Storytelling in B2B Content Marketing: Formats with Purpose

There are fabulous formats for successful B2B content marketing that go beyond well-known website texts and blog posts. Because even with well prepared

• Micro Sites
• Whitepapers
• Fiction Movies
• Case Studies
• Podcasts
• Corporate Books
• CSR-Reports
• or content platforms

(oh yes, an awful lot of anglicisms), it stands out well from the competition. It is always important that the chosen format provides the necessary space to explain your own product or service in the best possible way. Credo: Minimize advertising, maximize informative added value!

Here are three exciting inbound marketing examples that appeal to the target group without being obtrusively promotional:

CSR reports: Annual Report with Focus

We start with the corporate and sustainability report created by Stadtreinigung Hamburg, which also integrates the sustainability magazine LOOP. The combination of internal and expert knowledge, which is not only of interest to stakeholders, offers the perfect mix for targeted knowledge transfer. As one of the winners of the Best of Content Marketing 2020 competition, it impresses with “…convincing presentation, a very high level, clean structure, clear and vivid graphics and successful everyday comparisons,” according to the jury’s statement.

One look at the magazine is enough: The combination of comic-like illustrations and summarizing figures simplifies the complex work of the Group and goes one step further! It not only specifically points out the necessary to-dos of city cleaning, but also makes recommendations on how to ensure sustainable living in Hamburg and what opportunities and risks arise in the process.

Content Platforms: Magazine with Depth

Admittedly! It takes at least a second look to recognize the “Business of Content” platform as the agency site of Companions’ Hamburg colleagues. This is because the content website, which is aimed at B2B service providers in the retail and industrial sectors, has completely pushed the agency portrait into the background and is concentrating on socially relevant, entertaining and, of course, customer-oriented reporting in the form of a magazine. Cleverly packaged messages that once again offer added value without losing the connection to the product.

Micro Sites: Advertising with Knowledge

And last but not least: The almost fabulous micro site of the pharmaceutical giant Novartis. At beautifulmedicine.com, visitors go on a virtual journey through the history of the development of pharmaceuticals. The mix of scrollytelling, colorful illustrations and catchy texts takes interested visitors on a digital museum tour. The unusual thing about it is that the histories of the origins and applications of various medicines and plants are described alongside cultural events.

The question “What inspired van Gogh’s yellow period?” is used to explain the effect of the foxglove plant. The extent to which it influenced van Gogh years ago and can still be used today is then shown in aesthetically designed slides and a well-researched history. Here, storytelling is used to provide information in an artistic guise. At the same time, the micro site remains an exciting advertising campaign for Novartis. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

B2B content formats can therefore be incredibly versatile and usually only reveal themselves as corporate communication after a very close look. Our article on content production in FinTech shows how other sectors are trying their hand at this form of marketing. It is worth casting your own message in a suitable new form in order to stay with the target group. Give it a try!