Not a day goes by when content marketers are not in competition for social engagement, digital space and that precious landing page traffic. Hungry for return from the blood, sweat and tears invested in beautiful infographics, hilarious videos and expertise blogs, the content gloves are off.
This month, we’ve covered two of the three B2B Content Marketers
top challenges
,
producing content consistently
and
measuring content effectiveness
. But it’s time to address challenge number 1: creating engaging content.
Getting in the mind of your content consumer is the first critical step to understanding your audience and producing content that really makes them tick. No matter whether your campaign goals are lead gen or brand awareness, if your content isn’t engaging, it’s already failed.
So how can you create must-share content that owns your social space and doesn’t let your competition come close? We’re about to set the bar pretty high with these top B2B content marketing leaders…
SunGard
Taking advantage of a pop-culture phenomenon, SunGard brought their disaster recover services to life (or death) in 2013 with their Zombie Apocalypse campaign. They didn’t stop with their zombie themed
Disaster Recovery Survival Guide
, these content gurus went multi-media with an infographic, zombie survival kit giveaway and email campaign. The results? Over
2,000 content shares
across social media.
The Learning:
Don’t be afraid to link B2B offerings with current happenings and pop-culture. After all you are marketing to humans – not zombies.
Wistia
You’ll see these video hosting experts feature often in our blogs – why? Because they’re leading the way in content marketing with their audience-centric approach. We think they are enjoying a nice slice of #HumanToHuman marketing pie that their dominating competition, YouTube, just can’t reach. Dedicating a chunk of their website to educating their fans on video production and marketing, the Wistia Learning Center is a perfect example of content that adds value to the audience, with practical tips you can’t help but share.
The Learning:
Solving challenges for your readers is the key to content engagement. By focusing on your prospects business goals, you’re far more likely to achieve your business goals too.
Dollar Shave Club
If you haven’t seen this example of engaging content marketing before, you a) have been disconnected from your Wifi and b) are about to buy a razor. Their offering is simple…and we will let the video speak for itself. But with the likes of Gillette and Wilkinson Sword to compete with, the Dollar Shave Clubs 2012 viral success wasn’t down to luck. Their founder connected with experts in the video marketing field, had experience in content marketing for Nike and Nintendo, and waited for the
perfect time to launch.
The results? Over 10million YouTube views (and a crashed server in the first hour).
The Learning:
Your content marketing success won’t happen by chance – careful planning combined with a pinch of humour and plenty of authenticity will place you way ahead of your competitors., But – you’ll need to be bold.
Before you take these awesome examples away and flex your creative minds, stop. The success of these content marketing campaigns comes down to serious strategic thinking, with a persona driven approach. Once you have defined exactly who your audience is, their challenges, and where they hang out, build out your next content campaign and your competitors wont event come close.
Get started with your first persona–driven content campaign –
Download The Ultimate Content Planner 2.0.
