9 B2B Content Marketing Examples That Break the Mould (& Bring in Billions in Reach, Reads & Revenue)

November 28, 2023
|In Content Marketing
|By Asset Digital Communications

Most companies in the B2B space still underestimate the value of content marketing.

“That’s for the B2C crowd.”, the execs will say… and then stand there wondering why their lead pipeline keeps drying up. Or why they have to fight tooth and nail for every percentage point of revenue growth.

But… you know better.

You know a solid content marketing strategy can help you increase your online visibility, leads, and profits. By leaps and bounds sometimes.

Recommended reading: How an Optimized Content Strategy 10X Your Reach, Leads & Revenue

Today, I’ll share with you 9 B2B content marketing examples that show how much a well-written blog post (or two) — or a podcast, or even a comic book — can add to your bottom line. (And trust me, some of these are from sleep-inducing industries. If they can do it and make it fun, so can you.)

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Before we dive into these content examples, let’s look at what B2B content marketing is.

Or, rather, what it’s not.

Why There’s No Such Thing as Strict ‘B2B Content Marketing’

Marketing world bigshots might pull their hair in frustration at what I’m about to write now, but…

Strictly speaking, there’s no such thing as B2B content marketing!

Blasphemy, I know…

But if you’re thinking about marketing as B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business), you’ll only twist yourself in knots trying to write according to some imaginary template made up by marketing gurus to sell books and courses.

The truth is — and you’ll see that in these examples — that it’s all H2H marketing.

Human-to-human marketing.

When coming up with content marketing ideas, the only time you’re doing a great job is when you’re delivering real value.

Real value for Joe Schmoe on the market for a new pair of sunglasses.

Real value for a conglomerate VP or an exec on the market for new ERP software.

All your potential clients are — when you drill down to it — looking to solve a problem in their life.

So don’t think of those clients as brands. Think of them as people with problems. And come up with content ideas that will help you solve those problems. The thoroughly human decision-makers will remember that help… and reward you with the sale

Recommended reading: Digital Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2023

So by all means, be aware that you’re marketing to and writing for professionals who are making company-wide purchasing decisions.

Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that those professionals are not people, too.

Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s jump into our inspirational ‘B2B content marketing’ examples!

9 B2B Content Marketing Examples (You Can Profitably Swipe)

Discover how these real-world businesses successfully harnessed the power of content marketing to engage their professional clientele and boost their bottom lines.

#1 John Deere’s The Furrow Magazine is the Grandpa of Content Marketing

Content type example: Print magazine
Valuable for: Every B2B organisation under the sun

Content marketing is, in fact, 128 years old.

Shocking, right?

Well, it’s true.

John Deere’s print magazine The Furrow was first published in 1895, and it still holds up a great content marketing example. Its editorial team comprises 6 people, all with agricultural degrees. Great writers, all of them. But every single one educated about — and knee-deep in – farming. This ensures that every topic they tackle is exactly what the modern United States farmer is interested in.

 Today, The Furrow covers farming news from all over the world.

Of course, The Furrow is moving with the times. Digital copies are available, and the John Deere website doesn’t have a blog section. Instead, they leverage their magazine stories (SEO optimized and tweaked for the medium) to gain even more online exposure.

How & Why It Works:

The Furrow has continued to work for John Deere for over 120+ years. That’s because its editorial team is fiercely independent. Their goal is highlighting farming issues and solutions, not being a corporate shill.

Today, the magazine has over 550,00 readers in North America alone. UK and Europe-based readers can access their own version, which covers farming issues across the pond.

Because The Furrow is a trusted industry leader, 40% of its readers pour through it from cover to cover every month. It’s packed with original research, interviews with industry experts, and relevant news… but it almost never mentions the John Deere brand.

And maybe that’s the lesson here: that just helping potential customers is a great way to turn them into raving fans and, ultimately, buyers.

 The Furrow is a sizable chunk of Deere’s 5+ million monthly page views.

Key Takeaways:

John Deere is an old, old company that caters to a more traditional crowd. And while they did reinvent themselves over the years, they didn’t completely let go of their original identity.

So the first takeaway here is — if something is working for you, don’t reinvent the wheel. Just because every other business is jumping on this-or-that bandwagon doesn’t mean you have to.

Have a printed magazine that’s working for your business? Don’t ignore that tried-and-true marketing channel as you chase SERP rankings. Instead, leverage the stories in there to shortcut your blog, case study, and white paper writing.

Also, consider your audience when choosing content and social media channels. Older audiences prefer physical copies — or Facebook — to new-fangled media such as TikTok and Reddit.

Discover and deploy content types your B2B audience can’t resist

Are you creating huge, educational, SEO-driven blog posts to fuel your growth? And when you hit publish after weeks of working on a single piece, all you get are… crickets? If you want to replace that annoying chirping with the sound of the proverbial cash register ringing out, come talk to us. We can help you craft a content strategy — and content assets — that will make your business stand out in the sea of big, bland B2B competitors!

#2 Cisco Makes a Splash with a Cyber Security Graphic Novel

Content type example: Graphic novel (as part of larger content strategy revamp)
Valuable for: Large-scale B2B enterprises with multiple product/service families

Cisco suffers from an acute case of being ‘too tech’ for their own good. You probably know they’re in TelCo hardware… but no one outside of their core target audience knows they have over 700 product families.

Having so many different-yet-adjacent products used to create a lot of targeting issues for Cisco. Different departments went out with unaligned content marketing campaigns, often targeting the same people. This approach resulted in wasted resources and brand fatigue.

So what did Cisco do?

They went back to the drawing board and revamped their content strategy.

Today, Cisco is creating content that meets their audience where they are — content that talks about what the prospects care for and the pain points that keep them up at night. They’ve said bye-bye to generic SEO content designed for search engines.

Cisco’s cybersecurity-themed graphic novels are an excellent example of B2B content marketing that came out of this:

You can turn even the driest topics into fun & captivating reads…

How & Why It Works:

There are three reasons this unique and ‘out there’ content is working for Cisco:

  • it lets them market a vast umbrella of different products and services in a single push.
  • their target audience now skews younger (millennials and Gen Zs) , and actually wants to read comics (instead of ads and cookie-cutter SEO blog posts); and,
  • comics let Cisco stay top-of-mind and help with their brand awareness without them having to do too much self-promotion or blatant sales pitches.

Content marketers over at Cisco could have easily covered this topic in a blog article, a case study, or a podcast episode. They could have shared those content assets a few times on their social media channels and called it a day.

But would we be reading about that now, a couple of years after the fact?

Probably not.

By retelling this cybersecurity story in a new way, Cisco reached a brand new — and increasingly important — audience. Also, the baked-in novelty generated a lot of PR buzz, resulting in many backlinks. Rankings, awareness, and reach grew accordingly.

Key Takeaways:

The biggest content lesson here is — don’t be afraid to ditch ‘best practices’ and think outside of the box.

You can flip every B2B topic — however mundane — and make it fun. Fun gets your foot in the door. It gets attention. And, today, undivided attention is tangible currency.

Another valuable content lesson here is that you should not be afraid to re-evaluate your strategy. Things that work for you, content-wise, in the beginning might not work as you expand your offer (or your target audience shifts thanks to generational changes in the workforce). That’s why it’s important to experiment with content formats and distribution channels.

#3 Postmark’s Educational Content… Again In Comic Book Form

Content type example: Another graphic novel
Valuable for: Growing SaaS B2B companies looking to impress with easy-to-follow content

Cisco likely spent tens of thousands on their comic book series, an amount that not every B2B company will throw at an experimental content type.

But… they don’t have to.

Postmark — an email service provider — leverages the same content type with just a few in-house writers and designers. And they’re doing an exceptional job. In 2022, Postmark published 3 graphic novels, each one shining a light on a technical aspect of email deliverability.

These panels introduce the concept of dunning emails, prompting prospects to read a blog post.

How & Why It Works:

Postmark takes a slightly different approach to comic book content than Cisco.

Postmark pushes these comics on Product Hunt, which is where their target audience (small business owners and marketers) usually hangs out. And, instead of using the comics as a product-placement vehicle, they’re using them as a lead magnet.

So the comic introduces a technical concept and then guides the reader to a more thorough blog post that does all the heavy lifting and establishes Postmark as an expert in the field.

This approach works well because it shortcuts the usual time needed for a blog post to start ranking in organic search results. It’s a content distribution strategy that starts generating sales qualified leads much sooner than regular SEO (which is a waiting game).

Key Takeaways:

If you have a great piece of content, don’t just publish it on your blog and hope for the best.

Content marketing is not about content creation — it’s about that content connecting with your prospects and guiding their decision-making process.

So find a way to get everything you publish in front of the people who need to see it. Sometimes, this means sharing it on social media channels, such as LinkedIn and Facebook… linking back to it from guest posts in relevant industry publications… or disseminating it in professional groups and relevant Slack communities.

And sometimes — when your target audience is problem-unaware — this content distribution strategy needs to be more creative. That’s what Postmark is doing here — meeting their audience where they are by being present on their home turf (Product Hunt). Packaging their message in a curiosity-piquing content type is just the icing on the content marketing cake.

Shortcut the SEO waiting game & get your content in front of buyers now

You can wait for traffic and leads to find you. Or you can go after them. The waiting game costs time and money. So why not skip it altogether and deploy your best content assets to those social media channels where your best customers gather? Asset Digital helps B2B businesses like yours find where their best customers are, so you can start connecting with them as soon as you hit publish on a new piece of content.

#4 Deloitte Hits a Home Run with Deloitte Insights Knowledge Hub

Content type example: Knowledge hub with original research and reports
Valuable for: Global B2B players serving various industries

Deloitte is the be-all end-all in large-scale accounting services. They offer everything, from strategy development and consultations to AI-driven analytics and audits.

Similarly to Cisco, however, this has created a lot of problems for them when it comes to developing an effective content strategy. Since they serve many verticals, creating content clusters for each one on their website would quickly become an SEO nightmare.

So what did Deloitte do?

They created a knowledge hub called Deloitte Insights.

This hub is home to all their original content — surveys, research, statistics, and expert interviews. Searchers can easily see what’s new on the website and even filter content out based on industry.

How & Why It Works:

Deloitte is smart to lean into their expertise here.

Their teams are already used to creating a ton of original reports for their clients across multiple industries. The results of all this research can be extrapolated into reports they then publish as industry relevant content.

The value here is two-fold:

  • there’s no disputing that Deloitte is THE market leader in the space thanks to the sheer amount of thought leadership content they churn out every month, and,
  • Deloitte’s original research is cited and linked to thousands of times every month, further strengthening their thought leader position and doing wonders for their search engine optimization (it’s difficult to find a website with more backlinks than Deloitte Insights).

The results?

Deloitte Insights gets 10+ million views every month.

They’re cited in all major business magazines and publications, earning a ton of backlinks regularly. Millions of companies rely on their free insights and reports. And thousands more pay for their services without batting an eye.

Check out those backlinks… and domain trust that comes with it.

Key Takeaways:

Play to your strengths when producing content that resonates.

If your employees do original research daily, incorporate that into your content strategy, so that every piece you publish is unique content that can’t be seen or read anywhere else.

#5 HubSpot Educational Blog Still Reigns Supreme for Small In-House Marketing Teams

Content type example: Educational content (blog articles, case studies, white papers, e-books)
Valuable for: Companies that sell an easy way to do complicated things

HubSpot is a US-based marketing software platform for sales, customer service, and inbound marketing. Though they’re likely not the best source of marketing advice for experienced marketers — most of the content published on HubSpot is entry-level education — they are definitely the biggest player in the game.

Why?

Well, part of the reason is that this online marketing pioneer has been around for decades.

Hubspot’s editorial team has had the time to build an impregnable wall — an SEO moat — around their most valuable SEO keywords.

The other reason is the immensity of HubSpot’s content output. It’s massive. It covers the breadth of content marketing campaign ideas, search engine optimization tricks, and social media strategies, at least for smaller brands and SMBs.

In a nutshell, they’re a one-stop shop for everything related to the basics of marketing.

You can scroll for hours & you won’t reach the end of HubSpot’s blog pages…

How & Why It Works:

HubSpot has the capacity to churn out a lot of great content. But, what’s more important, they also know that there’s more to rankings and organic traffic than pressing the ‘Publish’ button in their CMS.

So they constantly work on promoting that content.

If you look at HubSpots social media channels, you’ll see that each one is different. It might promote the same content, but how it promotes it is 100% tailored to the platform.

Just visit their Tik-Tok account filled with platform-specific videos — complete with embedded social proof thanks to the massive number of views:

https://www.tiktok.com/@hubspot/video/7190411651760377130?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7197094561708606982

As you can see, HubSpot is not afraid to experiment with new social media channels, despite already being the undisputed king of the niche. They’re not complacent. And that’s exactly what allows them to keep their millions of monthly blog visits and 14+ million active users.

The value of HubSpot traffic — in February 2023 alone — was close to $40 million!

Key Takeaways:

Give your readers the info on what they have to do for free.

Sell them the how of the thing.

That’s what HubSpot excels at. They’re not stingy with information. They don’t hide the nuts and bolts of marketing. It’s all there on their educational blog. Anybody can spend weeks, even years just going through their content and becoming a master marketer.

So if you’re not stingy with information, people will remember that. And when they’re ready to pay to make it easy on themselves to implement that information, you’ll be the first brand they turn to.

Oh, and remember — use social media channels as intended. Otherwise, you’re just throwing things against the wall, hoping they’ll stick.

Recommended reading: Why Trust Drives Social Media Trends in 2023

#6 GumGum Lands T-Mobile with Account-Based Marketing

Content type example: Account-based marketing example (surprise, it’s another comic book)
Valuable for: B2B organizations in niches where a few dominant players ARE the market

Here’s the thing with account-based marketing — you either stick the landing and you’re the talk of the town. Or you blow it… and you’re the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.

It’s a risky game, which is why most B2B organizations are reluctant to take this route.

But account-based marketing — the strategy of going all-in with your promotional activities and content to land one big client — should be in the repertoire of every business.

Sure, it’s a risk.

But when it pays off, it pays off big time.

Just ask GumGum, an advertising company that went after T-Mobile with a comic book that starred their CEO, John Legere.

This campaign was quirky. It was weird. It appealed to ONE person. And it worked.

How & Why It Works:

I sure am throwing a lot of comic books at you in this post on B2B content marketing examples.

Your takeaway here should be… comic books work, even in a B2B environment..

But, aside from this being a comic book, the more important lesson here is that focusing your content efforts on a single market player — a large market player — can net you a ton of work if done right.

The reason this content marketing campaign worked is not because it was a comic. It’s because the team at GumGum spent months finding out what CEO Legere loves. Turns out it was Batman. So they gave him the role of a superhero fighting to save a city from bad cell phone service.

This super-targeted approach went viral almost immediately. It signalled that GumGum was unlike every other competitor vying for that contract with T-Mobile. And, ultimately, it won it for them. Not only that, it gave GumGum a ton of free exposure in marketing circles because they made a splash with their execution and, frankly, their audacity.

Well played, GumGum. Well played.

Key Takeaways:

Sometimes, it’s okay to go bold and big and brassy with your content.

Account-based content marketing — when it lands — can put you on the radar of your dream client. If you’re willing to take a big gamble (which becomes a non-gamble with the right research and preparation), you can reap huge rewards.

That said, account-based marketing isn’t for every B2B company. Use cases include competing in a market where there are only a handful of big organizations that need your products/services; going after those organizations that you know you can deliver for; or having a thought-out list of dream clients you absolutely want to work with.

#7 SecureWorks Instantly Appeals to Their Prospects… by Putting Everyone Else Off

Content type example: High-quality content that’s exceedingly specialized & niche
Valuable for: Organizations offering technical services targeted at VP decision-makers

SecureWorks is a global provider of cyber-security intelligence solutions. Their blog answers often-asked questions regarding information security and compliance. In answering questions, SecureWorks provides webinars, white papers, reports, case studies, solution briefs, data sheets, and videos.

But… the SecureWorks team doesn’t want just anybody reading their content. They’re targeting cybersecurity VPs — people in the know — who can decide on whether to buy. And their content works very hard not to appeal to anybody else.

How & Why It Works:

By creating content that only appeals to a subset of the cybersecurity community, SecureWorks is signalling that they’re in the top echelon of their industry… and that they only engage with a certain calibre of players.

This lets them quickly transition their marketing qualified leads into sales qualified leads. Their marketing teams work little to nothing to separate wheat from chaff… because there’s no chaff.

This is both a thought leadership and positioning play, as well as a cost-cutting play that shortens their MQL > SQL pipeline.

Key Takeaways:

SecureWorks’ unique and original content marketing approach enabled them to simplify their marketing and sales teams, resulting in one out of every two quality leads sent to sales turning into an opportunity. Thanks to the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, they also doubled their conversion rate.

The lesson?

If you’re in a highly technical field, more is not always better.

When in doubt about the quality of your leads, publish content that’s so high-tier, it allows you to pre-select who even enters your marketing funnel.

#8 MailChimp Shakes Things Up With a Reality-Style Web Series

Content type example: Short video content designed to entertain
Valuable for: Large industry players looking to grow into media brands

As one of the first email marketing platforms, MailChimp targets entrepreneurs and small businesses. Over the years, MailChimp has cornered that market but, recently, aggressive competitors have been going after their market share.

Now, considering that MailChimp already does content great — they have exceptional blogs, unpaid and paid courses, video content, a podcast — there wasn’t much left for them to do to counteract this assault.

So instead of doubling down on the marketing definition of ‘providing value’, MailChimp doubled down on fun.

Enter MailChimp Presents — an in-house entertainment studio that produces short web series and shows — including a reality-style show Werrrk! Where they partner with interior designers and producers from Queer Eye — geared toward business people and entrepreneurs.

This is just a small selection of original content available on MailChimp Presents.

How & Why It Works:

MailChimp already had a huge videography team in-house. And they’ve had — and still have — a boatload of cash for an expensive content play.

So instead of competing on keywords in the SERPs or on social media (which would be a traditional marketing strategy play), they offered their target audience the type of content they already enjoy. It’s infotainment at its best. Not only is MailChimp stamping their name and logo on everything they produce (growing brand awareness), they’re also diversifying their revenue streams.

The ESP (email service provider) business is now overrun with competition.

MailChimp could have opted to fight the uphill battle of clinging desperately to their diminishing market share.

But they didn’t.

Instead, the company made a risky — but calculated — decision that will help them triage their losses while creating value in a space that has nothing to do with their original market.

Since MailChimp launched MailChimp Presents, they’ve seen a massive spike in traffic, going from 700K monthly visitors to over 7 million!

This was in 2020, and they’ve seen a slight slump since then. Still, they average 6.2 million months in 2023, which is still impressive growth. And you can bet they’re monetizing that traffic through product placement, brand visibility, and ads.

Key Takeaways:

In a pinch, your content (if good enough) can stand on its own and become a totally separate revenue stream. That’s what MailChimp is doing here with their media-first strategy. They have a podcast. They have gated content they charge for. And they’re producing shows with renowned producers… that may very well be shown on Netflix one day.

On a smaller scale, though, think about opening a YouTube channel where you can post quirky and dramatic content, finding unique ways to tie it to your brand.

#9 SparkToro’s Rand Fishkin Leans into Controversy… & Hits a Home Run

Content type example: Well-research, opinionated, and controversial blog post
Valuable for: Brands with high-profile employees who often go against conventional wisdom

SparkToro is an audience research software that shows you what your website visitors browse, who they follow, and what they talk about online. It’s an amazing marketing tool that delivers massive insights, and I believe everyone even remotely connected to the marketing industry should use it.

But here’s the thing — SparkToro isn’t really useful if businesses choose performance marketing over brand or content marketing.

So Rand Fishkin, the CEO of SparkToro and the founder of Moz, made a bold move early on.

He picked a fight with the performance marketing industry.

He gambled that taking a strong, contrarian view of the whole ads business — coupled with his high profile in the marketing industry — will make some waves and put SparkToro (then a startup company) on the map.

And his gamble paid off.

You can see why just by looking at the headline of his controversial blog article:

“What if Performance Marketing is Just an Analytics Scam?”

This bold swipe at the marketing establishment caused a lot of buzz and traffic for SparkToro.

How & Why It Works:

There’s almost a baked-in clickbait quality to this headline… but it never veers off into that satisfying Bored Panda or BuzzSumo territory.

It would work well no matter who wrote it (as long as they were a known player in the industry), but the fact it was Fishkin — the father of Moz — made it resonate even more.

However, the main reason this worked — and with thousands of shares, mentions, and backlinks, it’s safe to say it worked — is because Rand did his research. His thesis is still sound and holds up. This wasn’t a shot across the bow of the industry just for the sake of it. The post might be controversial and upsetting to some… but it’s not without merit.

In the end, this blog article was shared thousands of times. It attracted comments from the likes of Tim Suolo (major player in the space), Google execs, and almost all online marketing publications. The value in brand awareness and exposure for SparkToro probably can’t be measured… nor surpassed with performance marketing, as I’m sure Fishkin would argue.

Key Takeaways:

This single solitary blog post is the perfect example of the power of content marketing you can harness when you know your audience inside and out.

If you’re in the same position, don’t be afraid to go against the norm.

Use everything you have in your toolbox to make that controversial piece even more bombastic. More dramatic. More adversarial. But do that only if you can make a case for your side of the story.

Sometimes, marketers try to go against the grain, but can come up with nothing but flimsy arguments. This is a cheap attention grab… and your audience will recognize it. So don’t be controversial just for the sake of it. But, if you have a strong, provable opinion about something that’s considered a sacred cow in your industry… run with it. Run as fast and as hard as you can.

Pack Your B2B Leads Pipeline With Targeted, Educational & Fun Content

Remember what I said about H2H (human to human) marketing and content?

You can see it plainly from the examples above — B2B companies that pack their own content with fresh ideas and strive to help the end user (not the brand) end up winning.

Winning rankings. Winning leads. And winning the sale.

If you want to join those companies, Asset Digital Communications can help you.

Click the link below to schedule your 30-minute free consultation with our content experts. Don’t worry if your industry is ‘boring’. Or if your content marketing budget is tiny. Let’s talk and figure out how we can help you show up for your prospects… and win new customers with the power of unique, relevant, and human content.

Yes, Let’s Talk Content Strategy & Lead Growth