Ask any non-marketer how content marketing differs from traditional marketing, and you’re likely to get a range of uncertain answers sprinkled with a few scratches of the head. Content marketing is the process of developing, optimising and sharing wording, video, audio, and other forms of information to develop brand awareness and educate stakeholders about the brand’s industry and offerings. It might be a good idea in this modern age of digital marketing, but is there real value in content marketing? Does content marketing, for all the resources it requires to facilitate, achieve favourable outcomes other than simply qualitative ones? This article investigates:
1. Talking Instead Of Shouting
Many marketing professionals believe the greatest value of content marketing to be the ability to talk to stakeholders instead of shouting. Traditional advertising is one way in nature, where the advertiser has their say and is not interested in hearing back from the reader. With content marketing, marketers can get messages across in natural language, with space to elaborate and build a sound understanding of the topic.
2. Two-Way Conversations
As mentioned above, traditional marketing can be classified as being a one-way communication channel. Content marketing is often shared in a forum setting, like blog articles that can be commented on, or social media posts that can be engaged with. This allows the reader to ask questions and find out more, facilitating a conversation around the content.
