When deciding how you want to promote your brand you may find yourself discussing the benefits of content marketing over social media marketing and vice versa. Both methods have, as their ultimate goal, to drive potential customers to your business. It is important to know the difference.

Content Marketing

This method makes use of various types of content, for example, webinars, blogs, web pages and videos to drive traffic to your website. It is this interesting content that attracts the visitors.

Because content marketing is more website-based the tendency is to focus more on driving demand. The idea is that the quality of the content on your website allows you to develop a connection with potential customers with the goal of steering toward a purchase.

The focus of content marketing is on the website. Though social networks can be an important part of content marketing their principal function is to distribute links back to the website’s content.

Social Media Marketing

Do You Have A Marketing Plan?

With this method you have to fit the message to the platform. For example, Twitter has a 140-character limit, while contests, games and quizzes work better on Facebook. Every social media outlet has its own exclusive blend of restrictions and audience.

With social media marketing you will most likely be focusing on two key purposes. One of these objectives will be brand awareness by creating activity and dialog regarding your brand. The other objective is to retain customers and gauge their satisfaction.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are forums for direct communications with customers to discuss issues and concerns as well as generate positive feedback.

The focus social media marketing is, as the name implies, the social networks. Social media marketing campaigns within the social networks.

Which is the Right Marketing Choice?

With all that being said you really don’t have to choose one or the other but some combination of the two methods. You will reach a wider audience thus generating more business. In fact, it might be advantageous to become really adept at using one while having a good working knowledge of the other.

If you do decide to focus on one method over the other there are some questions you should ask yourself:

  • Do you already have a lot of content on your website? If this is the case, then your focus should be on the social media method to attract a different type of clientele to your site.
  • Does the content of your website leave much to be desired? If it is lacking in content, then this should probably be where efforts would pay the greatest dividends.
  • Do you have a presence on multiple social media networks? If so, then you may already have that marketing tool working well for you so concentrating on building stronger content should be a priority.
  • Do you have the resources in place to manage a social media marketing strategy? This can entail a tremendous amount of work, especially if you don’t already have a social media presence. It may even be a good idea to hire someone who is highly proficient in this area.