Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing: Explaining the Difference

Digital marketing vs. content marketing.

Knowing one from the other can mean the difference
between success and failure in your online marketing endeavors.

Because yes, you can be hugely successful when you market
online.

For instance, consider Buffer.

What Buffer did in its initial growth period was to publish
quality content on highly visible sites. This tactic gained them their first
100,000 users.

Buffer also worked hard on its own blog. With unique, highly-sharable blog posts, it soon grew into a successful brand with almost 400,000 users and millions of followers across the globe. Amazing!

Yes, we all want to experience Buffer’s success.

But first: did Buffer use digital marketing or content
marketing?

Is there really a difference between the two?

If so, which one is the right fit for your brand?

Because it can get confusing, I’ve created an in-depth guide
to help you truly understand digital marketing vs. content marketing.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

Ready to dive in? Let’s go!

Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing: What’s the Difference? – Table of Contents

Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing: The Definitions and Differences

What is Digital Marketing?

What is Content Marketing?

Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing: Which One is Right for Your Brand?

Here’s how Hubspot defines digital marketing:

So, digital marketing is
marketing done using electronic devices.

It’s different from traditional
forms of marketing: billboards, flyers, and posters.

Here are nine common forms of
digital marketing:

Notice #2?

Yup! It’s content marketing.

So, is content marketing simply
one facet of digital marketing, like PPC and SEO?

Yes, and no.

Because email and social media
posts (part of digital marketing) can also be part of content marketing.

Here’s how Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing:

The key to learning the
difference between digital marketing vs. content marketing is to look at the
goal behind the marketing action.

Digital marketing: Any
form of marketing using electronic devices. Includes content marketing, email
marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, and more.

Content marketing: A
marketing approach based on the creation and distribution of relevant and
useful content that improves people’s lives. Includes blogs, email content,
social media posts, and more.

Learn about allll the terms in the marketing industry in our content marketing glossary.

Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing: Examples

Yes, digital marketing and content marketing can overlap.

For example, there’s email.

Is email marketing digital marketing or content marketing?

Well, it can be both. As the saying goes, “all squares are
rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.”

Let’s look at an example.

Source: email from Tiger Gems

This email is part of a digital marketing campaign. It uses
electronic mail to deliver a sales message to prospects.

But is it content marketing?

Answer the following two questions to find out:

If the answer is no to both, then it’s not content
marketing.

Now, look at this email.

This email is different:

Content marketing? Definitely.

But how about emails like this one?

No, the email doesn’t provide content that improves people’s
lives.

But what it does provide is a link to a value-rich
podcast episode (quality content).

So yes, digital marketing vs. content marketing is
potentially confusing.

The lines often blur between the two.

But it’s not your job to scrutinize each one and put
each marketing material into a box.

That’s not what garners success.

What you need to do is gain a clear understanding of each
one, then pick the one that works best for your business.

Read on below to start.

Earlier, I mentioned nine common forms of digital marketing.

Let’s look at them one by one.

1. Content Marketing

The goal of content marketing is to establish trust with
consumers so they eventually buy what you’re selling. (More on content
marketing later.)

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In short, SEO is the art of ranking highly in the unpaid section of Google.

For example, let’s look at results for “black forest cake.”

As you can see here, the top three spots on Google’s SERPs
go to Liv for Cake, Allrecipes, and Natasha’s Kitchen.

So, what do sites like these do right to make it to Google’s
top organic spots?

Well, a ton of things. Here are five that matter:

3. SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

SEM is the process of gaining website traffic through purchasing paid ads.

These ads can be:

So, how does SEM work?

It’s simple. You pay Google (or whatever search engine
you’re using), to show your ads in its SERPs.

Just like SEO, keywords form the foundation of SEM. The main
difference is SEO is for organic search, and SEM is for paid search.

4. Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is a system of paid advertising in which you bid for ad space on a search engine.

With pay per click advertising, you only pay the search
engine whenever a user clicks on your ad. This means your ROI largely depends
on whether clicks lead to sales.

For instance, you pay a search engine $2 for each click. If
you make a $200 sale for every 10 clicks, your PPC campaign is working!
However, if your audience is just clicking and not buying, you should do
something to ramp up your campaign.

A PPC campaign can be a part of search engine marketing
(SEM). When you look at it closely, it’s a lot like SEO as well.

This is because of how PPC works:

So, what does a paid ad look like on Google’s SERPs?

Here’s an example of an ad for the keyword “best resort in
Florida.”

5. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

With 3.8 billion users, social media is the perfect place to gain exposure for your brand.

Here’s how it works:

The trick with social media
marketing is to stand out above the noise on social platforms.

You need to compete with posts
from friends and family, so knowing your audience and what they’re interested
in is a must.

For instance, here’s a post from Emirates that garnered 3,500 likes, 1,100 comments, and 870 shares.

Why? Because it’s timely, relevant, and shows Emirates cares.

6. Email Marketing

Email marketing is highly effective because the people
you’re talking to have chosen to subscribe to your email list.

In fact, email is 40x more effective than social media.

So, how does email marketing work?

A. Build Your Email List

Don’t do anything spammy like buying an email list. Instead,
offer prospects free goodies in exchange for their email: fun updates, an email
newsletter, or a premium downloadable item like an ebook.

B. Send Irresistible Emails

Your prospects didn’t subscribe to your email list to be
bombarded with salesy content.

They subscribed because they expected something from you.

Make sure to fulfil those expectations, and they’ll continue
opening your emails.

When you do pitch a product, do it in a way that
shows readers how they’re lives will improve with this product.

C. Measure, Measure, Measure

Constantly analyze your email marketing success (or
failure). Here are three important metrics to look out for:

7. Online PR

Here’s how HubSpot defines PR:

To do online PR, you start by writing a press release. If your press release is chosen by big media sites like CNN or Business Insider, you can see your Google rank climb to the first page in 48 hours.

8. Native Advertising

Native advertising is paid content that “fits in.”

Unlike paid ads, native advertisements don’t interrupt user
experience. In fact, the ads users see are based on their interest and search
intent.

For instance, look at this post from The Economist.

9. Affiliate Marketing

When you do affiliate marketing, you promote someone else’s
products and get commission for sales.

It’s the smart way to earn money in your sleep.

So, how does it work?

What Is Content Marketing? Plus, How to Do it Right

As mentioned above, content marketing is the creation and
distribution of quality content to create brand awareness, drive leads, and
gain sales.

But not all content marketing works.

You can’t simply create random pieces of quality content and
hope people will come flocking to your website.

Doing this is like going on a trip without a destination and
without a map.

So, how can you do content marketing right?

What Is Content Strategy and How Does It Work for Content Marketing?

Your content strategy “governs, manages, and guides the
principles of your overall content marketing.” (Practical Content Strategy & Marketing)

This means your content strategy is the blueprint
behind all your content marketing efforts.

It’s the foundation beneath successful marketing.

Here are six steps to a great content strategy.

1. Lay Your Foundation

2. Know (And Write For) Your Audience

With your content strategy in mind, build buyer personas.
Make them as detailed as you can, adding your audience’s fears, problems,
desires, and dreams.

Remember, there are three stages in the buyer journey:
awareness, consideration, and decision. Create relevant content for your
audience at each of these stages.

3. Focus on Good SEO

Optimizing your content with long-tail (3-5 words) keywords
will help you reach your ideal customers.

4. Build Your Authority with a Content House

Here’s what a solid content house looks like.

Focus first on building content on your own website. Guest
posting and social media posting are secondary.

5. Create Stellar Content

Keeping your goals in mind, craft content that gets your
audience excited.

Solve their problems and improve their lives, but in a fun,
engaging way.

6. Get a Maintenance Plan Going

This involves coming up with a budget for consistent,
quality content.

If things get too overwhelming, it’s an excellent idea to hire expert writers to create and curate amazing content for you.

How to Get into Content Strategy

The good news is, you can learn content strategy.

And you don’t need to graduate with a BS in journalism or marketing.

Here are three things you can do to become a content strategist.

1. Pay Attention to Good Content

Visits websites you admire and ask yourself, “Why?” for
every piece of content they’ve published.

Why did they publish this piece? What’s its goal? Tone? How
does it fit the brand’s audience?

2. Search for Excellent Free Materials Online

If you know how to look, there’s tons of material you can
learn from online without paying a cent.

For instance, there’s The Profitable Content Marketer Skills Cheat Sheet. This guide shows you 30 skills and 11 tools you need for successful content marketing.

Or, you can access my guide: What Is a Content Strategist?

3. Enroll in My Content Marketing and Strategy Course

Of course, there’s a difference between paid and free
resources.

Just as there’s a difference between getting that free cup
of coffee at a cafeteria and paying $10 for premium brewed coffee with Arabica
beans.

So if you don’t want to spend months (or even years) digging up free resources and learning on your own from scratch, take my Content Marketing and Strategy Course.

In just six weeks, you’ll get all the knowledge it took me
years to figure out.

You’ll get access to the roadmap I used to grow my company
Express Writers from a $75 startup to a company that earns over $4 million in
sales.

The Content Marketing and Strategy Course is your shortcut to learning content strategy.

Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing: Which One is Right for Your Brand?

We’ve seen how different digital marketing is from content
marketing.

So, which one is right for your business?

The answer is, you don’t have to choose one from the other.

Digital marketing and content marketing work flawlessly together to put your brand in front of your audience.

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