Get Inspired By These 2 Brands That Are Getting Content Marketing Right

Content marketing can do wonders for companies in a wide variety of industries.

From consumer goods to specialized B2B services, you can bring in more leads and make more sales with a robust content strategy.

It's a way to reach people throughout the different phases of the buyer's journey…

From upper funnel informational content to landing pages and product descriptions that seal the deal.

If you're not sure how to approach content marketing, or your current strategy doesn't seem to be working well for you, it can help to take a look at some examples from brands that are getting it right.

In a recent blog post, the Content Marketing Institute showcases brands with top tier content.

Two of these are Direct Advice 4 Dads, a health content site, and Monster.com, a job search platform.

Direct Advice 4 Dads

(Winner: Content Marketing Launch of the Year; Agency–Client Content Marketing Partnership; Best Content-Driven Website; Best Overall Editorial – Digital; Finalist: Content Marketing Project of the Year; Best Content Marketing Program in Healthcare)

[image source: Content Marketing Institute]

As I recently pointed out, using content to educate readers or offer advice on topics that they care about can help establish conversation points and build trust – which, in turn, can drive increased 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 when it’s done right, the payoff can be big.

Consider this campaign from HBF, Western Australia’s oldest and largest private health insurer.

Last year, it developed its first content brand, Direct Advice 4 Dads (DAD).

Taking a page out of the Content Inc. playbook, the company steered clear of the crowded maternity market, and identified a gap in pregnancy and parenting content targeted to new and expecting dads (who, by the way, are just as involved as moms in making decisions about their family’s health insurance needs).

HBF’s decision to tilt its content focus to serve this untapped audience turned out to be a key factor in DAD’s success – and a source of inspiration in the lives of the dads who now engage with it regularly.

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 powerful referral path for HBF.

Monster Career Advice

(Winner: Paid Advertising/Content Marketing Integration; Best Multi-Author Blog; Finalist: Content Marketing Project of the Year)

[image source: Content Marketing Institute]

Another advice-driven example of content marketing excellence comes from Monster, which redesigned its Monster’s Career Advice section in 2016 to better help today’s job seekers advance their careers and increase their job satisfaction.

But what truly stands out about Career Advice isn’t just its employment news, industry analysis, resume templates, and other proprietary content tools that give its audience a leg up in the highly competitive job market – it’s the company’s overall content mission of bringing humanity to a process increasingly driven by technologies like resume scanning software, search bots, and automated referral services.

In keeping with this mission, one of Monster’s primary goals for Career Advice was to drive membership on the site so job seekers could empower themselves to become better candidates for the positions listed on Monster’s job boards (or anywhere else).

Monster’s content team pursued these goals through the 15 blog posts each week.

That’s in addition to the company’s other content franchises, such as its monthly Monster 100 list of top companies hiring, a newly launched video program, and a new monthly podcast – Jobsessed.

Subject matter expert Vicki Salemi was on hand to lend her industry authority to the site, as well as to contribute her own original content.

Look at some of the tremendous business and brand awareness results Career Advice content has driven for the company:

Over one-fifth of traffic to Monster – 22% of unique visitors – entered through content in 2016.

Monster’s expanded content program saw a total of 96 million page views last year, up 18% from 2015.

In its first year, Monster’s video program earned 537,000 video views, with only 30% coming from paid ads.

Four million job searches were initiated from visits that began on content pages – an 18% increase year over year.

The Monster 100 list achieved a stunning 65% conversion ratio from page view to job search.

A soft-close member capture gate launched on all content pages in September 2016 resulted in 48,000 new members (an achievement the company estimates would have cost $3 million-plus to acquire through online advertising).