Top Five Successful Businesses in Content Marketing

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Content marketing is very important these days. The age of pop-up ads are over. Nowadays, responsive websites are taking over the Internet. Traditional, static forms of advertising are not enough anymore in today’s technology and social media-driven societies. So, businesses need to actively gain their audiences’ attention spans and engage with them. As many business owners will prove, this is easier said than done.

Are your businesses struggling for a better, successful content marketing strategy? Learn from these five brilliant businesses that have mastered content marketing in the hard way.

1. Zady

Zady

Zady is a new ecommerce enterprise that specializes in ethically made goods (apparel, accessories and home products) with transparent supply chains. Each product tells a story about the maker, often taking shoppers directly into a designer’s studio. Including these backstories adds a personal touch and allows customers to feel a sense of connection to the product or brand — factors that promote sales. Since Zady is targeting shoppers who care about where their goods come from, this type of editorial is an important key.

2. Sweetgreen

Sweet Green

Sweetgreen is a restaurant chain dedicated to organic cuisine and sustainability. With a strong impression on social media (19,000+ Facebook fans, 12,000+ Twitter followers, more than 11,000 Instagram followers and active Tumblr and YouTube accounts), a mobile app and an entire section of its website dedicated to community, Sweetgreen taps into its customers’ core beliefs and healthy lifestyle values — all while maintaining consistent brand identity.

The brand rallies its online community with hashtags like #behindthegreens, #sgimpact and #farmtotable. Sweetgreen has even ventured into local communities with campaigns such as Sweetgreen in schools and the annual Sweetlife Festival — initiatives that influence positive brand recognition and association.

3. Birchbox

Birchbox

Birchbox’s content marketing strategy targets the millennial generation’s Achilles’ heel: the fear of missing out. The “discovery commerce platform” runs customers $10 a month, for which customers receive a customized box of beauty samples. Even though the box usually contains more than a $10 return in beauty products or discounts, a monthly charge for an assortment of surprise goods is asking a lot from the generation that averages nearly $30K in student loan debt.

Then, why is the discovery commerce platform so surprisingly successful? It’s because Birchbox’s social media accounts consistently post photos, videos and articles chronicling happy customers, the contents of last month’s box, beauty how-tos and insider details about the “must-have” beauty products coming in the next package. All posts link back to the content hosted on the Birchbox site, with an easy, bright blue “subscribe” button in plain view. The message is simple: If you aren’t getting Birchbox, you are definitely missing out — the perfect push to drive customers to whip out credit cards and subscribe.

4. Of a Kind

Of A Kind

Of a Kind offers more than beautifully crafted clothing, jewelry and accessories. It also tells the stories about how those goods are made (and the people who make them) through one-on-one interviews and photos shot by Jamie Beck. Of a Kind takes advantage of sharing products on the social platforms that make the most sense marketing-wise, which is a perfect candidate for Pinterest. The company page itself has included more than 2,000 pins, as well as boards featuring bridesmaid looks, home and studio tours, designer stories and gift guides.

5. Equinox

Equinox

The Equinox approach to content marketing can be summarised by its promotional material: “It’s not fitness, it’s life.”

The chain of upscale fitness clubs is active on social platforms and keeps a blog about healthy living. While much of the content on these platforms is branded with the company logo and jargons, it isn’t overly promotional. For example, the YouTube video on “How to Get a Surfer’s Body” features a pump-it-up beat in the background (no voiceover) and a chiseled surfer-stud working out on the beach. And the Contortionist video simply flaunts the beauty and elegance of the human body. The videos operate more as inspirational exercise guides than as promotions for classes or personal training sessions — in fact, neither even takes place in a gym. On Twitter, Equinox frequently retweets helpful articles, events and suggestions for working out or adhering to a healthy diet.

With these strategies, Equinox appeals not only to customers, but to anyone striving to live a healthy, fitness-oriented lifestyle, making it more likely that people will share the content (and potentially bring business in the door).