Introduction
Do you have an upcoming campaign but feel like your ideas are boring and will not result in business growth? This happens to every marketer.
Content marketing is important for attracting and nurturing leads, retaining existing customers and to get repeat purchases. Content Marketing, eventually, helps in lead generation and helps in business growth. If you have tried your hand at content marketing, you know it’s not as easy as it looks; it is seriously challenging work. A survey by Zazzle media revealed that 60% of businesses have difficulty with consistent production of content while 65% say that producing engaging content is difficult.
We get it. Our company has worked with many clients from b2b and b2c circles, all struggling with one aspect or another of content production. That’s why I’m writing this post today, to give you new ideas that you can personalize for your brand and keep things fresh for your consumers. This article is a collection of 9 content marketing ideas that our team agrees are quite cleverly executed and effective. I hope they will be helpful for your next marketing campaign.
9 Content Marketing Examples to Inspire your Next Campaign
1. HubSpot
Hubspot always seem to set the tone for online content marketing. Hubspot offers a collection of free tools for growth hacking and a content marketing plan that includes:
- Long-form blogs that are informative and address issues relevant to their audience
- Lead magnets such as eBooks, templates, case studies, research papers.
- org, a hub that serves as an information resource for professionals to share and find content on topics that interest them, including growth hacking
- They use LinkedIn to attract traffic for their Facebook videos
2. ASOS
When a lead has made it as far as the checkout stage, there is a high likelihood that their intention is to buy. Several reasons, including distractions, technical difficulties and last-minute jitters may however contribute to that visitor’s abandonment. As such, it’s always worthwhile to try and get such a lead back to your website.
ASOS does this rather well with their cart-abandonment emails.
Figure 1: cart abandonment email example
The example above for instance:
- Looks like the ASOS landing page, making it easier to recognize the brand
- Incorporates humor and has a playful quality that appeals to their demographic
- Has a visual of the product that was in the cart. This generates emotion in the buyer
- Outlines benefits such as free delivery and returns
ASOS also make use of user-generated content, whereby they ask their customers to show off their latest outfits using the hashtag #asseenonme. Customers who share are featured on the ASOS Facebook and Instagram.
These strategies must be working for ASOS, based on the data below from their website:
Figure 2: Latest website data from Asos
3. Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel is a brand that appeals to people who are curious about the world, love big adventures, want to experience new cultures and are not scared of exploring. A key selling point for Intrepid travel is that they enable travel in small groups, allowing you to solve logistical problems that come with exploring new lands.
Intrepid’s content marketing stands out for the following reasons:
- User-generated content. Travelers share their adventures in “The Journal”, Intrepid’s content hub. The blogs feature photos of real places and real people, which gives the company credibility and helps them connect with their audience.
- They have a section called “responsible travel”, that allows their audience to engage in social initiatives that matter to them as they visit new communities.
- They offer tour themes, which they promote with videos, destination images and thoroughly descriptive content
Intrepid travelers have close to 600,000 followers on Facebook, and a constant stream of posts from their customers, a clear indication that their strategy works for them.
4. Superdrug
Superdrug, a retail giant dealing in health and beauty products, conducted a study called “perceptions of perfection”, which centered on beauty standards across the world and sought to call attention to body image issues. They sent the image below to 18 female designers and asked them to photoshop the image to fit the standards of beauty in their country.
Figure 3: perceptions of perfection. original image
The results from the 18 countries were so wildly different, drawing attention to the unrealistic expectations set by body “templates” that are usually touted as ideal. Below are examples from 3 of the participating countries:
Figure 4: perceptions of perfection. sample results
The published results which appeared on Huffington post and Buzzfeed, resulted in:
- Coverage and placements from media giants such as The Telegraph and the New York Times
- Over 700,000 page-views in a 5-day period and 1 million shares. The original study also received 3 million views.
- Endorsements from celebrities like Sofia Vergara
This study proves that talking about something that people care about is an effective strategy for getting more engagement with your content.
5. Zomato
Research shows that social content containing images performs better than content without images, and has a 65% higher chance of being retweeted. According to Jeff Bullas, blog posts containing images receive 94% more views than those without.
A lot of companies are now using visual content to increase brand visibility, but few have the knack for pairing visual content with quirky, catchy, humorous copy, the way Zomato, a restaurant-finding app, does it. Zomato image ads are quite minimalist and always stay true to brand with their striking red background. You can never fail to notice that red background, be it on social media, email or outdoor media.
Look at the example below. Its clever use of popular culture (the ad references a film) generates curiosity and captures attention and makes you want to click on the ad.
The results speak for themselves; Zomato has 1.44 million followers on its Twitter account.
It’s these types of ads and Zomato’s entire approach to the food delivery service that makes their customers trust and view them as a relevant company. Zomato also offers a lot of perks such as gold membership to their customers (a fact they publicize widely on their social media accounts), so it’s no wonder the app gets lots of views and downloads.
6. Hootsuite
Content doesn’t always have to be serious, as shown by Hootsuite’s “A Game of Social Thrones”. The video tells a story of how hectic it can be to manage multiple social media accounts. Just as the kingdoms in game of thrones are divided but must pay homage to one king (or queen), the video tells you to rein in and “unite your social Kingdoms” under the Hootsuite umbrella.
This video is quite clever not just because of its theme, but because:
- It reaches a wide audience. Since its first season premiered on HBO, Game of Thrones’ viewership has been wide and has increased with every season.
- It’s evergreen. Even though Hootsuite created this video 5 years ago, it is still relevant today due to the show’s popularity. Not to mention, the storyline that social media accounts are warring kingdoms that need to be united will always be relevant.
- The story format entertains and effectively conveys the message in under 2 minutes.
7. Zendesk
Your “About us” page or video should make you likeable. But a lot of “About us” videos leave a lot to be desired; they are usually salesy, self-praising and boring and it takes a lot of effort to sit through them.
Zendesk brings a whole new definition to “about us” videos with their gripping, entertaining and personable “this is Zendesk” video that makes you like them. The video doesn’t even talk about the Zendesk App, until about 3 minutes 27 seconds in. For the first 3 minutes, the narrator grips you with a humorous story (in his dry, Zen voice) that captures the personality of the company and makes you want to be part of them.
Figure 5: Screenshots from This is Zendesk YouTube video
This video is quite clever because it uses the power of storytelling to first reel you in. By the time they introduce the app at 3mins 27secs, you are well entertained, have a smile on your face and are completely open to hearing more about the company. Talk about the psychological power of story-telling!
8. Old Spice
Old Spice is older than most people alive today. It was created in 1937, so your granddad, his dad and your dad most likely used it. Yet Old spice remains relevant to date, so much so that they want to market to teenagers and their moms!
Old Spice achieved this through a rebranding campaign they ran about 10 years ago. They featured former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa in a series of ads that attracted millions of young viewers and resulted in an 11% sales increase in the first 12 months after the campaign.
The ads were aspirational, filled with humor and not salesy at all. Since their successful rebranding, Old Spice have barely adjusted their video ad approach and are still using quirky video content to target a whole new demographic: teenage boys and their moms. This just goes to show that if something works, don’t change it.
9. John Deere
John Deere started has used content from as far back as 1897, to educate, inform and engage its audience. John Deere’s publication, The Furrow, is considered one of the earliest examples of brand content marketing and has remained relevant to date due to its knack for addressing issues that matter to the company’s customers.
Figure 6: image via contently
John Deere has taken the publication online enabling them to reach even more consumers. Even in an age where most print publications are dying, demand for The Furrow has not waned. According to Tom Sizemore art director for the Furrow, 80% of their customers still prefer print to electronic.
John Deere’s content marketing is successful because:
- The magazine focusses on farmers and their stories, as opposed to the company’s products. Sizemore believes that each person has a story and that should be the focus.
- Each edition of the magazine features large images that are unique and of high quality
- They understand their persona. Their demographic is rural and as the magazine is focused on the rural lifestyle, it resonates with that demographic.
Conclusion
If you are struggling to come up with new content marketing ideas, borrow a leaf from the 9 examples discussed above. And don’t stop there; there are many other examples of clever and well executed content marketing campaigns and you could learn a lot from them. But, as mentioned above, building content is not a simple job. It requires expertise. Most of the videos discussed above were created years ago but since they were done right, they are still converting leads today and that is a good ROI. More so, creating content is just one part of the equation. You must get the content to convert to get your ROI and again, this is no easy feat. So, reach out to us and we will help you execute your next content marketing campaign.