what 300+ content marketing campaigns can teach you about earning links

1. Highly

emotional

2. Broad appeal

3. Comparison

4. Pop culture

themed

OurWomen in Video Games campaign had all four

characteristics.

This single campaign amassed nearly 900 placements

(e.g., BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, MTV, and Vice).

It paired a highly emotional topic (body image issues) with a strong visual contrast. It also included a pop culture

theme that appealed to a niche audience (video game fans) while also resonating with a broader audience.

Content that evokes a strong emotional response is extremely effective at earning links.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

In fact, our campaigns that earned 100+ placements were 3 times more likely to feature a strong emotional hook than less successful campaigns.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

Our Truth About Hotel Hygiene campaign earned over 700 placements thanks to a high “ick” factor, which gave it emotional resonance paired with universal interest (most people use hotels).

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

Now let’s take a look at one of our most successful campaigns of all time.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

How would you alter this woman’s body to make it what you think is “ideal”?

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

Here’s how graphic designers from different countries did it.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

Here’s how the internet reacted.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

High-Arousal Content Marketing Example

•Perceptions of Perfection blew up – with over 3.5 million views on BuzzFeed alone!

• Our client Superdrug received 700K pageviews within 5 days.

HIGHLY EMOTIONAL1.

Audiences were surprised to see how drastically designers altered a woman’s photo to fit their country’s standards of beauty.

The surprise factor added an additional layer of emotionality to the already emotional topic of women’s body image issues.

Want high-quality links?

We found a correlation between high average domain authority and content topics with mass appeal.

Campaigns in the travel, entertainment, and retail verticals did especially well with top-tier publishers since they naturally lend themselves to content ideas with broad appeal.

BROAD APPEAL2.

More than half of our highest performing campaigns centered around a ranking or comparison.

COMPARISON3.

POP CULTURE THEMED4.

Our campaigns with more than 100 media stories were nearly 2x as likely to incorporate a pop culture theme than our campaigns with fewer than 20 pickups.

GET MORE INSIGHTS ON OUR ANALYSIS OF

345 content marketing campaigns.