Will your content marketing strategy succeed? Like any business strategy, it’s hard to know from the start if your content marketing strategy will deliver the results you desire. With so many factors in play, it’s going to be a challenge for your strategy to stand the test and be adaptable when necessary. But it’s not impossible. Many brands are finding success by setting proper expectations and sticking to their strategy. To get inspired and deliver insights, we’re sharing some of the best content marketing strategy examples.
Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Matters
Behind every content marketing plan is a well-developed content strategy. The strategy is your guiding document that spells out in detail how you’ll execute content marketing for your brand. It contains all the “context” you need to craft content that resonates with your audience. It includes elements like business objectives, buyer personas, customer journeys, content workflows, content calendars, promotion tactics, measurement methodology, and governance guidelines.
Your strategy is fluid, though. It will likely change as your industry, resources, tactics and customers do. Thus, it needs to be both detailed and concise while also being flexible. It’s your bedrock, but one that can allow you to be agile if necessary.
By creating and staying in alignment with a content marketing strategy, your efforts have a purpose, versus just throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. Remember, content marketing and its rewards is a long game — it’s not something you “win” overnight.
In the long game, your content strategy will address your objectives, often in various ways, and really speak to your audience about what matters to them and how your brand can solve it.
Content Marketing Examples from the Real World
In looking at some real-world content marketing examples, we have to make some assumptions. For obvious reasons, companies don’t usually publish their content marketing strategies. However, based on some of the output of their content, their goals and intent become clear. Let’s check out how these brands crushed it with effective content marketing strategies.
Wendy’s Sprinkles in Fun and Sass to Promote Food Quality
The quick-serve restaurant Wendy’s was founded in 1969 and has always had a creative tone going back to the ’80s with “Where’s the beef?” In the modern era, Wendy’s has evolved, and they’ve become “burn” experts on Twitter. The content strategy of Wendy’s is clearly to seek differentiation among the masses and bring about attention with unexpected humor.
They currently have 3.7 million followers who love to interact with their tweets. Plus, they are using the voice of Wendy to be the tweet master, giving the brand a human connection to troll competitors and others, all in good fun.
They certainly use the platform to promote their food, but not in a typical commercial approach — it’s sassy and on-brand. One thing they focus on, whether it be on social media or in their investor information section of the website, is the quality of the food. It can be funny and serious.
Pampers Puts Focus on Supporting New Parents
Image: Pampers.com
Diapers are an essential for any baby, but Pampers doesn’t spend their time talking about what they sell. Instead, their content strategy seems to be all about supporting pregnant and new moms.
Content on their site is curated specially for this audience with due date calculators, first baths tips, and sleeping insights. They even have doctors guest author posts for credibility. Videos from nurses are also available, as well as printable items like announcement cards.
The brand’s content strategy is clearly focused on micro-moments, which describe instances in customer lives when something occurs, and quick information is sought. If you look at their home page below, it’s clear that pushing product is not the priority — educating and connecting with parents is.
AARP Knows Its Audience
Is AARP too old to understand content marketing? Not by a long shot. While the nonprofit began as a way to support retired persons, you only have to be 50 to join, and 50 is the new 30. As cultural icons have aged, they’ve partnered with them to show that growing older doesn’t mean you’re done growing. Those brand ambassadors include Cyndi Lauper, Dr. Dre, and Brad Pitt.
The organization has also continued to reinvent its content, adding resources for those still working. A look at their current home page below shows a strong focus on COVID-19 and what it means to their community. Their content strategy is and continues to be knowing their audience well and what they need.
Image: AARP.org
Grant Thornton
Taxes and advisory services don’t have to be dry. Many organizations in these industries have inaccurately determined that they don’t need to tell stories to engage their audience. Grant Thornton has taken a different approach. They’ve humanized it and made it interesting. First, they’ve created a stories section for employees to share what matters to them. This matters to audiences seeking solutions because trust and credibility are important to their buyers.
Image: Grant Thornton
The website includes a lot of content, so their content strategy is focused on quantity and quality. In looking at one of their blogs called “Status Know,” the news is timely, accurate, and provides a mix of formats from long-form content to podcasts. The blog includes “timely perspectives from professionals who know that you don’t need another mouthpiece, you need solutions.” That’s a powerful statement coming from what many would consider a “status quo” industry.
Content Marketing from Strategy to Plan
In these examples, we’ve made the connection between strategy and output, but many steps happen in between, involving your content plan and how it’s executed. One of the best things you can do for your team to help them do this is by using content marketing software. It keeps you organized and helps you execute each strategic step. Everything’s happening on one platform with everybody on the same page.
That’s what DivvyHQ can do for you so your strategy doesn’t become some memory in the distance. Try it out for free today.