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Is It Content Marketing or Is It Blogging? How To Tell The Difference

By
GetCraft
 •
May 22, 2020

If you want your brand to reach more customers and add value to their lives, you need to publish content. For some marketers or brand managers, this means posting blogs on the company website. These blogs often have themes related to the brand’s product or service. The topics are also connected to the lifestyles or the nature of businesses they touch.

To those who don’t know better, content marketing is often confused with blogging. It’s not hard to see why. If you aren’t trained to think of publishing content as something that should be strategic and efficient, you’ll think that blogging will suffice. The truth is, it won’t always do.

How is content marketing different from blogging, and why does it matter? Let’s go through the differences and how to use both effectively.

How are they different?

For the uninitiated, blogging and content marketing might seem interchangeable. They’re not. Content marketing doesn’t just mean publishing a blog post. Blogging is not a substitute for content marketing. However, it can be a part of it.

Content marketing is patterned after the consumer journey. You identify the stages of the marketing funnel, find out which stage your prospects are at, then produce and distribute content according to each stage. The content you publish will help push them farther down the funnel.

In addition, content marketing is focused on providing information that will help your consumers become more aware of their problem as well as its possible solutions. The content you publish will help them decide what to do, and hopefully, convert them into paying customers.

There are a lot of different types of content, depending on the stage of the funnel. Every opportunity for you to publish requires a specific piece of content. Blogging is just one of them.

Technically speaking, blogging can be a part of your content marketing strategy. If blogging can support your publishing and distribution objectives, you can definitely include it. But on its own, It doesn’t exactly follow the consumer journey.

Blogging helps businesses become more visible online. It’s a simple marketing tactic that allows brands to support business growth by creating custom content.

A lot of businesses publish blogs without any intention of attracting or converting audiences by employing a strategy. It can serve as a way to drive traffic to the website. It can also be used to support social media strategy.

But while it also helps audiences by adding value through content, blogging per se is less about the funnel and more about connecting with your audience. It focuses more on publishing content consistently to help your brand communicate with your audience regularly. Its primary purpose is to serve as the voice of your brand.

How do you use both?

Simply put, content marketing is the general term under which blogging falls. Ideally, you should include both in your marketing objectives in order to maximize your reach.

If you really want to get results, just blogging is not enough. It should be part of a comprehensive marketing plan that will really drive results for your business. Use it as a tool as you execute your content marketing strategy.

Content marketing is one of the best and most cost-efficient ways to gain leads, consumer loyalty, and sales. A good content marketing strategy can give your business up to three times as many leads as other marketing campaigns.

You can mix up the types of content you publish depending on your objectives. Blogging can be included at the beginning of or halfway through the funnel, depending on what you want to achieve.

You can publish blog posts to raise brand awareness. Thought leadership posts will do well at this stage of the funnel. If you want to focus on brand building, including blogs in your content portals will help. These will help your brand since 60% of customers feel positive about a brand after reading their blog.

Blogging works best if you use it as part of a wider marketing process. You can publish informational content on your website and use it to back up your social media campaigns. Whether it’s a personal, corporate, or business blog, your posts should support the other types of content you publish.

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Making the most of blogging

Again, blogging is the most effective when it’s part of a greater marketing plan. Since customers consider blogs as one of the most accurate sources of online information, your brand will do well with reaching audiences by publishing content through this channel.

When utilized correctly, blogging can give your brand great results. You can give your business a more human side that can establish trust between you and your customer. At the same time, you can also add value to their lives by creating custom content that empowers them to make the right decisions.

Blogging is also a better way to advertise your brand compared to other kinds of online ads. Unlike banner ads, which consumers tend to avoid, blogs are more valuable ways through which consumers can get to know your business.

Blogs also give a good return on investment. 55% of bloggers reported that they saw good results from blogging. You can use your business or lifestyle blog to create opportunities for your brand to scale.

Use your blogs to stand out from your competition. Provide your audiences with good in-depth material. Show your customers that you understand their struggles and concerns. Give your brand a personality through your content.

Placing a high value on blogging as a part of your content marketing strategy will open up more opportunities for your brand to get leads and convert them. If you believe blogging is the most effective channel in which a piece of content will perform well, make sure you maximize it.

Content marketing can be easy, especially with the help of the GetCraft Marketplace. Whether it’s for your blog, social media, or influencer campaign—the Marketplace is the best place to find and hire individually vetted writers and content creators who can help you reach your brand goals.

Find the best content creators for your campaign

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