Rashida
Creating valuable content on a consistent basis is the jist of content marketing, and it has many key benefits. With a strong creative content marketing strategy, brands can gain exposure, build relationships with customers, and ultimately increase conversions.
However, content marketing is about much more than your website blog. While a blog is likely going to be a central part of your content strategy, there are many more components that the most successful brands use.
The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to find creative content marketing strategies to use.
Today, we’ll take a look at some innovative content strategies successfully used by companies in different industries.
Extras
Extras or “bonus items” are things companies include as an extra touch. Extras may be related to the product or brand in some way, but they ultimately show a brand’s ability to go above and beyond. The bonus items should offer value to the customer, as that’s what makes them useful.
Dollar Shave Club
For example, the Dollar Shave Club sends “Bathroom Minutes” in all of their boxes. Not only has the brand capitalized on a viral video ad and created their “club” for customers, but they’ve also implemented Bathroom Minutes as an extra. The Bathroom Minutes are entertaining, useful articles that relate to the bathroom. They’re meant to encourage reading and keep people entertained in the bathroom, which is the primary place Dollar Shave Club customers would use their products.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful weapon for content marketing. When a customer posts an unboxing video, photo using your product, or other content about your brand, they’re sharing UGC. Social media is one of the most common vessels for UGC, with many people sharing images and videos about brands on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and more. For every “internet minute”, users post 347,222 stories of UGC on Instagram!
UGC has many of the same benefits as reviews. 85% of consumers find UGC more influential than brand-created content. Consumers find UGC to be more trustworthy and credible than branded content because it was created by their peers. Leveraging UGC is an excellent way to bolster your social media marketing and authenticity.
Target
Target shares a wealth of UGC on their primary profile, but they also have a full Instagram dedicated to sharing UGC. This strategy allows them to be more relatable to their shoppers. By sharing the UGC, Target is engaging with its shoppers and encouraging them to post more. Imagine that your photo gets shared by Target, you’d be more likely to share again in the future.
SKIMS/Kylie Cosmetics
SKIMS and Kylie Cosmetics are two of the most successful Kardashian-Jenner brands created. While other ventures from the sister have not taken off, these two have done impressively well. A lot of different marketing genius went into SKIMS and Kylie Cosmetics, but one has been UGC. Early on, UGC was a huge benefit for both companies. Customers in a mad frenzy to buy the products eagerly posted reviews, swatches, photos, and videos about their experience and thoughts, which only amplified the thirst for the products. Learn more about how UGC helped these two brands and the other powerful marketing strategies they learned in this case study.
Drunk Elephant
Drunk Elephant is an indie skincare brand that was launched as a DTC company in 2013. Since then, it’s exploded, becoming one of the “it” skincare brands. They seamlessly integrate UGC into their Instagram and social media marketing strategy. While they showcase many stunning branded images, they feature customers via the #barewithus campaign, and via product/lifestyle photos as well. Drunk Elephant shows an excellent example of how to best incorporate UGC into your overall content strategy.
Resource Page
Helpful content can undoubtedly take place as a blog, social media post, or video, but another way to offer immense value to your customers is with a resource page. On the resource page, you can share helpful links and content. This may be especially useful for companies in healthcare, technology, etc, but it can also be used within many different industries. A well-done resource page will help the right audience find the content they need, ultimately improving the efficiency of your blog posts and other content.
Colgate
Colgate has an excellent resource page. They produce A LOT of content (over 2,400 pieces related just to gum disease), and without the resource page, it would be difficult for their customers to find the resource they are looking for. On their resource page, they lay out the different sections for main topics. For example, under “gum disease” they split it into gum disease diagnosis, gum disease cause, etc. In each section, Colgate briefly explains the topic, bullets out details, and provides links to the most relevant content on their site.
Influencer Marketing
With social media playing such a huge role in the average consumer’s life, influencer marketing has become a key strategy for many brands. In many ways, influencer marketing is the new version of “celebrity endorsements”, but on a sliding scale that makes it suitable for many different companies. Young shoppers especially turn to social media influencers for product recommendations and advice, with over 70% of teens trusting influencers more than traditional celebrities.
Influencer marketing is an effective way to increase brand awareness and authority but to be effective it must be intentional. The best influencer marketing strategies align with the brand and audience. It’s more important that a brand works with influencers that represent its values and can form a genuine connection with its audience than it is to work with one with tons of followers.
Hello Fresh
Hello Fresh is a meal delivery company focused on making healthy meals fast and convenient. They’ve focused heavily on social media marketing and influencer marketing. Social media influencers provide them with visibility and draw in potential customers. The company focuses on influencers who can use their service authentically, and many of the creators will tie in life stories for a personal touch. They offer their influencers a promo code, which incentivizes their audience to sign up for the service. The promo code also helps Hello Fresh track the efficacy of their collaborations, which makes it easier to decide who to work with again in the future.
Adidas
Adidas is a very well-known brand that heavily uses influencer marketing to promote itself. Their primary objective with influencers is to increase their social media presence to appeal to a younger audience. Adidas collaborates with professional athletes as well as other influencers to increase their exposure and sales.
Interactive Marketing
Consumers see thousands of ads and branded content each day. Stagnant content is easy to overlook, but interactive content can help you grab the attention of your target audience. Interactive marketing can include events/experiences, polls, surveys, quizzes, contests, and more, but it should include a unique exchange with a brand.
Heineken
In 2016, Heineken launched their “Go Places” campaign, which was meant to showcase their unique personality and culture to potential employees. The campaign included a “choose your own adventure” interactive survey. Based on the interactive questionnaire, participants were encouraged to apply for certain positions via LinkedIn. With this interactive campaign, Heineken reminds us that content marketing is not just about selling to consumers, it’s also a way to attract the best talent.
Marriott
Marriott Hotels also had a successful interactive marketing campaign. They used an interactive infographic to simplify vacation planning. For their Scottsdale location, Marriott allowed vacationers to create a personalized path for destination advice. It had a nice bit of personalization and put an engaging spin on the everyday infographic.
Barkbox
Barkbox is a dog toy, treat, and chews subscription box. In addition to stellar social media marketing, UGC, and influencer marketing, Barkbox also uses excellent interactive marketing. In 2016, they implemented the hashtag #BarkBoxDay on social media. Rather than use normal contests or giveaways, they collaborate with dog-themed brands to host the contests. This strategy helps them cross-promote to another brand’s followers while still engaging the audience with a contest.
Video Marketing
If you want to stand out on social media or boost your website content marketing, including video marketing. According to research by Wyzowl, people watch an average of 16 hours of online video per week! Furthermore, 84% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service from watching the brand’s video. Videos area powerful way to reach consumers and boost conversions.
NFL
The NFL created the “Ultimate Tailgate”. This video series showcases the most interesting, eclectic tailgaters at NFL games (pre-COVID). The series is a form of entertainment for fans and offers a unique way to engage with the NFL. The NFL has also begun using TikTok for behind the scenes and “mic’d up” series with pro athletes. Giving their audience a way to learn more about players and other fans is a great way to increase brand loyalty and drive UGC.
Benefit Cosmetics
Benefit is doing live video right. They’ve created a video series on social media all about the latest in cosmetics. The series airs every Thursday at 4 PM, and consistency is a crucial factor of their success. People can tune in as part of their Thursday afternoon routine to get their questions answered live. Benefit monitors the questions being asked and will create new segments based on audience interest. With this video series, Benefit is able to boost loyalty and industry authority.
Tips for Creative Content Marketing
- Recycle content. Rather than creating one-off pieces of content, find ways to reuse one piece in multiple ways. For example, one blog post could turn into several social media posts, a quick video, and an email newsletter. A social media contest can generate UGC that you can later feature on your social media or website.
- Plan ahead. Planning is the key to content marketing. Create a content calendar for your blogs, social media content, and more. Account for company news, holidays, and current events as well as evergreen content.
- Think of your customer. The point of content marketing is to provide value. Think about your ideal customer’s lifestyle, habits, challenges, and goals when crafting your content.
- Mix it up. While you want to be consistent with your content, you also want to keep it fresh. Try out new strategies including videos, interactive content, giveaways, etc to keep things interesting.
- Listen to your audience. The more content you create, the more information you can learn about your audience. You may think a certain piece of content will resonate really well, and then it ends up not gaining traction. Pay attention to the content that works best for your audience and incorporate that into your future strategies.
- Get some help. Let’s face it, content marketing involves a ton of writing. Leave the writing to the experts so you have time for your core competencies.
The brands above have used content marketing strategies to increase their awareness, authority, loyalty, and revenue. Learn from their successes to improve your own content strategy. Always remember that content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires consistency and quality to thrive.
If you’re ready to streamline your content marketing strategy and produce more quality content than ever, it may be time to partner with a Content Cucumber pro writer. Get the blogs, emails, newsletters, social media copy, and more that you need to create a winning content strategy. Learn more about how one of our pro writers can help and request your free sample blog today!
