Dive summary:

• Eloqua has been doing content marketing very successfully over the last few years, and Content Marketing Institute decided to analyze their approach and share some best practices.
• "Highlight top performing content."  Eloqua tracks, analyzes, and talks to customers to determine which of their content is gaining the most traction, then highlights it on their home page.
• "Focus on creativity."  Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing at Eloqua, talked about marketers thinking in zero sum terms.  If A is hot, then B must be cold.  But creativity is currently under-utilized due to the "hotness" of data, providing an opportunity for marketers to stand out by being creative.
• "Tie content into the sales funnel."  Eloqua "nudges" their prospects through the sales funnel by providing the right content for their next step in the buying process.  It is critical that all of your efforts can be tied back to a step in the buying process.  See the infographic below for more.

From the article:

We all know that there is more to content marketing than simply creating content for content’s sake — it must be tied back into business goals. One company has proven that content can have measurable impact on your company’s bottom line. This company is Eloqua, a pioneer in the marketing automation space. Eloqua has realized some killer results and, as a result, can serve as great inspiration for other content marketers.