If you Googled the words “Content Hub” 5 years ago, chances are you’d find yourself digging through the nether regions of Google to find something that made sense. What happens today? You’ll find over 213,000,000 results. 

The content Hub has arrived on the content marketing scene. Full stop. 

In the last few months alone, it’s become very apparent that in the content marketing world, content Hubs have become the easiest and most efficient (and dare I say, coolest) way to engage your audience and generate more leads for your business. 

Here are 14 amazing ways that some of the world’s leading brands are using content Hubs to deliver great content experiences:  

1. As a Powerful Resources Center 

Historically, Resources Centers have been places where content goes to die. For years, when a blog post, eBook, white paper, or video had served its immediate short-term purpose, it was put out to pasture in an unengaging and unfriendly ‘Resources Center’. Not a great way to treat the content you work so hard to create, is it? 

Thankfully, leading brands are now taking a much smarter approach to this forgotten stepchild of the content marketing world; an approach that’s focused on transforming the Resources Center from an ugly pumpkin into a stunning carriage that can take your audience off on a "magical’"journey of content.   

Captora, a California-based startup that has created an amazing piece of software to help marketers find and capture leads, has recently launched a new Marketing Resources Center that is brimming with great marketing references, guides, trend reports, marketing templates, and more.  

Amazing real-world examples: Captora

2. To Target Specific Verticals, Industries, or Markets

Smart content marketers know that the more personalized and contextual they can make their content for any given audience, the more likely it will be to engage and convert. By using a content Hub to conveniently tailor your content by vertical, industry, market, or buyer persona, you can ensure that your content speaks to the right person every time.

Impinj, a leading provider of UHF RFID solutions, uses its content Hub to create personalized experiences for its users who are interested in viewing content by market, such as retail, healthcare, logistics, or asset management. 

Amazing real-world example: Impinj

3. For Events

Even in a world of digital content, in-person events are still a key part of many a great content marketing strategies.

And who knows more about using events as part of a content marketing strategy than the Content Marketing Institute? As part of their annual #CMWorld Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, the CMI uses a content Hub to make content easily accessible to visitors and guests, and even curate guest content right into the Hub as well.  

Amazing real-world example: Content Marketing Institute

4. For Targeted Product Support

Using a content Hub as an educational resource for each of your products can be an amazing way to keep your customers engaged, productive, and happy. Keeping all of your product resources centralized and accessible can help your customers become product experts in no time as they jump from one piece of content to the next.  

iQmetrix, a leader in retail management and customer experience technology, uses their content Hub to provide detailed product support to customers who use any of their 3 core solutions. 

Amazing real-world example: iQmetrix 

5. To Curate Amazing Content 

Whether you’re stuck in a content creation crunch (the dreaded Triple-C) or are just looking to inject others into your content marketing strategy, curating relevant and interesting content is a great way to go. 

Kinvey, a leading Backend-as-a-Service platform for web and mobile apps, does a fantastic job of curating relevant blog and social media content as part of its AWS event content Hub. Looking to read 15 tech blogs in one spot? Kinvey’s got you covered.

Learn about how Kinvey leveraged an event for their own business using a Hub (without even attending it).

Amazing real-world example: Kinvey

6. As a Community Engagement Center or Social Hub 

Chances are your social media content is lost, marooned on social media island and tragically separated from the rest of your marketing content. Thankfully, over the last few years many brands have begun to understand that all of your content needs to live together to do the most good. It’s time to send out an S.O.S. and get your social media content off of that deserted island.

Atomic Reach, a Toronto-based content optimization and scoring platform, does an amazing job of making its fans and followers an integral element of its overall content marketing strategy. Injecting this type of user generated content can add a powerful element of social proof to the rest of your content. 

Amazing real-world example: Atomic Reach

7. As a Home for Thought Leadership 

Thought leadership, or the deep subject matter expertise only you possess, is the gift that keeps on giving when you can inject it into your content marketing. Unfortunately, even innovative pieces of content can fall by the wayside when you forget about the fourth wheel of content marketing. By using a content Hub as a vessel to deliver a unique viewpoint to your industry or market, you can ensure that your audience receives the knowledge, experience, and expertise they crave in your content. 

Taulia, a San Francisco-based provider of cloud-based invoice, payment, and dynamic discounting management solutions, has done a terrific job of using its content Hub to keep its audience abreast of the latest trends and developments in a young and quickly evolving industry. Whether through blog posts, Flipbook-based articles, infographics, presentations, or videos, Taulia’s Resources Hub is full of valuable tips, tricks, and powerful insights. 

Amazing real-world examples: Taulia

8. To Create and Power Marketing Campaigns 

As my colleague Francois noted in a blog post a few days ago, “every time a marketer is forced to wait for a developer to launch a campaign, a kitten dies.” Modern marketers need tools that let them operate quickly and with flexibility. In this regard, content Hubs keep kittens alive by making it super easy for marketers to quickly launch new campaigns and CTAs, branding and all.  

SAP, a world leader in enterprise software and software-related services, uses several content Hubs to group various forms of content by campaign type or according to a specific user’s stage in the sales process. By integrating targeted CTAs among this content, SAP is also able to ensure that its audience can convert right within the content Hub or advance to the next stage of the sales process. 

Amazing real-world example: SAP

9. To Power a Press Rooms/News Room

If your organization is being talked about in the media and online, it’s important to incorporate these pieces of content into your content marketing strategy to paint a bigger picture for your audience.  

UPS, one of the largest shipping and logistics companies in the world, uses its content Hub to enable its audience to find and engage with news posts and press releases about the company, originating from both UPS’ PR team and also from across the Internet. 

Amazing real-world example: UPS

10. To Empower Your Sales Team

According to Forrester, 90% of the content that marketing teams work so hard to create doesn’t end up getting used by salespeople in the sales process. That’s right, 90%. That’s a terrifying number. And far too often, content is being neglected by salespeople because it’s just too hard to surface, organize, and send out. Enter the sales enablement-focused content Hub! 

Insight, one of North America’s most cutting edge IT companies, has done an incredible job of making it easy for their sales team to access and distribute relevant content to leads and customers. By choosing to group their content together by topic, type, industry, or partner, Insight has taken sales enablement to a whole new level.   

Amazing real-world example: Insight 

11. To Connect With Your Partners

While it’s uber-important to ensure that your customers, prospects, fans, and followers have easy access to your content, it’s just as important to look after your partners, colleagues, employees, and stakeholders. 

Swipely, a fast-growing software startup that provides local merchants with powerful payment, analytics, and marketing tools, has done a great job of using its content Hub to create a one-stop shop for its partner network. In the Swipely Partner Resources Hub, Swipely’s Partners have easy access to all of the tools and resources they need to “close deals faster."

Amazing real-world example: Swipely 

12. As a Dynamic Bookshelf

If your organization is fan of using PDFs to create content, you can use a content Hub to store and display those documents, make them fun to engage with, and best of all, ensure you can easily measure how people are engaging with each and every element of your PDFs.  

The JOC Group, a provider of global intelligence for trade, transportation, and logistics professionals, uses its content Hub as a dynamic and interactive bookshelf for its publications. In addition to looking great on any device, The JOC Group’s content Hub provides detailed metrics as to how its audience is consuming its Flipbook content. 

Amazing real-world example: JOC Group 

13. As a Training Center

A core principle of content marketing is that an educated customer is a good customer. More and more, customers are looking at businesses as educators rather than just as a provider of a product or service. The takeaway? It’s time to take out your ruler, grab a fistful of chalk and head to the blackboard. A content Hub can be the classroom.  

Eagle’s Flight, a leader in experiential learning and corporate training, uses its content Hub as a single location for training-focused content. In the Eagle’s Flight Resources content Hub, customers can consume how-to content, social media content, video content, and more to learn about experiential learning, leadership, and teamwork concepts.  

Amazing real-world example: Eagles Flight 

14. To Deliver Great Customer Service

Great content marketing strategies always stem from an organization’s laser-like focus on helping their customers answer questions and discover value. Ultimately, a customer service mentality is one of the most valuable skillsets that a content marketer can have. And what better way to put these principles to work than through a content Hub specifically designed to facilitate great customer service?  

Irish Life, Ireland’s leading life and pensions company, does a fantastic job of using its content Hub as a powerful customer service tool. As a one-stop shop for interesting blog posts, helpful videos, and FAQs, Irish Life’s Customer Service Hub helps its customers find the right answers every time. 

Amazing real-world example: Irish Life

It’s never been a more exciting time to be a content marketer. Platforms like Uberflip have democratized the content creation experience, eliminating technical resources like developers from the equation and placing marketers squarely in control of the destiny of their content from start to finish. Content Hubs are the key.