Struggling to engage your audience? Fuel your next content brainstorm with these killer content marketing examples.

Picture this: Your weekly content call is in 20 minutes, and you feel totally drained.

You’ve already taken your brand through every blog post your SEO-powered brain can muster, your influencer content is hitting engagement targets, and you’re tirelessly pitching guest posts for backlinks and industry cred.

Still, something’s just not clicking.

Yet the fact remains that your audience craves more content.

Americans consume digital content for an average of eight hours a day — but how do you fuel the fire when your creative mojo has gone completely MIA?

Time for some magnetic content inspiration! Tons of brands, from ecommerce to SaaS, are thinking outside the box to create successful content. Let these success stories help inspire you to create your brand’s best content marketing yet.

We’ve rounded up 10 top-tier examples of content marketing to get you all fired up. To guide us along, we grabbed some expert tips from HawkSEM’s senior content marketing manager, Caroline Cox.

Prepare to show up to your next marketing meeting with an ace in the hole.

10 content marketing examples to inspire your next campaign

The best content marketing starts with inspiration. That’s why we encourage all our clients to use content marketing examples as muses for drawing ideas and stepping up their content strategy.

From social media content and video to blog articles and case studies, this roundup covers almost everycontent marketing type you can think of.

Ready for some serious content inspiration? Keep reading!

1. SUGAR Cosmetics’ playful, interactive content & quizzes

Vineeta Singh is one of the sharp-toothed investors on Shark Tank India. She also founded one of India’s biggest makeup ecommerce sites, SUGAR Cosmetics.

With hundreds of thousands of monthly organic traffic hits, the brand hits $15-$25 million in annual revenue by targeting content to their largest target audience of 18-24 year olds.

Cox says the best way to engage on social media is to not take yourself too seriously:

“Most people are scrolling on social apps for entertainment or to take a break and zone out for a few (or several) minutes, so if you can delight or amuse them in some way, or offer some kind of helpful or educational insight in an appealing manner, you’re better off than a brand that’s using it without thinking about what content is most effective on the respective platform.”

SUGAR knows this all too well. They leverage the power of social media for content creation, specifically harnessing interactive Instagram content. Let’s take a look.

From the get-go, there’s tons of colorful, visually appealing product reveals. But most importantly? The interactivity is on point with all their quizzes inviting social media engagement.

For instance, the “Guess the Makeup Product” post has tons of comments and likes, unleashing great engagement:

In another post, SUGAR prompts their audience to “guess the odd one out” of a product line-up:

We love this fun maze game that’s branded to boot. The playful post perfectly entices their 18-24 year old demographic.

What about social media quizzes?

Jotform tells us that quizzes are great tools for gathering insights and diversifying content. You can even repurpose blog content into social media quizzes that entice your audience to learn more by redirecting them to your website.

SUGAR Cosmetics soaks up this effective strategy for all it’s worth, and we commend them.

Last but not least, SUGAR shares plenty of appealing infographics delivering actionable makeup tips and prime opportunities to showcase their products:

2. HawkSEM’s value-packed digital marketing blog

As experienced marketers, we know there is no better way to engage and help an audience than to serve up value-packed educational content. So when it came time to build our blog strategy, we knew that high-quality content was the top priority.

Our ultimate goal? To help digitally-inclined busy marketers by providing actionable, insightful guidance on their most pressing marketing hurdles.

To distinguish our content from our competitors’ and reach our target audience, we employ a few tried-and-true strategies:

  • Publish long-form articles
  • Gather exclusive insights from subject matter pros
  • Choose topics most relevant to our audience’s needs
  • Ensure our blog is easy to navigate, with a search bar to quickly find relevant topics
  • Use brand guidelines to ensure cohesion and consistency
  • Work off of a streamlined content calendar to stay organized and on track

Ultimately, if we want to help our clients see the best results from their content marketing, we need to set an example and also apply the same strategies and principles to our own content. That’s exactly what you’ll find on our digital marketing blog.

Source: HawkSEM blog

Source: HawkSEM blog

3. Maven Clinic’s repurposing of internal data into helpful, engaging content

Maven Clinic is a women’s and family benefits provider raking in serious revenue — likely thanks in part to their flawless educational content marketing.

The brand differentiates themselves with unique content based on their own internal studies and data.

Whether it’s 2023 research on fertility and family benefits:

…or critical gaps in patient care:

The Maven Clinic turns key research findings into reader-friendly blog posts. They also offer a link for readers to access the full reports.

In doing so, they gather valuable audience insights through the download contact form:

The importance of thought leadership for healthcare brands

Healthcare SEO content like the Maven Clinic’s falls under the category of “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL). These topics are held at a rigorous standard because, particularly for topics like finances and health, accurate information is paramount.

However, by positioning themselves as a reputable thought leader backing up their content with proven data, the Maven Clinic has established trust with both their audience and Google’s crawlers.

The great thing about using data for content? There is massive repurposing potential. Maven Clinic chooses blog posts, but you can repurpose data into pretty much any medium.

  • Visually striking infographics on Twitter?
  • Interviews with staff in a series of Spotify podcasts?
  • A video animation presenting findings in a fun, engaging way?

All great ideas.

4. The Workback’s authority-building editorial blog

Asana is the glue that keeps content calendars and marketing teams on track. We’re itching for a peek into the workflow that powers the company’s impeccable blog and YouTube content.

The project management SaaS brand boasts a value-packed blog titled “The Workback.” It features striking photos and graphics, and a collection of categorized stories that could easily grace the pages of a magazine:

Touches like the “W” favicon on the browser tab embellish the editorial aesthetic and give the design a high-quality feel.

Not only that, but many of their contributing writers are journalists, including Seattle-based Annie Atherton and BBC journalist David Silverberg. Hello, thought leaders!

Behind all that visual appeal, Asana’s blog is packed to the gills with engaging topics for project management aficionados to devour. Plus, the blog’s callout for contributing writers is carefully thought out.

Asana requests original reporting, how-to work guides, and an approachable writing style for every piece of content. In other words? Only high-quality content makes the cut.

Interviews, studies, essays — Asana’s made the world their content oyster.

Check out Asana’s Clarity collection, featuring stories from employees, partners, and customers. Look familiar? This is a fabulous example of user-generated content (UGC):

But if you want to see truly stellar UGC, pop over to Asana’s YouTube channel.

5. Asana’s user-generated YouTube video content

The #WithAsana collection is a trove of customer success stories showcasing the endless possibilities of what you can accomplish with the software.

#WithAsana is a prime example of the abundantly beneficial appeal of UGC. You get solid marketing material that you can blow up with a branded hashtag, and also offer users brand exposure online.

What makes it so effective? Cox explains that UGC packs a one-two punch: it’s authentic and affordable.

But she also recommends following some etiquette best practices. Namely, “Ask permission before reposting UGC, tagging the original creator, and do a little due diligence to make sure the content and its origin are aligned with your brand and its values,” she says.

6. Babbel’s cultural and linguistic video content

DuoLingo’s competitor Babbel has been around since 2007 but is now gaining traction with its competitive language-learning platform and hyperfocus on conversational practice.

And because language and culture go hand-in-hand, Babbel explores the customs of different places — appealing to learners’ curiosity and sense of adventure.

In one proactive move, they conducted a survey to better understand their customers. As a result, they found that more than half of their users were learning a new language to communicate better when traveling.

Pair that knowledge with the fact that speaking and listening are much more effective than writing when it comes to learning a language, and it’s no surprise that Babbel’s super engaging Instagram account features plenty of crisp, digestible video content, aka Reels.

Cox says video is one of the leading content marketing trends right now, thanks for the heightened potential to go viral and supercharge brand awareness.

“The gamble is that it’s hard to predict what will take off, trends change lightning-fast, and brands that are clearly making content with the intent to go viral may just end up missing the mark and getting roasted,” she explains.

Our experience tells us it’s best to keep your target audience and your brand’s tone at the forefront of your campaigns, like Babbel does with these helpful phrases to use in Germany:

And local speaking tips in Ecuador:

And finally, these tips for speaking French like a local:

Do you see what we see?

An intentional content marketing strategy that speaks directly to Babbel’s audience demographics and interests. They know their customer base wants to communicate better when traveling, and Babbel’s serving that knowledge on Instagram’s strategic, silver platter.

7. Guesty’s YouTube case studies

Ever rented an Airbnb on vacation? There’s a good chance your host uses a short-term rental management SaaS like Guesty to stay organized.

Case studies are a major content marketing component for SaaS brands. First, they help potential customers justify the subscription spend (more than one-time fees). Second? Half of SaaS brands in a recent survey say case studies drive sales.

Guesty took note, with these YouTube video case studies:

In each video, a customer describes how they used Guesty, complete with screencaps and insights on how the platform boosted their business revenue:

But Guesty doesn’t stop at YouTube for case study video content. They keep the ball rolling on Instagram Reels, where they share video testimonials:

8. National Geographic’s colorful, skimmable email marketing

When you think of National Geographic, you might picture stunning wildlife and landscape photographs spread across the pages of their print magazine.

But Nat Geo uses that striking visual appeal to capture people’s attention from your inbox, delivering captivating email marketing content.

Nat Geo content example

Source: National Geographic

The best part? They’re not in your face about selling subscriptions. Instead, they showcase the latest online content, offering a sneak peek with exquisite imagery:

Nat Geo content example 2

Source: National Geographic

And skimmable bullets for a quick and convenient user experience:

Nat Geo content example 3

Source: National Geographic

If you’re a startup, you might worry that your email marketing campaigns won’t generate as much interest as a big name like Nat Geo. But data from HubSpot would disagree, pointing out that 77% of brands have noticed increased email engagement in the last year.

In other words, effective email marketing is possible for businesses of all sizes.

If you’re itching to move forward with email marketing but aren’t sure where to start, take a page from Nat Geo’s book and keep things simple. You don’t need to craft a newsletter from scratch.

Start by repurposing blog content and infusing some of those lovely insights and graphics into a concise, skimmable email.

The result? Greater brand awareness and extra traffic to your site.

9. Always’ mission-driven marketing campaigns

Feminine care and education are hot topics (understandably) for feminine hygiene brands like Always, Kotex, and Tampax. Always caught our eye with their calculated marketing campaign to #EndPeriodPoverty.

The brand steers the narrative by using internal studies to shape their content strategy. They conducted a study after the COVID-19 pandemic and found that:

  • 1 in 3 parents are concerned about period product affordability
  • 1 in 3 young people feels less confident due to missing after-school activities

So, Always sought to #EndPeriodPoverty by showcasing a #PeriodHero in each state.

Here, Always features a California-based businesswoman and founder of WeAreHappyPeriod: a charitable organization dedicated to providing menstrual education and products to lower-income BIPOC communities.

Always keeps the momentum going by encouraging readers to make a difference and join the cause via social media engagement and donations.

More and more, people are looking to purchase from brands that give back and commit to partnering with causes they care about.

Always took things a step further by putting out a press release via their parent company Procter & Gamble.

By tackling the issue of period poverty head-on, Always raised awareness for an important cause and significantly boosted its brand awareness.

10. Home Depot’s genius TikTok influencer video marketing

What makes a 30-second TikTok video go viral, garnering more than 638K likes, 6,791 comments, and nearly 30 thousand shares?

Leave it to Home Depot to show us the ropes in this viral video content marketing example.

The endearing video personifies premium dad energy. It features four men in the gardening department of a Home Depot location using only home appliances, gardening pots, and tools to play the brand’s infamous theme song.

While the video itself is first-rate video marketing, the specific elements that make this campaign so damn effective showcase the art of subtlety:

    • It feels user-generated. Sure, the marketing lead mapped out this video hoping it would go viral, but they didn’t bother employing Marvel-level graphics or feature film-level cinematography.
    • A major TikTok influencer is featured in the video. In this subtle display of flawless influencer marketing, Home Depot partners with @joeportermusic, a TikTok music star with almost 1 million followers.
    • It promoted massive engagement from TikTok users and big brands alike:
      • “This is too good” Behr’s TikTok account commented
      • Delta chimed in with “the official theme song of airport dads everywhere.”

Aside from paying an influencer in this partnership, the marketing costs for a video like this aren’t expensive. There is no elaborate video production or fancy editing. It’s just grass-roots marketing at its finest.

How can you nail influencer marketing?

Cox says it’s important to “do your research to determine the top influencers related to your industry.” She adds that, just because someone is a successful influencer doesn’t mean your target audience necessarily follows them, so make sure there’s alignment there.

And don’t forget to have clear communication about your goals for the campaign. Cox suggests asking yourself questions like:

  • What kind of content are you looking for?
  • How specific do you plan to be about the messaging?
  • What’s the timeline?
  • What are the goals and budget?

Things like that will help ensure the partnership is successful.

What makes these content marketing examples successful?

So, why do some brands launch successful content that leads to viral campaigns while others who try similar tactics fall flat?

While some success stories happen at random, most often, it’s the result of a laser-sharp content strategy informed by data and audience insights.

Did Red Bull just sprout wings overnight? Did Nike flippantly remark “just do it,” during a marketing strategy meeting and it stuck? We don’t buy it.

The truth is, there is a tremendous amount of research and execution behind these campaigns. And, perhaps, also a dose of right-place-right-time luck.

Key strategies to adopt from these content marketing examples

How can you leverage these rockstar content marketing examples in your content strategy?

While you have plenty of platforms, channels, and formats at your fingertips, you can get the ball rolling with elements like:

  • Playful, branded infographics
  • Interactive quizzes and games
  • Published internal data studies and reports
  • Repurposing research findings into various types of content
  • Journalistic blogging and magazine-level graphics
  • Diverse contributing writers
  • User-generated video content
  • Conversational Instagram Reels
  • Audience research to guide content creation
  • Case studies as sales drivers for SaaS brands
  • Posting testimonials on blogs and social media platforms
  • Repurposing content into email marketing and newsletters
  • Professional photography and visual content
  • Marketing campaigns and hashtag engagement for relevant charitable causes
  • Pitching for exposure in news releases from other industry-leading companies

The takeaway

After seeing these content marketing examples, you may feel one of two emotions: totally inspired or completely overwhelmed.

We get it. It’s tough to think of great content marketing ideas for every channel, every week, all the time.

Don’t feel discouraged if your marketing team hits a creative slump on your next content call. Instead, inspire them with these excellent content marketing examples to get their creative juices flowing.

Stay curious as you explore one brand’s thriving YouTube channel or another brand’s story-based social media marketing content.

And if you still need support to keep your content marketing efforts fresh?

A marketing agency like HawkSEM dedicates undivided time, attention, and expertise to help you craft unique, engaging material to crush your content goals. We keep a close eye on the latest marketing trends and metrics that are essential for positioning your brand ahead of the competition.

Together, we can craft a content marketing campaign that sparks inspiration and raises the bar for others to follow. Let’s get started.

Christina Lyon

Christina Lyon

Christina Lyon is an entrepreneur and writer from sunny SoCal. She leads Lyon Content, a tight-knit team of bold creatives, and crafts engaging written content that helps brands sparkle and scale.