This much-repeated mantra bears repeating: You can’t succeed at content material advertising and marketing except you understand what objectives you’re attempting to attain.
It’s not simple to distill the potential advantages of content material advertising and marketing into one laser-focused purpose. Yet, nailing down your driving goal makes it simpler to discover new prospects to attain it.
Nailing down your #content’s purpose makes it easier to explore the possibilities to achieve it, says @joderama via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Want proof? Look no additional than the accomplishments of the 2022 Content Marketing Awards technique class winners and finalists.
These examples illustrate how strategy-led campaigns can amplify a model’s persuasive energy, excite its viewers, and obtain objectives at each stage of the customer’s journey. Though their industries, audiences, funding ranges, and inventive approaches differ, every gives a lesson to information your content material advertising and marketing efforts.
Goal: Brand consciousness
Brand: Glenfiddich
Media associate: Forbes
Approach: Distill knowledge, storytelling, and multiplatform distribution into a content material cocktail that shifts viewers perceptions.
Single-malt Scotch whisky is a sturdy drink strongly related to highly effective popular culture characters like Mad Men’s Don Draper, Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy, and Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson.
But does the liquor’s energy give it the ability to win the preferential consideration of high-net-worth people and discerning spirit connoisseurs? That was the purpose Glenfiddich, a luxurious whisky distiller, aimed to attain with an built-in multimedia marketing campaign constructed across the fortieth anniversary of the Forbes 400 checklist.
The compelling pitch for his or her novel premise? It’s time to redefine what it means to be rich and profitable.
Glenfiddich kicked off the marketing campaign with an authentic analysis examine, Professional Success in America: Personal Priorities and Social Misunderstanding. It probed U.S. attitudes on the traits that outline success. The model created its inaugural #Richest25 List, profiling influential achievers who embody these traits.
@GlenfiddichSMW conducted an original research study as part of its #ContentMarketing plan to capture a wealthy and successful audience, says @joderama via @CMIContent. #CMWorld Click To Tweet
The ensuing tales had been printed and promoted throughout media associate Forbes’ ecosystem. Assets ranged from premium branded content and editorial tales on the Forbes web site to social media advertisements and a print sponsorship of the Forbes 400 situation. That included advertisements that raised thought-provoking questions, with an overlay of Glenfiddich’s stag emblem as illustrated within the picture beneath with the phrase, “Title or respect? Ask yourself, what’s next?”
The key ideas and associated imagery had been integrated into Glenfiddich’s web site content material and product pages to tie the whole lot again to the model’s Scotch whisky.
Results: According to Forbes, the built-in program garnered over 20 million cross-platform impressions. It additionally modified perceptions: Glenfiddich noticed a elevate in model consciousness (18%), identification as a luxurious model (60%), and affiliation with the stag emblem (25%).
The content material options acquired practically 300,000 views – over 2,700 got here by way of natural search. Further, the journal Fortune 400 situation reached over 3.8 million readers, with 77% taking motion after seeing the advert artistic.
This mission gained the Most Innovative Content Distribution Strategy class.
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Goal: Increase attain
Brand: McCain Foods
Media/company companions: Food24, New Media
Approach: Combine print and digital expertise to forge a private, long-lasting reference to shoppers.
While manufacturers generally scale their attain and have interaction new audiences within the digital area, don’t overlook the ability and enchantment of old-school methods like print. They may also help you forge a extra private and tangible reference to shoppers.
Then once more, why not mix the storytelling benefits of each mediums? That’s the thought behind the creation of McCain Family Cookbook Brought to You by Food24 – a first-of-its-kind direct-to-consumer cookbook delivered by way of a print-on-demand platform.
Frozen meals model McCain approached South African foodie website Food24 to drive attain amongst household meal decision-makers. Food24 (with assist from its content material advertising and marketing company, New Media) answered the decision by growing a personalised cookbook creation instrument. Shared with the Food24 viewers on its web site, the instrument was promoted by way of social media, newsletters, and extra articles and video content material.
As defined within the marketing campaign video above, the Cookbook Creator instrument lets customers add six favourite household recipes, together with notes and photographs. Then, they selected a recipe class and named their ebook. Top recipes from Food24 and McCain had been added to spherical out every assortment. Each ebook was printed and delivered to the buyer who created it.
Food brand @mccainfoods let consumers create personalized cookbooks, uploading six of their family recipes and adding ones from the brand and @food24, says @joderama via @CMIContent. #CMWorld (*4*)
The effort helped place McCain as a mealtime thought chief whereas offering Food24’s viewers with an modern and thrilling interactive function. Further, the printed cookbooks introduced the McCain model into folks’s properties, creating a lasting bodily touchpoint.
Results: According to the company New Media, the trouble acquired 1.4 million banner impressions (far exceeding its goal KPI of 400,000), reached 4.3 million shoppers on social media, and achieved a 13% conversion charge.
This mission gained the Best Use of Technology as Part of a Content Marketing Program class.
Goal: Lead nurturing
Brand: Epcon Communities Franchising
Approach: Deliver a focused, print-based pitch – with a custom-made digital twist.
B2B model Epcon Communities Franchising gives designs, experience, and gross sales help. It allows actual property builders to capitalize on an underserved demographic – consumers 55 and older trying to downsize their properties and revel in life amongst a group of their friends.
Franchised grownup communities are a fast-growing trade sector, however they’re a comparatively new enterprise mannequin for builders and development firms. Many of Epcon’s prospects could have little expertise with these initiatives. That problem, when mixed with the event time and monetary funding concerned, makes overcoming buyer reluctance troublesome.
To set up credibility amongst this B2B goal, ship useful schooling, and speed up its path from certified result in transformed buyer, Epcon launched a distinctive video mailer marketing campaign.
Knowing shoppers usually throw away conventional print mailers with out studying them, Epcon gave the mailing an attention-grabbing digital improve. A 5-inch video display screen turned the typical brochure into a deeply immersive storytelling automobile, as proven on this picture:
Using an account-based advertising and marketing technique, Epcon despatched the mailers to pick high-value prospects. It additionally custom-made the audio and visible content material for every recipient.
Upon opening the brochure, prospects may click on play on the display screen to view 4 put in movies. They included vital firm data, testimonials from franchise builders and residential consumers, and interviews with firm management.
Results: Through this persuasive, immersive, and academic marketing campaign, Epcon put the fitting content material in entrance of the fitting prospects on the proper time. After its launch, the corporate achieved an 84% follow-up contact charge with prospects and exceeded its franchise builder gross sales projections by greater than double.
This mission was a prime finalist within the Most Innovative Content Distribution Strategy and Best Use of Technology as Part of a Content Marketing Program classes.
Goal: Customer satisfaction and loyalty
Brand: ServiceNow
Approach: Combine electronic mail automation with behavioral modeling to ship one of the best post-purchase steering.
Good content material entrepreneurs tackle shoppers’ informational wants at every step of their purchaser’s journey – from preliminary consciousness by way of last buy. But nice entrepreneurs reinforce their model’s worth by delivering related, useful steering lengthy after the buying checks have cleared.
Enterprise software program supplier ServiceNow effectively fulfills that promise by way of its telemetry data-driven digital buyer journey (DCJ) program. The platform delivers the exact data and help every buyer account must implement their purchases extra rapidly, optimize their utilization, and maximize their model satisfaction.
ServiceNow makes use of automated behavioral advertising and marketing to ship personalised electronic mail content material throughout a broad vary of finely focused audiences. Those segments span the three phases of Service Now’s post-purchase lifecycle – preliminary onboarding, activation and deployment, and renewal and enlargement.
For instance, ServiceNow analyzes product utilization and applies telemetry knowledge and modeling to categorize mid-cycle buyer accounts into teams outlined by utilization degree: no use, low use, medium use, or excessive use. ServiceNow makes use of its advertising and marketing automation system to establish and deploy the suitable electronic mail content material for that account. It additionally mechanically pauses electronic mail supply till the shopper completes the decision to motion from the earlier marketing campaign.
Results: ServiceNow experiences glorious electronic mail efficiency metrics, with world open charges of 53% to 61% and click-through charges of 10%-16% throughout all digital buyer journey campaigns in 2021. More importantly, these focused accounts use their merchandise 70% greater than ServiceNow’s baseline (non-targeted) accounts.
This mission was a prime finalist within the Strategy – Best Content Marketing Program, Best Content Marketing Program in Technology, and Content Marketing ROI/Measurement Program classes.
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A transparent technique opens up countless prospects
These 4 manufacturers achieved exceptional outcomes by remaining centered on a purpose and utilizing a mixture of creativity and tech ingenuity to satisfy it. Don’t have a documented content material advertising and marketing technique readily available to information your model’s efforts? Check out our technique hub for all of the insights, ideas, and instruments you should create one.
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Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute