Trending
Unless you’re in marketing, you might think everyone does basically the same thing, and we just use different terms to confuse you. Not true! There is a big difference between content marketing and digital marketing.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is focused on creating messages that connect with your ideal clients and then getting those messages in front of them on a variety of channels – digital, print, and in-person.
Copywriters, content strategists, and some branding people fall into this category.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a larger umbrella of services that can include content marketing. It focuses more on creating and maintaining your digital presence, like your website, social media accounts, and social and Google ads.
Website designers and developers, user experience (UX) experts, search engine optimization (SEO) experts, online ad experts, and graphic designers fall under digital marketing.
Content marketers and digital marketers have a lot of overlap, and they complement each other beautifully. I have worked with many digital marketing agencies over the years, because they often don’t have a dedicated copywriter on their team.
These are the differences between content marketing and digital marketing
Website
A content marketer does a deep dive into your brand, audience, and competition before they write one word for your website. In fact, I can’t write a thing until I know what makes you different, what your ideal clients care most about, what you do better than your competition, and what they do better than you.
Once I have that background information, I can write the headlines and messages that clearly explain how you help your clients. I usually provide layout ideas, and I might suggest additional content that’ll help you generate leads, like creating case studies for your website.
(Far too many small businesses skip this and just start writing about themselves. No one cares about you. They only care how you can help them.)
A digital marketer will design and develop your website so it’s easy to navigate and fully functional (for example, all the links and forms work). They may integrate pop-up windows, connect forms to a CRM like Hubspot, or create interactive elements, like a quiz.
I can’t do any of this stuff. Sure, I could futz with some coding, but that’s about it.
While my goal is to help you communicate clearly, a digital marketer’s goal is to provide a fantastic user experience. Both of us want to help you generate leads.
Blog
A gold star to everyone who said, “But wait – a blog is part of your website!” So proud of you.
When it comes your blog, a content marketer may work with you to write blog posts. Or they may create the content calendar for you (topics, keywords, publish dates, etc.).
As a copywriter and content marketer, I do both. I also edit blog posts that others on your team have written, and I format and schedule/publish them on your website.
A digital marketer may not touch your blog at all, other than to customize the settings of the WordPress theme your website is built on (if you’re using WordPress). However, I know some digital marketers who will format and publish your blog posts if you can’t be bothered.
Email Marketing
Both digital and content marketers can customize email templates and even create and send email newsletters and automated email series. Neither are design nor copy intensive.
I would suggest working with a copywriter on automated email series that are meant for lead nurturing. This is where their knowledge of your brand and audience come in handy, at least on the messaging side.
Because I find setting up the actual automated emails tedious, I prefer to just write the subject lines and messages and then hand over the set-up to someone in digital marketing.
If you have only worked on email marketing with a digital marketer and you are not happy with the results, you might want to bring in a content marketer to take a look.
What is a good email marketing open rate?
Email marketing is only as successful as your open and click rates. Rates vary by industry, but in general, any open rate that is higher than 40% and click rate this is higher than 3% is great.
Social Media Marketing
Similar to email marketing, content and digital marketers can both handle social media marketing strategy, implementation, and reporting.
While social channels are digital, success is driven by following trends and best practices. The messages in the copy need to be valuable; they don’t need to be long narratives (most channels don’t support that kind of long-form content anyway).
Gated Content for Lead Generation
Now we are back to a project in which content and digital people bring their complementary skills together to make something the best it can be.
Content and digital marketing teams may steer you on what the type of gated content to create for lead generation based on SEO. But then their support diverges.
A content marketer will work with you to write the white paper, guide, ebook, or workbook. They will also write copy for the landing page where people can download the asset.
Then they’ll hand it over to the digital marketing team for:
- Doing layout
- Adding beautiful design elements, like charts and custom graphics
- Uploading to the website
- Connecting the download form to your email marketing platform
- Ensuring an email is set to go out when triggered by the download
- Setting up the automated lead nurturing campaign
Don’t forget to run the completed asset by the copywriter! I recently found multiple layout mistakes in a clients’ new ebook, simply because the graphic designer didn’t know the content like I did.
Online Advertising Campaigns
Strategizing and running online ads, whether they’re social or Google ads, is a very specific area of expertise. A digital marketing agency may or may not have this expertise in house (depending on the size of course).
A content marketer could provide copy and direction on the goals, but these ads are a science more than an art. Your best bet is a digital marketer and/or online ad expert. (I have never worked on an online ad campaign.)
Content and digital marketers need each other
I can’t do half of what digital marketers do, and they can’t write like I do. We will always need each other to turn out fantastic marketing assets and campaigns for our clients.
Related: Stop Letting Your Blog Gather Dust: 6 Smart Ways To Repurpose Content