Traditional advertising techniques, such as mailers, television commercials and phone book ads, have only allowed for a one-sided conversation with consumers. But with the rise of digital media, brands can now leverage creative content ideas to develop a deeper rapport with their targeted audience.
In a busy digital world, traditional forms of advertising do not stay up to date with consumers’ needs and wants — which is content, content and more content. According to Demand Metric, 70% of consumers would rather learn about a brand from content channels like blogs, infographics and social media posts, than through a traditional advertisement.
Content marketing is a pillar of digital marketing that focuses on cultivating and distributing valuable content to promote a business. The goal of content marketing is to establish brand authority and recognition while acquiring new customers.
For many, content marketing is more attainable and actionable compared to creating advertisements. Per dollar spent, content marketing generates three times the amount of leads that advertising does. Plus, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.
Not all content is created equal, and one way for you to see how effective content marketing works is through real-life examples. Below are some of the best uses of content marketing by successful brands that will inspire your strategy and help you meet your business goals.
1. AdvisorStream Leverages Licensed Content
AdvisorStream is an award-winning digital marketing platform that uses licensed content from reputable publications to help financial advisers turn clicks into conversions. The company’s goal is to offer its clients compelling, relevant content to build trust and credibility with consumers.
AdvisorStream was looking to expand its content offerings through editorial content from NYTLicensing. Through one copyright license, AdvisorStream was able to deliver high-quality content and reputable financial news to improve relationships with customers while boosting conversions. Since creating and writing content can be a costly expense, working with NYTLicensing was the best option for AdvisorStream. The platform licensed content from both The New York Times and Harvard Business Review for advisers to use in their communications as needed.
As a result, the use of licensed content helped AdvisorStream’s clients stand out as an authoritative resource among the clutter and noise of other brands. From January to June 2020, AdvisorStream experienced a 200% increase in views from its licensed content and a 260% increase in lead capture from its platform.
2. Orbit Media Highlights Original Research
Orbit Media is a Chicago-based web design and development agency. While it may be one of the many website design firms out there, it is its content production, inspired by its original research methods, that truly sets it apart. It is a great example of how proper B2B content marketing can reap a return that is truly remarkable.
The Orbit Media website brings in nearly 60,000 viewers each month, simply through organic channels such as Google searches and word-of-mouth. The company does not use advertisements of any kind. Instead, it focuses on creating original and authentic content backed by its own research methods.
In the hopes of creating robust and comprehensive marketing guides, Orbit Media sends out surveys to 1,000 of its customers to get feedback. Its team then turns the data it collects into infographics, images and charts that really help enhance its current and future B2B blog content.
Everything Orbit Media does in terms of content strategy ties back to original research, which is a powerful tactic to build brand awareness and recognition. With 94% of all marketers agreeing that original research is important when elevating a brand’s authority, Orbit Media shows how powerful content can be when promoting a brand.
3. TED Provides Thought Leadership for Free
TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading ideas far and wide. Standing for Technology, Entertainment and Design, TED encourages authors, celebrities, leaders and experts of all kinds to present on different topics at global conferences. Accessibility is key with TED; all of the organization’s material is free to watch and read about, in multiple languages. Their multilingual offerings have allowed them to excel in their global content marketing strategy. Additionally, TED proves that success with content doesn’t mean just writing and producing articles and blogs; videos can be a powerful avenue of communication, as well.
Providing free content has been exceptionally beneficial for TED, not only in growing a following but also in establishing a positive reputation all over the world. With its YouTube channel boasting 16 million followers, TED shows that providing engagement with thought-provoking material is crucial to gaining a voice in the world. Additionally, TED proves that success with content doesn’t mean just writing and producing articles and blogs; videos can be a powerful avenue of communication, as well.
4. UPS Highlights Harvard Business Review Content
UPS, a shipping and logistics company, is another example of a company looking to elevate its content strategy with licensed content. UPS’s blog, Longitudes, investigates and analyzes the global forces affecting its services and the economy at large. UPS wanted to draw a larger number of young professionals to its blog, so the company chose to license content from Harvard Business Review through NYTLicensing.
By utilizing this within its blog content strategy, UPS saw a 12.5% rise in click-through rate on Harvard Business Review articles in its portfolio. Additionally, the blogs led to an increase of one to three minutes of engagement on the site, compared to other content.
As UPS’s success shows, customizing content according to your audience’s demographics can have powerful results in boosting your content strategy as a whole.
5. Buffer Uses Guest Blogs to Gain Brand Recognition
Buffer is a tool that automates your social media posts, which in turn makes it easier to promote authentic content to your target audience. As a company that works within a content platform, Buffer has put content marketing at the heart of its growth strategy. The company only came to this conclusion after it tried a few different marketing tactics and noticed that blogging was a gold mine for growth.
Buffer took a unique approach: Instead of creating its own website content, it chose to create 150 guest posts to be posted on other relevant blogs in its industry and niche. As a result, Buffer’s brand recognition and authority soared, and it was able to attract its first 100,000 users in only nine months. This success shows that quality content marketing doesn’t have to be only about bolstering your own website; it can also be about creating connections and finding an audience through brand relationships.
In turn, Buffer used what it learned with its guest posting strategy to develop its own blog on the Buffer.com domain. On its own blog, Buffer publishes high-quality, shareable content about industry trends and news that is promoted to its target audience.
6. Wistia Showcases Its Brand Via a Learning Center
Wistia is a video hosting and marketing software company that uses what it knows about content creation, as well as content creation tools, to its advantage. It chooses to showcase its brand online via a learning center chock-full of up-to-date content that addresses its audience’s pain points. However, the center doesn’t look like a “typical” resource hub with blog posts and white papers. Instead, Wistia uses an approach to content marketing similar to that used by platforms like Netflix and Hulu, showcasing its product using original video content infused with a side dose of humor.
With Wistia, it is all about meeting its targeted audience where people are. Since its audience appreciates videos and is interested in utilizing them for business purposes, Wistia is capitalizing on using a format that users are curious about, while showcasing its unique talents as a brand.
7. Verizon Curates Content From The Learning Network
Verizon, the nationwide mobile carrier, was looking to reinforce its position as a trailblazer in the educational space. To fulfill its mission, the company partnered with The New York Times in 2019 to bring educational material to young students across the country. The partnership is part of Verizon’s Innovative Learning program, which uses curated content from The Learning Network to provide middle schoolers access to academic resources they may need.
In Verizon’s case, curating content wasn’t just about boosting brand authority in an already cluttered space. Instead, it was about providing timely and educational content to those who needed it most.
8. Investopedia Explains Financial Terms With Real-Life Examples
Investopedia is one of the world’s leading financial content sources on the internet. As a brand that works with sometimes confusing and complex themes, Investopedia has capitalized on writing simple content to appeal to its customers. In fact, Investopedia’s content strategy is so incredibly powerful that it is responsible for bringing in a whopping 33 million views per month.
By explaining complicated financial terms with real-life examples, the content team at Investopedia is able to appeal to consumers who are looking for more education surrounding their own finances and the financial world. Their blog posts are written in relatable, plain English, so consumers looking for answers can get the concise answers they are looking for.
In making its content easily accessible and comprehensive, Investopedia drives home the idea that finances aren’t intimidating. As a result, if a reader was to have any questions about anything related to the subject, Investopedia is the resource they would use.
Final Thoughts
Understanding how to use content marketing to grow your business is essential for building a strategy that works. Creating content doesn’t have to be a time-consuming, impossible process. Your content should be informational, timely and relevant to your target audience — and you can easily attain this with a comprehensive content strategy. As the successful brand stories above have shown, it is incredibly important to leverage thought leadership and multiple different content formats to appeal to the largest audience possible.
NYTLicensing can help to drive your content strategy to new heights by curating world-class journalism from The New York Times as well as other publications. Our content marketing solutions will help you connect and engage with your audience through the power of content.
