6 Content Examples to Inspire Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

What separates good content from exceptional content?

As marketers, we can easily get stuck in the flow of creating and distributing content that's producing the desired results. But what does it take to level up?

What does it take to make something people will always want to engage with?

Well, there are definite ways you can start moving in the right direction. These examples of published content should serve as inspiration, showing you what's truly possible with your strategy.

Examples to Rejuvenate Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

As more companies turn to the inbound approach because of its effectiveness, the noise is increasing. It's becoming harder than ever to get your content to stand out.

The primary approach needs to be providing relevant, valuable content to your audience. That's what gets them to trust your brand and continue coming to you for answers. It's the basis behind growth marketing and what sets top-tier brands apart.

But what can you do to entice new customers to come your way? That's where these six examples of inbound content can help inspire your strategy.

1. Make-A-Wish Foundation

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is well-known for bringing amazing experiences to children diagnosed with a critical illness. The organization was able to gain awareness of their cause during one wish to help a boy with leukemia, driving more donations so they could help others.

The campaign was called Batkid Begins and involved partnering with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. to turn San Francisco into Gotham City so a boy could be Batman for a day.

The campaign blew up with social posts, articles, videos, and even a documentary that captured the event.

Creating inspirational stories about how your audience improved their status with your product is an outstanding way to gain traction in your campaign and pick up some fans along the way. This requires some background work, collecting customer testimonials and reviews.

The key, however, is to truly attempt to change your customers' lives for the better. Using them only for a marketing campaign, with no cares about their personal success with backfire in a heartbeat.

2. Shutterstock

Every year, Shutterstock publishes an annual creative trends infographic. The graphics are well-designed and packed with information, so there's no way someone will forget looking at it.

Because it's an annually published piece of content, people get to look forward to its release. And since it's useful to people who follow creative trends, they're more likely to share the content and engage with it every year. It becomes an anticipated event for those in the industry.

Another great example is HubSpot's State of Inbound. This report is published every year based on information collected from their audience via emails and surveys. When the report is complete, everyone who provided information receives an update and link to the content. This is especially useful because anyone who adds their thoughts is generally invested in seeing the outcome and also more likely to share.

Finding your own content to create something similar can be challenging, but it starts with looking at what matters most to your industry. If you maintain the trends analysis concept, you can find useful information for your audience. You just need to ensure there's enough value that they can't resist it.

3. Bank of America

Bank of America took an interesting approach to their content marketing, creating Money Health classes in partnership with Khan Academy.

The classes use Bank of America's domain knowledge and Khan Academy's platform. This gives them more reach, and because the content can easily be repurposed for other uses, it proved to be an effective method of delivering the material.

Partnerships will work if you can find a commonality between your brands. Like how Apply partnered with Hermès to make their smartwatch bands more appealing. The catch is that you need to deliver value that engages both audiences. Otherwise, the partnership becomes one-sided and will fail.

Also, using a different medium can generate better traffic. Bank of America used classes, you could adapt content to videos, infographics, or any other medium you're not currently engaging with.

4. Deloitte

Deloitte serves as an example of what taking a stand can do to earn attention. So long as you can highlight an ideal that your audience cares about, you're giving them something to rally behind.

People are often subconsciously looking for a tribe they can be part of, with a cause they can support. If you can position your brand as the leader of that front, you stand to gain brand loyalty, especially if you're consistently delivering.

The video above was created for Deloitte's Global Impact Report. It's delivered in addition to their annual status report as a way to frame their goals. It presents them as a thought leader and one that cares about what they're doing. With over 3.5 million followers on LinkedIn, it's apparent that people have bought into their cause.

5. Babylist

New and expecting parents often feel overwhelmed with joy and new responsibilities. Babylist focuses their content on providing answers to help put parents' minds at ease.

This includes best of lists for everything from strollers to bottles, explaining what to look for and why it's important. For a new parent, this information is critical, especially with advances in baby products.

As a top of the funnel (ToFu) offer, Babylist presents a quiz that, when completed, creates a personalized baby registry based on the user's answers.

The company has found a way to provide value in a way that's useful, relevant, and builds trust with the consumer. Developing systems like this requires you to understand your audience's needs, but these answers also help you create better, more detailed personas.

6. 24Slides

24Slides is a PowerPoint presentation development company. They help their customers develop impressive presentations, saving them time, and increasing the perceived value of whatever they're showing.

To build their list, 24Slides created a ToFu Offer that achieved outstanding results. Rather than just asking for an email and name to receive the lead magnet, they also requested consumers comment on or share a specific for the offer.

This approach led to nearly 100,000 engagements, growing their list by 80,000 subscribers. By giving away a small portion of their core offer, 24Slides was able to demonstrate how well they can perform. The strategy of using LinkedIn shares caused the offer to go viral, driving more traffic than they'd ever planned.

Creating a Mind-Blowing Content Marketing Strategy

There will always be a new way to break out of the monotony of content marketing. It's normal to feel like you've fallen in a rut, where things may be working, but you're losing the excitement of the creation process.

These examples should provide the inspiration you need to create a mind-blowing content marketing strategy. If you can shape the concepts above to fit your brand, you're sure to breathe new life into your strategy so you can get excited again and drive better results from your content marketing.