Content marketing can be a difficult concept to understand for some. Content has always been an important part of digital marketing, so what is the great need behind drumming up content marketing? Isn’t the present emphasis on creating quality content enough?
The need for content marketing is borne from the habituation of people to quality content. The world is digital now, and the digital experience is defined by content. An overwhelming percentage of audiences today are influenced to buy a product or service only through content. This is why brands are investing in blog content, podcasts, and YouTube channels in order to reach their customers and present them with relatable content narratives.
A little give-and-take builds trust. By first giving audiences quality content, businesses expect customers to return the favor by buying the product or service from them. In the case of small brands without instant recognisability, a lot of content is needed to finally influence an average prospect into becoming a customer.
Content marketing is best understood when a marketer can study how it worked for other websites and brands.
In this article, we will go over two content marketing examples that illustrate its importance in today’s digital marketing world.
General Electric
GE has its fingers in both B2C and B2B streams of businesses. From manufacturing microwaves to jet engines and wind turbines, GE is an old titan of multiple industries.
When it wanted to promote its B2B side on Instagram, many competitors scoffed at the idea. Instagram is otherwise known as a platform ideal for B2C businesses only. B2B brands tend to stay away from digital marketing, let alone Instagram.
GE decided to use a combination of influencer and content marketing to reach a larger audience on Instagram. It brought on board some well-known influencers and popular fans and made them participate in a tour of multiple GE’s manufacturing facilities. It names this campaign #GEInstaWalk.
The campaign was a roaring success and resulted in GE getting 8M views on its Insta profile. It added 3000 new followers and reached over 3M people with every facility toured. All this was achieved by not investing a dime in promotions and ads.
Buffer
Anyone even slightly familiar with social media marketing would have heard of Buffer. It is best known for helping social media users schedule their posts and track engagement.
To add an extra layer to its brand, Buffer hosts an interactive blog on its website called Buffer Open Blog. The blog is special because of its high quality and behind-the-curtain approach.
Buffer understands that its audience is interested in knowing how they do what they do. Whether this involves their marketing campaigns to the technical aspects of their operations, Buffer offers every key insight in its Open Blog.
By doing so, Buffer creates an image of transparency and trust. It is open with its audience and never hides anything. This is why it is the most used social media tool despite there being other tools offering the
In Conclusion
In conclusion, this article covers two content marketing examples depicting how the to practice has helped the brands practicing it.
About the Author – Hemant Singh is a digital marketing fresher with a keen eye for content analysis. He currently writes for DelhiCourses.in, a well-known institute for a digital marketing course in Delhi.