Loved this post from a Swedish game company with the 5 Pillars of video game design:

* Story Is Everything.
* World - Creating A World, Take It Seriously.
* Player Is In Charge.
* Trust Players.
* Allow Themes To Emerge From Play.

Now just put "customer" where "player" is and you have the RX for a successful content marketing B2B or ecommmerce B2C website.