SlideShare is a fantastic tool for content marketing.
- It’s visually appealing.
- It’s a useful platform for reworking existing content.
- It helps to tap into a brand new audience which might not have seen your other content.
SlideShare is also useful because there’s a lot to learn from existing slideshows that other content marketers have uploaded.
Here’s a list of some of my favorites.
These aren’t just useful for the information they contain, but many are fantastic examples of how to do content marketing right.
Take a look at all of them to see what they do well and where they can improve as pieces of marketable content:
1. B2B Content Marketing – 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America (Content Marketing Institute)
There’s no better place to start when using SlideShare to research content marketing than the CMI’s latest report on content trends.
This deck gives a clear, well-illustrated guide to B2B content marketing in 2016, and it lets you know what recommendations other content marketers have for the right approach to producing and distributing online content.
2. B2C Content Marketing – 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America (Content Marketing Institute)
While the B2B benchmarks slideshow is useful for gaining an understanding of the content marketing industry in general, if you’re looking to promote a brand to customers, this deck is going to be more useful.
It’s interesting to compare these two, and see the slight differences that exist in the approach taken by B2B and B2C content marketers – some insights you’ll gain from looking at these together can help give you a better idea of where to focus your efforts in order to reach the perfect audience.
3. 40+ Predictions on Content Marketing in 2016 (Content Marketing Institute)
The Content Marketing Institute does its absolute best to know its way around its specialist subject, and I definitely recommend using its guidance and advice to get a better idea of how the latest online trends will affect your content marketing campaign.
This list of predictions is particularly useful if you’re looking to make changes to your marketing plan (and you always should be anticipating future changes to the online marketing landscape).
Use this slideshow to keep abreast of potential opportunities and pitfalls you’ll want to navigate over the course of the rest of this year.
4. Why Content Marketing Fails (Rand Fishkin, Moz)
I like this slideshow for several reasons: firstly, it addresses some of the key reasons a content marketing campaign can go awry and how to fix them.
Secondly, it’s a good example of curating quality content to build something fun, entertaining, and engaging. It’s full of stories and humor, and it does a great job of teaching hard lessons in a light and relaxing manner.
5. How to Boost Inbound Marketing Success with Content Marketing, SEO and Social Media Marketing (Scoop.it)
Where the above SlideShare deck is lighthearted and informal, this slideshow is all business, and that’s great.
There’s room for plenty of different approaches to SlideShare decks, and this one does a fantastic job of communicating statistics and trends in a visually impressive way while keeping a consistently professional tone.
6. 50 Stats You Need to Know About Content Marketing (NewsCred)
If you’re the kind of person that likes to make informed decisions and plans based on imperical evidence, I’d recommend this slideshow.
It’s full of interesting facts and tidbits about content marketing that can be useful in building a better understanding on what works and what doesn’t, based on solid, irrefutable evidence.
7. 3 Ingredients to Spice Up Your Content Marketing (SEMRush)
This slideshow is one of my absolute favorites of all time.
Not only does it provide helpful, smart advice on improving your content marketing efforts, but it’s an absolutely incredible example of how to make impressive visual content.
Its cartoon style is the perfect way to set itself apart from the pack, and gives it a very unique flavor while providing useful tips for improving a marketing strategy.
8. Tips, Tools and Templates To Build Your Content Marketing Strategy (Michael Brenner)
This slideshow is particularly useful if you’re just starting out building a content strategy.
Its templates are great for using as a framework for a strategy, and it points to some very helpful tools for creating effective content.
9. How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy (NewsCred)
How-to guides are strangely lacking on SlideShare, even though they work very well as a way of communicating messages in short bursts with images.
This guide has some useful statistics and information within it, along with some nice visuals, although it’s not got quite as much substance as some of the other slideshows on the list, and some points aren’t as comprehensive as they could be.
10. Content Marketing Lessons From 10 Years and 41,525,103 Website Visits (Hiten Shah)
In case you can’t tell, I’m a fan of slideshows that focus on numbers.
This deck is the perfect combination of real world numerics and a narrative that’s relatable and accessible.
While a lot of slideshows deal with abstract ideas, this one is very grounded in honest history, and that makes its information all the more relevant and useful.
11. Content Marketing ROI: What’s Your Content Formula? (Michael Brenner)
This particular slideshow focuses primarily on one specific side of content marketing, and one that can cause a lot of discussion and concern amongst marketers: finding the best way to get a solid return on investment.
The one downside to this slideshow is its lack of information – these visuals accompanied a presentation, and the useful ideas are combined with a lot of memes and visual jokes that don’t mean quite as much without the transcript of the speech.
12. Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge. (Velocity Partners)
Here’s another one that I really like: its title is evocative, its content is interesting and visually appealing, and it holds the reader’s attention throughout.
This is the way SlideShare should be used for content marketing, and it’s full of helpful information too.
13. Create a Content Marketing Strategy Your Customers will LOVE, in 7 Steps (Jay Baer)
This is another slideshow that uses visuals really well, and has some interesting analogies to help clarify some of its points.
There’s a lot of actionable steps in this one, which if followed will help you to get a better focus throughout your content marketing strategy.
14. Optimizing Your Content Marketing and Blog for Conversions (Kissmetrics)
Coming from Kissmetric, it’s hardly surprising that this SlideShare deck has drawn a lot of attention and is full of informative, helpful advice.
In particular, it’s got some real world examples of how brands have combatted challenges to their marketing plans which are useful for anyone looking for ways to make their campaigns run smoother.
15. The Big Picture of Content Marketing Strategy – A Content Marketing World eBook (Content Marketing Institute)
Another one from the Content Marketing Institute, this one is adapted from an eBook, which makes it very useful because there’s further information available if the reader needs to delve further into any topic discussed.
I like the visual style of this slideshow: it’s consistently, memorable, and the theme running through the slideshow makes it stand out from the pack.
16. Visual Content Marketing Strategy eBook (TopRank Marketing Agency)
Another one that’s adapted from an eBook, the very nature of the subject here means that the slideshow is probably more useful than the text it’s based on.
Notice how this slideshow doesn’t shy away from dumping a lot of text onto the page. While this isn’t great for a presentation, it works well in a setting where readers can spend as much time as they like on each slide.
17. How To Get More From SlideShare – Super-Simple Tips For Content Marketing (Content Marketing Institute)
A slightly introspective slideshow, this one gives tips on how to use SlideShare, which is useful if you’re reading this article as you’re already looking for tips on content marketing and how to use SlideShare.
The ideas here are nice and basic, although they might be a little too simple for some marketers.
18. The X Factor: The Secret to Better Content Marketing (Mathew Sweezey)
Spoiler alert: the ‘X Factor’ in question is Agile Marketing, so if you’re into that sort of thing this is a good read.
Even if Agile Marketing isn’t your thing, this is a helpful slideshow as it’s a good example of how to set out SlideShare decks.
Visually impressive, full of helpful ideas that are well explained and backed up by statistics, this slideshow does a great job of communicating its message using the best approach for its medium.
It’s not too wordy, and it’s laid out in a way that makes it easy to read.
19. 29 Content Marketing Secrets e-book (TopRank Marketing Agency)
Numbered slideshows (and numbered content in general) are useful because they let the reader know exactly what they’re going to get.
This is a good example of condensing a large amount on information into a small space, and although it’s fairly wordy, it can hardly be faulted for giving the reader too much information.
20. How to Scale Creative Content Marketing (TopRank Marketing Agency)
Another slideshow which caters to a very specific need among content marketers, this deck will give the reader a better idea of how to slowly increase the size and complexity of a content marketing strategy.
It’s also another example of great visual content, and does an excellent job of showing how a SlideShare document can be laid out for maximum effect and usability.
21. How To Suck at Marketing (HubSpot)
Ironic or sarcastic titles draw in audiences, as does combining them with evocative visuals that catch the eye.
This slideshow will teach you what not to do as part of your content marketing efforts, and will also show you how to fix mistakes you might be making that are getting in the way of the success of your strategy.
22. Digital Convergence: Integrated Marketing & Public Relations (TopRank Marketing Agency)
This deck is a quick and easy read which combines catchy visuals with relatively detailed content.
It doesn’t have the polish and style that a lot of TopRank slideshows have, but it’s got some useful messages that can be gleaned quickly without needing to slow down to read large paragraphs of text.
If you want to learn more about combining PR and marketing in an online setting, this is a good place to start, although you might need to follow it up with some more in-depth reading from somewhere else.
23. 10 Rocking Content Marketing Products (Joe Chernov)
This adorable deck has it all: pretty images, a unique art style, fact-based insights, and real life examples of content marketing being used at its best.
I’d really recommend taking the time to go through this entire thing and seeing what you can learn from the examples in the slideshow, thinking about how you can apply the lessons from these real world brands to your own marketing efforts
24. 12 Myths About Content Marketing and Why You Should Ignore Them (Camas Media)
This slideshow is short, simple, and does exactly what it promises to: there’s several pieces of good advice in here about common sense content marketing ideas that aren’t actually all that helpful.
I’d recommend using this list as a reminder that you shouldn’t follow the pack when it comes to content marketing logic: feel free to experiment and try different things, as you never know what might lead to a viral hit.
25. Content Marketing Guidelines 2016 2017 (Steven Van Belleghem)
Finally, this slideshow is very much like the three that this list starts with: it’s a breakdown of what the content marketing landscape is like at the moment and where it’s going to go in the near future.
Feel free to take all predictions with a pinch of salt as nobody knows what’s coming next, but this slideshow has some good insight into how you should be approaching content marketing at the moment.
There’s Plenty More Where that Came From…
Take the time to check out some (or all) of these slide decks, and you’ll see that:
- Visual style is important to making your content stand out
- Statistics and hard numbers are useful for giving your content authority and legitimacy
- There’s no one right way to approach content marketing.
Beyond these examples, though, there are loads more excellent slideshows on SlideShare, on a variety of topics, which you can use as inspiration for your own content marketing efforts.
So head out there, see what you can find, and report back on your favorites!
Do you have a favorite SlideShare deck to share? Leave your recommendations as a comment below:
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