There is a good old saying that goes by “Content is the King”. However, I don’t really think that content can be the KING if there is an overload of it. Yes, surely, content is definitely one of the key aspects of creating anything. At present, it is the most important factor that can help you build a brand presence on the World Wide Web.
Googling is the first thing that anyone of us would do before purchasing a product or choosing a service. I mean, let’s face it, this has become our habit. This is exactly why your brand needs content, not only for your customers to find you but also for you to reach them.
Before you start building your content strategy, you have to figure out what you really want to achieve from content marketing. Remember, content marketing is a slow process. It takes time, dedication, patience, and consistent effort to work. So let’s break it down now, shall we?
What are the three steps of content marketing?
The three steps of content marketing are:
- Ideation
- Creation
- Distribution
Ideation – Ideation is the stage where you figure out what kind of content you want to create and for whom. This is just like any other marketing activity where you have to figure out your target audience at first. The target audience for the B2C business is different from the B2B business.
Once you figure that out, now, you have to think about what kind of content the audience would find useful. Do keyword analysis to find out what your target audience is searching for. Once that is done, you create a content calendar where you schedule the kind of content that will be created for the next month or more.
Creation – Now you know the keywords, the right audience, so you have to create content around them. You can create content in the form of:
- Articles/Blogs
- Infographics
- Videos
- E-Books
- Case Studies
- Whitepapers
- podcasts
- Social posts
- Webinars
You don’t have to create everything. The persona of your target audience will help in prioritizing the content types that you need to create. However, articles and videos work best.
Distribution: This is where you take your content to your target audience. Now that your articles are published and videos are uploaded, you have to think about a way to distribute it to your audience. There are different mediums of content distribution and promotion. The most obvious ones being social media, newsletters, email marketing, guest blogging, and PR. These are the steps that you have to take in content marketing.
| SL NO | Content Marketing facts | Brief-explanation and stats |
| 1 | 200 million people use ad-blockers now. | Consumers today want to opt-out of unnecessary paid ads. Content marketing doesn’t come under the purview of paid ads. So you can continue without being blocked. |
| 2 | More site traffic | Content marketing leaders experience 7.8 times more website traffic than non-leaders. Plus, good quality and informative content are difficult to pin down. |
| 3 | Produces brand recall | 56% of marketers believe that customized content promotes better engagement rates because it helps the audience to remember the brand. |
| 4 | Cost-efficient | Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing while it generates 3X times more leads. |
| 5 | Content marketing is a major shareholder in online B2B marketing. | 88% of B2B marketers use content marketing in their marketing strategies. |
| 6 | Higher conversion | Adopting a content marketing strategy generates 6X times higher conversion. |
| 7 | Email marketing | Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of content marketing. For every $1 spent, email marketing gives back $38 as ROI. |
| 8 | Customization | 61% of the buying decision is influenced by custom content. |
| 9 | Content strategy | 60% of B2C marketers have a documented content strategy. |
| 10 | Effective variations | 72% of marketers think that branded content is much more effective than magazine ads. |
Now, let us show you some of the best content marketing examples that really worked for the brands.
- Amul India
Every time there is an issue, we already know which brand has got its poster ready! Be it for any cause or promotions, Amul is always there with an opinionated version.
All the creativity of Amul is focused on the point of view of the masses for addressing any social situation. You will find the evergreen Amul girl in almost every one of their content like she is telling the story from her perspective.
2. Zomato
Zomato knows their audience really well! They know what will encourage them to use their service and never fail to bring out the foodie in you. For instance, they did a funny tweet, “Guys kabhi kabhi ghar ka khana bhi kha lena chahiye”.
This was a great success with more than 20K likes and 6k retweets. In fact, it was so popular that a lot of other companies copied the content and presented it in a different way.
Zomato doesn’t follow a strict schedule on content marketing or posting. See when you are working on content engagement or marketing, you don’t have to keep doing things regularly, make sure there is more quality than quantity.
For instance, Zomato makes quite engaging images and uses them in their email marketing campaigns for its customers.
3. Oreo India
Oreo India has cracked the code for keeping its audience engaged through its content. Initially, Oreo faced challenges because the Indian market was dominated by Britannia and Parle. They started a brand awareness campaign using #DailyDunks with Bollywood celebrity Ranbir Kapoor. This paved the way for Oreo to penetrate into the Indian market.
4. Vogue India
YouTube plays a vital role in Vogue India. They use one of the most important weapons of content marketing – Storytelling. Vogue focuses on campaigns that empower women.
They started campaigns like #VoguEmpower to raise voice against violence against women. They feature Bollywood celebs in their videos that add glamour and create a buzz in their content marketing efforts.
5. Flipkart
Flipkart is a pioneer amongst Indian online brands and shopping sites. It uses TV commercials, online ads, YouTube video ads as weapons for content marketing. Their ads are catchy. They came up with an ad with children dressed up as adults and it became very popular.
Whether it is a new offer or service or an announcement, Flipkart never fails to bring a smile to their customer’s face.
6. Imperial Blue
Probably the best use of video marketing for a brand! Imperial Blue garnered their ultimate fame from the ads based on the tagline, “Men will be men”.
If you look at the commercials, the brand showcases men’s psychology in the best way possible, presenting the man-psyche in a funny way without offending anyone.
7. Olx India
Well, if you have something to sell, Olx is the place for you! Olx uses video marketing as a weapon for content engagement. Thus, they use marketing psychology – appeal to the senses.
The best part is, their ads focus on helping the eradicating the domestic clutter – which is the common pain point of almost every Indian household. That’s how they connected with their audience.
They also added the much-needed star power in their content marketing efforts.
8. Bewakoof.com
Not only the name of the brand is weird but also they come up with the weirdest yet unique creative ideas. They have some brilliant content as their blog posts that include memes and talks mostly about fashion.
The best part is, this brand believes in following what it believes. Therefore, they can connect with their audience to the fullest, especially to the young generation. They mostly prefer video marketing. Their YouTube video ads are one of the best examples of content marketing.
9. Coca-cola
#TurnUpYourDay and #TogetherTheTastesBetter
These are the two best examples of viral content marketing, especially in 2020. They are relevant, engaging, and connect with the audience. What they did was, they simply used the most important aspect of content marketing – personalization.
Coca-cola targeted the emotions of their audience and it was pretty sure that it would drive popularity. Developing an emotional connection is extremely important in content marketing.
10. Reebok
As a prominent sportswear and accessories brand, Reebok came up with a brilliant e-commerce content marketing campaign that stood out. As a part of the campaign, they launched a microsite “be more human”. They posted content featuring women from different walks of life that are changing the world around them.
You will find actors, entrepreneurs, sports personalities, and other powerful women from different industries. The women are shown wearing Reebok merchandise. Also, the brand added a smart CTA “shop the look!” to encourage them.
11. ASOS
Well, you will find a lot of luxury fashion brands out there. However, not all of them will make an effort to help their customers to shop and dress better. This is why ASOS is so much preferable. They offer impeccable fashion tips and advice to the people to help them dress in a better way. This is the kind of e-commerce content marketing that helps you to stand out in the crowd.
12. Airbnb
The content marketing strategy of Airbnb revolves around user-generated content. They focus mostly on social media. For instance, the Instagram account of Airbnb is exclusively used for sharing pictures of their customers at their properties. The company encourages its customers to post different pictures and tag the brand to get featured on their page.
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13. Canva
Canva is a unicorn startup that was founded in 2012. Basically, it is one of the most popular designing platforms for marketers to create beautiful and professional designs, charts, infographics, and blog images. However, what we are interested in is, how do they use content marketing?
Their winning content marketing strategy is user-generated content and influencer marketing. To boost up their growth, they brought in Guy Kawasaki (who was also one of the employees responsible for marketing Apple’s Macintosh line of computers.
14. Spotify
Spotify is a master of personalization! They offer personalized emails along with playlists. Also, they have a data-driven microsite for catering to every user’s listening habits. Every single thing about Spotify is customized. If you want to use customization for customer acquisition, follow Spotify.
They launched their “Wrapped” campaign where users would get an email containing the list of the most-listened music. With the initial success of the Wrapped campaign, they launched a new “Wrapped” campaign by the end of 2019. This one had a story-like campaign from the past decade that expanded to include the podcasts and also it was made shareable. This is a great way to re-engage with your audience.
15. Nike
With so much going on this year, Nike never fails to amaze us with its excellent ads. With the new #YouCantStopLA, Nike is promoting the win of the Lakers NBA title. Also, the one-liner, “in a year unlike anything, this win means everything” – wins hearts. You cannot fall in love with this ad. This is probably one of the best examples of content marketing in the TV commercials and online ads category.
16. Ola
We are all aware of Ola, one of the most popular cab booking services in India. Now, their “Peeke Mat Chala” campaign launched right before Christmas eve was a unique way of encouraging the Indias to enjoy the holidays responsibly.
Well, a funny thing happened with the campaign that made it more popular. The official account of Ola posted a string of random tweets and Twitterati initially though probably an intern at Ola was drunk tweeting.
However, it was a content marketing strategy from Ola, when they launched a short video stating, “drunk tweeting can be dangerous, imagine what drunk driving can do!”. A brilliant content marketing strategy applied to gain audience attention.
17. HP India
Whether it is a viral Diwali campaign or promoting a certain issue, HP India has always left a strong imprint on their stories. For instance, the #TuJashBan campaign was launched by the brand for promoting the local street vendors. The commercial ad was launched on different platforms and it went viral in 2 days with almost 2.5 million views and 60,000 shares.
18. Swiggy
Right from sharing mouth-watering food photos to posting stories that show they care for their customers and delivery partners – Swiggy genuinely knows how to create a humane connection. For instance, their #WhatsInAName campaign was different, yet it hit the right notes with the right audience.
19. Wakefit
“Sleep Internship” – a most viral campaign launched by Wakefit in 2019, where they promoted the importance of a good night’s sleep in a unique way. They offered their interns to pay for sleeping 9 hours on the Wakefit mattresses.
They were known as “sleep interns”. Interestingly, they promoted the content on social media where we saw the founder of the company reviewing the wake internships in a funny way.
20. Maggi
Lastly, the Maggi relaunch campaign was a highly emotional commercial ad campaign I saw in a very long time. There is no denying the fact that in some way or the other Maggi has been etched into the heart of every 90’s kids.
After being banned, the comeback campaign that they created, is to date one of the strongest marketing campaigns. With this campaign, the brand reached to the top as quickly as any brand can.
