Businesses that have been using mostly traditional marketing methods may not quite see the difference between traditional marketing and content marketing at first glance. After all, content is used to market products and services as a part of traditional
marketing tactics. So what makes content marketing so much different than traditional marketing, and which strategy should you employ? Read more to learn the difference between Traditional Marketing vs Content Marketing.
Traditional marketing is any type of marketing that is forced into the view of a person. For example, TV commercials, radio ads, print ads, brochures and the like. These types of ads can be effective at reaching a large audience, but a large budget is required to do so.
Larger businesses will often use traditional marketing successfully because they can advertise in venues where their ads will get a lot of exposure, such as on a national cable channel during prime time hours or on the back of a magazine with a huge subscription base.
Content marketing (also referred to as Inbound Marketing) is much different than traditional marketing. Content marketing is an inbound marketing strategy in which all types of content is created and then published online in a variety of locations. Instead of being forced on audiences, the content sits there forever, with the goal of attracting audiences to it instead.
The type of content is different as well. Instead of promoting products or services, content marketing emphasizes the delivery of information that is helpful to your target audience. The idea is that by providing information that's helpful, you will create trust with the reader - and that reader will be more likely to read more of your content, eventually signing up to an email list in return for some sort of offer (such as a newsletter or a free downloadable eBook).
You won't be able to get their personal information without creating trust in your brand. Once you have their email, you can nurture them as a lead by sending personalized email content and guiding them through the sales funnel. This is why content marketing is considered a long-term strategy.
Many businesses will use their website to host a business blog, where the majority of their content will be posted. They will also promote their content whenever they publish it by posting links to various social media channels. Additionally, to ensure that their content gets the most exposure possible, they will optimize it for SEO to make it more visible in Google search to their target audiences.
The more high-quality content you publish, the more regular readers you'll attract over the long-term, thereby increasing brand exposure and brand authority.
Content marketing is the more cost-efficient of the two, and it's much better suited as a long-term strategy than traditional marketing, which is completely short-term. If you only have a small budget to work with, content marketing is going to be much more effective because you'll be able to sustain your marketing efforts for a longer period of time and gradually increase things like brand authority, brand exposure, web traffic and leads, all of which will eventually turn into sales.
With traditional marketing, you either close the sale the moment you market your product or service or you don't. This means that once a traditional marketing campaign is over - it's over. This doesn't mean that you should never use traditional marketing. If you have the budget, implementing both content marketing and traditional marketing strategies can be beneficial.
For professional advice on how you can successfully implement a content marketing strategy into your marketing campaign, be sure to contact us at EnvisionIT Solutions today.
