Do you know what content marketing is?

Content marketing - is a long-term strategy based on building strong relationships with the target audience, providing constant high-quality content that is highly relevant to them.

After all, when customers make a purchase decision, their loyalty already belongs to you, and they show by buying your product that they prefer it to your competitors.

Unlike one-off advertising, content marketing shows that you really care about your customers and they want to feel your interest more than ever before, because the world is louder and more lavish than ever before, and our attention is valuable.

Now that you know what content marketing means, you may be wondering, "How can I improve my content marketing myself?"

There are three main categories in which you can implement content marketing activities throughout the day: online, offline and hybrid.

Let us show you 15 great examples of content marketing in all the categories mentioned above. They can be modeled, modified and used in your own company.

First, we'll start with the offline mode.

OFFLINE

We will give three examples from the history of content marketing and then show their modern counterparts.

Offline example 1 - Comics and blogs

Stan Lee and his team have created Marvelas it was known in 1960. They tried to tell the best stories that could combine visual content with a great story. Their initial comics sold millions of copies every month.

Marvel still dominates in comics terms, with a market share of about 30%, and orders for individual comics continue to grow.

Despite the fact that last year the comic book industry earned more than $540,000,000. This amount is small compared to sales of gadgets and goods other than books.

Reflection

This means:

A good story = a lot of money, but ....

A good story + a great product = 80% more money.

In the case of Marvel The story was a product, and over time, more products appeared. Reaching the target group to a large extent. Even today, the story must come long before the product.

Today, the easiest way to tell great stories and create interesting products is through blogs.

You don't need artists and printers to publish comics. If you know how to draw or create witty stories, you can create high-quality content that will attract hundreds of thousands of readers a month.

All you have to do is create a message every day.

Remember that your content should be valuable and relevant to your target audience.

That's why brands like Excedrin, have seen great success with content marketing for their headache pills.

In his blog on migraine Excedrin provides useful tips for all migraine sufferers, free software to track the root of the problem, and coupons for loyal customers and readers.

This marketing strategy is not just for big brands. This way, people can gain a huge audience.

James Altucher - is a great example. After writing articles weekly for 5 years and posting them on his blog, his blog regularly receives thousands of shares on social media.

Over time, he made a huge leap and had everything he needed to sell his books or goods online.

Since running a free blog - This is a good way to check whether your stories are good or need to be improved. You can also use this channel to get feedback from your audience in your niche.

Moreover, you can do this before you sell anything to anyone, building loyal relationships with your audience.

The result will be a bunch of eager friends waiting to buy something from you right at the start of the sale.

Offline example 2 From a soap opera to Netflix

Do you know why soap operas are called that?

Well, the first soap opera went on the air in 1930. It was called "The Painted Dream" and was broadcast on the radio 5 days a week in the morning and evening.

The first target audience: housewives.

The open performances, which were often tense at the end of each episode, showcased some very dramatic elements previously known only from operas.

While listening to the broadcast, most housewives were cleaning their homes. Naturally, the commercial industry figured it out and, as you may have guessed, ran soap ads during the breaks.

The stories sold products, and the products were linked to activities that led listeners to hear more stories.

Okay, so what does it look like today?

So, any ideas what a soap opera is like today? Tense moments ... bingo, watching TV shows ... drama.

Or does it sound as bad as Netflix?

With 60000000 subscribers, $10 per month subscriptions generated visible revenue of about $6000000000 in 2015.

A few years ago, Netflix started producing its own original series, such as House of Cards and, more recently, Daredevil.

Instead of just streaming great TV shows and movies to users around the world, the company decided to start telling its own stories, raising brand awareness and growing at a furious pace in the first few years.

See how content marketing is constantly changing for the better.

Note: Since then, Netflix has decided to make as many movies based on Marvel comics as possible, and most recently it was Jessica Jones.

Offline case study 3: from advertising tricks to viral advertising

When. Hasbro released his GI Joe comic book series, he found himself in trouble.

They wanted to do TV commercials, advertise toys and comics, which was their new concept.

The TV regulations stated that toy commercials could only last up to 10 seconds, so as not to mislead children into thinking that toys could do more than they did.

To get around this problem, they decided to focus on the story, not the products. They abandoned toys and decided to promote a series of comics.

Never before had a TV commercial featured exclusively comics. Bending the rules, Hasbro was able to show 30 seconds of fully animated footage.

The original commercial video was posted on YouTube.

Back then, television commercials still worked. In today's ADD world, where our range of interests has shrunk considerably, we are hardly enthusiastic about TV commercials.

Viral advertising is a big draw for us, as is the Champions League final.

Think about it with Volkswagen, a German car brand.

Advertising Volkswagen, which was broadcast on the American Super Bowl.

Not only was it seen by hundreds of millions of viewers during the Super Bowl itself, it also went viral on YouTube, garnering hundreds of thousands of views and shares on social media.

Customers are happy that they can spend hours entertaining themselves, and Volkswagen - is happy that they maintain relationships with the target audience while the management sleeps.

ONLINE

Okay, so offline is somehow translated to the Internet, but hasn't this been true of content marketing from the very beginning?

Yes.

There are a lot of brands, and some do really good work.

That's why it's worth taking a look at some of the best examples of content marketing that have appeared on the Internet.

Online case study 1 - The first viral video

In 2005, when most users downloaded videos to watch offline, the first viral videos appeared.

IT company LiveVault hired two marketers to create an entertaining video that would stand out among IT professionals, their target audience.

In the end, the backup system for corporate disks was not very interesting, so they chose something interesting.

John Cleese, a famous actor and comedian, had to make sure they got them.

The video demonstrates the serious consequences of a fictional disease called Backup Injury and leaves the viewer with many opportunities to continue learning about the company's products and services by clicking buttons at the end of the video.

It was great content because it was fun and interactive and kept promoting their services.

The movie was downloaded almost 300,000 times in the first few months after its release - and that was 13 years ago!

Obviously, it's harder to stand out from the masses of videos published every day. However, if you create high-quality video content, you have a chance to stand out.

Internet example 2 - what is a code?

"What is Code?" was the title of an article published by Bloomberg Business Week in June 2015. Let me rewrite - this is not an article.

It's a book.

This article is the longest of all published. It contained 38,000 words.

However, it was not published as a book, or in a magazine, or in a newspaper.

It was released online. For free.

It has animated graphics, sections, examples, notes, statistics, and more.

Estimate. 93,000 shares on social media. That's 93,000 people who know about Bloomberg.

They are likely to come back to read more and one day become a subscriber.

Does it hurt that they posted it for free? We doubt it.

PROPOSAL:You don't have to run as crazy as Bloomberg. Take a look at this 7000-word to-do guide to stop multitasking and focus on what matters.

This is an example of a branched list, as Brian Dean of Backlinks put it.

Instead of listing all the items, simply adding detailed instructions to each item on the list will make your entry 10 times more valuable - and before you know it, you'll have a big chunk of content for your article.

Online example 3 - Infographics

This is an easy way to collect valuable information, summarize it, and present it clearly.

A robust content market strategy addresses not only written content, but also visual, audio, and more.

When will the future of blogging become visual? Infographics exist to raise a topic that is difficult to explain in words and explain it with pictures.

It's easier to understand the value of a click in an email than it is on Facebook and Twitter when it's displayed like a beer in a bottle, rather than just saying "email is more engaging."

They usually get a lot of shares, and the referral section is a great way to influence the opinion formers you want to connect with.

They want to share it with their audience, on their blogs and social networks, because you remembered them.

In addition, when your audience has questions about the same topic, guess who they will address?

To you

Online example 4 - Podcasts

Podcasts are the radio of the 21st century and a very powerful content marketing tool. There are fewer ads and more value.

As a rule, most podcasts have a sponsor or advertise a product at the beginning and end of the show, but that's it.

People love them because they can listen to their idols and heroes, talk about what interests them.

If you think that interviewing people is a waste of time, you are wrong. The best counterexample to this is John Lee Dumas, host and founder of Entrepreneur on Fire.

All he did was interview one entrepreneur a day and publish them. In this way, he quickly built up a treasure trove of records, and with them, a huge success.

Is this a business that starts with picking up a microphone and calling a group of people on Skype?

Not a mean thing to do?

Online example 5 - Manuals and books

You have done it - you have created a real product for your online business.

Have you created a sales page and sent it by mail, but no one buys?

Something is missing.

Copywriting! You need to learn copywriting. All you have to do is just turn to Google, right?

You type in "copywriting training" and voila, several hundred pages appear where you can find the information you need, all for free.

You can learn copywriting in a week from these guides alone. If you need more, a copywriting school may well be your next stop.

Online example 6 - Red Bull Stratos

It is noteworthy that Red Bull has created its own mini-version of the Champions League final.

On October 14, 2012, Austrian paratrooper Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon floating in the stratosphere. He jumped from space to Earth.

He jumped from more than 24 miles away and broke the world record for Mach 1 and 3 - the first person to jump Mach without a motorized vehicle, only a high jump from a hot air balloon.

No one has ever done this before.

Red Bull was the sole sponsor of the event.

They made up a story and sold it.

This event sparked not only interest in social media, but also harsh criticism from the media community, as well as an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

Excitement, getting used to the tension, entertainment at its best, and talking, it's all for Red Bull.

Online example 7 - GoPro sponsorship

"Hey, when you break this next wave, do you want to film it? Here's the perfect camera for that!"

Go Pro is everywhere with sports, which means literally everywhere.

Since their product is a way of creating visuals, the best way to present it is to show how well it does what it does.

Consequently, they sponsor various events, athletes and entertainers, such as surfers, cyclists and even Rubik's Cup champions.

Their marketing strategy is to give people back their cameras and film what they are doing.

Their product does the rest for them. Basically, it's a market by itself.

All you have to do is change the video, put some cool background music, and you have millions of views.

Online case study 8 - Social media campaigns

An important issue when creating a social media campaign is to respect the context of the platform.

You can't post a series of 10 tweets on Twitter because no one will see them all.

If you decide to enter a particular social media channel, make sure you know how users use that platform.

Disney decided to campaign on Twitter. There, you have only a few seconds to attract the attention of others.

They did a great job playing by the rules of the platform.

Since Twitter limits the number of tweets in a message, Disney decided to create the "Ultimate Twitter Hashtag in 140 characters"

It's a Disney sign. He rounded his stars up to 140 by creating a hashtag, taking a photo, and tweeting it.

The result: more than 2000 posts on Twitter and 3000 likes.

So, familiarize yourself with the social media platforms where the campaign is being launched. It's not just about providing valuable, high-quality content, but also about delivering it in the right way.

Internet case study 9 - British Airways and the life of billboards

British Airways has come up with a really cool way. It installed billboards at London's Piccadilly Circus, which shows a child pointing to the sky after a British Airways plane has flown over.

Not only did this appear on the board, but also information about the flight and its number.

Imagine seeing your sister's flight when she goes on a trip to Europe.

It's not weird: "Hmm, wouldn't it be interesting if my family could see my next flight like this?"

British Airways has just come to you. All it took was a few LEDs and a creative idea to promote the flight information.

Hybrids

Finally, we would like to show you two examples of what we call hybrid marketing. We have already shown that online goes into offline and vice versa.

Some companies already use this principle and base their content marketing strategy on it.

You can use the Internet as an entrance to offline marketing and vice versa.

For example, you can use social media to raise awareness of offline events, or you can run offline events and share them online.

Hybrids, example 1 - Gary Vaynerchuk calls on fans

Gary is a true master of content marketing.

This guy is always on the Internet to make sure it's valuable.

When he was going to interview Chase Jarvis in 2013 and had a few minutes to drive from the airport to the studio, he wrote a simple message to his fans to give him their number and he would call them.

It seems to have created a mini-event offline and utilized its massive 1.18 million potential Twitter followers to raise awareness.

In a matter of seconds, he had several answers, with whom he spoke for a minute or two, and then moved on to the next.

Such a simple gesture, but as Gary later explained, a short one-minute conversation can lead to increased loyalty from these people.

Hybrids, example 2 - tweets during the broadcast

The broadcast, during which Gary talked to Chase Jarvis, lasted 90 minutes.

During the live broadcast, not only were questions asked of the studio audience, but people were also asked to send questions via Twitter using a specific hashtag.

Instead of a boring offline event for an exclusive minority in the studio, there was suddenly a Worldwide Live that everyone could participate in.

Only answers to our personal questions make us more involved in Livie, we listen carefully and process the information we are given.

Hybrid forms of content marketing are becoming increasingly popular, and social media apps and sites such as Periscope, Snapchat, and others are making it easier to stay online.

Summary

There are many examples here, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. We hope you have a good understanding of what it takes to be a good content marketing specialist.

Moreover, we hope you've realized that you don't have to have a huge marketing budget. Today, everyone can use content marketing to their advantage.

Soon, we will all have to do this if we want to succeed, as the world is getting louder.

Those who focus on telling good stories, no matter what platform or context, win in the long run.

What is your story? Will you already be using content marketing?