Online marketing is no longer about praising your own products and services. Instead, the right content is used to communicate with the target group and potential customers. This content is not full of flat advertising phrases, but offers real added value and provides the necessary support. With the Hero Hub hygiene model, advertisers can plan and create precisely this content in the best possible way.
What's behind the Hero Hub hygiene model
The Hero Hub Hygiene Model distinguishes between three types of content. These all have their individual strengths and only work optimally in combination.
- Hero content: This is usually viral blog or video content that attracts an enormous number of visitors. As hero content is time-consuming and expensive, it is only produced selectively, for example for product launches. The aim is to generate the widest possible reach, which is why paid media is also used.
- Hub content: Hub content is created at regular intervals and is relevant to the specific interests of the target group. The aim is to keep addressees coming back to the provider. The aim is to stay in contact and build trust in the long term. Blog or video series that cover a topic in detail are hub content, for example.
- Hygiene content: This refers to content that the target group is looking for on a topic and that is permanently relevant. These are FAQs or how-to guides, for example. The aim of this content, also known as evergreen content, is to increase visibility in search engines and thus attract new visitors to the website.
Want a few specific examples?
Hero content often includes commercials that have a strong impact, i.e. leave a lasting impression and are more than just the umpteenth commercial in the program. This includes Mattel's advertising campaign, in which the following commercial was produced to mark the 70th anniversary of the game Scrabble:
With the renaming of Scrabble to letter YOLO, Mattel launched a campaign in 2018 that created its own Twitter hashtag with #letterYOLO. In the end, Mattel revealed that it was just a joke - but the campaign went viral nonetheless. Perfectly executed hero content!
Hub content is designed for a longer period of time and comprises more than just a commercial that has gone viral. The content here consists of related actions, videos, slogans, and so on. This ensures that the brand or product is always present for customers.
Here the company blendtec shows how it is done. With the video series "Will it blend?" on YouTube, they regularly ask the question: what can our blenders do? This question is answered, for example, by throwing an Amazon Echo into the blender in the latest video. This is a humorous way of showing how high-quality the products are.
After all, hygiene content can be found almost everywhere. The IKEA product catalog, for example. Here, the products and relevant information are accessible to customers at all times. You can find what you need with just a few clicks. For IKEA, this means a strong web presence that easily generates new customers.
Successful model application requires teams that work together
Each type of content has its own strengths. When done right, they support each other and the individual formats can be used to their full potential.
Hero content, for example, drives traffic to the website, while hub content ensures that these visitors return. As hero content is only used selectively, hygiene content can provide support here. Increased visibility in search engines can continuously attract new readers. In this way, the respective strengths are optimally played out and help with more effective content marketing.
However, it is not as easy to use the different types of content effectively as it may sound at first. For the hero hub hygiene model to work, all departments in the company must work together to produce truly effective content.
However, the reality is often very different: Individual teams continue to separate themselves from one another, each pursuing their own content plan. The hero hub hygiene model also sounds like different construction sites at first, but should be seen as part of a single company-wide content strategy. Because then it is possible to retain visitors with content in the long term and build an active community.
The right approach for a uniform strategy
The Hero Hub hygiene model helps to create a better understanding of the different types of content and to draw clearer boundaries between them. It makes it possible to structure content more strategically and thus lay the foundation for the content plan.
With the right approach, you can even get the teams in your company to work more closely together and pursue a common strategy. This not only has an internal impact on efficiency, as teams can exchange ideas and concepts with each other. In addition, the uniform basis also creates a compliant external representation of the company across all channels.
More content strategy tips for your company
If you are looking for content strategy tips, you will not only come across the Hero Hub hygiene model during your research. There are also other approaches, such as PARK 7's FINE model or Mirko Lange's FISH model and Content RADAR, for tackling the topic of content marketing in companies.
There is also a distinction between paid, owned and earned media. Although the focus here is initially on content distribution, the different types of content also play a role here. After all, as an advertiser, you have to think in advance about which content types and formats can and should be published in which medium. You can read more about distribution in our article Content distribution: How do you get your content out there?
You may also come across the topic of content curation. This approach involves combining content you have created yourself with content from third parties in a meaningful way. After all, you don't always have to produce your own content in order to provide your readers or target group with added value. But be careful: this does not mean stealing content from other blogs or websites. Rather, it is about increasing your own reach and positioning yourself as an expert in your own subject area.
Fortunately, the different approaches and approaches to content marketing are not mutually exclusive. You can also combine them and develop your own individual content marketing strategy.
Conclusion: The hero hub hygiene model as a solid starting point
The hero hub hygiene model offers advertisers and marketing departments a very good basis for content planning and building reach. This is because it creates the necessary entry points to introduce the target group to the company and its content.
Each format has its own strengths in the buying process. This is why a topic should also be prepared in different formats. Ideally, all three content pillars of the hero hub hygiene model should be included in a company's editorial plan. This is because they only develop their full effect when they work together and give your content marketing the necessary boost.