Excellence in Content Marketing: Be Inspired by Some of our Judges’ Favs. When it comes to excellence in content marketing, there are many things to consider – audience, intent, format, design, ROI, and more. Excellence comes from storytelling that goes beyond your products and services Using content to educate readers or offer advice on topics that they care about helps you establish conversation points and build trust. It takes guts (and sometimes lots of convincing for executive naysayers) to stray from writing about the products and services you know best, but you sometimes must appeal to an audience outside of your products and services. Last September, it developed its first content brand, Direct Advice 4 Dads. Excellence comes from discovering a content niche TFBIC recognized, as did other award winners and finalists, how important it is to publish content that no one else is creating. Once the audience quality was better understood, it focused on a new acquisition strategy to gain more C-suite and senior executive readers. The results of studying its audience, digging deep, and creating higher-quality targets: Increased assisted-conversion revenue attributed to newsletters by almost 26% year over year Increased direct-conversion revenue attributed to newsletters by almost 38% year over year Excellence comes from tying content to new audiences Allied Irish Bank received impressive conversions from a content initiative designed to provide tools and technologies to help new businesses grow. The MyBusinessToolkit campaign aimed to gain 500 new customer accounts for AIB in three months, according to its agency, Radical. The company sought to position itself as a leader in “account-based everything.” The results of the 142-page guide at the time of the submission: 4,076 downloads in four months 2,755 downloads from named accounts 269 new opportunities influenced Millions in new pipeline and revenue And these six themes are only the beginning of the fruitful lessons learned from this year’s Content Marketing Awards winners.
When it comes to excellence in content marketing, there are many things to consider – audience, intent, format, design, ROI, and more. We are excited to showcase excellence across these content characteristics from the winners and finalists in the 2017 Content Marketing Awards, which were just announced today. With over 1,100 entries across 93 categories, our 90 judges were impressed with the creativity, quality, and passion visible in the submissions.
While we plan to profile many of these award winners in the coming months, these six key themes emerged from some standout programs.
Excellence comes from storytelling that goes beyond your products and services
Using content to educate readers or offer advice on topics that they care about helps you establish conversation points and build trust. That trust can turn to interest in your products and services. It takes guts (and sometimes lots of convincing for executive naysayers) to stray from writing about the products and services you know best, but you sometimes must appeal to an audience outside of your products and services. When it’s done right, the payoff is big.
Take HBF, Western Australia’s oldest and largest private health insurer. Last September, it developed its first content brand, Direct Advice 4 Dads. It steered clear of the crowded maternity market, and identified a gap in pregnancy and parenting content targeted to new/expecting dads (who, by the way, may have a need for a new or better health insurance for their growing families).
DAD’s tagline – real-life advice, sense, and nonsense from dads who’ve been there, done it, and are wearing the spewed-on T-shirt – reflects content that is a mix of fun, hard-hitting, and emotional.
Using a blogging and social media strategy, the brand generated 171,000 unique visitors and 21,000 followers on Facebook in its first five months and continues to grow, gain media attention, and bring new dads into the conversation. Not surprisingly, the DAD platform is becoming a referral path for HBF.
Another example of creating content beyond the core comes from the Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Companies, which introduced the Texas Heritage for Living Cookbook.
TFBIC’s agency, D Custom, created the cookbook as a brand extension that gave agents a personal way to connect with policyholders and ultimately boost member retention and loyalty. It focused on “friendly conversation” and not “low rates or online policies.”
We applaud this effort not only for the brand extension and brand loyalty, but also for the niche. There are plenty of cookbooks on the market, but this one focuses on a “delicious and truly Texan experience for the whole family.” Recipes – from black-eyed pea salsa to game day beef footballs – were submitted by members (customers), and the cookbook includes stories about local Texas farms. Not only were our mouths watering, but it’s a feast for the eyes as well.
Excellence comes from discovering a content niche
TFBIC recognized, as did other award winners and finalists, how important it is to publish content that no one else is creating. When thinking about a content marketing strategy, it’s important to be unique. How can you differentiate your content from everything else out there?
Another great example of this niche content came from Dutch Railway operator, NS. Its #nsfavourites, created by its agency G+J Custom Content, aims to inspire customers ages…
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