Difference Between Content Marketing and Content Strategy

Do you run a small or medium enterprise (SME) and looking to tap into the online marketplace to acquire new customers? If so, it is high time you started creating content that “speaks” to this new audience. Of course, you need to be strategic on how you go about this.

However, how you create your content and the strategies you apply will determine if your content marketing strategy will work or not. This brings us to the difference between content marketing and content strategy. They may be different concepts of creating content, but they depend on one another. In this article, we reveal the core differences between the two and the relevance of each.

What is Content Marketing?

It is simply the process of using content to promote a brand, create awareness about the service or encourage the target audience to use the brand’s service.

Content marketing is also a summation of the processes involved in creating and promoting a content.

What is Content Strategy?

Successful brands have a laid-out plan on how to keep the audience engaged and it all has to do with the buzzword –strategy.

Putting it simply, content strategy refers to the planning, development and implementation of a process of pushing out new content.

The strategy needs to be brand-centric, solve a particular challenge and have a defined, expected outcome or result. Usually, brands hire professional content strategists to help them come up with a better content strategy.

When Content Marketing and Content Strategy become Confusing

Many people confuse or interchange content marketing for content strategy and vice-versa. On the contrary, they are different concepts geared towards improving the reception of the content by the time it is released.

The confusion is whether content marketing cannot pass off for content strategy and that is not how it is done. It is pertinent to mention that marketing a content only happens after the strategies have been put in place.

The Differences between Content Marketing and Content Strategy

Below are the core differences that separate content marketing from content strategy:

1. Backstage vs. Reality

This is the core difference between the two. We refer to content strategy as the “backstage” because that is where the major planning takes place. With the plans that are drafted therein, it becomes easier to come up with the best content to put out there.

On the other hand, a content cannot be developed or launched except it has been created. For the creation to take place, it must have been strategized on and a definite process decided on.

Thus, the strategic planning of the content takes place “backstage” and the outcome of that planning/strategizing is what we see in “reality.”

2. The Research Approach Differs

It is important to point out that the research approach is one fundamental difference between content marketing and content strategy.

How do you plan for the content you put out for your brand? Do you come up with content ideas offhand or do you follow the trends?

In terms of content strategy, certain research approaches apply. The following are some examples:

• Content strategists tend to work with the information available at the time. They do more of research-driven strategies to help uncover some of the content aspects to cover.
• Content strategies also lean towards researching what the target audience really wants. The type of content they appreciate will be factored in. For example, some target audiences prefer videos to written content.

On the other hand, content marketers deal more with the marketing tactics to deploy to get the best results. For example, the tactics could include creating video trailers for the content, making infographics or doing series of live streams.

3. The Goal

The goal or outcome of the content matters a lot. Content that doesn’t have a predefined goal or expected outcome might not get the kind of publicity it needs.

First, the content marketers come up with unique angles for the goals for the strategist to expunge on that. Does the content aim at passing specific information? Does it propose a solution to a problem?

The work of the content marketers is to come up with the problem statement. This typically includes the existing lacunas, the type of message to embed in the content and the different content format suggestions for the platforms it is to be shared on.

With this information, the content strategy team takes over creating unique angles for sharing the solutions to the pinpointed problems, shaping the messages to fit into the yearnings of the target audiences and suggesting solutions to the problems.

The Importance of Content Marketing

If you are to prioritize content marketing, what should be the motivating factors? Below are some of the reasons why it is important:

Value Delivery

By marketing the content, you will be sharing the information that has been planned for the target audiences. It is imperative to also mention that the content should be valuable, as you don’t want to bore the content consumers/target audiences.

Content Optimization

After the promotion/marketing of the content comes the evaluation. For example, if you created a video content and shared it on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, you need to check the engagements.

Check the following:

• Comments: what type of comments are coming in? Are they positive or negative?
• Video Views: how many minutes of airplay did the video get? How many persons viewed it (an estimate)?
• Shares: how many times was the video shared?

By checking and putting the above metrics into perspective, you should be able to decide if the video content measured up to the expectations or if there is a need to reoptimize it for better results.

Benefits of having a Content Strategy

Having a content strategy can help you in the following ways:

Traffic Generation

You can generate quality leads and close them in the future when promoting a product or marketing a service.

By strategizing on the best type of content to share, it is easier to come up with ideas on how best to get these leads.

Content Assessment

The task of assessing the outcome of the content is not limited to the content marketing team. The content strategists also have a role to play in the sense that they help to use the engagements in the current content to determine the best format types to create going forward.

Conclusion

Content marketing and content strategy are two different concepts that help improve the relevance of a content, boost the reception/acceptance of the same and increase the conversion rates of sales.