Content marketing is the cornerstone of every digital marketing campaign. When you have a purpose-driven brand, it's vital that you create engaging content that reflects your core values and focuses on your primary purpose.

How do you do this? A great way to start is by getting inspiration from other purpose-driven brands who are creating useful and inspiring content. So, here are ten content marketing ideas you can draw upon to inspire your campaign:

1. Patagonia - The Cleanest Line Blog

We love Patagonia! They’re a wonderful brand whose purpose is about helping the environment. It's ingrained in everything they do and reflected perfectly in their content marketing strategy.

There are too many great examples to focus on just one, but more a collection; the Patagonia blog. Here, you will find many posts that aren't trying to sell their products or brand. Instead, the content reflects their core values and purpose; the environment and nature. This connects more deeply with their target audience and builds loyalty and trust.

2. Unilever/Dove - Campaign For Real Beauty

Unilever is known as one of the most purpose-driven brands in the world. They own many different companies, with Dove being one of the most important names in their books. A considerable part of the Dove brand's purpose revolves around inspiring self-confidence in women around the world.

You see this in the Dove campaign called 'Campaign For Real Beauty'. They’ve produced various forms of print and video content over the years - including animated videos in a partnership with Cartoon Network. Through this content, Dove pushes the ideas of body positivity to a younger audience. It's a smart way to broadcast the core message of inspiring self-confidence - particularly in younger girls.

3. Hiut Denim - The Denim Company On A Mission!

Hiut Denim is a lovely brand whose core values revolve around helping the town it was founded in. Hiut Denim is on a mission to get 400 master jean makers (they call them the Grandmasters), their jobs back.

This mission is perfectly encapsulated in a documentary published online. Here, Hiut Denim shifts the focus firmly onto Cardigan and what their business is doing for the town. It's eye-opening, inspiring, and a beautiful piece of content marketing.

4. Form Nutrition - The Form Feeding Fund

A vegan and plant-based nutrition brand with a difference. Form’s goal is to disrupt the crowded nutrition space with plant-based protein and nootropics. They’ve launched a brand that challenges the traditional nutrition category and created a more mindful and elevated offering.

Form is a truly purpose-driven brand. For every product sold, Form donates a meal via the Form Feeding Fund at Bansang Hospital in The Gambia. Form’s blog provides updates on The Form Feeding Fund. This content is a beautiful way of showing people the impact that the company is having in the world. It demonstrates that Form is serious about their mission, and they're doing all they can to pursue it.

5. Rapanui Clothing - Circular Fashion

Rapanui Clothing is an innovative company with a mission revolving around the environment. They’ve created an eco-friendly brand, leading to a more sustainable future in the fashion industry.

On their Instagram feed, Rapanui posted a short video that explained the concept of circular fashion. It showed how they made clothes, and how every item is designed to be sent back so it can be recycled. Along with being informative, it perfectly reflected the brand values - while also making you quite excited about the company!

6. TOMS Shoes - One Day #WithoutShoes

TOMS set out a clear brand message from the moment they started; they operate a 'One for One' business model. Every time someone buys shoes from them, they donate a pair to a child in need.

In 2016, they started the One Day #WithoutShoes campaign on social media. They used this hashtag with the idea that people send them photos of their bare feet. For every photo they received, they'd donate a pair of shoes. It saw massive engagement, and they carried on the tradition in 2017.

7. WaterAid - Instagram Content

WaterAid is a charity that aims to bring clean water and good hygiene to people who don't have it. They believe everyone has the right to clean drinking water, and this is reflected in their content marketing strategy.

One look at their Instagram content and you'll see numerous examples of purpose-driven marketing. They post images of people without access to clean water and provide a story behind each one. It's very emotional and makes you connect with the people in each post. At the same time, it accurately and effectively conveys the charity's message.

8. M&S - Taking Real Action On The Plastic Problem

A well-known brand on the UK high street, M&S strives for innovation, inspiration and integrity. Alongside this, they pride themselves on staying in-touch with communities and listening to what people want.

As a company, they have excellent marketing campaigns. But a recent piece of content stands out for the purpose behind it. On their site, they reveal a post that details everything they're doing to reduce plastic use in stores. It goes into great depth showing how they're leading the way amongst other supermarkets, and it helps cement the ideas of innovation, integrity, and staying in-touch with communities.

9. Fairtrade - How Sweet Is Your Cake Really?

Fairtrade is a federation set up to encourage positive change around the world. They want to build respectful partnerships and create a planet where the farmers of raw materials are fairly compensated and treated with respect. Also, they're big on building up communities in impoverished areas that have been affected by unfair trade.

 In February 2019, they produced a video called How Sweet Is Your Cake Really?’s a very creative recipe-style video, but the ingredients were negative things involved in the cake making process. For example, step one was start with inequality, while step two was to pour in poverty. It shows just how unjust and unfair a lot of sweet treats are when they're don't have the Fairtrade seal. While only being 30 seconds long, it strikes an emotional chord and has over 126,000 views.

10. Neals Yard Remedies

Neals Yard Remedies is all about using organic ingredients to create products that don't harm the earth. They commit to supporting various trusts and charities that help save forests, reduce plastic waste, and keep animals from harm.

Their website has a page dedicated to the different campaigns they support and how they support them. It's clever as they're not directly promoting their brand, but you become interested because you read about the positivity they're spreading.

So, there’s a brief overview of ten content marketing examples from purpose-driven brands. A key take-away from these examples is that you have to make your values/purpose the focus of your content. Don't create things that just advertise your brand or products; ensure there's a message behind your content that speaks to consumers who share the same values as yourself.

Thanks for reading!

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