There’s no end-all-be-all formula for content marketing, but here are some examples that impressed us and can inspire your next campaign.

SEO strategy, keyword research, and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to content marketing.

Not only do companies need to make themselves visible — they need to make an impact. You can boast about being the number one ranking spot on a SERP, but if your content doesn’t move the reader to take action, what’s the point?

With 57% of content marketers reporting their respective industries as very to hyper competitive, impactful content marketing becomes an absolute must.

Whether you’re reaching a new audience with written content, viral video content, or user-generated content, ensuring that it creates brand awareness will benefit you in the long run by ultimately leading to sales interest and reducing churn.

But that’s not all: Effective types of content marketing can give you authority in your field through link building, quality content, and off-page SEO.

Take a look at content marketing 20 years ago. What comes to mind beyond the birth of social media trends and Super Bowl commercials that stuck around throughout the year?

Content marketing has evolved, and here are some great examples of companies using their platform to push the limits of content marketing into the future.

Table of contents:

Content Marketing Blog Examples

To create content marketing through a blog on your website, your first step is to make your creative content scannable and unique.

Whether you’re focusing on building your authority or looking to implement SEO writing best practices to optimize your content for SERPs, these marketing blog examples will inspire you to create reliable written content that ranks.

Siege Media Blog

First, let’s toot our own horn for a second.

Here at Siege, we just updated our blog to stay in line with current best practices and provide our users with a seamless experience of finding what they’re looking for without the hassle of a clunky UX.

In these screenshots, you can see a world of difference between our blog from how it looked in May 2022 to today, just three months later.

These changes enhance content marketing by making the user’s experience easy.

By making our content searchable and easily scannable, we allow our users to find exactly what they need when they need it.

Before we move on, check out our list of blog design best practices for SEO to see how you can level up your own blog and create dynamic content that will engage your audience.

HubSpot

You can’t create a list of the best content marketing examples without including HubSpot’s various blogs on the list.

HubSpot is the gold standard for how to market your brand through sales, marketing, tech news, newsletters, and podcasts — all while promoting customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Their blog covers everything from the history of marketing to guides on how small businesses can manage going viral.

This variety ensures that their content is highly shareable for professionals across all industries.

Throughout their blog, there are clever calls to action for a number of products.

Whether you’re new to content marketing and want to become “HubSpot Certified” or have a desire to download marketing trend reports or their CRM software, HubSpot has set the benchmark for marketing blogs of all shapes and sizes.

They are so reliable, in fact, that we consistently use them as a source on the Siege Media blog.

Personalized Content Marketing Examples

Let’s face it — we all enjoy feeling like the main character and feeling important when it comes to ad campaigns. That’s why targeted marketing is so successful.

But how can this marketing extend beyond ads on apps and social media platforms?

Check out this list to learn how personalized content marketing can spark a sharable movement.

Share a Coke Campaign

The Share a Coke campaign made massive waves and took the world by storm.

By personalizing bottles of Coca-Cola with various names and spellings from all kinds of nationalities, Coca-Cola increased its U.S. sales by 3% during the initial Australian launch in 2011.

The company also reached a brand-new audience of young adults — a demographic whose Coca-Cola consumption increased by 7% that same summer.

In 2014, after it launched globally, the Share a Coke campaign gave Coca-Cola the largest growth in sales — reaching 19%.

By putting consumers at the forefront of their branding, Coca-Cola made its product actionable. Not only could you buy a bottle for yourself — you could buy one for a family member or friend.

Spotify Wrapped

If you were on Instagram at the end 2021, you probably came across screenshots of Spotify Wrapped on somebody’s Instagram Story. If you didn’t, you probably weren’t on Instagram.

Originally released in 2015 and called Spotify’s Year in Music, Spotify curated a year-end playlist for every user’s top 100 songs.

In 2016, it was renamed Spotify Wrapped, and in 2017, the format became more customized to the user and launched sharable, personalized stats into the social media stratosphere.

By making data consumable and fun to share and interact with, Spotify learned the all-important lesson of letting your users do the marketing for you.

In 2020, Spotify saw a 21% increase in app downloads in the first month of December when the company released that year’s Spotify Wrapped.

Below, we’ve included data from Siege Media employees’ 2021 Spotify Wrapped:

Other ways to market personalized content include:

  • Targeted email campaigns
  • Product recommendations
  • Location-based marketing
  • Abandoned cart email marketing

Video Content Marketing Examples

The best video marketing goes beyond the typical commercial advertisements — they need to reach beyond the screen to emotionally connect with the audience.

The examples listed below turn the audience into the storyteller and engage viewers to put themselves in the director’s chair.

Google’s A CODA Story Campaign

Sometimes, all it takes for good content marketing is a story that affects people while building brand awareness by promoting its service and features.

Last year, Google released A CODA Story during the Oscars to tell an emotional story about their accessibility features for users with disabilities. The ad brought the term “CODA” to the viewers’ attention and told the story of a hearing man born to deaf parents.

Google transforms an advertisement into a story by highlighting accessibility features through live captions on its video chat service while simultaneously showing off its search functionality, SERP video integration, and Google Chat.

By showing how technology can improve the lives of people who were forced apart by the COVID-19 pandemic and how video chat features can evolve for people with disabilities, Google tugged at heartstrings and created an ad that was a memorable highlight for viewers.

Shot on iPhone by Apple

What originally started as a simple idea turned into an iconic video marketing campaign by Apple: Shot on iPhone.

From social media posts of user-generated content to more high-profile projects like Lady Gaga’s “Stupid Love” music video, short films, and official YouTube content, the Shot on iPhone campaign shows how versatile and powerful the device inside your pocket can be.

By creating the hashtag #ShotOnIphone, Apple lit a fire in their users, inspiring them to create content, engage with their brand, and hopefully be featured on their official blog or in advertisements on social media, print, and video.

Social Media Content Marketing Examples

Social Media content marketing has the power to influence us on every decision as we scroll through our desired feed.

These ads can make us click them by marketing to a specific demographic, sharing data and interests across apps, and targeted marketing from previous engagements on your search engines.

When was the last time you Googled “affordable flights to [destination]” and then were immediately met with an ad from a travel agency?

Or perhaps you Googled “Things to do in San Diego” and then your YouTube homepage is mysteriously filled with videos about the city.

This is social media marketing at work, and here are a few examples that move beyond targeted ads and into a new realm of social media content marketing.

Taco Bell + Doja Cat TikTok

When Taco Bell removed the Mexican Pizza from their menu in November 2020, there was a small but mighty uproar that only got louder with time.

So, after years of memes and comments on social media, how would Taco Bell reunite fans with the Mexican Pizza in March? Enter: Doja Cat.

By teaming up with an up-and-coming superstar with an unprecedented amount of cultural relevance and social media following, Taco Bell hit the jackpot when advertising specifically to young millennials and Gen Z.

This marketing campaign culminated with a song written by Doja Cat that has amassed 8.7 million likes and 39.1 million views as of this writing.

Just weeks after putting it back on the menu temporarily, Taco Bell sold out of the Mexican Pizza at several of its locations and plans on bringing it back as a permanent menu item in September 2022.

That’s the power of viral marketing.

@dojacat♬ original sound – Doja Cat

Dollar Shave Club’s Instagram Page

But you don’t always need a viral superstar to create influential content marketing on social media. Sometimes all it takes is creativity and brand consistency.

Dollar Shave Club does just that — their marketing department must be working overtime to provide the staggering amount of content that they do for their audience.

When their video ad campaign went viral over a decade ago (and has reached 27 million plus views since), Dollar Shave Club nailed down its branding across all social media markets.

Take a look at their Instagram page and you’ll see a diverse range of content that seamlessly fits together, from Q&As to blog post snippets, skincare tips, memes, and beyond.

By changing the kind of content on a daily basis and keeping consistent with its brand image, Dollar Shave Club maintains an audience by keeping content fresh while providing helpful, funny, and engaging posts.

User-generated Content Marketing Examples

One of the most important aspects of marketing evergreen content is allowing your users to see themselves in your brand through the things they create.

By curating content from your audience, you can increase engagement and center your users by showing off their creativity while you put a spotlight on your product.

Pantone Connect

Pantone is more than just a color of the year. They’re also a company that strives to connect everybody — personally, creatively, and professionally — through color and collaboration.

Pantone’s Instagram account is stuffed to the brim with user-generated content through their Pantone Connect software. Offered as an app on iOS, Android, or as an extension in Adobe Creative Cloud, Pantone Connect urges users to create custom, bold color palettes to share on their social media pages.

Even better, Pantone encourages their audience to create palettes from their own pictures. This creates an emotional tie to the interactive content they create while also flaunting Pantone’s wide selection of colors.

GoPro’s Video Hashtag Campaign

GoPro changed the game with user-generated content by offering up a simple solution: Hashtags for all of their users.

By leveraging a social media strategy that dared their users to create high-octane content with their action cameras, GoPro let the users do the marketing for them.

Creating various hashtag campaigns through the years based on camera type and niche (#GoProAthlete, #GoProTravel, #GoProPets) allows the company to keep its content authentic while also reaching new audiences. For a user to find the hashtag that best represents their own content, they just need to look at the captions on GoPro’s pictures.

Throw in their recent #GoProMillionDollarChallenge campaign that encouraged users to buy their newest product, get the greatest shot, and win a share of a million bucks as a result.

This yearly campaign takes the GoPro community by storm, and submission numbers have reached upward of 42,000.

B2C Content Marketing Examples

Connecting with consumers through marketing campaigns should be at the forefront of your business-to-consumer (B2C) strategy.

How do you connect with potential customers making their way through your sales funnel? By creating high-quality content that makes them convert.

B2C content marketing targets the consumer directly through their brand identity.

Above all else, consumers want to engage with a company that engages with them first — those who take action to draw an audience in will get more actionable engagement as a result.

Businesses can connect to customers through B2C marketing in the following ways:

  • Email campaigns
  • SEO marketing
  • Social media engagement
  • Commercial advertising
  • Targeted ad campaigns
  • Influencer marketing

Procreate’s Beginners Series

At first glance, you’d think that Procreate has a very niche market of artists, graphic designers, and content creators, but a lot of its staying power comes from one-time app purchases from people who just want to get a little creative from time to time.

But if their business model only costs $10 for a lifetime of use, how can they retain their customer base? Well, through clever marketing and outreach campaigns.

Procreate launched its four-part Beginners Series on its YouTube channel in July 2022 to help teach new and experienced artists alike how to navigate the app and unleash their hidden talents.

By showing users the ropes on painting tools, editing tools, and hand actions, it’s everything a new content creator or budding artist needs to get started.

After just two weeks on YouTube (as of this writing), the first lesson in Procreate’s Beginners Series has already amassed over 49,000 views.

The Beginners Series naturally leads consumers to the more in-depth Procreate Courses website that will take any novice to pro by paying for curated classes that match their skill set.

This initiative keeps the one-time app purchasers within the Procreate sales funnel at all stages of their artistic development.

Calm App Ad Breaks

In today’s high-stress landscape, it’s no surprise that we need reminders to loosen our jaws and relax our shoulders. (In fact, just do that real quick before you keep reading — you’ll thank us later.)

In 2020, this was the Calm app’s exact strategy during the height of the election season.

The company targeted CNN’s airwaves during the days-long election results coverage, and it paid off. Not only did Calm shoot up in the app store, hitting the number one position in the Health & Fitness category.

By deploying a tongue-in-cheek ad that emphasized taking a break while playing relaxing rain sounds, audiences were able to find 15 seconds of peace and wanted more.

B2B Content Marketing Examples

Consumers aren’t the only ones who are in the sights of content marketing — obviously, there’s a market for businesses to sell a product to other businesses as well.

From brainstorming content effectively to converting key decision-makers, business-to-business (B2B) content marketing is an essential strategy for businesses of any size.

Check out how the following two companies shifted their content marketing strategy in the face of COVID-19 to become household names.

Slack

At the onset of the pandemic, many companies were left wondering what comes next. Then, Slack’s marketing team changed the face of at-home work forever.

Starting in March 2020, Slack created a strategic rollout of tips, statistics, and case studies dedicated to showcasing the work-from-home lifestyle.

By implementing this data and creating highly sharable content, Slack became a go-to for companies already established as remote workforces, and those just making the change.

Slack’s marketing blitz gave business leaders confidence in communication and the ability to complete work while also giving their employees autonomy. Slack is now used far and wide for all kinds of businesses, from startups to enterprise-level workplaces — so much so that usage rose by 30% and daily messages rose by 80%.

Zoom

If you didn’t download Zoom at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s probably because you already had it. The company was so ingrained in the culture that it became synonymous with video calling in general.

Zoom had already been a household name for video conferencing services, but with the pandemic on the horizon, their content strategy sharply pivoted to work-from-home tips and tutorials on March 11, with a post entitled Sign Up for Free Zoom Training and Start Zooming Today.

By making the wise decision to focus its attention on online learning institutions and tutorials for maintaining company culture and productivity in a remote work environment, Zoom showed its authority in the market and grew by 418% in just two months.

B2B content marketing statistics to consider:

    • 39% of B2B buyers want self-serve options. (HubSpot)
    • Brand building should account for 46% of marketing spending, while lead generation should account for 54%. (LinkedIn)
    • 40% of marketers who use automation leverage chatbots. (Siege Media)
    • 84% of marketers use email marketing as a tactic. (Smart Insights)

Kick Off Your Content Marketing Strategy Today

It’s no question that a good content marketing strategy positively impacts both the business and its client, and varies depending on the size of the company and its needs.

Whether you’re invested in measuring your content marketing ROI or simply want to start ranking organically on SERPs, content marketing is constantly evolving with time and it’s important to stay caught up with the trends.

Not only do you need to see results through SEO strategies, but you also may need to invest in a content marketing agency to help you strategize. If you’re just getting started and feel a bit overwhelmed, it’s natural.

Take a look at some of our content marketing services — we’re here to help.

Fresh out of the oven.

Secret recipes sold here.

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