Content Marketing is a long-term strategy that consists of the creation and regular distribution of content with high added value for your prospects and customers.
This content allows you to educate, entertain, respond to the issues of your audience and thus prove your expertise. Content marketing is a real lever for growth with the key to visibility, new customers, and better loyalty!
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What is “content” in the case of Content Marketing?
“Content” is the literal translation of “content” in English. It refers to all messages produced and published, regardless of the medium.
It can be digital content (blogging, ebooks, etc.), as well as more traditional content (magazines, paper files, etc.). (The main types of content are listed here.)
Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Outbound Marketing, and Brand Content: all the same thing?
All of these terms are generally used in the same context. They are found in many marketing articles of recent years. And the differences can become increasingly blurred...
Let’s put some order together in these four fundamental concepts.
Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
Definition: "Inbound Marketing is a strategy whose objective is to attract visitors to its website (and its content) to convert them into customers."
Of course, nothing happens by magic! Behind Inbound Marketing, there are SEO strategies, brand awareness, and editorial.
This is where content creation takes on its full meaning. By creating relevant and quality content, with real added value, your prospects trust you. You will also hear about:
- Marketing automation: techniques to automate marketing actions (promotion, form creation, email sequence, etc.)
- Lead nurturing: process within a lead generation strategy to transform a prospect into a customer by regularly sending them to content adapted to each stage of the buying journey (more B2B)
The reader (or visitor) has chosen to visit your content.
Definition: "Outbound Marketing or marketing by interruption corresponds to any approach where communication goes from the company to its audience. It includes more traditional forms of marketing such as advertisements, TV spots, poster campaigns, flyers, etc."
This technique is a much more aggressive marketing strategy. It is based on more traditional means such as:
- Advertising on TV (or radio)
- Distribution of flyers (and direct mail)
- Email marketing campaign
Unsurprisingly, Outbound Marketing has become much less effective today. And yes, we are increasingly going to look for information on our own. We compare products and look at reviews on the internet. Traditional methods, therefore, have less impact on our purchasing decisions.
One of the problems with Outbound Marketing is the lack of targeting. Advertising messages are broadcast to a mass audience, without offering personalized content.
However, we are all overwhelmed with standardized information. It is therefore difficult for brands to stand out from the crowd, with a generalist approach. They can't get our attention anymore.
Inbound Marketing thus forces companies to review their content marketing messages and strategies. For it to work, each new content must offer something new compared to what already exists on the Internet. It thus answers a very specific question that your prospect is asking. And you are there to offer him the right answer.
Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing
At Content, the question “What is the link between Content Marketing and Inbound Marketing?” comes back regularly. Hubspot asked 3500+ marketers.
For 60% of respondents, Content Marketing is a subcategory of Inbound Marketing.
To use the metaphor of Joe Chernov (Hubspot), as the technological heart of Iron Man, there is no Inbound Marketing without Content. One necessarily depends on the other.
And the philosophy remains the same: ask permission and offer quality content to help your audience.
Of course, some Inbound projects (technical SEO, free trials, interactive tools, buyer personas) can exist without direct Content Marketing actions.
Content Marketing vs Brand Content
Definition: "Brand Content (or brand content) is any content focused on a brand, its products, its employees, its values, or its vision. The ultimate goal of Brand Content is to create a relationship with its audience."
Whether in the case of Content Marketing or Brand Content, the company produces content. But the editorial angles and associated goals are different. Branded content allows you to:
- Promote a brand directly
- Affirm a positioning and values around its products
- Present the universe and the history of the brand
An example of successful Brand Content (other than Redbull and Félix Baumgartner, the extreme jumper) is the joint operation between SpaceX and Tesla.
On the occasion of the inauguration of the Falcon Heavy (SpaceX's latest toy), Tesla sent one of its cars into orbit. This event was followed by millions of people living. A good spotlight for these two companies (and its founder Elon Musk).
On a Brand Content operation, the brand is directly associated (and visible).Content Marketing will seek to enhance the expertise of the brand, not to mention the company directly. The content produced focuses primarily on customer questions and their issues.