If you are one of those who use “content writing” and “content marketing” like they mean the same thing, this is your sign to stop.
If content marketing is a meter-long rope, then content writing is about 1.5 feet long, which means that content writing is a significant part of content marketing but not the same as content marketing.
While both terms are similar, they perform different actions, and since we are a judgment-free zone, here is some education on how content marketing and content writing differ.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic approach to communicating your message to your target audience by creating and distributing high-quality, engaging content. Content marketing can develop relationships with your audience, build trust and credibility, generate leads, convert prospects into customers, and increase revenue.
You can also see content marketing addressed as digital marketing because it relies on the Internet for distribution. It is not just about blogging anymore. Instead, it’s about creating valuable content that resonates with your audience. Content marketing helps you stand out from the crowd.
It is easy to say, “I’m going to do this and this to grow my business,” but content marketing helps you think strategically. Content marketing turns your business vision into a strategic and achievable plan.
What is content writing?
Content writing is the process of creating, researching, and writing content. It involves developing information to be used to achieve a specific objective.
It is an essential aspect of marketing because it lets you create content that can be shared with your audience. This can include blog posts, social media updates, email newsletters, etc. Most bloggers would refer to content writing as blogging.
If you’re looking for a way to engage with your audience, look to content marketing, as it provides your audience with valuable information on products and services they may be interested in learning more about.
Content writing aims to help you attract new customers and build relationships with current ones by putting your thoughts into engaging words directed at a target audience.
Is content writing the same as content marketing?
You could say, “well, I have the definitions, but they still seem like the same thing..how do they differ?” Content writing is creating content and publishing it, while content marketing is creating content and a strategic distribution plan for that content that your target market will find valuable.
Content writing is generally done by individuals, whereas groups or companies usually handle content marketing.
Content writing and content marketing are two essential parts of a company’s content strategy.
Content writing is about creating content that is useful for your target audience. For example, it could be a blog post, an article, a video, or anything else designed to educate, entertain or inform people. Content marketing is about sharing information with your target audience in the most effective way possible.
The difference between the terms is that content marketing is part of a broader strategy to engage with customers online and offline.
In short, content writing helps you create a better product or service by educating readers on how it works. For example, content marketing lets you get people talking about your brand online so they’ll buy from you or come back for more information about your products and services.
Can every content writer be a content marketer?
Can every physician’s assistant perform surgery? Not exactly, but if they go back for training (in this case, go to medical school), it can happen. The same goes for content writers becoming content marketers.
First of all, we know that content writers set out to create engaging posts to captivate their target audience and that content marketers create a strategy for said posts to achieve preset goals. So if a content writer wanted to be a content marketer, they would have to begin to think in terms of strategy and not just engaging posts. So, before your target audience can know that your post is fascinating, they first have to come across your website, and content marketers do that.
For a content writer to become a content marketer, they have to;
1. First, understand that you can not solve all problems through a post.
Say your business’s social media is not generating any leads (i.e., people aren’t interacting with your content on Instagram, and your only followers are your family members.) So how would you fix that? Content is not the problem because you have followed content rules (post a link to our content marketing or anatomy of a blog post here), so what is the issue?
An audience can only find the content they know about engaging. For example, Instagram currently has over 1 billion monthly active users, making your business account a drop in a vast ocean. A good content marketer knows how to get the word out about your business so the content can be seen.
2. Think strategically
Content marketing involves addressing problems with an actionable plan in mind. To turn from writer to marketer, you must understand that writing content is part of the plan, not the plan itself.
Content marketing is a great way to attract new customers and build brand awareness, but what if you have the perfect writer in-house? Is it possible to make them into good content marketers?
The answer is yes. The key is to focus on the right skills and strategies and transfer those skills to your content marketing efforts.
Content Writing and Content Marketing: what are the job descriptions?
The job of a content writer is to create content that helps people to learn and understand. This can be in the form of any type of media, whether written or visual. For example, you can use the content on websites, social media platforms, or blogs.
A good content writer should have a good grasp of grammar and spelling and a solid understanding of how to structure an article.
They should also understand what makes a piece of writing engaging and be able to write in different styles, such as technical language or jargon-free explanations.
Content marketers are responsible for creating and promoting digital content that drives website traffic, leads sales, improves the brand, and generates leads.
They use a variety of strategies to reach their target audience through blogs, emails, social media, webinars, and more.
They’re also responsible for maintaining an ongoing conversation with their audience by providing regular updates on their company’s latest developments.
Examples of content writing
Companies like Kaku, Bkacontent, Verbilo, and content cucumber are some examples of content writing companies. These companies will offer to create content for you (often in written work, even video scripts) for a cost. Each of them has different pricing plans, so you can be charged a flat rate monthly no matter how many posts you want or charged through a pricing plan. Pricing plans are fixed rates for a particular amount of services.
The classic content writing types are;
- Blogs
- White papers
- Scripts
- Ebooks
- Newsletters
- Social media posts
- Case studies
- Examples of content marketing
Content marketing aims to create value for your customers by creating compelling content that addresses their needs and interests. Content marketers use content management systems (CMSs) like Kaku, Hubspot, WordPress, SemRush, Drupal, and OptinMonster to create site templates that can be easily customized to fit your brand’s needs. The systems also offer content marketing tips that help you determine what strategy you should implement to achieve your objectives.
Which is best for your marketing efforts?
The first thing you need to remember is that content marketing is a strategy, not a tactic. Content marketing and content writing might be used interchangeably, but they are different in terms of what they do, how they work, and why you should use them.
When clients ask me, “Which is best for my marketing efforts?“ I get excited because I get to be on a fantastic journey with clients as they explore new ways to tell their stories in a way that resonates with their audiences.
For me, there’s no clear answer to this question. It depends on the type of business you’re running and your goals for growing your business. But it helps to know that to have and run a successful business; you need to know your way around content marketing and content writing.
Conclusion
Content marketing and content writing are intertwined, so you can’t do one without the other. Content is everywhere. It’s in every blog post, article, video, infographics, eBook, or white paper you need to share with your audience.
Many think content marketing is just writing blog posts or publishing press releases. While that’s true in some cases, it’s not enough to build a successful brand. Instead, you have to know what people want to read about and why they should care about your content – otherwise, they’ll ignore it or even block you from their feeds on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Content marketing requires a thorough understanding of how each segment of your audience consumes information online – whether through social media feeds or search engines like Google — and then using that knowledge to craft compelling stories through content writing that engages them in meaningful ways.
Contact us if you’re struggling to figure out what your business needs to progress. We would surely be able to review your business and get you to where you need to be.