Content Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing: Key Differences

Content Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing: Key Differences

Today, choosing the ideal marketing strategy for your company can be overwhelming. With so many options available, it is normal to confuse the terms as it happens with inbound marketing and content marketing that, despite being closely related, are not the same and in this article, we will be explaining how they differ.

The appearance of both terms is recent.

The emergence of online sales and the overcrowding of the internet gave rise to new ways of connecting with the target audience.

However, content marketing has a background in techniques such as publishing specialized magazines for a brand’s clients.

Attract customers to retain them

For its part, inbound marketing had its first approaches at the end of the 19th century with the use of educational methods to attract customers, instead of using paid advertising to publicize products and services of the time.

In any case, both techniques will help you improve your presence on the internet to get better customers for your brand.

The central idea of ​​both techniques is to generate added value so that you can interact more efficiently and retain potential customers so that they continue to buy your products and help you to publicize your brand.

What is inbound marketing?

Let’s start by defining what inbound marketing or attraction marketing is.

The emergence of this technique coincides with the gradual adoption of the internet by users.

As technology advances, consumption patterns also change, not only in terms of purchases but also in how customers relate to brands.

Likewise, traditional media have gradually been transformed thanks to streaming and multimedia devices.

For example, television consumption has dropped considerably, making traditional marketing strategies less effective.

Online Marketing Techniques

Inbound marketing consists of applying a series of strategies and techniques to attract the consumer to your website or social media profiles.

The idea is that the client finds you at their own pace when they need any of your products and services, unlike outbound marketing where the techniques are usually invasive and focused on sales.

The basic premise of inbound marketing is to bring the right content at the right time to the user.

This includes a variety of channels ranging from blogs to email campaigns, as well as videos, tutorials, and any content that helps build brand awareness. But that’s only one of the phases of inbound marketing.

You should also consider other tools to convert the prospect into a customer and retain them through personalized content to give them a pleasant after-sales experience.

Some experts also define inbound marketing as a strategy to win the customer’s attention instead of renting it as occurs with advertisements in the press, television, and other mass media.

What is content marketing?

For its part, when we talk about this type of marketing, it is usual to think about the creation of content to increase the traffic of your website, as well as to publicize the brand. You can also create offline content such as magazines, catalogs, and other printed materials.

Although the term content marketing is recent, some companies have been implementing it for decades.

For example, in the food sector, it is common to give away cookbooks with the company’s products, which helps increase sales and the authority of the brand offline.

However, currently, content marketing is associated more with the online part.

Especially with the creation of content that can be consumed and shared more easily. Also, you may not have a call to action or a sales focus.

User-designed content

Blogs, tutorials, guides, and videos are some of the tactics that you can use within your content marketing strategy.

What is sought is for the potential customer to find you on their own to solve a specific problem with your products.

This type of content can create an affinity for the brand, even if the sale is not made.

The results of content marketing are usually medium and long-term, but as customers learn to ignore advertising, this type of strategy helps you create more lasting relationships.

Differences between inbound marketing and content marketing

• Content marketing

Content marketing has very specific objectives and does not include other techniques such as SEO or the publication of paid ads on the internet, since its scope is limited to generating traffic to your website while improving the brand image.

Inbound marketing is a complete strategy that covers all the phases and processes that go from capturing leads to after-sales service.

Content marketing is one of the techniques used in inbound marketing and has more limited scope to achieve the objectives of your company.

This technique seeks to create quality content that can be distributed and shared in other media to attract customers among the target audience.

However, this does not diminish the importance of content marketing it is the fundamental pillar of any inbound strategy.

• Inbound marketing

For its part, attraction marketing has a comprehensive approach as it combines different techniques such as lead generation, search engine optimization, targeted ads, and email marketing.

At the center of everything is the creation of content that serves to attract the customer to your website.

Likewise, content marketing does not necessarily require actions on the part of your user or client. The main objective is to publicize your brand and improve its reputation.

In inbound marketing, attraction is an essential part, but you need to take action in each of its four phases.

To know what is best for your company, you have to define what the goals you want to achieve are.

If you just want to offer a better user experience and maintain brand recognition, content marketing might be enough.

Whereas, if you want to increase your sales and build customer loyalty, inbound marketing is the solution.