Digital Marketing vs. Content Marketing

The internet and the advancement of digital technology have enabled businesses to expand their solutions to a broad audience, both locally and internationally. In the pursuit of positioning their products and services, businesses implement digital and content marketing strategies. Even with the two becoming mainstream in this tech-savvy era that we operate in, many people are still wallowing in the gray area when differentiating digital marketing vs. content marketing. But worry not, we have you covered.

In this article, we'll dispel any confusion you may have about the two phrases. We will also offer you valuable insights into each online marketing strategy as well as the benefits.

Content Marketing vs. Digital Marketing: Understanding the Difference

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as a strategic online marketing approach. It involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to a clearly defined audience with the ultimate objective of driving profits.

Many companies leverage content marketing to market their brands as authoritative and helpful businesses to their target consumers, and it works. Neil Patel highlighted that 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content daily, with 42% of B2B marketers saying they are effective in content marketing.

On the flip side, there's digital marketing. Now, digital marketing is a catch-all term that encompasses any type of online promotion. It involves using the internet, social media, mobile devices, search engines, and other digital channels to reach customers. With digital marketing, brands target a specific segment of their consumer base.

Digital marketing is growing exponentially and includes search result ads (Pay-Per-Click), email ads, paid social media ads, as well as anything that incorporates marketing with two-way interaction between a company and the customer.

How Are They Similar and Different?

Now that you've understood the definitions of content marketing and digital marketing, the chances are that you've already drawn a Venn diagram of content marketing vs. digital marketing in your mind. But if you're still dangling in a gray area, here's a summary of the similarities and differences:

Content marketing offers valuable and relevant information to a defined audience. Meanwhile, digital marketing is a catch-all phrase that covers all marketing strategies used over the internet. The two can co-exist harmoniously since they share the same goal – to provide information and convert the audience to customers and ensure they remain brand loyalists.

However, there are some distinctions between digital marketing and content marketing. Below are some differences between the two online marketing strategies:

1. Content marketing is a long-term investment, but marketers can do digital marketing on any timeline. The former is a long-haul money-generating strategy because of the following two reasons:

• It requires special content creation skills and experience

• Creating expert, authoritative, and transparent (EAT) content is the backbone of high organic search traffic. Still, it takes time for Google to acknowledge and rank the content highly.

2. Content marketing is indirect, but digital marketing can be very direct. The latter incorporates marketing that sparks interactions between a company and the customer; for instance, online advertising (such as social media ads, display ads, and PPC) triggers action upon first impression.

So, you can imagine how powerful your online marketing strategy could be when you combine content marketing and digital marketing. Such a tactic helps reach potential customers in many avenues in the customer journey, cementing your brand's digital impact.

Digital Marketing Channels

Digital marketing isn't a long-term project as content marketing. It should be implemented as an ongoing, evolving plan that conforms to the ever-changing trends while delivering steady traffic to your website. Some examples of digital marketing channels include:

1. Social Media

Social media is one of the best ways of connecting with family, friends, and the international social community. It is also one of the most effective means of digital marketing.

Leveraging Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as LinkedIn can enable you to create a solid online niche and drive significant traffic to your site. The only secret is to create smart, engaging posts that provide insights into your products and services. That compels your audience to interact with your post and learn more about your brand.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO refers to the use of keywords and other content marketing strategies to help your target audience find information on your website through organic searches. Your goal with SEO is for your website to rank highly on search engine result pages (SERPs), especially on Google. Your target audience can then find answers to their queries on your site based on the keywords they search.

To effectively do that, you need to research the keywords that your potential customers use frequently and apply them strategically in your online content. Furthermore, your website must also be SEO-optimized to attract high-volume traffic and increase your conversion rate.

3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

While SEO boosts your content online, SEM targets a specific audience through paid ads. Your ads appear on SERPs when people search for the services you offer. Their placement and frequency depend on several factors, including the type of ad and the payment structure you choose.

The upside to using ads is that you can customize by defining your target audience's demographics. However, it would be best to research the best SEM strategies because it's easy to lose money on SEM without results.

4. Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-Click (PPC) is similar to SEM. The only difference is that you use specific keywords to determine your ad appearance on SERPs. With PPC, you only incur costs when a potential customer clicks on the ad.

It is an effective digital marketing strategy as it brings in people who are likely to purchase your products or services to your website. When a person clicks on the ad, it indicates that something about it compelled them to click it, or the product you advertise can satisfy a need they have.

5. Content Marketing

As mentioned earlier, digital marketing encompasses all online marketing pursuits, and content marketing is one of them. Individuals and companies create and distribute content online by creating blog posts and landing pages on their websites.

Business blog content helps position you as an expert with authority in the industry you operate in. Most online searches lead users to blogs on your website. SERPs want to offer online users the best experience. Therefore, whenever people feed in queries on SERPs in the form of keywords, search engines usually answers those question by providing links to well-crafted, SEO-optimized blogs.

In short, not having blogs means you're missing out on valuable traffic and business opportunities.

Hire Professional Digital Marketing Services and Grow Your Business

When implemented strategically, digital marketing and SEO can tremendously increase traffic to your website and boost your online sales. Rising Ranks Digital Agency is dedicated to providing results and growth-focused digital marketing services to enhance your brand's online visibility and SEO strategy.

Visit us online to learn more about our content development services.