In marketing, good e-book design isn’t just about making something pretty; it’s about enhancing your viewer’s experience with your content. When you turn a boring cover into a stunning calling card, or a cluttered layout into a visual treat, or a confusing data set into an elegant visualization, you make it that much easier to grab—and, most importantly, keep—your audience’s attention.

We love it when we see brands from all industries up their e-book game by applying A+ design, and we think seeing others’ good work can inspire you too. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of the most standout examples of e-book design we’ve seen lately.  

7 Excellent Examples of E-Book Design

If you’re facing an e-book design project and need a little inspiration, we have just what you need. Here are seven great takes on e-book design from both B2B and B2C brands. 

1) The Secret Sauce by LinkedIn

Why we love it: A great cover

We’re suckers for a bold visual, and this e-book cover hits the mark for several reasons. 

1. It’s a clever theme, demonstrating that LinkedIn has the literal secret sauce (bonus points for making it the only bottle with a label).
2. Its clean photography really pops, especially compared to most of the boring covers in the B2B space. 
3. It reflects LinkedIn’s brand identity via their signature bright blue (a visual differentiator). 

When you’re looking to make an impact, a visually arresting cover is the way to do it in an instant.

Note: While a cover is incredibly important, maintaining a design aesthetic throughout all of your content is equally as important. LinkedIn decided to promote the e-book by creating an infographic, which also carries the same visual theme. A+ all around.

Tip: Make sure your e-book design reflects your brand identity. To make it easier for content creators to replicate, find out how to craft a strong brand’s style guide.

2) Your Field Guide to Foraging Intent Data by Terminus

Why we love it: A clever theme

Gathering data is a crucial part of a marketer’s job, but you can feel like you’re lost in the weeds. Terminus does an excellent job of translating this metaphor into an exciting adventure guide. From the people and animals to the maps and trails, this interactive e-book is a perfect example of how a little creativity can drastically enhance a viewer’s experience. By giving it this unique twist, learning how to gather data feels like an exciting adventure—not a dull chore.

Tip: It’s easy to come up with obvious visual metaphors (e.g., lightbulb = idea), but challenge yourself to come up with a visual theme that is both relevant and interesting.

3) Break Free of Boring B2B by Ceros

Why we love it: Unusual imagery

This is a perfect example of super creative e-book design for a subject that can be notoriously, well, boring. This interactive e-book is an explosion of color, pattern, and surprising imagery that is totally unexpected. From a screaming bear to a soda-drinking cat, it takes Internet meme aesthetic to a whole new level while delving into the ins and outs of B2B content marketing. We love an eye-catching interactive, and this brings the best of animation and information together in one easy-to-navigate package.

Tip: Since you don’t have to be literal in your metaphors, think about the real message you’re trying to deliver. Ceros wanted to prove that B2B doesn’t have to be boring, so they created a totally surprising and whimsical e-book design to prove just that.

4) STFU Already by Unbabel

Why we love it: Bold palette and typography

Not all e-books have to be interactive adventures. Unbabel’s thoroughly entertaining PDF e-book proves you can make a big impression without a ton of bells and whistles. Its bright and bold color palette, playful illustrations, and beautiful typography make the subject matter that much more interesting. Whereas they could have taken the technical route, espousing their software benefits in a boring brochure, this technicolor approach generates excitement and curiosity about their offering. F yeah, Unbabel.

Tip: Bold colors can help you stand out from your competition, especially when you use them for your cover. If you’re not sure what fits your message, find out how to curate the right color palette for your brand. 

5) How EU Banks Can Ensure EPI’s Success by Feedzai

Why we love it: Pops of personality

Any time a brand can transcend their product offering and show us who they are, it’s a win for brand storytelling. Feedzai is a perfect example of this. For an e-book about financial safety, which may seem rather droll, they do a good job of adding personality via people-centric illustrations (which feature a balance of genders and more than one skin tone—thank you).

Tip: Depicting diversity is crucial. Be mindful of who you’re representing through imagery (be it illustration or photography).

6) How to Successfully Negotiate a Higher Salary in 4 Easy Steps by Her First 100K

Why we love it: Simplicity with style

Good e-book design doesn’t mean you have to design a custom font, create hand-drawn illustrations, or conduct a 5-day photoshoot to get the best images. This guide makes great use of photography, typography, layout, and negative space to deliver the information in a straightforward, cohesive package. If you wanted proof that strong design can elevate even the simplest e-book, this is it.

Tip: If you don’t have a ton of design resources, simple typography treatments and callouts can do a lot to make content easily digestible.

7) Einstein’s Guide to AI Use Cases by Salesforce

Alright, so this one isn’t technically an e-book, but it is a clever piece of lead generation. You answer a few questions about what type of work you do, and this interactive guides you to the most relevant case study for you. This is a very clever way to create a personalized, guided experience through strong design. The Einstein character animation, the simple and clean navigation, and the brand colors make this a clearly branded experience.

Tip: Simple interactivity can make all of your content more engaging, whether it’s an e-book, guide, or questionnaire. If you’re curious to learn more, find out how to brainstorm great interactive content ideas. 

How to Nail Your Own E-book Design

We want to see better e-book design in the world, so we’re always happy to share the tips we’ve learned from our own projects. If you’re looking for more tips to improve your e-books…

• Learn more about why design can make or break your e-book. 
• Follow our step-by-step guide to create an effective e-book from scratch. 
• Try these helpful tips to improve your e-book design.
• Get even more inspired by these 50+ examples of great e-books.

And if you need a partner to help bring your next e-book to life, here are 12 tips to find a good content agency. You can always hit us up too.

Blend’s digital platform streamlines the journey from application to close—for every banking product. For this project, Blend was specifically interested in a report that would explore the state of the industry as it relates to the application process for deposit accounts, the keys to a good process, and how institutions can best serve their customers.

However, this wasn’t a standard data design project. Before we could bring the data to life, we needed to get it. So we crafted custom criteria to outline the key factors you need to create a successful application experience and audited a list of 100 financial institutions (including banks and credit unions) to score each. Of course, the challenge with all data storytelling is identifying the most relevant information (aka the real story). Because the primary goal of the report was to help readers improve their own application practices, we focused on identifying industry trends and the most interesting insights to turn into relevant takeaways for the reader.

The result was a high-value piece of content that establishes Blend’s authority and expertise in the industry, and positions the brand as a trusted resource to their customers—a content marketing win-win.

Content takes time, money, and resources to produce, which is why we believe you should get as much mileage as possible from anything you create—especially with cornerstone content like e-books. Unfortunately, marketers are usually sitting on an archive of great content that’s just gathering dust, either because it never had much traffic to begin with or because it’s been forgotten. This is a huge waste.

You can get a lot more from your existing assets by using them to create fresh content. This approach is called a divisible content strategy, and not only is it economical but it expands your reach, takes less work, and helps you promote other content, helping strengthen your entire content ecosystem. 

One of the best ways to breathe new life into old content is to create infographics. Things like e-books, reports, guides, research, and surveys are filled with valuable information and interesting data insights that can be used to tell many different types of stories—and infographics can help bring those stories to life in unique ways.

5 Ways to Create Infographics

If you’re not sure what types of infographics to make from your e-books, here are some of our favorite ways to extract stories and come up with new ideas.

1) Expand on a Topic

E-books and reports are full of valuable information, but they can only cover so much on a given topic. By exploring a related subject or doing a deeper dive into a single topic, you can create an interesting infographic that educates your reader—and encourages them to learn more by checking out the original e-book. Pro tip: Comb through the sidebars or callouts in your e-books or reports—those are often great subjects to explore.

Example: To promote their What DDoS Attacks Really Cost Businesses survey, we helped Incapsula create an infographic on the anatomy of a DDOS attack. While the survey covered how the issue affects businesses, it didn’t precisely explain how these attacks happen. Creating this infographic allowed Incapsula to further educate people while promoting the survey.  

2) Create a How-To

People are always eager to learn something, and if you can provide them with practical information that makes their lives easier, they will love you for it. Turning your best tips and tutorials from e-books or other cornerstone content into compelling infographics is a great way to provide value—in a highly shareable format.  

Example: We partnered with LinkedIn to create a fun infographic that offered tips on how to create a great marketing machine. The infographic was used to promote the brand’s e-book, The Marketing Skills Handbook, which included many more great tips.

3) Summarize a Chapter or Topic

Infographics are an effective form of storytelling because they help people process information visually, making them a great way to communicate concepts that may be complex or challenging to explain. Also, not everyone has the time to dive into an e-book or research report. Creating a condensed infographic version that includes the most important, interesting, or relevant information provides a great service.

Example: Education company Course Hero is dedicated to helping people learn online, so we partnered with them to create a series of infographics that summarize famous works of literature. These infographics are useful study materials for busy students, helping them learn in less time.  

4) Find a News Angle

Newsjacking can be a great tactic to give older content new relevance, as long as it’s done appropriately. (Follow these tips to make sure you do it the right way.) Think about the trending topics in your industry or in the larger media landscape. Do you have data that might shed light on an industry trend? Is there a social tie-in that might make your content more interesting?

Example: To promote their Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising, we helped Marketo create an infographic on the “Mad Men” of the millenium, showing the major trends that define today’s marketing landscape—contrasted with those of the Mad Men era. Thanks to the popularity of the show, it was an interesting, unique, and relevant angle that helped Marketo join the conversation in an organic way. It was also picked up by Ad Week, helping Marketo expand their reach.

5) Tell a Surprising Story

Data and research often contain interesting, unique, or surprising insights and discoveries that tell a very interesting story. Turning that type of information into a compelling infographic is an easy way to repurpose content and get more attention.

Example: We helped High Five craft an infographic based on their 2015 Workplace Culture and Communication Report. The story revealed the negative effect that tech has on the workplace—a surprising take that is relevant to people in all industries.

How to Make a Truly Great Infographic

Coming up with a strong infographic idea is just the first step. Once you’re ready to start creating that infographic, you must follow best practices at every stage of the process. To ensure your infographic is as successful as possible, follow these tips to nail everything from copywriting to promotion.

• Find out how to craft a compelling infographic narrative.
• Avoid the 15 most common infographic design mistakes.
• Optimize your infographic for SEO to get the most traffic.
• Use this tactic to get publishers to feature your infographics.
• Try these 19 tips to drastically improve your infographic marketing.

If you need a little help getting everything done, find out what to look for in an infographic design company. Or let us know what you’re struggling with. We’d love to chat.

Providing people with high-quality, comprehensive content is a great way to build relationships, increase leads, improve SEO, and more. That’s why e-books are such a valuable tool for marketers. The problem is they are also one of the more difficult pieces of content to produce. From copywriting to e-book design, it can take a lot of time and energy to create something of quality. But there are always ways to work smarter, not harder. And we’re always on the hunt for the best tools, tips, and tricks to make your life easier. So let’s talk about one of the easiest ways to create quality e-books in less time: e-book templates. If you are a brand that produces a lot of e-books (or wants to), templates will change your life.

The Benefits of Custom E-Book Templates

When some people hear the word “template,” they think of a ‘90s PowerPoint slide. But well-designed templates don’t turn your content into a boring brochure. They are an efficient way to create content that is:

• On-brand: An e-book design template is designed around your visual language, including fonts, colors, logos, etc. You don’t have to get approval from an art director, and you can be confident that you’re producing something that always reflects your brand.
• Consistent: If you look through your archive, you will probably notice your e-book design reflects a range of styles and design aesthetics. This is problematic if you’re trying to build an instantly identifiable brand (and who isn’t?). Whether you’re working with a freelancer, an agency, or an in-house designer, templates ensure that everything you do will have a cohesive feel.
• Easy to replicate: Building an e-book design from scratch takes a ton of time. But you can reduce that time tremendously with a comprehensive template. You just pick and choose the elements you need, then plug your content in. This makes it easy for novice designers (or even marketers) to create something of quality with a quick turnaround.
• Economical: If you don’t have to create a brand-new design every time, you can reduce costs while increasing your output. That gives you a higher ROI for every e-book you create.

So, how do you create these magical templates?

How to Build E-Book Templates 

We know marketing teams are usually overloaded, especially designers. But remember that a little bit of work up front can save you a ton of time down the road—and make designers’ lives a lot easier. If your team doesn’t have the time, you might consider using a content agency (or baking templates into an engagement you already have). But if you’re going to DIY it, here’s the simple 3-step process to create an intuitive visual design system that anyone can use.

1) Go Through Your Existing E-Books

You might only have a handful of e-books, or you might have a huge archive (in which case you can choose, say, 10). Go through each to identify the common elements that you will need to build into your e-book design template. The goal is to build something that works for any e-book subject, so it should be comprehensive and scalable.

This might include things like:

• Cover design
• Data visualization (charts and graphs)
• Illustrations
• Diagrams
• Sidebars
• Callouts and pullquotes
• Images/captions
• Chapter breaks
• Headers/subheads
• Iconography

Identify the most common design elements in your e-books. 

Make sure to poll your team about what they might also need. You can also look at brands whose content you admire. (Here are 5 great e-book design examples you can learn from.)

2) Build Your Design System

Once you know what your design should include, start building those elements. At this stage, you’re building your visual system, such as:

• Grid system
• Typography (heirarchy, headers, bodycopy, bullets, hyperlink style)
• Color palettes
• Graphic elements
• Data visualization styles
• Photography style
• Illustration style
• Layouts

Everything should adhere to your visual language. Don’t have one? Here’s how to make one, as well as everything it should include.

3) Create Your Template

To turn your visual system into a practical guide, build out your design files, providing mockups of actual pages that reflect best practices. (If you already have an e-book design that works well, you might adapt it to the guidelines.) Examples:

The important thing is to offer clear explanations and visual examples of everything. Whoever picks it up, whether a freelancer or in-house designer, should be able to understand it and replicate it without asking questions.  

You might also include any relevant design tips. (And make sure you avoid these 30 common e-book design mistakes.)

Once you put your e-book design templates to work, you’ll see how much easier they are to produce, and you’ll be grateful you put the work in. 

Remember, too, that you can also make the most of your work by repurposing your e-books after their first run. (Try these 9 tips to do that, and check out this roundup of 101+ resources and tools to make better e-books.)

Look for More Ways Template Can Improve Content Creation

There are always ways to improve how you do things, so think about how templates might help in other areas of content marketing, including:

• Infographic templates
• Interactive templates
• Social templates
• Reporting templates
• Ad templates

We know that not everyone has the resources to tackle design templates, though. If you need a little help or someone to help lighten your content load, holler at us.  

If you don’t have video in your content mix, you’re missing out. It’s simpler to make than ever, and people really want to see it. (A 2014 Levels Beyond survey found that 51% of millennials would rather watch a video than read.) Now is definitely the time to dive in.

But we know you might be a little intimidated (or overwhelmed) to start, and you probably have a lot of questions. We’re here to help.

Our new interactive e-book, The Content Marketer’s Guide to Brand Video, covers everything (seriously, everything) you’ve ever wanted to know about brand video but were too shy to ask, including:

• Why are humans biologically wired for video?
• How can brands use video to deliver a strong message?
• What makes a truly great brand video?
• How do you measure the ROI of video?
• What does it take to produce video?
• How should you act on set?

It’s all there, plus great data, pro tips, and great examples of brand video. We also made it interactive so you can skip to the stuff you want to know—and bookmark it when you want to come back. Click below to check it out now. 

And if there’s anything we didn’t answer, we’d be happy to chat.

How’s your latest e-book doing? How’s your oldest e-book doing? Have downloads dipped? It’s frustrating, we know, but sometimes a few quick tweaks to your e-book design can really improve your readers’ experience, making them more eager to consume your content and connect with your brand. If the content in your e-book is gold, but people are tapping out before they get to page 2, consider how a makeover might help.

Does Your E-book Design Need a Makeover?

Design integrity has a lot to do with how content quality is perceived. First, print out your latest e-book. Take a critical look at what’s in front of you:

• What catches your eye?
• How does it flow?
• What do you feel when you look at it?

These gut reactions and first impressions are what your reader probably experiences, too. We hate to see you give off the wrong impression, so we’re here to help. All it takes is a little creativity to turn a blah design into something beautiful. Here are 6 ways to do it.

1) Choose a Theme

The problem: Your design is totally generic or all over the place, mixing clashing styles, imagery, and visual metaphors right and left.

The fix: E-books are awesome because they give you a nice creative canvas to tell your story. The best, most effective e-books deliver a single story, and use every element of design to support it. Choose a single theme or concept to ground the design, then use your creativity to bring it to life.

2) Rehab Your Cover

The problem: The cover is the first thing people see, but too often marketers miss the mark. The most common mistakes: too cluttered, no imagery, irrelevant imagery, boring typography, generic design.

The fix: Let your content be the guide. Use high-quality imagery to catch the reader’s eye and draw them in. The cover should match the content theme and infuse a little brand personality into it. There should also be an intuitive grid-based layout and logical header hierarchy so that everything is clear at a glance.

3) Add Personality with Imagery

The problem: Your e-book looks like a PowerPoint: generic templates, boring iconography, etc.

The fix: Consider both the tone of the content and your brand personality. The images you use should help cultivate a feeling that supports your message. Is your e-book about employee collaboration? Let’s see people working together. Is it about increasing revenue? Let’s see some tasteful data visualization.

4) Condense and Trim Down Copy

The problem: Someone got a little carried away in trying to build suspense, so you have to flip through 5 pages of “teaser” content before you get to the meat of a section. Conversely, they packed so much in that you’re facing a cluttered mess on each page.

The fix: Know two things: Negative space is your friend, and pages should be used economically. While chapter breaks may deserve their own page, condense content to deliver the message efficiently. Oftentimes this means trimming down content on a page. Removing an extraneous pullquote or sidebar can make a huge difference. Also look for opportunities to let design do the heavy lifting. A paragraph explaining a process can be visualized in a single diagram. A stat in a callout can be turned into a chart. These are great ways to break up the text. 5) Kill the Visual Junk

The problem: Some designers hear the word “visualize” and go nuts, packing every page with illustrations, photos, charts, or iconography.

The fix: Look critically at every visual element. Ask yourself:

• Does this enhance the story? Things like illustrations are often added arbitrarily without much thought.
• Can it be condensed? Data visualization can sometimes make things even more confusing if, say, you’re trying to compare three bar charts when a single grouped bar chart would do it better.
• Does it make sense? This is especially true for icons, which can be far too abstract to represent anything meaningful.

If the answer isn’t yes, say bye.

In addition visual elements, colors can sometimes overwhelm. A helpful tip: Use 1-2 main colors and 2-3 accent colors.

6) Tame Your Typography

The problem: There are so many fonts and sizes it looks like a teenager’s notebook.

The fix: Limit the number of type styles (the combination of kerning, leading, point size, etc.) to create consistency and harmony. Also, don’t use more than 2 typefaces, and do follow a grid. For more of our tips on great e-book design, here are a few posts you might like:

• Learn about the elements of great e-book design.
• Avoid these 8 design mistakes in your visual communication.
• Find out how to design the most common charts and graphs.
• Learn everything you need to know about visual content marketing.

If you need an expert to help you out, let’s chat.

Content marketing is all about diversity: high-value evergreen content that informs, mixed with high-impact, real-time content to bring awareness to your brand. But content marketers are often pulled in every direction, tasked with creating a high volume of content to fill each bucket while ensuring that every piece feeds long-term brand goals.

With limited resources and ever-increasing demands, how do you create content that is economical and impactful? Enter microcontent—an effective approach to content creation that requires little effort and provides maximum value.

In this e-book you’ll learn:

1. What microcontent is: Learn about the different formats to get an idea of what you might want to experiment with.
2. Why microcontent supports your content strategy: From long-term goals to day-to-day publishing, learn how microcontent helps support your efforts
3. How to create effective microcontent: Whether you’re just starting to create content or have an enormous archive, find out how to produce a high volume of content with minimal effort.

DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK

How do you get the most results from your content marketing? With a killer content marketing strategy. Of course, in a real-time world, it can be hard to plan ahead. When news stories break or a product launch gets postponed, you have to adapt your content while keeping your long-term goals in mind. And no matter what you publish, you also have to keep everyone from your sales team to your social following happy. It often feels like you’re serving two masters—or five or six. But with the right planning, you can create a long-term strategy that saves your energy and your sanity.

A well-crafted, long-term strategy has built-in flexibility and a solid foundation, letting you fill in your content needs as you go—even if (and when) your larger goals change. It means you can stay agile enough to react to the latest trending hashtag while scheduling production for your next evergreen infographic. (Trust us, we did it last week.)

Want to know how? Check out our new e-book, How to Build a Long-Term Content Strategy in a Real-Time World. We cover everything you need to know to create a strategy that works for you, including: 

• Why a long-term strategy saves you time, energy, and money
• How to identify your objectives
• What type of content will serve your objectives
• How to map content to your objectives
• How to effectively schedule content

Check out the e-book, and let us know your tips for creating a content strategy.

NEED HELP WITH YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY OR CONTENT CREATION? LET’S CHAT.

Though content marketing is the new frontier, marketers are still facing the age-old question: How do you get your brand’s content in front of an audience? Thanks to the proliferation of new media, with the right distribution strategy, you can reach more consumers than ever before.

Still, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Sure, you can create content, but how do you know if it’s serving your marketing goals? Once it’s created, where do you publish? And how do you optimize content for maximum results? Over the last few years, we’ve heard these concerns from all corners of the content marketing globe. And, in many ways, things have only become more confusing as more platforms pop up.

Because we’re in the business of making confusing things easy to understand, we thought it was time to help make sense of it all. At Column Five, we’ve assembled a pro Communications team to help some of the world’s biggest brands reach the right audience. We’ve also made friends over at Onboardly, a PR agency that specializes in content marketing for startups. Our brands have learned plenty over the years (both the easy way and the hard way), so we joined forces to create the new e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution.

Whether you’re a PR pro or DIY content marketer, this e-book covers everything you need to know about content distribution, including all our insider tips and tricks. Want to make the most of your content? Download the e-book to learn about:

Crafting a killer content strategy: Get tips for strategic ideation to make sure your content serves your objectives.

Content formats and types: Curate your content marketing mix to include a variety of formats primed for different platforms.

Tips for making media contacts: Learn how to cultivate relationships with journalists and social influencers to expand your content’s reach.

Choosing the right distribution channels: Learn about how each channel can serve your goals and identify which channels to target.

Measuring your ROI: Find out which metrics help track your content’s success at every stage of the sales funnel.

Good content deserves to be shared. With a little bit of structure, planning and foresight, your content can make a major impact.

• Find out how to get the most mileage from your content by Maximizing Your Publishing with Microcontent.
• Learn everything you need to know about visual content in The Ultimate Guide to Visual Content Marketing.

Outlook for the future.

To generate high-quality content consistently, you need a steady stream of content ideas, a solid workflow, and—most importantly—a well-crafted content plan. With a solid plan, you can stay organized, execute your content strategy successfully, and ensure you’re creating content that will actually connect with the right people and convert them into lifelong fans. If you’ve never created a plan before (or aren’t sure you’re doing it the right way), you’ve come to the right place. Here, we’ll walk you through the content plan process—and help you avoid common mistakes along the way. 

But first, let’s go back to basics. 

What Is a Content Plan?

In short, a content plan is a way to document the content marketing you want to create—and ensure everyone on your team stays on the same page. 

Why Do You Need a Content Plan?

Good content marketing is strategic and intentional. It also involves many moving parts, from copywriting to design. The better you can plan, the easier it is to… 

• Publish consistently. If you want to build your brand through content, you need to show up for your audience regularly. Publishing a steady stream of content is one of the most effective ways to do that. But if you don’t have a reliable content infrastructure (aka the knowledge and resources to create content), it is very difficult to produce and publish high-quality content consistently. A content plan helps keep everyone on the same page to ensure you hit your deadlines and publish the right thing at the right time. 
• Tell your brand’s best stories. We like to think of content marketing as a unique ecosystem, where every piece of content helps reinforce your brand story. If you’re making content piecemeal, or on the fly, it’s harder to control the quality and message that you’re sending. But with a solid content plan, you can ensure that you’re creating the right mix of content for your audience. 
• Maximize resources. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 54% of B2B marketers say a lack of resources is their biggest challenge. When you know what content you plan to create, you can identify and allocate resources more effectively. In fact, the more you plan, the more mileage you can get from your content. 

Note: What’s most important is actually documenting your plan. That can help you keep track of your content, spot additional content opportunities, and more.

How to Create a Content Plan

Creating a content plan is simple and straightforward (if you know what you’re doing). Follow these five steps to set yourself up for success.  

1) Complete your content strategy.

Successful content marketing doesn’t start with content—it starts with strategy. Before you make your content plan, you need to know what your goals are, who your audience is, how your content will support those goals, how you plan to measure success, etc. If you haven’t established this foundation, your content won’t be very effective. (In fact, you’re almost guaranteed to waste valuable time and resources for little reward.)

This is why it’s important to start with the basics. Use our content strategy guide and toolkit to ensure you have the information you need to build a content plan that is aligned to your goals.

2) Build your content pipeline.

Good content rarely happens when you’re scrambling to create something last minute. Thus, your content plan needs to account for any significant events or dates that you will create content for.

This may include all sorts of notable events, such as:

• Holidays
• Seasonal events (e.g., annual tradeshow)
• Company milestones
• Launches

To make sure these events are on your radar from the start, we suggest building a content pipeline, wherein you document important events for each quarter. (Download our free content pipeline template to do it.) Although you may not be focusing on those events yet, it’s important to have them in the pipeline so you can brainstorm and prepare far ahead of time. 

3) Decide on your cadence. 

How often do you plan to publish? What is a steady, reasonable cadence? This will rely on your team’s knowledge, skills, and ability to create various pieces of content. You may publish daily, weekly, or monthly—it all depends on your brand. What matters most is that you choose a reasonable cadence that you can realistically maintain.

Tip: If you don’t have the ability to create something in-house, outside support can help. See our tips to figure out if you should turn to a freelancer or a content agency.

4) Brainstorm ideas by month.

Every brand’s content needs will be different, but if you’re building your content operation from scratch, it helps to break content plans down by quarter (via your content pipeline), and then by month.

We find it especially helpful to choose a specific topic, set of keywords, or seasonal theme to brainstorm around each month.

Note:  While you can loosely plot these themes out, they shouldn’t be written in stone. Things can (and often do) change. If you’re brainstorming too far ahead, and something unexpected happens, it’ll throw your whole calendar off. Instead, plan 1-3 months at a time.

When it comes time to brainstorm specific content ideas, there are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Include stakeholders. Don’t leave anyone important out of these meetings. More minds make better ideas. Plus, you don’t want to go back to square one if a stakeholder doesn’t approve of the idea.
• Vet your ideas. Don’t go with your first ideas. Instead, use your marketing personas to vet and prioritize the ideas that will resonate with your audience most.
• Consider the platform. Where does your audience live online, and what type of content do they like to consume on these platforms? This may influence the types of ideas you brainstorm.

Once you have your list of ideas, think about what order you will want to publish them in. For example, if you’re just starting to publish content, you will want to publish your larger, more broad pieces first. 

5) Build out your editorial calendar. 

Now you can use our editorial calendar template to schedule your content. (You may also use a calendar tool like CoSchedule.)

This is where you get into the nitty-gritty content-planning details. Build and schedule a calendar that keeps everyone on track, including all the relevant details like topic, keyword, author, etc. Again, you want to schedule things out far enough in advance that no one is unprepared or blindsided by a deadline. However, this is marketing, and things change (hi, pandemic!). You may need to be flexible and move some content up, or push other content back. 

For more on this, find out how to build a proper editorial calendar.

6) Plan your distribution strategy.

No matter how good your content is, if people aren’t seeing it, it isn’t doing its job. Focus on channels that align best with your goals and have the highest potential reach. For example, if your goal is brand awareness, prioritize channels with high visibility, like social media. For lead generation, use channels like email or gated content on your website. This approach ensures you’re not spreading resources too thin.

• Identify where your audience spends time. That might be LinkedIn for B2B or Instagram for younger audiences.
• Tailor your content for each platform. Segmenting by platform lets you adapt your message and format—using visuals and shorter copy for social media or long-form articles for your blog—ensuring your content resonates effectively with different audience segments.
• Analyze your audience’s engagement patterns to determine optimal posting times. Many platforms have peak engagement times (e.g., LinkedIn during weekdays), which can vary based on industry and audience type. Planning distribution around these patterns will help you maximize visibility and engagement.

For more tips, see our guide to build a distribution strategy that gets the right eyes on your content. 

How to Make Your Content Plan Successful

As you begin to document your plan (and measure the results as you go), we have a few final tips to make sure your content-planning work pays off.

• Optimize your infrastructure. Follow our tips to master content creation and work smarter, not harder.
• Choose the right mix of content. Think of your content as nutrition—your audience needs a well-balanced meal to stay interested (and satisfied). Find out how to serve the right type of content that will keep people engaged.
• Repurpose content. Maximize your content by looking for ways to repurpose content For example, you might break an ebook into a blog post, social media snippets, data visualizations, or even a podcast episode. This strategy boosts your presence across channels without having to create entirely new content. (For more tips on doing this, find out how a divisible content strategy can help you work more effectively.
• Test and tweak. Good metrics are the key to content marketing success because they tell you whether or not your content actually works. Measure your efforts, and use the insights to improve your content going forward.
• Don’t be precious with your content. If it isn’t working and you’re supposed to create the same content next month, mix it up.

Of course, if you need a partner to guide your strategy and content, we’re always here. See our content strategy FAQ, or hit us up directly. We’d love to help you create a content plan that resonates with the people you’re trying to reach. 

B2B marketing is tough. Industries are volatile, there are more decision-makers than ever, and it can feel nearly impossible to stand out in the crowd. Over the last decade, we’ve guided our clients through these pitfalls (and more), and we know what it takes to create great campaigns, produce stellar content, and build winning brands. We also love any chance to showcase our work—and share the insights we’ve learned to help others in the B2B marketing space. So let’s take a look at 10 successful B2B marketing case studies to analyze how we solved each client’s unique challenge, why it worked, and how you can apply the same ideas to your own strategy.

10 Successful B2B Marketing Case Studies

From large campaigns and SEO strategies to experimental formats and standalone pieces of content, each of these projects allowed us to flex our skills and create the best results for our clients. 

1) Blend Increases Site Traffic 183%

The Challenge: Blend, a FinTech company in the mortgage and consumer banking space, needed to scale content and position the brand as an industry expert. Having never focused on SEO, the team approached us to build their SEO strategy from scratch.

What We Did: To build a robust and high-ranking content ecosystem, we constructed a keyword cluster framework targeting Blend’s core audience and adopted a two-pronged approach to tackle those keywords.

• First, we optimized Blend’s core site pages to drive traffic. 
• Then, we created fresh content to expand Blend’s reach.

Collaborating closely with the Blend team, we established an efficient workflow and regular publishing schedule, enabling us to scale content production and consistently support our SEO objectives.

After numerous iterations and over 100 blog articles, Blend achieved significant improvements, including:

• 183% increase in site traffic
• Over 50 unbranded keywords ranking on Page 1
• Site visibility increase from 1.82% to 13.89%

The Takeaway: SEO requires constant adaptation, so it’s important to create a flexible strategy that can evolve as you grow. See our guide to choose the right keywords for your brand, and learn about the latest SEO practices to compete against AI. Although it’s tough to start from scratch, if you target the right keywords with a steady stream of valuable content, you’ll see your rankings improve over time. 

2) Lucidworks’ Interactive Educates Executives

The Challenge: Lucidworks helps companies build AI-powered search and data discovery solutions for employees and customers. To position the brand as a thought leader and provide much-needed education about data, Lucidworks wanted to create a fresh piece of content around the provocative subject of dark data. 

What We Did: Dark data can be a dry and tedious topic. To make it more engaging and captivating, we proposed an interactive microsite that would immerse users in the story—through the metaphor of an iceberg. Using copy, imagery, animation, and interactivity, we guided users into the dark abyss below the surface to reveal the value of dark data. This creative treatment brought the story to life in an unexpected way, becoming the perfect hero piece to showcase Lucidworks’ expertise. 

The Takeaway: Visual storytelling can be a powerful tool, and interactive content is especially enticing. If you’re not sure what types of stories you might tell in this format, follow these tips to brainstorm great interactive ideas.

3) Unbabel Creates a NSFW B2B Campaign

The Challenge: Unbabel is a Language Operations platform that facilitates customer interactions in any language. To grab attention and educate small businesses about the significance of Language Operations, the Unbabel team asked us to craft a bold and edgy campaign.

What We Did: We knew we needed to do something unusual and provocative in the B2B space, so we devised a daring campaign centered around the provocative acronym STFU. Traditionally meaning “Shut the F*** Up,” we reimagined STFU to stand for “Start Translating Fearlessly with Unbabel.” This bold phrase allowed us to convey Unbabel’s key benefits across a variety of formats, including a hero video, e-book, blog articles, social media content, and an interactive game. Not only did this campaign turn heads but Unbabel’s CMO called it one of the most visually compelling campaigns they’ve done to date. Best of all, the fresh messaging strategy positioned Unbabel as a true leader in the space.

The Takeaway: One of the biggest myths in B2B marketing is that it has to be boring. Just like B2C, unique and provocative campaigns can be just as successful. If you’re looking to push the envelope in your marketing, follow these tips to brainstorm edgy and exciting ideas.

4) SAP Creates an Award-Winning Podcast

The Challenge: SAP is a global enterprise software company that wanted to raise awareness about its cutting-edge SAP Leonardo technologies, which include machine learning, big data, and blockchain tech. In a push to move beyond traditional B2B content, they aimed to engage a wider audience through innovative and creative storytelling that could captivate and inform people in an unconventional way. 

What We Did: Instead of the usual types of B2B content (e.g., ebooks or infographics), we developed Searching for Salai, a fictional 9-part science-fiction podcast. This series reimagined the cultural narrative around new technologies while weaving in elements of time travel, history, and mystery. By combining entertainment with education in an audio format, we engaged SAP’s audience in a unique way, successfully reframing the perception of advanced technologies.

The podcast was a big risk; fortunately, it paid off. Searching for Salai garnered two prestigious awards: Best Podcast/Audio Series and Content Marketing Project of the Year at the Content Marketing Institute’s 2019 Content Marketing Awards.

The Takeaway: It’s easy to get used to producing the same type of content, whether it’s blog articles or videos, but experimenting with a different format can give you surprising results. If you’re not sure what that might look like, here are five fresh creative formats to try.

5) Dialpad Gets the LOLs with a Comedic Video Campaign 

The Challenge: Dialpad, a communication software solution provider, needed to effectively launch and promote their new VoiceAI product. This required a robust brand strategy, content strategy, and supporting content to increase awareness and clearly communicate the benefits of their innovative features. They asked us to come up with a creative approach to differentiate the brand and engage their audience in a memorable way.

What We Did: We began by refreshing Dialpad’s brand strategy to clearly define their brand heart (including purpose, vision, mission, and values) and target personas. With this strong foundation, we crafted key messaging centered around the tagline “Make Smarter Calls” to ensure consistency across all touchpoints. To lead Dialpad’s content campaigns, we produced two humorous videos spoofing common challenges in phone calls and showcasing VoiceAI’s unique benefits, such as note-taking during meetings and automating voice communications.

We’re happy to say the videos garnered 300,000+ views and were named Webby Awards honorees in the “Branded Entertainment Scripted” category.

The Takeaway: Creative storytelling only works if you deeply understand your core brand story. If you haven’t already done it, build out your brand messaging framework to identify your tagline, value prop, and key brand story pillars, which will help you create on-brand content that is consistent and cohesive—no matter the format. 

6) ELM Learning Makes a Splash in a Crowded Industry

The Challenge: ELM Learning, an eLearning agency known for its innovative approach combining neuroscience with human emotion, was struggling to stand out in the corporate learning industry. They needed to increase brand awareness, clarify their offerings, and attract higher-quality leads, so we embarked on a strategic branding engagement to highlight ELM’s unique value proposition and creative strengths.

What We Did: We began by conducting extensive competitive research and stakeholder interviews to understand the market landscape and ELM’s unique strengths. This led us to re-engineer the ELM brand around a “people-first” positioning, emphasizing their trademarked NeuroLearning methodology and the positive experiences clients had working with their team.

We then developed a fresh visual identity, revamped the ELM Learning website, and created new brand messaging and a content strategy that effectively communicated the new brand story to the market. As a result of their rebrand, ELM’s opportunity rate increased 60% in the first 30 days of site/brand launch, attracting multiple high-profile enterprise accounts.

The Takeaway: A successful rebrand is not about a new logo and fresh color palette. It requires serious research and strategic decisions to better communicate a brand’s story. If you’re considering a rebrand, here are 7 things to know before you start.

7) Instacart Finds Fresh B2B Revenue with a New Content Strategy

The Challenge: Instacart needed to scale the B2B side of their business by showcasing how their online and in-store technology supports ambitious retailers. To build awareness and expand reach, they asked us to build and deploy a cohesive content strategy. 

What We Did: To increase both awareness and conversions, we bolstered several key parts of Instacart’s strategy. 

To establish a stronger, more B2B-centered presence online, we crafted a robust content and SEO strategy around crucial keywords. This blog content resulted in an average ranking increase of 29 spots.

To further engage their audience as they moved down the funnel, we also designed the Instacart Ads Academy, an interactive learning platform where partners could get certified in ad basics. This helped increase familiarity with Instacart’s offerings and provided valuable education.

Additionally, after analyzing existing sales materials, we reimagined how the sales team could use data to highlight insights more effectively. With this improvement, their 5-point scale sales efficacy rating jumped from a 3.8 to a 4.2.

The Takeaway: A well-rounded content and SEO strategy is the key to B2B revenue growth. Follow our tips to master SEO, brainstorm high-value ideas for your audience, and bridge sales and marketing to create a stronger buyer journey. 

8) Bloomreach’s Paid Media Strategy Surpasses Goals by 30%

The Challenge: Bloomreach, a platform that personalizes the e-commerce experience, sought to build brand equity and increase awareness with new audiences through their first-ever brand campaign. They approached us to develop a comprehensive multi-channel paid media strategy that would effectively maximize their spending across various platforms. 

What We Did: To help them hit their goals, we focused on hyper-segmentation and real-time testing. Utilizing geofencing, historical data, and targeted job titles, we segmented the exact audiences Bloomreach wanted to reach, then partnered with specialized vendors to deploy the campaign across multiple channels (digital platforms, connected TV, programmatic channels, and podcasts).

Through a test-and-learn approach, we continuously improved the campaign’s effectiveness in real time, ensuring optimal results. As a result, we surpassed Bloomreach’s goals:

• Moved 10% of their target account list from ‘unaware’ to ‘aware’
• Garnered 13 million impressions
• Maintained a $10 average CPM
• Secured 429,000 completed audio listens at an average cost of $0.03

The Takeaway: Adopting an agile test-and-learn strategy is a savvy way to optimize spend and improve marketing results across the board. If you’re not familiar with this approach, see our ultimate guide to agile marketing to implement it in your marketing operation. 

9) Directive Turns Dull Data into Engaging Storytelling

The Challenge: Directive, a customer generation agency for tech brands, wanted to position the brand as a thought leader in the SaaS space by transforming proprietary data into a comprehensive report about the most effective paid media platforms. They approached us to create a compelling piece of lead-generating content, leveraging our expertise in data storytelling to make the data both accessible and engaging.

What We Did: Initially, Directive envisioned a static PDF report about which platforms bring the highest ROI. However, after assessing their content and goals, we proposed transforming their data insights into a sleek, streamlined interactive experience (along with a downloadable PDF appendix). By blending data storytelling with eye-catching design, we transformed a large volume of data into a compelling narrative, making it easy and enjoyable for their audience to navigate. Best of all, this approach enabled Directive to track traffic, downloads, and other valuable metrics, helping them understand which content was most impactful for their audience.

The Takeaway: Data storytelling is always gold for marketing, especially if it’s based on proprietary data. To uncover your own stories, look at your internal data, and find out how to translate those insights into interesting content. 

10) Hummingbird Educates with a Fresh Explainer Video 

The Challenge: Hummingbird, a financial compliance platform, struggled to convey their innovative technology to an audience that predominantly relies on manual processes. To educate viewers and generate excitement about the platform’s revolutionary impact on financial compliance, we created a sleek and compelling explainer video. 

What We Did: Our approach to solving Hummingbird’s communication challenge was two-fold.

• First, we aimed to build suspense and craft an engaging narrative about how Hummingbird’s technology combats financial crime.
• Second, we needed to differentiate Hummingbird from its competition and position it as a unique, forward-thinking company.

To do this, we developed a human-centric story that highlighted the tech-led solution. Then, to infuse the explainer with dynamic energy, we used a mixed-media mosaic approach that combined illustration, photography, and animation (inspired by Hummingbird’s existing brand). The resulting video is now a key piece of sales enablement, allowing the team to communicate the product’s benefits quickly and effectively. 

The Takeaway: A good explainer doesn’t just state facts; it uses emotional hooks and visual tools to bring people into the story. To improve your own videos, learn about the keys to a good explainer, and get inspired by these 50 explainer video examples.

How to Master B2B Marketing Yourself

No matter what your industry is, or what unique challenges you face, there are a few key ways to improve your marketing—and make sure you’re growing in the right direction. 

• Start with the right strategy. From goals to metrics, platforms to editorial calendars, it takes a lot to build a functioning marketing machine. Use our free B2B marketing strategy toolkit to build a cohesive strategy that covers every gap and helps you achieve your goals. 
• Tell stories your competition can’t. As AI-generated marketing floods the Internet, it’s harder and harder to stand out against the competition. That’s why it’s important to showcase what makes your brand special. Start with our tips to brainstorm truly unique stories only you can tell. 
• Stay educated. Whether it’s the latest industry news or B2B trends, stay in the loop to keep your brand competitive. You can also subscribe to our Best Story Wins podcast to hear industry leaders’ tips to win hearts, minds, and market share. 

Most importantly, make sure you have the right team to win. Find out more about how to curate the perfect content marketing team, and consider bringing in an expert to fill any gaps. You can start your search with our tips to find the right content agency, or take a look at how we tackle content strategies. 

Regardless, remember that success doesn’t happen overnight. Good content marketing requires patience, experimentation, and diligence. 

Good luck out there.