genius behind Morning Brew’s catchy tweets.
Toby has figured out Twitter in a way like no one else has. When he took over Morning Brew’s Twitter account he had a tough task at hand. Coming with no prior social media experience truly worked in his favor.
From piggybacking off power followers’ tweets to setting up alerts on famous accounts like Elon musk’s handle - Toby seems to be saying all the right things at the right places.
In just four months, Morning Brew witnessed a 30,000+ jump in their Twitter followers. So there you go - a strong social media game can do you wonders in the world of content marketing!
4 - Hubspot’s deep-dive articles, content upgrades, and downloadable material
All hail the powerhouse of content marketing - HubSpot. HubSpot was quick to jump the ranks as the go-to blog for all marketing and sales resources. How did they pull this off? Their inbound marketing strategies are a class apart - they’ve got the whole works!
From deep-dive articles on every possible topic that you could think of to constant content upgrades, tools, and valuable recommendations in the form of downloadable material, they’ve gone all out in giving their audience what they want. Not to mention their SEO-backed thought leadership strategy has been an absolute masterpiece in winning over customers and turning them into fans.
5 - Moz’s Whiteboard Friday video series
Moz’s content strategy over the years deserves a special mention! With over 30,000 customers and ringing in subscriptions worth over $40 million, Moz has also managed to build a huge following for their content.
With a simple goal to break down SEO for marketers, Moz kickstarted their Whiteboard Friday series. The videos show CEO Rand Fishkin in front of a pre-drawn whiteboard breaking down all things SEO and content marketing for the audience. This series went on to become huge and is one of the brand’s longest-running campaigns.
The key takeaway here is that consistency and commitment to your community are important. The brand comes up with a new episode every week and manages to record the highest engagement compared to any other content on the website with this series.
6 - DTC brand, Minimalist’s brilliant Instagram posts
Minimalist’s hard-hitting Instagram posts are another great example of how you can draw in all the right attention.
The content posted by the brand lives up to its name. Their Instagram feed has content that is crisp and bold, with a great take on aesthetics.
7 - Foundation’s detailed content marketing analysis pieces
Another great example is the Foundation’s detailed analysis of brands like Canva.
Now, this type of analysis is sure to grab a lot of attention - Foundation was smart enough to break down another brand’s success with real data and interesting insights.
This is the kind of content that serves as a go-to guide for businesses that are looking to climb up the ladder.
8 - Postscript’s content-led projects like SMS templates
Ready-to-use templates of any kind are appreciated in the world of business. Postscript was quick to pick this up and build SMS templates for E-commerce businesses.
This is a valuable piece of content that offers great leverage for those who are new to the business and looking to get off on the right track.
Wrapping it up
By now, we’re sure that you are sold on what a great content marketing strategy could do - it could simply make or break your business.
Your content marketing plans should have your customers at the heart of them. Stick to the formula of consistency + creative engagement + customer empathy and you’ll be building content that will keep your users asking for more!