As another year draws to a close, organizations are taking stock of their biggest accomplishments from last year’s content calendar. It’s essential to evaluate which content projects had the most significant impact on organizational growth and success to ensure they can create a highly effective content strategy again this year.
Here, nine Forbes Communications Council members share their standout content projects from the past year, exploring not only what they entailed, but also how they affected their organizations. The success stories below can serve as both inspiration and a roadmap for organizations looking to maximize their returns on investments in content creation in the coming year.
1. Our Annual Survey Report
The project that had the biggest impact over the past year is our annual survey report. We conducted a targeted industry survey that generated data for multimedia uses throughout the year that ranged far beyond the report itself. We found ways to cross-pollinate the data in content, such as interviews, written articles, blogs, social media and more, which strengthened our position as an industry leader. – Kristin Russel, symplr
2. AI-Aided Content
We went from a largely manual, labor-intensive process for content generation to one that is iterative and scalable using a suite of artificial intelligence tools. Everything from research to writing to ideation was aided by AI input. Getting us off the blank page faster gave us the velocity to try, test, tweak and improve. A better process with more output creates tangible results. – Chris Haller, RealCount
3. Topical Platform Content On Nutrition And Cancer
This year, we developed written and video content for our platform around the topic of nutrition and cancer—an area of interest for our team. This project quickly grew to become an active conversation aimed at dispelling misconceptions about food and cancer. As a result, we saw increased demand for one-on-one meetings with a dietitian and interest in nutrition resources within our platform. – Jennifer Haas, OncoHealth
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4. A ‘Meet The Team’ Video Series
Video continues to be a great driver of brand awareness and positioning. This year we launched our first “meet the team” series focused on some of our senior leadership. We are putting a personal spin on the content to help it stand apart from typical “I love working for X company” team videos. Along with supporting our overall brand positioning, it has an impact on recruiting. – Tom Wozniak, OPTIZMO Technologies, LLC
5. AI Commentary
In a world of hype and catastrophe, our secret sauce of AI commentary has been taking a deliberate middle-of-the-road approach as our content has forayed into controversial issues, such as job security and employment relations. By acting as the adults in the room and translating this new tech into easy-to-understand terms, our content placement has been more successful than ever. – Patrick Ward, Formula.Monks
6. Internal Content To Drive Participation In An ERP
This year, we launched an employee referral program that is focused on proactively encouraging employees to connect people and businesses they know with leasing and talent opportunities in our organization. Through email marketing and flyers posted in all offices, we have been able to maximize exposure to the new program. We also implemented incentives to encourage as much participation as possible. – Victoria Zelefsky, The Menkiti Group
7. An Industry Survey On Learning
We implemented an industry survey that looked at learning challenges and preferences. The intended outcome was a research report that highlighted what learners want (and don’t want!) in their learning experience. It was a huge marketing win, creating many long-term assets for the organization, as well as thought leadership and proprietary data for use in PR and AR. – Sarah Danzl, Skillable
8. An Infographic On Entrepreneurial Marketing
We created an infographic around marketing plans for entrepreneurs based on data from a first-party survey we ran. The purpose was to show our customers that they are not alone in their challenges around creating marketing plans and to share thoughts from their peers on how they could approach these challenges. This helped us showcase our understanding of their needs and positioned us to help. – Roshni Wijayasinha, Prosh Marketing
9. A Weekly Newsletter
We started a weekly newsletter driven purely by the value and knowledge we could impart to our readers. It’s not sales-y or promotional; it’s advice, relevant information, industry tips and takeaways. It’s allowed us to meaningfully connect with our audience and engage with them in a whole new way. – Melissa Kandel, little word studio
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