Content is king. You’ve likely heard that expression sometime in the last few years as endless streams of content flood your social media pages, email inboxes, and television airwaves. Content marketing is your chance to get your brand in the spotlight and in front of a target audience in a way that’s valuable to both parties. But what does that look like, and how can you do it effectively? In this blog post, we’ll discuss: 

1. Content Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

2. Examples of Content Marketing Campaigns

3. Creating Content that Adds Value

Content Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing 

How does content marketing differ from more traditional marketing strategies? The New York Times describes it in these contrasting terms: branded versus educational content, reaching the masses versus personal connections, interruption versus value, and monologue versus dialogue.

Traditional marketing generally focuses on the brand as a whole. It focuses mostly on amplifying brand awareness in a more general sense and increasing conversions on a larger scale. Traditional marketing interrupts users when they are going about their daily lives and tends to be more one-sided as businesses send out information to consumers with the hope they will continue the conversation. 

Content marketing’s goal is to add value to the reader and act as an example of thought leadership. It’s more personal and authentic and presents information often sought out by users to help them with a challenge they are facing. Content marketing gives consumers a platform on which to speak directly with business owners in a more personalized interaction. 

Examples of Content Marketing Campaigns 

Now that we know the difference, let’s look at some examples of successful content marketing campaigns.  

At the end of each year, the music streaming service Spotify provides its users with Spotify Wrapped — a recap of their most played songs, albums, and artists. It then creates a personalized playlist using that information, which users frequently share on social media, causing the brand to trend and generating interest even among non-users. 

Another fun example is Wordle, the New York Times word game that challenges players to guess a five-letter word in six attempts each day. The Wordle page received over 51 million organic views in the U.S. and attracted over 1.9 million backlinks as of February 2023.  It had the newspaper trending daily and created a way for people to discuss the brand regularly. 

Apple’s “Dear Apple” campaign is another effective example. This one used video as the primary form of content, as a series of videos showed how the Apple Watch can save lives. It created a personal experience among viewers, calming fears, and invoking human emotion through the stories being told.  

Content marketing has taken over as the dominant form of marketing and the examples are endless. Some methods include blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts, and podcasts, to name a few.

Creating Content that Adds Value 

According to the Head of Global Innovation for ServiceNow, 4.6 billion pieces of content are produced daily, and in the last 30 years, we as humans have produced more information than in the previous 5,000.  Oh yeah, and that number is from 2015. Can you imagine what that number is up to in 2023? We are talking about immeasurable amounts of content being created every day. 

Anything you create is just a drop in the bucket of the massive marketing universe, so the key is making something that adds value for your end user. Try to find a unique spin, something that makes your content different from what everyone else is doing. Another important tip is making your content actionable. Make it clear that there is a next step to whatever the viewer has just seen. 

It’s also a good idea to focus on quality over quantity. Sometimes an image or three effective words can say more than a 5,000-word blog post. Consider the fact that your target audience is already being bombarded with thousands of ads a day and keep it short and to the point. 

Finally, video content is one of the best ways you can add value for a consumer. Why? Users will retain 95% of a message watched on video as opposed to only 10% read in text.  Half of social media users prefer video over other types of content and the algorithms support that, with every major social media platform now pushing some type of “reels” or “stories” function. Video is an essential way to get your content pushed out to the masses, and personalizing it and targeting it to user needs is your key to effectiveness. 

The Takeaway 

Have you noticed that when you’re on a social media site, it’s no longer possible to reach the bottom or the end of the feed? Content is indeed king and content marketing is the most prominent means of marketing in today’s day and age. It’s necessary in every marketing plan, but it’s important to remember that it should add value and stand out in some way among the sea of collateral that exists in the social media and content marketing landscape. Master the art of content marketing and promising leads, a loyal customer base, and profits will follow. 

Contact us to set up a call with a dedicated member of our team who will assist you in discovering the ideal products to enhance your content marketing strategy!