Originally published March 5, 2021 , updated on September 3, 2024

Content marketing is an effective lead generation tool, but coming up with ideas for content marketing campaigns can sometimes be a pain in the rear. If you’re finding that your idea bucket is running dry, you’re not alone. According to  Zazzle Media, 65% of companies find it challenging to produce engaging content, while 60% struggle to produce content consistently. 

Unfortunately, content marketing is all about consistently producing engaging content to keep your visitors coming back, and hopefully turn them into customers. Producing lacklustre content on an irregular schedule means you’re losing out.

To help you keep your momentum going, we’ve compiled a list of some brilliant content marketing campaigns. We hope they inspire you!

Blogging Examples

When people think of content marketing campaigns, there’s a good chance they’re going to think about blogging first. Understandable, because blogging is a great content marketing tool. It allows you to provide helpful information, grab your visitors attention, it fuels your SEO efforts and it can be used to flesh out your social media presence. 

Here are just a few examples of companies getting blogging right. 

Buffer

Thanks to their three-pronged content marketing strategy, Buffer is definitely a prime example of someone getting content marketing right. A huge proponent of growth hacking, they used guest blogging to fuel their initial growth, publishing content multiple times per day on high-visibility sites. This strategy netted them their first 100,000 users.

On their own blog, they first wrote about people who influenced their customers. This allowed them to create highly shareable, high-quality content.

They now have four blogs, including the Open Blog, and the Transparency blogs. Here they share the ups and downs they’ve faced over the years. They also make use of email marketing with their content marketing campaigns to share their best content. 

A highly trusted and recognised brand, their results speak for themselves. They now have around a million social media followers, and close to 400k users. 

Hubspot

When you think of content marketing campaigns done right, you’re probably thinking about Hubspot. At least, they’re who I think about. In addition to creating free tools, Hubspot also uses content marketing campaigns through:

• Writing in-depth blog posts regarding the problems their users are facing
• Adding content upgrades like ebooks to their posts
• Creating an educational content sharing hub, Inbound.org which receives 321,000 guests every month. This also provides an excellent chance for them to market their certification and partnership programs
• Creating videos for Facebook and exploiting LinkedIn to send traffic to those videos

And their content marketing campaigns are definitely working, because they’re a multi-million dollar company.

Social Media Marketing Examples

While you may not immediately associate social media with content marketing campaigns, social shares are useful. They can indirectly boost search rankings, and this in turn is helpful for lead generation. Thus, it shouldn’t really be a surprise that some many companies use social media as a part of their content marketing strategy. 

GE

GE, or General Electric, is an inspiring source of B2B content marketing campaign examples. While some might consider them a dull business, specialising in wind turbines, jet engines, locomotives and so on, they have really brought it to life. Their Instagram content marketing campaign is a perfect example of this. 

Combining this campaign with influencer marketing, they roped six influencers and a few superfans into doing the #GEInstaWalk. They toured the GE manufacturing facilities, uploading selfies with the aforementioned hashtag. The only way to describe the results is ‘spectacular’. Through this campaign, they achieved:

• 8 million account views for the GE Instagram account
• 3 million reaches per tour
• 3,000 new followers

And all of  it was done without any paid advertising.

Glossier

Glossier has received some attention for their abandoned cart emails, but they’re also a front-runner in content marketing campaigns. For one, they are excellent at making use of user-generated content to boost their own brand on Instagram.

Not only does this cut down on a lot of the content creation work, it also allows their audience to feel good about themselves when they get featured. This also results in even higher reach and engagement. Here’s an example from when they reposted a tweet from a fan on their Instagram account.

They also showcase some of their latest Instagram content on their homepage, which further attracts customers to the page. They must definitely be doing something right, because they currently have over a million followers. 

Tried-and-True Content Marketing Examples

Next, we have a few examples of content marketing campaigns which don’t rely on any social media promotion. 

John Deere

If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t think of John Deere when you think of examples of content marketing campaigns. But, apparently, most people know of The Furrow – purportedly one of the first examples of content marketing.

First published in 1895, the publication was designed to help customers of John Deere with any issues they faced. This served to demonstrate the company’s expertise, and show customers that they cared. 

Doesn’t this sound like exactly the point of modern content marketing? 

Even more amazing than the fact that John Deere basically started the content marketing craze, their publication is still going strong over 120 years later. It’s also now available online. Talk about moving with the times. 

AARP

Knowing your audience and understanding what they want is vital if you want to succeed with content marketing, an AARP is an excellent example of that.

Their magazine has won multiple awards for it’s design and photography, as well as the quality of it’s content. The secret to their success is actually no secret at all. They listen to their audience, taking emails, letters and social media mentions, using the information they collect to determine exactly which topics will resonate most with their user base.

America’s largest consumer magazine, AARP The Magazine goes to 22 million households, and more than half of their 37 million readers have read three of the last four issues.

Visual Content Marketing Examples

According to Stone Temple Consulting tweets with images are 65% more likely to be retweeted. This serves to illustrate that images are the lifeblood of social media. Jeff Bullas also found that blog posts with images receive up to 94% more views. 

Our next batch of inspiring content marketing campaigns shows companies making good use of visual content to increase their brand’s visibility. 

Shutterstock

Shutterstock is basically a household name when it comes to images, and they’ve used their expertise to create a resource which is helpful for everyone: a report on creative trends.

People love reliable data, and reports are the kind of thing that get widely shared. One of their infographics attracted thousands of shares on social media, and attracted more than 6 billion visits to the site. This is according to the Content Marketing Institute.

They have since added interactivity to the resource, including music and video as well as images. This attracted over 100k shares. 

Video Marketing Examples

Video marketing has been gaining traction in the past few years, driving brand awareness and increasing lead generation, and sales. Therefore, it’s no surprise that so many of our examples of content marketing campaigns include videos.

Blendtec

Blendtec’s viral videos show that there really is no such thing as a boring industry. While blenders might seem like the most interesting subject matter, their appeal increases tenfold when you put weird stuff in them and try to blend it. Their  Will It Blend video series resulted in 700% increase in sales over three years, and really put their company on the map. 

Today, their Youtube channel has close to a million subscribers, and their campaign is still going strong. New videos attract hundreds of thousands of views. 

Old Spice

Everyone can think of at least one Old Spice, which is impressive for a brand that’s been around for nearly 100 years. Unfortunately, they haven’t always been this good at staying in touch with their core audience. About 10 years ago, they were losing ground to their competitors. 

Then, they created a humorous series of videos, which sometimes didn’t even mention the name of the brand. This allowed the brand to improve it’s image for the new generation. 

Their original ad has over 55 million views, and the brand is still using the same approach, now with a series of videos  targeting teenage boys and their mothers. Also, they use Terry Crews. 

Ebooks and Resources Examples

Ebooks and other resources are an excellent way to increase brand awareness and generate leads. Here are a few examples of companies making good use of this type of content marketing campaign. 

LinkedIn

linkedIn can be an effective platform for B2B marketing, and nobody is more of an expert on LinkedIn marketing than LinkedIn itself. That’s why their ebook on their approach to LinkedIn marketing is such a winner. They have a landing page designed to whet the appetite with a series of stats and tips. This means that most users opt-in immediately. 

They have continued to put this strategy to good use with even more marketing guides, so it’s no doubt that it’s been working for them.

Other Content Marketing Examples

Not all content marketing campaigns fall into neat categories. Here are a few examples of content marketing campaigns which are a little bit different. 

Charmin

Charmin has always had a quirky sense of humour, and this carried through into the content marketing campaign we’re talking about now. Perfect for their customers, they created the Sit or Squat app, designed to help their users find clean bathrooms on the go. A pretty practical (and hilarious) example of an out-of-the-box content marketing campaign, the app has been downloaded more than 100k times. No one will forget about Charmin anytime soon. 

Burberry

Definitely one of my favourite examples of content marketing campaigns was Burberry’s Burberry Kisses. Combining mobile technology with the innate desire to connect with others, the app allowed users to press their lips to the screen to send digital kisses to anyone. 

This campaign also allowed people to use Google Maps and Street View to watch the journey their digital kisses took.

Lush

Most millennials know about Lush – and are probably right now thinking about the smell of their local store. While they might be known for their luxury bath bombs and extremely friendly staff, they’re also extremely successful with their content marketing campaigns. They make use of a wide range of content marketing techniques to engage with their audience.

The brand already resonates with their core audience, thanks to their ethical values, quirky product names (and don’t forget the friendly staff). But beyond that, they also use behind-the-scenes videos of the making of their products, and encourages their users to share photos and videos of their products in use.

With more than 4 million followers, Instagram is definitely one of their main platforms. 

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