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How PornHub Dominates with Content Marketing
Content marketing this, content marketing that – everywhere you turn, marketers are continually praising this technique. They cannot restrain themselves from talking about the importance of adding content marketing to your overall marketing arsenal.
It’s no secret that content is peaking right now. Everybody is doing it. These days, every type of brand, regardless of the size, niche or industry, is investing significant chunks of their overall budget in content marketing. Why? – Well, because a good content marketing strategy can redefine any type of brand and transform even the most obscure enterprises into real powerhouses.
Content marketing is all about bringing value to your readers and prospects. If you, as a publisher, figure out how to create a constant flow of useful and interesting blog posts, infographics, newsletters, use cases, cases studies and white papers – you can grow into a real industry titan in no time.
We live in a day and age where almost all B2B decisions are influenced by content and data. People from all corners of the world are constantly turning to the Web to check out if they’re making the right decisions by doing business with a certain brand, product or services. They are all eager to learn more about their choices.
I know that right about now some of you are probably thinking: “Great, but what if my brand doesn’t really sell stuff worth writing about? What if I, for example, work in a shady or unsexy industry where content marketing isn’t really an option?”
Content marketing is ALWAYS an option. We at Altus Host truly believe that. It doesn’t really matter if you offer web hosting services or work in a fashion, retail or automobile industry – content marketing is here to help you reach out to your desired audience and feed your prospects with all the necessary information that they need in order to start seeing you as a real expert within your niche.
There’s no such thing as a brand that isn’t a good fit for content marketing. All you really need to do here is develop a custom-centric strategy, locate that sweet spot between your story and data, and push it to the max.
Don’t believe me? Please, continue reading…
In a day and age where more than 50% of all companies that invest in this sort of thing are claiming that they’re still waiting to see some real ROI from their content marketing efforts, this one unlikely brand is crushing it on all sorts of different fronts with its content. I’m talking about PornHub here, of course.
For those who still want to pretend like they don’t know this brand, PornHub is probably the biggest and most popular search engine in the adult industry today. Launched in Montreal back in 2007, this pornographic video sharing site now counts more than 60 million daily visits. Regardless of the niche you operate in, these are some pretty impressive numbers.
Even though they distribute adult content that isn’t quite considered to be friendly or appropriate for most social circles, scenarios or publishers, these guys are absolutely dominating it with their content marketing strategy.
Despite the fact that PornHub cannot bluntly advertise its service like most SFW companies can, the geniuses behind this engine have really put their heads together and came up with tons and tons of cool campaigns that make it possible to include their brand in above-the-line marketing.
But how did they do it? How does someone transform a freakin’ adult content site into a real lovemark online? Sex was, is, and forever will be a taboo subject to a lot of people. How do you market a site that basically sells such a thing to people which “customers” don’t want to admit they use?
I think this has a lot to do with taking a fresh approach to all your available channels of communication.
Before we dive deep into what really makes PornHub such a great marketing machine, let us first acknowledge the fact that this brand isn’t predestined for success. PornHub isn’t really special, when you strip it down to it’s undies. It’s just another adult content sites. Looking over at their content and offers (yeah, I looked), they’re basically the same as any of their direct competitors. There are literally hundreds of other sites that offer the same things as PornHub does, and yet, they’re still on top. The only thing that really makes them special is how they sell their services.
I don’t know about you, but knowing this – PornHub as a phenomenon now seems even more interesting to me. They have really set the bar high for everyone who works in marketing. Their success is a living and breathing testament to the power of creativity. You can market anything to everyone, if you figure out a way how to make your messages stand out from the crowd.
Now that we got that behind us, let us dissect this publisher and see what really makes its marketing so great. Let us learn by example, how even the most obscure of brands have the possibility and capacity to create big noise in digital era:
1. Leverage Humor In Your Content Marketing
As I wrote thousands of times on many different websites across the Internet:
Whenever you can, ALWAYS add humor to your marketing mix.
People are addicted to humor. Always were, and always will be. Go to any of your social media networks and look at what others are sharing. Now look what kind of posts are generating the biggest number of clicks, likes and comments. Long and boring blog posts or funny statuses and gifs? Yeah…the second ones.
PornHub is no stranger to humor. In fact, humor is the no.1 reason why their marketing is doing so great.
Example:
On 1st of April, they’ve created an entire subsite titled “Corn Cub” in order to celebrate the April Fools Day.
I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. This was an amazing idea. People acknowledged the humor behind this stunt, so it was no shock when mainstream brands started to pick it up and post it on their publications. Great content all round.
Another great example of leveraging humor in your content marketing strategy:
During the winter holidays, Officer & Gentleman, Spain-based two-man ad agency that’s in charge of PornHub’s marketing in that department, was awarded with the task to create video ad for PornHub that will generate a lot of buzz on social media.
Even though this seemed like a great idea, these guys knew that, thanks to their strict content rules, Facebook and Instagram would never, not in a million years, allow them to directly market PornHub’s service via their platforms.
These guys had their work cut out for them. They needed to think outside of the box and actually come up with something that doesn’t really scream adult content, even though you know that the whole ad is basically about it.
Take a look at their Christmas premium gifting card ad. You cannot deny its brilliance. They have done a great job here. I love everything about this ad. Especially the final sentence: “….the most touching gift.”
Hilarious.
These are just some situations where PornHub truly made us cry from laughter. If you take a look at their Twitter account, you’ll see that their Community Manager really knows how to engage their audience, and run fun, light and playful conversations with everyone who writes about their brand. The content PornHub shares on that account is pure gold, so I recommend that you go and check it out for yourself. Who knows, maybe it’ll inspire you.
2. Be Authentic, Be Bold – Always Try To Push The Limits and Surpass Your User Expectations
One of the greatest things you can do with your marketing is to surprise your audience and exceed their expectations. In order to do that, you must truly apply yourself. You have to think outside of the box, be bold, and courageous enough to continuously push the bar higher for your brand – only then will your audience see you as an enterprise that wants to change the world.
Taking a page from Red Bull’s Stratosphere Jump, PornHub decided to also venture into the great unknown. Back in 2015, PornHub launched an Indiegogo campaign, titled: “Sexploration”. The sole purpose of that campaign was to raise the funds for their first ever space-based sex scene. PornHub sought to crowdfund a budget of $3.4mil, so that they have enough cash to pay for the shuttle transportation and video equipment necessary to successfully capture Eva Lovia and Johnny Sins boinking in space. Reportedly, the company was willing to cover everything rest in order to see this bizarre idea come to life.
Even though they’ve failed to raise their goal, PornHub still profited like crazy from this campaign. Every big or small media house in the world wrote about their insane mission. PornHub was everywhere. You cannot even buy PR like that.
Just look at the number of views on their Vimeo video alone. 2.5mil? Jesus. Great stuff!
Pornhub Presents: Sexploration from Pornhub TV on Vimeo.
Another great example of killer content can be found on their subsite “Give America Wood”. This cheeky slogan stands for more than just a silly wordplay. Behind it, there was an entire site dedicated to planting one tree per every hundred views they count in a specific category. Another great idea to show the people that your brand isn’t just another company that only cares about making money.
3. Provide The Data, Do Some PR and Get Featured On Top Sites
Data is power. Today, data plays a significant role in your overall marketing success. Especially when it comes to content marketing and how it has been evolving over the years. A lot of brands still fail to see the importance in using data as your guide on your journey to figuring out your audience, creating the right content for the right type of users and understanding its impact on your future strategic plans.
But not PornHub. Even though this brand knows that a lot of people don’t really care about their company or what it stands for, they still know how to use their statistics to their advantage. In order to reach out to audiences all over the world, PornHub creates all sorts of different interesting and entertaining data that often gets picked up as newsworthy stats. This is the core of their content marketing. Their carefully segmented and researched numbers have earned them links from all sorts of relevant publications online, like The Daily Bot, Mashable and Gizmodo.
4. Amplify Your Content Like A Boss
It doesn’t matter how good, well-written or intelligent your content may be, if it fails to reach your targeted crowd and stimulate them to engage with your messages – it’s basically worthless. I know that there isn’t a single person alive on this planet who wants to hear such a thing – but, hey – it’s the truth.
Getting people to read and share your content is no easy task. How come? – Well, because millions of blog posts get published every single day. Twitter counts 500mil new tweets every day, while Facebook generates a mind blowing number of 510 000 comments, 293,000 status updates, and 136,000 photo uploads per minute. That’s right. Per minute. You read it right.
Looking at these numbers, one could say that it’s nearly impossible to rise above the crowd and get the right people to see your content. There’s just too much noise everywhere around you. However, brands now have a better chance than ever to spread their messages everywhere they want to. All they have to do is follow-up on their targeted audiences activities and study their behavior. Once you know what your prospect like and dislike, as well as where do they usually hang out online, it will be quite easy for you steal their attention.
Like in any other part of this case study, PornHub is killing it here. As I already mentioned, their Twitter account is especially great at amplifying their messages. The guys behind this brand are smart enough to know that there’s no chance in Hell that people would retweet a photo of a naked girl, or something even more explicit.
They know that in order to go viral, you have to produce something truly clever. This is where PornHub again uses humor to their advantage. Almost every tweet they post receives a significant number of favs, comments and retweets.
Example:
Happy Birthday @JustinBieber. We’ve extended your FREE Premium membership by a year since you’re such a huge fan! #HappyBirthdayJustinBieber
— Pornhub ARIA (@Pornhub) March 1, 2014
But, unlike most brands who use social media channels solely for the purposes of blasting their messages to their targets, PornHub really cares about their followers. They read their mentions, follow-up on what’s going on in their network and respond to the weirdest of scenarios.
Just look at this guy’s tweet:
Now look what PornHub did:
Great stuff, right? This is how you use your content to your advantage. Unlike most brands that have the option of writing useful posts that serve to educate their followers on how to improve their understanding of certain things in life, PornHub operates in such a niche where that kind of strategy isn’t really plausible. But, as you see from everything written above, there are still a lot of opportunities out there for them to truly win big by producing and distributing original content.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I really love what PornHub is doing with their marketing, so I felt that I needed to write a special post dedicated to their greatness. I hope you had as much fun reading this article, as I did writing it. If you have anything to add or ask about this subject – feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to answer them ASAP.
That’s it for now,
See you again soon :)
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