What Is the Difference between Content and Content Marketing?

You’ve probably heard the common online marketing phrase, “Content is king.” And it’s true – content is an essential part of an effective digital marketing strategy. However, there is a difference between simply creating content and content marketing.
Content takes many forms: ads, social media posts, eBooks, white papers, blogs, website content, product content, emails, customer service content, and more. If you have an effective content marketing strategy, each of these types of content may be part of it. The difference is that content marketing has a clear goal.
The goal of content marketing is to attract and build a loyal audience who like your content, want to see more of it, and keep coming back to you. To reach this goal, you need to create content for your audience – not because you’ve “been told” that content is a crucial part of digital marketing. You need to create content that your audience wants and needs.
How do you know what type of content your audience wants? You could take inventory of how well your existing content has performed. If certain topics and themes appear to be most popular, that’s a clue that your audience likes that content and finds it valuable and useful. You could also think of questions you often receive from patients at your office. If they are asking those questions in person, your target audience will likely be searching for answers to those same questions online.
The key is to create content that builds your audience and patient base, rather than simply creating content in an effort to sell your services. Here are a few simple steps you can take to build your content marketing strategy:

1. Formulate your content marketing mission statement. In this mission statement, you should define your audience (such as current and potential new patients), which topics you will cover, and the value you will provide to your audience.
2. Choose where you will publish your content. This will probably be your practice website, which will make it easy for your audience to keep coming back for new content.
3. Incorporate visuals in your content. While you probably think of text first when you consider content, visuals are an important component. The visuals you use in your content should be on-topic and can serve to break up text blocks, making it easier for readers to move through your content.
4. Publish new content consistently and frequently. You can determine your own publishing schedule, but it’s important to be consistent. Make sure you publish new content frequently enough that your audience has a reason to keep coming back to your practice website.
5. Make your website an effective destination for your audience. This includes taking steps that make it simple for website visitors to find the content they are looking for and to contact you if they would like more information. You can do this by having easy-to-browse content sorted by topics. You should also include calls-to-action in your content and feature a Contact page with ways your audience can contact you. You may also want to include social sharing buttons that allow readers to share your content on social media or visit your practice’s social media pages.
6. Implement a measurement plan. Keep track of how much traffic your website receives and which pieces of content perform best. This can help you improve future content and ensure it is tailored towards what your audience wants.

With these easy steps, you are well on your way to forming an effective content marketing strategy – rather than simply posting content here and there without a defined purpose. If you would like more information about how you can succeed in content marketing, we invite you to contact us today at AudiologyPlus. With over 20 years of experience in marketing, we are ready to assist you.