7 Creative Content Marketing Examples to Inspire Excellence

BusinessMarketing & Advertising

  • Author Will Blesch
  • Published May 15, 2022
  • Word count 2,743

To stay ahead of the curve in creative content marketing, you need to be aware of the latest trends and strategies. 2022 has already seen some incredible examples of creative content campaigns, and 2023 is sure to bring some new and exciting changes to the field.

If you’re a publisher, brand, or marketer it’s crucial to stay well-informed and at the top of your game. You can rest assured that your competition most assuredly will be.

Listen, we know that developing new and exciting content ideas can be tough day after day, but luckily, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are plenty of creative content marketing examples out there to help get your juices flowing.

And, if you need just a little more inspiration, take a look at some of the best brands across a broad range of industries – but we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, we want to discuss some of the best strategies, tactics, and trends that are likely to impact the coming year. Then we’ll get to some rocking examples.

Why is Creative Content Marketing Important?

If you’re reading this, you likely recognize that creative content is a powerful way to connect with your audience and should be an essential part of your marketing strategy.

But, here’s the thing: The content you produce and the overall tone of your messaging are vital in establishing trust with readers, viewers, and potential customers. They want to feel like they’re in good hands, and that starts with the content you create.

With that said, there’s a motive that goes beyond connecting with your audience. Right? After all, why do you want to connect with them in the first place?

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; isn’t at least one of the primary goals to make a profit? (It’s pretty challenging to stay in business if you don’t.)

And, the right content can advance that bottom line goal. For instance, it can:

  • Bring people to your website

  • Engage customers by offering value

  • Generate leads

  • Move people through the customer journey

  • Drive sales

  • Provide post-sale care

So, the right content published at the right time provides heaps of benefits directly related to making money. Many executives look at their marketing people and demand to know the ROI for a content marketing campaign.

It makes you wonder how they got a job as an executive in the first place. Seriously. Because the answer is so glaringly obvious.

As Robert Rose over at the Content Marketing Institute has said, “ROI is the wrong metric for campaign-oriented marketing and advertising,” and, “You should measure content marketing as an asset to the business.”

You can create a piece of content, and depending on its purpose in the stages of the buyer’s journey, it can inform and persuade for as long as the content is publicly available. You could have leads being funneled to your sales department in perpetuity.

That’s a pretty high ROI over time wouldn’t you agree?

Bottom line: creative content production is a strategic approach that focuses on creating and distributing consistent, relevant, and valuable content to draw in and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Evergreen Content Marketing Strategies

Standing out in a competitive content market is tough, but it’s not impossible. If you can produce genuinely helpful and different content, you’ll be well on your way to success.

Remember, your business is unique, and so is your audience. One of the best things you can do is capitalize on that fact. With that said, the following strategies are basic, but they’re also evergreen.

In other words, they won’t get old with the passing of time.

Focus on Quality over Quantity

Here’s the fact of the matter: The web is already packed with low-quality, fluff content. If you want your target audience to read your materials, your message to be heard, and for your company to succeed, you need to rise above the noise and produce beneficial and interesting content.

Think about it this way: Would you rather have 100,000 pageviews from unengaged readers or 1000 pageviews from engaged readers?

The answer should be obvious. It’s better to have fewer engaged readers than many unengaged ones.

Create Evergreen Content

Evergreen content is a type of content that stays interesting and relevant long after it’s been published. It doesn’t go out of style or become outdated like current events, news, or pop culture.

For example, an article about the top 12 fashion trends for 2020 would not be considered evergreen because those trends will eventually go out of style.

However, an article about How to Clean, Care For, and Maintain a Black Velvet Dress would be considered evergreen because the advice in the article will remain relevant even as fashion trends come and go.

Other reasons creating evergreen content is essential:

  • It can help you attract new readers long after you publish it. For example, someone might stumble across your article about black velvet dresses while searching for information on Google months or even years after you originally posted it online

  • If your article is well-written and provides helpful information, that reader may become a loyal follower of your blog

Evergreen content can also help you build credibility and establish yourself as an expert in your industry

Repurpose and Republish Your Content

Repurposing and republishing your content help improve your organic reach and lead to more traffic and engagement from your target audience.

Plus, by repurposing and republishing your content, you’re effectively giving yourself a second chance to make a first impression with potential customers or clients.

Who doesn’t want that?

Here are some creative ways you can repurpose and republish your content:

  • Create an infographic from a blog post

  • Convert a blog post into a video or podcast episode

  • Turn a series of blog posts into an eBook or

  • Share your content on other content creator’s platforms and allow them to share on yours (provided the themes, values, and voice are similar)

Creative Content Marketing Tactics

Part of attracting your audience is keeping them interested in what you have to say long enough to arrive at the points you want them to think about and remember. There are a few tactics you can use to ensure they do.

One way to do this is to use cliffhangers. You can end a blog post, video, or podcast episode on a suspenseful note that will make your target audience want to come back for more.

You can also use stories and personal anecdotes to connect with your audience on a deeper level and make them more likely to remember what you have to say. And using visuals such as images, infographics, and videos can help break up the text and add another layer of interest for your audience.

But, here are a few more tactics to keep in mind.

Use Humor to Your Advantage

It’s not all about providing valuable and informative content to your customers – it’s also about keeping them happy. When they enjoy their experience on your website or reading your blog posts, they are more likely to react positively.

Of course, there are moments when you may want to create some discomfort on the part of whoever is consuming your content. That’s particularly true when you’re trying to drive home pain points before you start future pacing them. (Future pacing shows the reader what life is like after they’ve purchased your fantastic thing, which eliminates their pain point.)

In any case, you can use humor and fun to great effect. Think about the fact that some of the most memorable Superbowl commercials were also the funniest.

Put Your Copywriting Skills to Work

As much as possible, put skills typically used in direct response copywriting to use. You can do this even if your audience is another business.

For instance, you can ensure that your headlines are on target, designed solely to get people to open your emails or articles. More importantly, though, writing headlines is a skill that you can use in other areas of marketing too.

For example, let’s say you’re running a Facebook ad campaign. You’ll need to write a headline for your ad that will get people to stop scrolling and pay attention to what you have to say.

There’s an excellent article on writing headlines from esteemed copywriter Dan Kennedy, entitled “Writing Headlines That Close In For The Kill… And Get It.”

Definitely recommended reading. (In fact, any book by Dan Kennedy should be on your content marketer’s bookshelf.)

Let Customers Take Over Your Content

This next tactic isn’t for the faint of heart. However, it can be wildly effective when it comes to driving engagement. In essence, you give your most loyal audience base the chance to use your social media account as if it were their own. The caveat is that they have to talk about your products or services from their point of view.

Neil Patel has talked about this tactic in a great article over on Forbes.

Create Interactive Content

Interactive content is any content that compels the reader to do something other than reading. That could be anything from taking a quiz to playing a game to watching a video. And, people love it.

For example, 43% of consumers prefer interactive video to standard video. Moreover, 88% of marketers say interactive content helps brands differentiate themselves.

So, if you’re not already using some form of interactive content in your content marketing strategy, now is the time to start.

Take Advantage of Data-Driven Storytelling

Data-driven storytelling uses data to back up specific points in an emotionally compelling story that resonates with your audience.

People make decisions based on emotion and fact. It’s rare that someone makes a choice based on either alone. Stories backed by data can provide a lot of direction to your content in the customer’s mind. In fact, when you create a case study for your website, you can present it in the form of a story.

When you can tell a story supported by quantifiable evidence, you are more likely to close a sale or convince someone to try out your product or service.

Creative Content Marketing Trends

Competition is challenging regardless of the industry. There are many companies out there vying for attention, and if you’re not keeping up with the latest trends, you’re going to fall behind.

But more importantly, understanding the latest content marketing trends can help you better understand your audience and what they respond to. By staying on top of what’s resonating today, right now, this very moment, you can make sure that your content is always relevant.

So what are major brands doing? What kind of lessons can you learn from their examples? We got in touch with three content and digital marketing influencers and professionals to get their take.

The question posed was what the greatest examples of creative content marketing they’ve recently seen happen to be? Here’s what they said.

Successful Brands Go The Extra Mile

When it comes to outstanding examples of creative content marketing, Marcus Miller from BowlerHat said:

“There are just so many, even very recently, but it depends to some extent what you class as content.

This year already the teaser website for the Matrix Resurrections where you could take the red pill or the blue pill and got a unique teaser trailer each time was super cool.

Last night, I went to see The Batman with my kids and at the very end, in place of a more traditional post-credit scene you get a question mark and then a URL flashes up briefly.

The site then relays some more information, in the style of the Riddler from the movie and has a download with some film-related goodies in as a teaser for the inevitable sequel. Link: www.rataalada.com

Obviously, for these big event movies, the teams have so much budget and can do some great stuff but even smaller businesses, if they are creative, can come up with world-class campaigns.

I know GymShark asked for agency recommendations on LinkedIn last year. Obviously, that opened the doorway to hell and they got bombarded.

One savvy agency called ORB did something a little better, they rolled up outside the GymShark offices with several digital advertising vans to get the attention of the GymShark marketing team.

They then spun that into a content marketing campaign about their brand values which are built on the premise of Better. That was very cool to watch that play out.

I work in the SEO and PPC industry and we are awash with (mostly dull) content marketing. However, I stumbled across this piece site that aggregates all the great learning resources out there into a learning SEO roadmap – very cool. https://learningseo.io/

For the average small business, where we mostly do our work, being creative with your content often just means going that extra step. Write an article, but have a downloadable checklist as well. Just go the extra mile. That tends to be what we see working.”

Super Examples of Creative Content Marketing

Mark Schaefer, one of the world’s leading marketing futurists, keynote speakers, and the author of “Cumulative Advantage,” said, “There are so many amazing content concepts that it is hard to choose, but here are three favorites:

  1. The North Face “Question Madness” campaign takes UGC to meteoric heights.

  2. “Worlds Apart” by Heinekin shows you don’t have to be polarizing to take a stand.

  3. Everything being created by Glossier. Every skincare product they ship is content marketing because of how people interact and share their purchases.”

Mark W. Schaefer, Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

(Remember how we talked about letting your audience “take over” your content marketing for a day? Glossier used “user generated content” to turn fans into micro-influencers who then spread the word about Glossier products online.)

The Metaverse is Content Marketing’s Next Big Thing

Metaverse marketing may be the future of most marketing efforts, and it’s essential to start preparing for it now. If you’re not acquainted with what the Metaverse is, consider what Wired had to say about it:

“Mentally replace the phrase ‘the metaverse’ in a sentence with ‘cyberspace.’ Ninety percent of the time, the meaning won’t substantially change. That’s because the term doesn’t really refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with technology.”

That could be the future of the internet, a video game, or some other virtual world created entirely in a futuristic neural net (Matrix-style).

International speaker, author, and Time’s “man of action,” Glen Gilmore stated that:

“The ‘Metaverse’ is a shift to a place that merges physical and digital. It is the next great challenge for content marketing.

To succeed in the Metaverse, brands must literally join digital worlds or create such worlds where consumers can immerse themselves, ala avatars, in lifestyle, products, and services.

Luxury brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Balenciaga are succeeding by partnering with platforms like Fortnight and Roblox to create experiences that celebrate community and brand awareness with the newest generation of consumers through virtual offerings."

Summary

Content marketing as a whole is going to be an effective marketing method for the foreseeable future. Businesses that invest heavily in it will be building a firm foundation that they can use to scale for years to come.

While striving for innovation, brands shouldn’t ignore the fundamentals. Evergreen strategies and tactics will continue to be effective. That’s even more true if companies are able to take inspiration from brands that are clearly crushing it in terms of their content marketing campaigns.

At the same time, publishers, brands, and marketers need to be looking to the future and paying attention to clear trends such as a move toward making content interactive and gaining visibility within the developing Metaverse.

Remember that the Metaverse is likely to offer a wealth of opportunities for marketers and advertisers to be experimental and disruptive in their approach. While there undoubtedly will be challenges to overcome (the very definition of the Metaverse remains in flux), the potential benefits make the concept and the technologies surrounding it well worth exploring.

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