Content surrounds us, it is all around us in different forms. Anywhere you look or browse you can see catchy phrases, jingles, buzzwords, etc. put together smartly to have the eyeballs rolled. So here, not only is the content great but where it needs to be shown, how it needs to be shown, what kind of audience it needs to be shown to, and how to make it available to a larger number of people is also strategically planned and marketed accordingly. This is done by combining expertise from content strategists along with the vision of marketing professionals. It is evident that both content strategy and marketing strategy go hand in hand and are equally important for any business to grow. Although very often people associate the two to be alike, however in this article we will find out how they are both very different from one another yet well-aligned with each other. They both have different ways of executions and very different functional agendas but any organization that ensures that their team of content strategists and marketing professional work together is sure to have success in attracting their target audience, increasing customer engagement, and building a rapport with their customers.
It is observed that the collaboration of Content Strategy and Marketing Strategy comes with its own sets of benefits. Expert teams of content writers can work together with marketing professionals to create inspiring ideas, storyline content, and much more which results in a great boost for businesses.
To begin with, let’s understand Content Strategy and Marketing Strategy
Content strategy is nothing but a structured discipline that caters to businesses' needs and requirements through content creation, implementation, and distributions. This means strategically planning, developing, and managing written material of a brand and using it to communicate and convey a message which could be sales-oriented, informative, etc. To the target audience. Any piece of written material published by a brand is a part of their content strategy to increase user engagement while conveying a particular message in a manner that customers should feel connected with it.
Helps set the right voice and tone for a brand
Helps create a rapport with customers
Helps in keeping the customers engaged
Maintains uniformity and consistency of content published
Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy refers to the overall game plan of a business to reach out to their prospective users and very smartly turning them into potential customers which is beneficial for the business on the whole. This involves key brand messaging, data on the demographics of the customers, brands value proposition, and much more. The main purpose of having a marketing strategy in place is to reach out to as many people as possible and sell out products or services to as many customers. A good marketing strategy helps in building the brand image and attracting a large audience to engage with their marketing initiatives.
Helps reach out to as many people as possible
Has a well-planned strategy to reach out to people
Ensures that content is shown at the right time and the right place
Helps to convert users into potential customers with various tactics
How do they differ from one another?
Both, Content Strategy and Marketing Strategy have the same goal for their organization but they both function very differently from one another. On one hand, where content strategy determines what should be said and how it should be said, marketing strategy on the other hand refers to where, when, and on which platform should the content be released to ensure that it reaches out to the maximum number of people. Basically a combination of Content Strategy and Marketing Strategy which is also widely known as Content Marketing is used to deliver high-quality content on the right platform and at the right time to keep the target audience engaged with the brand.
While a good marketing strategy aims at achieving high SEO rankings, increasing the leads generated, linking certain high rating words to increase the rating of the page or article, the content strategy ensures that these goals are met through the written material created with the required criteria met.
There is a significant overlap between the two
Marketing strategy is a well planned and executed technique of distributing valuable and relevant marketing activities and agendas to acquire, attract, and keep the customers engaged. With an aim to achieve profit objectives for the organization, marketing strategies focus mainly on reaching out to the maximum number of people. The content strategy goes deeper into creation, development, publication, and governance of the written material that is then used by marketers to take ahead and offer to the audience. It refers to creating and managing the written content as a strategic asset across the organization.
If we look closely it is evident that the important content strategy holds for marketing strategies can be compared to the important information architecture holds for a design process. It would not be wrong in saying that content is one of the main materials of marketing. If there was no content what would marketers create marketing strategies for? Similarly, if there was no concrete marketing strategy, how much justice would a good content strategy get in terms of reaching people?
While content strategists ensure that the language, voice, tone, storyline, vocabulary, etc. is appropriate and fits the requirement of the organization, marketing professionals ensure that the content is published on the right platform ranging from a number of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. to web portals and even magazines and newspapers, again, depending on the requirement of the organization. Yes, the two work very differently yet simultaneously.
It wouldn’t be wrong in saying that content strategy is the hero for any marketing strategy, but again, if there was no planning to publish the content it may not be as impactful. Content strategy focuses on creating content and material for marketing campaigns and marketing strategy is the campaign itself that works towards establishing effective and valuable relations with the customers.
Top 5 differences between Content Strategy and Marketing Strategy
1. They both have different workflows and work models.
2. While content strategy refers to the actual matter, marketing strategy refers to publishing that matter on relevant platforms.
3. While content strategy focuses on building a rapport with the customers, marketing strategies focus on reaching out to as many people as possible.
4. Content strategy mainly focuses on quality and has very little to do with quantity, marketing strategy has a lot to do with numbers and the statistics.
5. Content strategy is about keeping the audience engaged while marketing strategy ensures that it attracts more and more customers.
In conclusions
The purpose of this article is not to label one better than the other. In fact, Content Strategies and Marketing Strategies are both extremely important to plan holistic and well-integrated campaigns. The involvement of both the above-mentioned expertise is of utmost importance for formulating a narrative and storytelling experience while ensuring that it reaches the maximum number of people to make a better impact. Even though they are both very different departments and require a very different set of expertise but in the wider perspective, both, Content Strategy and Marketing Strategy support each other in achieving the best in the quality result. They both compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses and are interrelated.
