7 Inspiring Content material Advertising and marketing Examples (And Why They Labored)

Everybody says content material advertising and marketing is nice, however what are some actually good examples that really delivered?

To reply this query, we’ve put our Content material Explorer to work. These seven examples got here from filtering over 6.2B reside pages in English by natural site visitors and referring domains. 

We can even share our brief evaluation of why these examples got here out so nicely. 

Adobe's Free Image Background Remover

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 5.1M
Backlinks: 3.7K from 1.8K domains

Adobe. In case you’ve heard about its product however haven’t heard concerning the firm, it’s chargeable for placing the “photoshopped” in “this picture seems to be completely photoshopped.”

Its declare to fame on this listing is a device that mechanically removes the background from any pic without spending a dime so that you don’t need to. If you happen to’ve ever tried to do that manually, you’ll know why such a device is a lifesaver.

Why it labored 

Hundreds of thousands of individuals seek for an answer like this each month, and Adobe ranks within the prime three each time.

For instance, listed below are a few of their top-performing key phrases and their search quantity within the U.S. alone. 

Keyword data, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Website Explorer.

This web site will get many of the site visitors from India, the place demand is even increased. 

Keyword data, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

Naturally, it’s thought of a conversion path. Eradicating the background is free. However in case it’s good to resize the picture too… Adobe all the time has a plan (pun supposed). 

Adobe Express plans
16Personalities’ Free Personality Test 

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 2.8M
Backlinks: 20.9K from 10.3K domains

This content material advertising and marketing instance is so efficient that somebody constructed a whole enterprise on it. 

It’s a free persona take a look at. The location sells premium content material on private development, personalized based mostly on the take a look at outcomes. 

Why it labored

In brief, many individuals need to study extra about themselves and the folks of their environment, so that they search recommendation in persona assessments like this one. This firm created an expertise that stands out in each side, which allowed it to reap the benefits of that demand. 

This single web page ranks for over 7K key phrases, lots of which have tens and even a whole bunch of 1000’s in search quantity. This explains such surprisingly excessive site visitors for “simply” a persona take a look at. 

Keyword data, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Website Explorer.

One other notable factor is how nicely the conversion path is designed all through the positioning with the only objective of sending guests to that web page. 

Whenever you enter the positioning, there may be completely no distraction; there’s 100% deal with the take a look at. 

CTA buttons leading to the test

After the take a look at, you get a beneficiant quantity of free data in your persona. At that time, you’re probably “hooked.” You’re then provided the chance to improve your expertise: extra recommendation, ideas, and extra specialised assessments. And the positioning is promoting this as frictionless as technically doable. 

How the site reassures visitors

You even get an mechanically created free profile which, I need to admit, appears like your very personal devoted zone for private exploration. Even the primary CTA buttons change to guide you to your profile.

CTAs leading to a profile on the site
NeoMam’s 13 Reasons Your Brain Craves Infographics

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 4
Backlinks: 4.1K from 329 domains

Launched in 2013, that is an infographic about why your mind craves infographics, created by an infographic design and advertising and marketing company within the U.Okay. 

It’s nicely designed and nicely researched. It’s additionally one of many few interactive items of content material we’ve come throughout that really resized appropriately and labored on cell (as of when this text was written).

Why it labored 

The timing was virtually actually one of many largest contributing elements right here.

NeoMam revealed this piece of content material in July 2013 which, in line with Google Tendencies, was almost the height of a long-term development of curiosity in infographics. 

Data from Google Trends

By publishing content material about trending subjects, you improve the pool of prospects who’re prone to be desirous about that includes the content material. It’s akin to publishing one thing concerning the Barbie film in 2023—if the content material is nice, journalists and bloggers will probably be falling over themselves to cowl it.

And that’s precisely what occurred on this case. NeoMam’s infographic bought featured on a number of large websites, resembling Huffington Publish, Harvard Enterprise Overview, and Entrepreneur:

Data via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Website Explorer.

However what’s additionally notable is that this work was featured in different lists like this one. So if somebody in search of infographic inspiration comes throughout this instance, they could rent the company that created it. 

Danny Ashton, the founding father of NeoMam, additionally places a number of the success all the way down to the standard and depth of analysis:

Again in 2013 you might get away with sources that didn’t fairly make sense or simply hyperlink to a weblog. However one of many issues I mentioned to the crew after we did this was to solely discuss issues that we may cite with a scientific journal. Going the additional mile in terms of analysis high quality was key for getting the belief from journalists seeking to cowl the story.

CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Market Data

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 1.3M
Backlinks: 234K from 10.3K domains

CoinDesk is a web based journal dedicated to cryptocurrencies, web3, and the underlying expertise. This instance is among the internet’s go-to sources for checking the most recent worth of Bitcoin and a few associated market knowledge. 

Why it labored

There are hundreds of thousands of searches for the reside worth of Bitcoin each month. With this web page, CoinDesk ranks excessive for these searches and generates huge site visitors it doesn’t must pay for. 

Keyword data, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Website Explorer.

What’s in it for CoinDesk to undergo all of that problem to offer contemporary market knowledge? Particularly when merchants get their knowledge from their buying and selling apps? I can assume of some issues:

  • Promoting income from on-site adverts, which get hundreds of thousands of views. 
  • Affiliate income—the “purchase/promote” button you may see within the screenshot results in third-party buying and selling apps. 
  • Authority from all the hyperlinks pointing to that web site. Which may, in flip, assist it rank different content material.
  • Final however not least, elevated readership. Its core content material (information) is only a click on away. 
Cars.com’s Auto Loan Calculator

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 140K
Backlinks: 16.6K from 570 domains

Automobiles.com’s Auto Mortgage Calculator does precisely what it says on the tin. However as you could have guessed, vehicles.com just isn’t within the calculator enterprise—it’s a web based automobile market. 

As soon as it calculates the month-to-month cost quantity, there’s an auto-generated search field beneath that allows you to “seek for vehicles in your funds.” After all, the listing of vehicles comes from vehicles.com.

List of eligible offers based on the calculation

Why it labored

The phrase “automobile mortgage calculator” will get an estimated 475K month-to-month searches within the U.S.

Keyword data, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer.

The calculator ranks within the prime three in Google for that question. It additionally ranks within the prime 100 for 8,970 different key phrases, which additionally ship site visitors to the web page leading to an estimated 148,242 month-to-month visits. 

SERP overview for "car loan calculator," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

That site visitors then converts into leads when folks seek for vehicles on the web site inside that worth vary.

Superdrug’s Perceptions of Perfection Across Borders

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 28
Backlinks: 1.1K from 545 domains

Superdrug, a well being and sweetness retailer within the U.Okay., requested feminine graphic designers from 18 totally different international locations to retouch a photograph of a girl to make her extra enticing.

Listed below are only a few of the outcomes:

Perceptions of perfection—women

A 12 months later, it repeated the examine with males:

Perceptions of perfection—men

Every ensuing picture and physique kind is vastly totally different from the remaining—which is all the level.

Superdrug aimed to point out that there’s no such factor as the right physique. It’s subjective, not definitive. What’s seen as the best physique varies massively from nation to nation.

Why it labored 

Superdrug launched this marketing campaign in 2015 when, in line with Google Tendencies, the physique positivity motion was beginning to achieve traction. 

Data from Google Trends

That meant there have been many journalists and bloggers desperate to cowl optimistic, thought-provoking content material round this topic, which led to options in massive information websites resembling Huffington Publish, The Telegraph, and Every day Mail. 

Data via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Website Explorer.
Zendesk Alternative

Estimated month-to-month natural site visitors: 88
Backlinks: 475 from 329 domains

In 2013, Zendesk, a buyer help answer, playfully created a fictional rock band known as “Zendesk Different.” The band’s idea revolved round Zendesk stealing its title, resulting in humorous and quirky conditions. 

Regardless of being solely faux, Zendesk put in a number of effort. It established the band on varied platforms like Fb, Bandcamp, or YouTube, giving it the looks of an actual act. 

Why it labored 

Not solely is it humorous and insanely nicely executed, but it surely actively targets prospects contemplating different options to Zendesk and makes an attempt to win them over.

The web page ranks within the prime 5 search outcomes more often than not on Google for “zendesk different,” a key phrase that will get 800 searches per thirty days within the U.S.

Data via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer
Information by way of Ahrefs’ Key phrases Explorer.

It is a key phrase for which the majority of site visitors would ordinarily go to another web site.

Additionally, in line with this archived article on radius.com, Zendesk closed 5 offers that originated from the Zendesk Different web page inside six months of the marketing campaign going reside.

Closing ideas

Each one in every of these examples depends on creating one thing of worth (content material) and selling it to audiences (advertising and marketing).

They’re all comparatively replicable and simple concepts at their core. A few of them might have required extra sources, however others show that you could create excellent content material even for those who’re on a funds.

Have you learnt of another cool content material advertising and marketing examples? Let me know on Twitter or Mastodon