Brand Building vs Generating Leads - what you need to know about the dynamic between media and content-to-commerce strategy.
As a Small Business Owner/Social Media Manager, do you catch yourself doubting the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts?
"Great Media and Great Content Marketing Aren’t That Different" - Adam Ryan
Hey guys! Hannah here - recently, I listened to a podcast featuring Adam Ryan (media scaling WIZARD). In the podcast, among other things, he highlighted the interesting dynamics between media and content marketing.
While I was listening and taking mental notes, I got to wondering how many other business owners or SMM (like myself) didn't fully comprehend the key differences between the two units.
What is the Difference Between Media and Content Marketing?
Content marketing and media are not that different. We use media channels to nurture our audiences so our (drum roll please) content doesn't just bounce around the void the internet can feel like from time to time!
While building a community and marketing your content (running ads, newsletters, social media posts, blogs, emails, etc.) are used coincidingly - they are two separate units. The key difference between content marketing and media is
media = promoting brand awareness
content = lead generation
Content marketing is a branch of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (video content, blogs, social media posts) which do not explicitly promote a brand but are instead intended to capture attention and generate interest in products or services while media is a broad term for the mass communication channels we use to promote brand awareness via broadcasting, publishing, and promoting.
In a nutshell, we use media channels to deliver content and capture attention!
Burnout: How To Maintain a Sustainable Strategy
I'll be the first to admit I've felt discouraged after spending what felt like hours creating content I felt like people would LOVE only for it to flop! In this scenario, I realized I was pushing content out but not creating a community on media channels to enjoy or benefit from it.
A canon event for anyone starting their journey into digital marketing is posting regularly on a brand page, maybe boosting the occasional post, and then slapping a content-to-commerce strategy label on it (I know I did).
I want to add, there is nothing wrong with posting regularly (or using the content-to-commerce strategy which is a tried and true method used by many businesses) but it is not going to get you a direct ROI and it all goes back to my last post Small Business Marketing: The Key to Growth on Social Media Platforms.
To avoid feeling discouraged or burnt out from lack of engagement as you bring awareness to your brand in the digital space is important to have a process mapped out so anyone helping out (internal employees, outsourced help, family/friends, etc.) are on the same page across the board or even just to remind yourself!
Each process should have the following:
A starting point
An idea of resources available and what resources you would like to acquire
A strategy in place to utilize resources to achieve a final product
An idea of the expected results (leads, community management, brand awareness, etc.)
This will help you manage your media platforms well and result in higher engagement - which is important if your goal is to build a revenue arm or just have an active audience.
When Building An Engaged Community: Quality Over Quantity
When it comes to digital media think quality over quantity - would you rather have 100 engaged followers who actively seek your content and purchase from you exclusively or 100,000 unengaged contacts who see your content but ignore it because it's irrelevant to them?
Your brand should focus on building an engaged community before introducing any kind of content-to-commerce strategy. Great content has the potential to have the same impact as great media but if you're tapping your foot waiting for a direct ROI you are almost guaranteed to be disappointed.
As you build out your media platforms establish a reputation of trust, a little bit of an entertainment factor, and create a genuine connection with your audience and you're pretty much guaranteed to succeed.
TL;DR Summary
Great content can have the same impact as great media but if you look at it strictly from an ROI perspective you're not going to be happy.
Content is what fuels a leads funnel for companies attempting to create a revenue arm; without an engaged audience on your media platforms, the content being produced will not generate revenue.