There is a wealth of innovative examples of B2C content marketing. But, you have to look a little harder to find B2B content marketing campaigns from which to take inspiration for your own content strategy.
However, this doesn’t mean they don’t exist! B2B content marketers are taking a leaf out of their B2C cousins’ book and are becoming more adventurous with their approach.
If you want to build a really successful B2B content marketing campaign, one of the best things you can do is to follow the lead of those who have gone before you. Here are some examples of B2B content marketing with proven results to get you fired up to create some great content.
Drift’s Case Studies
Drift is a “conversational marketing” company with a range of products, including a chatbot, personalized videos, and marketing automation solutions. See that little chatbot down in the lower right corner of the screen? That’s a Drift chatbot.
Drift has a range of different content marketing channels, including their blog, ebooks, webinars, and “Drift Insider” – a free content subscription service.
One area where Drift is really excelling with their content marketing is their in-depth client case studies.
You can tell right away from the playful illustrated photo that this is not your bog-standard case study.
In a long-form storytelling format, the case studies explore the business needs and challenges, why they chose to work with Drift, the implementation, and an at-a-glance summary of the results with concrete data.
The text is formatted in a very appealing and readable format, broken up with eye-catching and informative animated graphics.
Key Takeaways
- Make your customers the star of the show. They get increased exposure, and you get to demonstrate the proven business benefits of using your products and services. It’s a win-win for everyone.
- Pay attention to text formatting. Clever use of white space, clear visual sections, and different text sizes will entice the reader to stay on the page for longer.
- Consider upgrading your graphics. The Drift animated charts are more eye-catching and compelling than standard data graphs or infographics.
Cisco’s Security Graphic Novel
A graphic novel is probably not the first content format that springs to mind when you think of B2B content marketing. But Cisco – one of the world’s leading networking companies – pulled it off in an impressive fashion.
Cisco’s SuperSmart Security Graphic Novel is an eight-page comic explaining how to deal with a security loophole.
Image Source: Cisco
Rather than producing more of the same content that is standard around cybersecurity (dry and technical), Cisco decided to think out of the box and try something completely new and unique with this graphic novel format.
This is a great example of how unique content formats can be used to great effect. A standard blog post about Cisco’s security services would not have attracted near as much attention, but the graphic ebook managed to become one of the brand’s best performing content assets.
Key Takeaways
- Be innovative and take risks. Nobody remembers boring content, whether you’re talking to consumers or a corporate audience.
- “Fun” content formats can be effective in B2B markets, too. Don’t pigeonhole certain content formats to particular audiences.
- Doing something unique will attract more traffic. Stand out from the crowd by being different, and you’re more likely to attract conversation, buzz, and web traffic.
Hexagon’s Annual Report
Annual reports are not exactly known for innovation in content marketing, but Swedish IT solutions company Hexagon has raised the bar by producing an augmented reality annual report.
Hexagon built a mobile app, which displays a virtual 3D animated graphic when a reader hovers over the product image in the report. This is not just a gimmick, but it also makes the report a lot more useful as it turns the static 2D graphics into 3D animations.
This also showcases how one of Hexagon’s solutions can be used in a business setting. Hexagon actually offers augmented reality software products to their customers, as you can see in the video below. In other words, they’re demonstrating their services within the context of their content.
Key Takeaways
- Explore the opportunities in new and emerging technologies. AR is just one example of some of the new opportunities that are becoming available to content marketers.
- Make dry content and data more engaging with graphics and videos. You don’t have to go as far as creating an app for your next piece of content, but if you can explain something more thoroughly in an animation or video, consider doing so.
- Think how your content can demonstrate your core business offering. It might not be as obvious as Hexagon’s example but try thinking out of the box. For example, an online fashion retailer could suggest how to put together an outfit for an interview using items from their selection.
Glassdoor’s CEO Tips eBook
Company review and salary website Glassdoor has built its business on transparency and offers a side service for employers focused around brand image and job ads.
Their ebook, 25 Tips from Top CEOS, gives advice insights from the top-rated CEOs on Glassdoor in the categories of trust, communication, motivation, and teamwork.
By mirroring the content they produce around the brand values of their company (transparency), Glassdoor is reinforcing their marketing messages, as well as providing content that’s useful and sharable.
As well as publishing on their own site (downloadable only by registering as an employer), Glassdoor also promoted the content to their email list and on SlideShare, which was reposted by Business Insider, attracting a further 87,0000 pageviews in 2016 alone.
Key Takeaways
- Repurpose your content. By posting to places other than your own blog and producing one piece of content in several formats (an e-book, blog post, and slideshow in this case), you can squeeze the most value from it.
- Make sure your content aligns with your brand values. This reinforces your messages and helps to increase brand trust.
- Use high-value content to attract leads. Rather than publishing the e-book directly on their website, Glassdoor uses it as a lead magnet to attract sign-ups to their mailing list. They can then contact these companies with further business offers at a later date.
It’s Your Time to Shine
There are certainly more examples of incredible B2B content marketing, and we applaud those companies who are doing great work. If you need more inspiration and examples, look no further than Content Marketing Institute’s CMAs, their annual awards event that recognizes both great work and the content marketers behind it all.
When you’re ready to start pushing the creative envelope with your B2B content marketing, we’d love to help. DivvyHQ is well suited to not only help you nail down your strategy and get your team organized, our platform is designed to help you streamline your processes, freeing up your team to dream up something amazing. Request a demo today!