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Top 20 Best Content Marketing Examples of 2020

Posted Under: Content Marketing
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Best Content Marketing Examples

Every year, countless companies create “best of” lists. There’s the best songs of 2020 (a classic). The best pork sausages of 2020 (yes, a real thing). The best sipping tequilas of 2020 (my personal favorite). The best paint colors of 2020. And now, of course, the best work from home tech gear of 2020.

So when we decided to do our own list of the best content marketing examples of 2020, we didn’t want to simply throw together a hodgepodge of the first examples we could find. We decided to find the best examples from our own work and brands we admire that follow the strategies we recommend to our own content marketing consulting clients.

These examples include content we created with and for our clients (yes, we do that soup-to-nuts, in partnership, or in a strategic role), content we created for ourselves, and other content we love (like the Lunchables phone hotline—WOW!).

If we can help you create your latest report, launch your next video series, or create your next content marketing plan (that you’ll actually execute), let us know by setting up a quick call with a content marketing strategist on our team. We’d love to see you on this list in 2021.

With that, let’s dive in now to the best content marketing examples of 2020.

Part 1: Content Series

Content Marketing Examples 1-5

The most successful content marketers think like a TV network and don’t create random acts of content.

What does this mean? They give their audience a chance to find content in their preferred channel and format, and deliver it to them in a steady stream over a period of time. You can’t simply post one video or article and expect to get customers. Marketers must stop random acts of content and, instead, have a rich, nuanced plan to create less but better content and to deliver that content more frequently to your target audience.

Think about it. The most effective marketing and advertisements are experienced over a period of time. It takes about 7 impressions for a display ad to sink in and about 5 drip emails to warm up leads. It’s also why you see the same commercials over and over again.

The first 5 examples are wonderful examples of a successful content series.

1. Podium Press Send Webinar Series

Brand: Podium

Content Type: Webinar Series

Industry: Martech

9 new, related webinars over 9 months, promoted as live and on-demand

In this 9-month webinar series, Podium tackled a new customer experience and business communication challenge each month. By selecting a new, timely topic each month, attendees built their knowledge over the course of the series. Each month, Convince & Convert’s very own Jay Baer joined one of the Podium team experts, as well as another leading author or marketer in the space. With a conversational tone, each webinar flew by and gained additional on-demand viewership after the live broadcast as well.

Content Marketing Example: COVID-19 webinar

See It Live ????Back to Basics: Reopening Business in a COVID-19 World

Content Marketing Example: Marketing Webinar with Podium

See It Live ???? Turn Your Customers Into Marketers with Word of Mouth

Content Marketing Example From Podium

See It Live ???? Own Your Market: How to Outshine Your Competitors with Speed

2. SharpSpring Agency Acceleration Series

Brand: SharpSpring

Content Type: Webinar Series

Industry: Martech

14-part series, from August 2020 to December 2020; promoted as live, virtual series, with access to on-demand sessions

For this 14-part series, the Convince & Convert team recruited the world’s best marketing and agency experts, including Ann Handley, Seth Godin, Shama Hyder, Jason Swenk, Karl Sakas and many more to create sessions and participate in live-streamed Q&As with agency owners across the U.S. and globe. Each bi-weekly session is streamed on SharpSpring’s own YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter channels and features tons of interaction and questions from the audience.

For SharpSpring, supporting agencies is a critical part of their digital marketing approach, and the virtual event series has helped the company generate thousands of new leads and customers.

This is a content marketing example from SharpSpring
Every 2 weeks, there is a new session with a live Q&A.
Content marketing example from SharpSPring
The sessions are streamed on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and are available on-demand. You can see this one has over 1200 views on YouTube alone.

See It Live ???? SharpSpring Agency Acceleration Series

3. Oracle’s “On The Fly”

Brand: Oracle

Content Type: Video Series

Industry: Martech

30-part video series, with new videos launched throughout 2019 and 2020; promoted via social, YouTube and the Oracle blog

“On the Fly” is Oracle’s video series with small bites (two mins or less) of marketing and customer experience advice from experts.

2020 marks the second season of this video series. Each week, a new 2-minute video is released with a marketing leader sharing a quick tip for other professionals. The original idea for “On the Fly” was marketing tips while traveling. In April 2020, that shifted to “marketing during disruption.” The videos are casual and authentic, but there is still some post-production polish to make sure the branding is consistent and strong.

Oracle shares the "On the Fly" videos on YouTube, via social, email and on their website.
Oracle shares the “On the Fly” videos on YouTube, via social, email and on their website.
Jay Baer
Each short video stars an influencer, sharing their best marketing tips.

Each short video stars an influencer, sharing their best marketing tips.

See It Live ???? Oracle’s On The Fly

4. New School Rules and 1-877-BTS-RULZ Hotline

Brand: Lunchables

Content Type: Video Series and Kids Hotline

Industry: Food Processing

Educational video series and choose-your-own-adventure hotline

To help kids adjust to a new kind of school year, Kraft Heinz’s Oscar Mayer brand, Lunchables, launched a choose-your-own-adventure, audio experience hotline and a video series about safety called “New School Rules”.

By calling the 1-877-BTS-RULZ hotline, kids (with parent approval, of course) can decide how to start their day and which characters to play, while also learning about new safety rules for COVID-19 school reopenings.

The cartoon video series, “New School Rules,” has tips on handwashing, mask wearing, and social distancing.

Content marketing example: new school rules
This video from Lunchables teaches kids how to practice good hand hygiene.

Video series continues connections

See It Live ???? Lunchables’ YouTube Channel

5. “See You Soon” video series

Brand: Visit California

Content Type: Video Series

Industry: Travel & Tourism

Video series continues connections and builds the anticipation of travel during shutdowns

Without a doubt, one of the industries that has been hardest hit from the pandemic is travel and tourism. Visit California’s mission has always been to openly welcome visitors to the state, but with the shutdowns, they had to quickly pivot to a new approach of building the anticipation of travel when the time was appropriate and safe. They did this by repurposing stock aerial footage of 12 iconic California locations and adding a “see you soon” text message thread from Visit California. The simple campaign was powerful, giving people hope and something to look forward to during the initial COVID-19 peak.

california dream big

See You Soon from Visit California

See It Live ???? See You Soon from Visit California

Part 2: Research, Reports and Data

Examples 6-9

Of the 3,000+ blog posts we’ve published at Convince & Convert, the best-performing are almost always articles about research and statistics.

Why?

Because people want answers and facts.

Now more than ever, with the world all topsy-turvy, yesterday’s “best practices” may not be “best” any more. Which is why new research, studies, and statistics are perhaps the very best way for you to create new leads, nurture existing leads, and strengthen relationships with current customers.

The next content marketing examples are the ways smart organizations are using research and data to generate leads, attention, and connection.

6. The 2020 State of Email

Brand: Litmus

Content Type: Research Report

Industry: Martech

Annual report, updated for 2020

Convince & Convert and Litmus teamed up to create the sixth version of one of the largest reports about email marketing.

For this version of the report, Convince & Convert worked with the Litmus team to bring in an executive viewpoint, inviting VPs and C-level marketing executives to participate in the research.

Over 2,000 marketing professionals weighed in on what’s driving their email strategies and what they think the future of email looks like. The annual survey had 100 questions about day-to-day operations, tactical execution, and the strategy and tools driving major email initiatives, and was released in September 2020.

State of Email Report

See It Live ???? The 2020 State of Email, Fall Edition

7. 2020 State of Account-Based Marketing by Terminus

Brand: Terminus

Content Type: Research

Industry: Martech

New research for a new world

With the world changing in the blink of an eye, all marketers have to change their approach almost as rapidly.

While account-based marketing has been on the minds of marketers for years, we recently worked with Terminus and Salesforce to launch a short survey to B2B marketers to see just how close they are to launching an ABM effort.

We supported the research by weighing in on question depth and also invited our audience to participate. We are unveiling the results during a webinar this month — stay tuned for your invite to that! To increase participation in the survey, we offered fun and relevant prizes, including a Flowbee and a guest-starring role on Social Pros or the FlipMyfunnel podcast.

Content example from terminus

The State of ABM will be live soon!

8. Linode’s GPU Price-Performance Benchmarking report

Brand: Linode

Content Type: Research

Industry: Software/hardware

For the GPU Price-Performance Benchmarking report, the team at Linode commissioned an independent, enterprise cloud consulting company to understand how various GPU-based workloads perform on Linode, compared to hyperscale CSPs that also offer GPU-based VMs.

This report accompanied Linode’s launch into the GPU market as one of the first Alternative Cloud providers to offer this capability to the masses. By showing its capability in an eye-catching, digestible format, Linode utilizes a diverse set of examples and clearly displays how its performance stacks up against the competitor set. Note that Linode isn’t always the clear winner, further demonstrating its transparency and authenticity in the approach.

The key takeaway: your research and content doesn’t have to show you’re always the best. The trust you build by being transparent will help your audience decide that on their own.

Linode Price Performance Report

See It Live ???? GPU Price-Performance Benchmarking report

9. COVID Watch Arizona App

Brand: University of Arizona

Content Type: Research

Industry: Higher Education

Leveraging research, data and mobile technology to safely open campus in a COVID-19 world

The University of Arizona told the world it planned to return to campus this Fall with enhanced health and safety measures outlined in its Test, Trace, Treat program.

Part of that program includes the brand-new Covid Watch Arizona COVID-19 exposure notification app. The more people that use the app, the better it works. To gain maximum program participation and get as many app downloads as possible, The University of Arizona needed to adopt a content marketing approach and messaging that was timely, accurate and consistent, and rooted in student/staff perspectives, self-interests, language, and tone.

To do this, Convince & Convert strategists leveraged a wealth of information, including The University of Arizona’s own research, surveys and on-campus polls about returning to campus, along with trusted third-party research. We also conducted our own research and surveys as well.

The result was a set of clear-cut personas and tested messages that were deployed to support the launch of the app. Within the first 48 hours of launch, and before classes were even back on campus, the University saw almost 5,000 downloads. Within just three weeks, the University hit its download goal.

Public Health Department app interface
The Covid Watch App
Covid Watch app tweet from UArizona twitter
The Covid Watch campaign includes social content on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Covid-19 Response homepage
The Covid Watch website

The key takeaway: the most successful content is backed by research and a comprehensive content strategy.

Part 3: Customer-Centered Content

Examples 10-12

People believe other people more than they believe companies, so let your customers tell your story.

These content marketing examples demonstrate how organizations are engaging their audience through customer-centered content.

10. Webbula’s 5 Unbreakable Commandments for Email Marketing and Data Enrichment

Brand: Webbula

Content Type: eBook

Industry: Martech

Customer-focused eBook generates leads and customers for leading email data firm

Our client, Webbula, has been in business for more than 10 years. They do important work by helping their clients with email list hygiene, data appends and email verification. We are actually a client of theirs as well. Keeping our email database healthy and growing is mission critical.

For this eBook, we teamed with Webbula to interview five of their clients to understand how they were approaching email list health, how and why they became a Webbula client, and how improving list hygiene has helped their marketing.

We love to tell client stories in different ways, and more times than not, asking clients to participate in a 30-minute interview is a welcome invitation.

Webbula content example

See It Live ???? 5 Unbreakable Commandments for Email Marketing and Data Enrichment

The key takeaway: interview your customers and make them the hero of your stories.

11. What Top Teams Do Differently to Optimize Digital Customer Experiences from Decibel

Brand: Decibel

Content Type: eBook

Industry: Martech

Interviews answer the key questions businesses face today

We approached the Decibel project like an author with a hot manuscript at a top publishing house, on a smaller scale. First, we established a narrative around the unparalleled transformation in online encounters, and how it has created a disruption in way customers make purchases and interact with brands.

To investigate what top teams are doing differently to optimize UX, we interviewed eight leading brands, representing categories from banking and bracelets to burritos. Together, we worked to address the key questions businesses face today, using their examples to bring the narrative to life and showcase Decibel’s expertise in digital experience analytics, a fitting protagonist for this story.

Content example from Decibel

See It Live ???? What Top Teams Do Differently to Optimize Digital Customer Experiences

The key takeaway: think like a journalist and interview the smartest minds in your industry.

12. Protect Purdue

Brand: Purdue University

Content Type: Video

Industry: Higher Education

Staying connected while staying apart

This Protect Purdue video creates a connection with the institution and the nostalgia and pride that comes from attending Purdue. As they look to reopen campuses with COVID-19 restrictions, they tell their story in a touching and emotional way.

See It Live ???? Protect Purdue on Instagram

Section 4: Content with a Twist

These content marketing examples take an existing type of content or piece of content and mix it up.

13. F*ck It Won’t Cut It

Brand: Boston University

Content Type: Video and Social Media

Industry: Higher Education

Student organization gains the attention of students by using clear and obvious language

In this totally out-of-the-norm promotion, a student-led initiative at Boston University gained the support of school leadership by taking a page – or a phrase – from the student population directly. The “F*ck It Won’t Cut It” campaign gets right to the heart of returning to campus during COVID-19, and students are listening.

"F*ck it won't cut it"

The key takeaway: Use the words that your audience uses.

See It Live ???? F*ck It Won’t Cut It

14. RollWorks’ Short Webinine

Brand: RollWorks

Content Type: Webinine (short webinar, usually around 9 minutes)

Industry: Martech

What we love about this webinine is two-fold:

1. It maximizes our short form webinar format by taking an existing eBook and transforming it into a multimedia presentation

2. It’s a webinine about how to make your webinars UNSUCK. How’s that for meta? One of our favorite tips from this webinine is to let your registrants decide if they want to show up live or just get the recording. #genius and your audience will thank you.

See It Live ???? 4 Steps to Resurrect Your Failing Webinar Strategy

15. Marketing & Margaritas from Terminus

Brand: Terminus

Content Type: Webinar

Industry: Martech

Who says a webinar has to be during “normal” work hours and free of adult beverages? Not us! We shook up the format with our marketing and margaritas (actually a series now too!) by doing a webinar at 5:30pm and mixing in some of the best tequila and margarita trivia from our own tequila aficionado, Jay Baer. With prizes for the most correct answers and a full conversation about ABM, we made the most of this hour and heard rave reviews from our attendees as well. Our new hashtag #margeting says it all.

See It Live ???? Marketing & Margaritas

16. Getty Museum Challenge

Brand: Paul Getty Museum

Content Type: User-generated content

Industry: Museums

In this out-of-the-box campaign, the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles turned a seemingly simplistic idea into a user-generated content marketers dream. By issuing a simple challenge— to recreate art masterpieces with common items found in your home—the response has been noteworthy and fun.

See It Live ???? The Getty Museum Challenge

17. Met Opera Nightly Streams

Brand: The Met Opera

Content Type: Video

Industry: Entertainment/Culture

A slightly different take on “shorten & spice up the format” theme, the Met Opera is repurposing their existing content and making special online streams available for a limited 23-hours at a time.

According to their website, “During this extraordinary and difficult time, the Met hopes to brighten the lives of our audience members even while our stage is dark. Each day, a different encore presentation from the company’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website. The schedule will include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.”

The key takeaway: repurpose and remix your existing content to extend the life of it and engage new audiences.

See It Live ???? Met Opera Nightly Streams

18. Chipotle’s Tony Hawk Burrito

Brand: Chipotle

Content Type: Twitch integrated campaign

Industry: Fast food and quick service restaurants

Chipotle spiced things up this summer with an innovative content campaign melding delicious food, X-treme skateboarding, video gaming, and the celebrity star power of Tony Hawk. (Yeah, he’s a thing to this highly sought-after demographic.)

Introducing the Tony Hawk Burrito. The user experience combines food purchase via the Twitch (announced with push notifications), and special access to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 And 2 Warehouse Demo game.

“This first of its kind menu integration gives our fans a chance to eat like the greatest skater of all time and get access to the demo for one of the summer’s most anticipated video game releases,” said Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer.

Double-powered brand appeal, exclusive access, bragging rights, gamification, time-scarcity, word-of-mouth (couldn’t resist), and really, really good food; that’s a smart content mash-up!

See It Live ???? Tony Hawk Burrito

19. How to Unsuck Your B2B Webinars and Virtual Events

Brand: Convince & Convert with Brian Fanzo

Content Type: Webinar

Industry: Marketing & Advertising

An unconventional message generates engagement and attendance live and on-demand

It’s easy for brands to stick to the status quo. It’s harder to take risks. But for our webinar with our friend Brian Fanzo, we decided to take a risk with the title and content, and it totally paid off, with over 1,000 attendees for the live event and a continuous stream of on-demand viewers, too.

See It Live ???? How to Unsuck Your B2B Webinars and Virtual Events

20. 5 Hours of Webinar Series

Brand: SEMrush

Content Type: Webinar

Industry: Martech

5 hour deep dives into specific topics educate and inform marketers on search and content best practices

While short webinars can be incredibly effective ways to inform and engage, extra-long webinars can be effective, too. We are big fans of SEMRush’s “5 Hours of Webinars” series.

SEMrush regularly hosts these “5 hours of” webinars, and the extra-lengthy content is an excellent way to build a library of on-demand content.

5 hours of content marketing | How to put your content to work immediately after publishing

The key takeaway: Don’t assume that your audience is too busy to tune in to hours worth of content. If you’re educating and providing value, your audience will make the time.

See It Live ???? 5 Hours of Content Marketing

Need help with your content strategy or content creation? Let’s connect. From ebooks to webinines to year-long webinar series, we’d love to help you create amazing content in 2021. Check out our 2021 media kit and set up a time to chat now.

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