The digital world offers businesses plenty of opportunities to get their voice out there. From blogs to email newsletters to social media posts, content marketing channels abound.
The most successful marketing strategies embrace a multi-channel approach. By establishing a consistent presence online, you become a business that consumers know, like, and trust—which is foundational marketing work that ultimately leads to sales.
But with so many ways to approach content marketing, it can feel overwhelming. What’s the best mix of content for your business? It depends on your business goals and the content strategy you craft to support them.
Once you’ve done that essential strategic work, you can look at specific content marketing examples for inspiration. We’ve gathered some here to spark your imagination and creativity!
Contents
- What is content marketing?
- What does a strong content marketing example include?
- 10 best content marketing examples and ideas
What is content marketing?
Before we dive in, let’s set a shared definition of content marketing.
Content marketing is any media you create for your brand that is focused on education, rather than selling. It’s designed to showcase your expertise and speak to your ideal customer. Content marketing isn’t limited to the written word, though blogs and white papers certainly are content!
Most media you put out on behalf of your brand can fall under the content marketing umbrella, including:
- Blog posts
- Email newsletters
- Social media posts
- Infographics
- White papers
- Ebooks
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Videos
🗓 Download our free marketing calendar to get content marketing examples and ideas for every day of the year!
What does a strong content marketing example include?
Effective content marketing is about educating, not selling. This is the primary distinction between marketing and sales content. Content marketing seeks to share your expertise and help your ideal customer address the problem your business solves.
For example, a home improvement contractor might create educational content about undertaking DIY projects around the home. While this may seem counterintuitive, don’t you want prospects to hire you to do the work? In reality, educational content like this does a few things.
First, it solves a problem for your customer. If your social post teaches them how to do something important, like find their own property lines ahead of a renovation, you establish yourself as a helpful guide in the industry.
Second, it builds trust. If your advice for locating the property lines works, they begin to see you as a reliable source for accurate information.
Finally, it keeps your business top-of-mind. By consistently creating content, you stay on people’s radar screens. When the time comes for a homeowner to undertake the renovation they’ve been dreaming of, you’re more likely to get a call to quote the job.
10 best content marketing examples and ideas
The two biggest challenges with content marketing are knowing where to start and how to keep pace with creating high-quality output consistently.
These content marketing examples from a range of businesses show just how creative you can get with content. A huge benefit of digital marketing is that it’s easy to try new tactics and measure your results.
As you continue to build out your content marketing program, don’t be afraid to test new approaches! You’ll learn a lot about your business and your audience, and you just may discover a wildly effective tactic that draws a lot of positive attention.
1. Inspire creativity on Instagram
When you’re in a creative industry, it makes sense to put out content to serve as a muse for customers.
That’s exactly what Knitty City does on its Instagram, which is filled with all manner of incredible knitted and crocheted creations. From funky ponchos to gossamer dresses to knit animals, the range of items is staggering.
Coasters, sweaters, puppies — what can’t you make with yarn? Source
Whether you’re an experienced knitter or just getting started, the page of projects will spark your imagination and inspire you to pick up several skeins of yarn.
2. “How-to” like a pro on YouTube
Remember what we were saying about the value of educational content? If you want to create longer-form videos, there’s no better place for you than YouTube.Social media is great for short-form video, but most people are swiping fast and not there to watch longer clips.
For in-depth how-to content, consider creating a YouTube channel. YouTube boasts an average of 2.5 billion monthly users, which means your content has a huge potential audience.
Ohio-based florist Huber Heights Floral offers a great example of what content marketing can look like for a small business. The collection of videos gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at owning a flower shop and shares tips for making your own floral creations, like corsages and different arrangements.
3. Have in-depth conversations on a podcast
Each year, podcasts attract hundreds of millions of listeners worldwide. Creating a show on behalf of your business is one content marketing idea that can help you stay in regular conversation with your audience.
If you have someone on your leadership team with the gift of gab, consider tapping them to host a show. Podcasts with an interview format have the added benefit of being a place where you can ask prospects to appear as guests—a flattering way to open the door to a sales conversation.
As an example, check out the Making Coffee podcast from coffee processing specialist Lucia Solis. She dives deep into the business of coffee on her podcast, covering everything from the impacts of climate change on the industry to how to find work/life balance as a coffee producer.
4. Share thoughtful insights via email
Each year, someone publishes a think piece about the death of email marketing. And each year, the stats prove them wrong.
This channel remains a hugely effective way to reach your audience. The average email marketing program sees an ROI of between $36 and $40 for every $1 spent.
That’s why the email newsletter is such a popular content marketing tactic. And the brand leaders who do it right have built a vast base of loyal subscribers.
Ann Handley is one of those people. She’s a marketing expert who’s been sending out a bi-monthly newsletter for years. Her notes are long-form and personal. You can tell she writes them herself and puts great care into crafting each one.
How can you create your own must-read newsletter? Focus on your audience and what knowledge you can share that will genuinely make their lives better. Then, write about it in a way that’s thoughtful and engaging.
📧 Start building out your content marketing strategy for email using our free small business email toolkit, complete with tips, templates, subject lines, and more!
5. Build an in-person community through digital marketing
Some of the best digital marketing efforts help you build real-life connections. By creating a steady cadence of helpful online content, you then open the door to hosting in-person events. Whether they’re workshops, tutorials, or simply a fun gathering for fans of your brand, in-person events can solidify the relationships you’ve nurtured online.
Cotton Candy Fabric Shop has a very active presence on Instagram, where it shares a range of content, including posts about in-person events. This post about its holiday open house party invites followers to come in for all sorts of holiday fun, including ornament-making and photos with Santa!
6. Blog with a laser focus on your target audience
According to internet lore, one of the first blogs was published in 1994 by Swarthmore student Justin Hall. In the intervening years, blogging has become a cornerstone of content marketing strategy for countless brands.
The key to building a blog that stands out today is specificity. There are thousands of generic blog posts out there. To differentiate your brand’s blog from the pack, look to your audience. What makes them unique, and what kind of content do they crave?
Finding a narrow angle might not garner you millions of followers. But it makes yours more likely to become a must-read blog among the consumers that matter most to you.
Remember: The topic your ideal customers want to hear about might not be directly related to your industry. Take the UPS Small Business Blog as an example. UPS is, of course, a shipping and logistics titan. So what are they doing, creating a blog with advice for small business owners?
Many small businesses need a shipping partner. By becoming a go-to resource for small businesses on other, unrelated topics, UPS stands out as the shipping company that best understands the needs of these business owners.
Plus, with its non-shipping offerings billed as Small Business Services (which include things like accounting and HR support), UPS opens the door to expand its relationship with small businesses that already rely on it for sending products to customers.
💡 Tailor your content marketing strategy to your audience using our free guide on how to find your target audience in six easy steps, complete with examples!
7. Curate industry hot topics
Not all newsletters need to be completely self-created. Some of the best newsletters offer a collection of content from across the web. By launching a round-up newsletter, you serve as a curator, rather than a writer. And if you know your audience well, you understand how to assemble a grouping of content that will catch their eyes.
Take Marketing Brew’s daily newsletter, which always hits upon the hottest topics in marketing. Whether it’s the impending TikTok ban or a closer look at one wellness brand’s election-focused advertising strategy, there’s something for everyone in their round-ups.
A daily newsletter requires a lot of work from your team to produce, but it has the benefit of being a constant presence in your readers’ inboxes. While they may not open each edition, with that volume of outreach, you’re likely to hit on topics that interest each of your readers regularly.
8. Create informative interactive content
Interactive content takes a bit more effort to produce. Quizzes, calculators, games, or dynamic tools usually require some custom coding and design work to get off the ground.
But the results are often worthwhile. Interactive content typically sees 52.6% higher engagement rates than its static counterparts.
You can build interactive content for a specific occasion, like The Sill did here, as part of a holiday gift guide. Or, you can create evergreen interactive content, like the bank that offers a mortgage calculator for prospective homebuyers.
9. Expand your reach with influencer partnerships
Influencer marketing is only growing more popular: 69% of marketers reported they were increasing their influencer marketing budget at the start of 2024.
And that’s likely because they’re seeing results firsthand. Marketers surveyed about their efforts reported a 53% higher CTR in campaigns where partnership ads are used.
The example of Laneige’s ongoing relationship with actor Sydney Sweeney is one of a fruitful brand-influencer partnership. Sweeney’s Instagram features not only polished brand advertisements but also influencer-style content, exemplified by the post below.
By pairing this less formal, more educational influencer content with the fully produced advertising, Laneige gets the best of both worlds. Sweeney’s followers see her using the products and showing the results, which has pull with consumers: 81% of Americans say they weigh posts from friends, family, and influencers when considering a product.
Then, they see the glossy advertising, which remains a tried-and-true method of catching consumers’ attention.
10. Gather user-generated content
Consistent content creation takes a lot of effort, particularly when you’re producing output across several channels. That’s why you should look for opportunities to work smarter, not harder.
In the era of social media, your customers are producing some great content about your brand all their own. They don’t need to be influencers—many regular people post online about brands they love.
When they do, you can put that content to use for you! Re-sharing user-generated content, with a hearty thank you to the fan who created it, is a great way to fill gaps in your social media content calendar.
Instagram even has a built-in feed where tagged posts live. This example from the coffee brand La Colombe shows some great user-generated content, including a recipe for tiramisu bites made with the coffee, and a post from a nutrition coach sharing that she enjoys La Colombe as part of her balanced diet.
Use these content marketing examples to spark your next piece or post
Content marketing is an ongoing commitment for your brand. Whether you’ve been at it a while or are just starting out, seeing inspiring examples from other businesses can power your imagination.
These 10 content marketing examples are great, but they’re certainly not the only strong ones out there. Take some time each week to see how your peers are approaching content marketing, and you’ll surely find that inspiring ideas are all around you! If you don’t have the bandwidth to check in each week, or just want more help expanding your content marketing strategy, see how our solutions can take your content marketing assets to the next level!
To recap, here are our top 10 content marketing examples and ideas:
- Inspire creativity on Instagram
- “How-to” like a pro on YouTube
- Have in-depth conversations on a podcast
- Share thoughtful insights via email
- Build in-person community through digital marketing
- Blog with a laser focus on your target audience
- Curate industry hot topics
- Create informative interactive content
- Expand your reach with influencer partnerships
- Gather user-generated content
