Content | March 29, 2018
Top 5 Examples of Great B2B Content Marketing
At Liberty, we believe that there’s no such thing as a boring industry. With that being said, we’re all too familiar with the sad puppy-dog eyes of B2B marketers when they see a new and exciting B2C campaign. Yet, we’re here to show you that B2C marketers needn’t have all the fun.
B2B companies are just as passionate about their product, so there’s no reason why this can’t translate into an interesting content marketing plan with just a smidgen of creativity. No matter what your product is, there are people out there desperately searching for a solution that only you can provide. Hence, your knowledge can be used to inform and inspire an audience.
When it’s done right, B2B content marketing can push boundaries and sometimes it can even rival the creativity of B2C content. As such, we thought we’d share our five favourite examples of great B2B content marketing.
Cisco – graphic novel
As a company that produces telecommunications devices and other hardware, Cisco knew that they weren’t in the most exciting of industries, but that didn’t stop them from harnessing the superhero powers of content marketing. When promoting its upgraded cyber-security services, Cisco could have easily got away with just producing a simple blog article, or maybe pushing the boat out with an infographic. Instead, they opted to try something entirely different; they created a graphic novel complete with its own superhero.
The 8-page comic tells the story of SuperSmart and her quest to deal with a security loophole. Even if graphic novels aren’t your thing, you’re still far more likely to flick through this rather than read another tired blog article. By thinking outside the box of conventional content, Cisco has created something that’s engaging, fresh and unique.
GE
Despite being over a century old, GE has always been quick to embrace new marketing techniques. They’ve been using video to create educational and meaningful content for years now, and they maintain a strong presence on social media.
With over 250,000 followers on Instagram, GE uses the photo-sharing platform as an outreach and engagement tool. The success of this is best seen by their #InstaWalk campaign. In a bid to bring its brand and history to life, GE invited its biggest fans and influencers on a special tour around its activation facilities. Guests were encouraged to share photos of the facility on Instagram, some of which are later posted to GE’s Instagram page.
The results speak for themselves. The campaign resulted in over 3,000 new followers and 200,000 engagements under #GEInstaWalk.
Invision
Invision is an app that lets designers present and test website designs without any need for technical code or development skills. The brand has a successful content marketing strategy with all the usual fixtures such as guides that share tricks and tips as well as inspirational posts and case studies. Yet, whilst this strategy doesn’t seem to be particularly revolutionary, Invision tick every box when it comes to making it a standout example.
As a design-centric company, it goes without saying that Invision has developed a stylistic format that makes each case study fun to read. Each ‘Inside Design’ piece is laid out to look like a conversation, following the format of an interview. Plus, Invision uses plenty of behind-the-scenes imagery to give it a human element and to tell a story. Invision also tend to feature larger companies in their ‘Inside Design’ pieces, presumably to maximise shares and traffic. For example, Invision used Netflix as one of their ‘Inside Design’ pieces back in 2015. The original post achieved more than 1,000 social shares.
Slack
Slack, the workplace communication app, uses a different yet interesting approach to marketing as a whole. Rather than trying to explicitly maximise sales, they state that their intention is to create a buzz around their brand in more subtle ways. In interviews, Slack’s CMO has spoken openly about his disdain for “annoying marketing” and how they aim to let customers come to them. Whilst the company does invest in some targeting advertising, their intention is to remain as organic as possible, which means that content marketing forms a substantial element of their overall marketing strategy.
As well as an abundance of light-hearted, comical videos, the company has created its own podcast which explores the meaning and identity that people find in the workplace. With the popularity of podcasts steadily on the rise, Slack was quick to move with the times. As well as putting a lot of time and energy into the podcast, the company have invested heavily in its branding, logo design, recognisable illustrations and blurb. They use their other platforms, such as social media and e-shots, to ensure a new podcast is seen as big news to their followers. The podcasts are designed to introduce potential customers to Slack without a hard-sell.
☕️ New episode! ☕️
An 89-year-old server becomes the toast of the town; a 70-year-old retiree takes an internship. https://t.co/GZLFnPpbBe pic.twitter.com/NECVWWvdW3— Slack Stories (@SlackStories) September 8, 2017
The podcast is a great example of a brand trying to deliver something of value to its audience. This informative podcast works so well because it ultimately shares and promotes the same values that the company stands for. It’s something that would specifically appeal to those that are most likely to use Slack.
Salesforce
Whilst Salesforce always strived to help small and medium businesses to reach new customers and improve service, they were struggling to reach their audience before they heavily invested in content marketing. The brand’s content marketing strategy is now made up of fun videos on sales and marketing as well as Prezi and Slideshare presentations.
One of the best examples of Salesforce’s approach to content marketing is the Christmas storybook they created to tell the story of a John Lewis sleepover. With such a heavy focus on customer service, Salesforce often shines the light on stellar examples of customer service. When they heard that a John Lewis store had let 100 customer sleep there in the midst of a snowstorm, they decided to turn it into a Prezi storybook with an extra festive feel. It’s a content marketing masterpiece, with a fun illustrative design and a real-life story that’s packed with feel-good vibes. It’s something simple that doesn’t appear too salesy and is, therefore, more shareable.
This strategy gave Salesforce some results worth shouting about. In just three months, the business experienced 2500% more traffic from social media sites, 10,000 eBook downloads, and 6,500 email newsletter sign-ups.
If you’re feeling inspired by these examples of content marketing, why not give it a try yourself? If you’re struggling to get things off the ground, we can help you get started. Get in touch to find out more about our services.
