So you bought into content marketing. You and 90% of all other marketers.
Today, simply creating content isn’t enough. You have to provide a unique experience with your content if you want to stand out.
For instance, Neil Patel and I cowrote a book about content marketing. But rather than publishing it as a downloadable PDF, Neil turned it into an infographic-style presentation that lives on his website, QuickSprout.
It’s always there for visitors, and it helps traffic too.
That’s the sort of win-win you’re looking for. And luckily, there are countless ways to spruce up your presentations for powerful wins.
Check out this Parallax Scrolling Website
It’s Content Marketing Essentials 2013, by MandLoys Digital Agency.
Essentially a content marketing ebook, it’s presented as an interactive Web page that you can’t help but explore. 
Build like the modular websites we’ve discussed before, each chapter is stacked on top of the other. On the right border of the page, you can click on a chapter to get there without scrolling.
That’s a great way to improve user experience, by the way. But get this: As you scroll, elements on the page move, creating a unique experience that keeps you scrolling just because it’s fun. 
For instance, in Chapter 2, the elements start out at the outside borders of the page. As you scroll, they move to the center of the page for easier reading.
(There’s no way to capture it here. Seriously. Visit the site. You’ll get some deep insights to content marketing plus a really creative presentation.)
Presentation is everything
According to my contact at MandLoys, the interactive experience on this page comes from parallax scrolling, a new trend in Web design in which the background images move slower than the foreground images.
The technique allows elements to slide above and below each other, creating some really unique illusions. Using this technique, designers can build very creative, interactive websites that builds engagement better than traditional, static ones.
Want another example? Here’s a parallax-built landing page by Spotify.
Why bother?
If you can engage your readers on multiple levels, you’re truly engaging them. It doesn’t have to be parallax, of course, but there are some benefits to this type of site:
1. Parallax design allows you to walk a visitor through a story just by scrolling down the page. And since content is basically storytelling, it’s a good fit, don’t you think?
2. It also improves the user experience because it doesn’t ask people to click on several links to get the whole story. It creates a flow of information that only requires scrolling.
But it is an investment.
Creating a site like this one can take several days of hard work, a lot of coding, and research. MandLoy’s page would cost around $2200 mainly due to the dynamic elements, but the starting price for a parallax scrolling page is $1000.
What kind of results can you get?
That’s what I asked the guy at MandLoys. At this price tag, it needs to make a big impact on traffic and sales.
But, as with all marketing, it depends on your list and social network.
MandLoy’s page went live on January 29, 2013. The first day, they got 647 visitors from social media, primarily Twitter and Facebook. Traffic continued to get 25-40 visitors per day, then had another uptick on March 14, with 349 social media visitors. 
The March boost probably resulted from a mention by SEOMoz (now Moz.com). The page was featured #1 in one of Moz’s weekly newsletters, according to my contact.
Says Tamas at MandLoys, “I can tell you that unique and interesting content is worth the effort, time, and money. People love and share the results.”
Getting your content shared
As I mentioned already, creating content isn’t enough. First, it must be really useful content. And second—the often forgotten side of content marketing—it needs to be packaged in a unique way, so people are more likely to engage with it and share it.
But you still have to get it into the hands of your readers. To do that, you need the whole package: SEO, social media mentions, email alerts to your followers, word of mouth, and mentions from respected, authoritative sites.
Content marketing is a great way to promote your business, but don’t stop at creating content. Follow MandLoys’ lead. Make it really unique, then share it, so your target audience knows it’s there.
