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Web & App DevContent Marketing vs Advertising: Who Wins the Battle?
| 6 Dec 2013
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At last night’s BCAMA Content Marketing Vs Advertising evening speaker series, speakers such as Tom Gierasimczuk, Vice-President of Canada Media Wide and Katie Dunsworth, Principal of TalkShop Media, discussed the vitality of content marketing in boosting a company’s brand image, popularity, and ultimately, bottom line.
People consume information differently today. We no longer flip through the Yellow Pages to find contact information or watch TV commercials to hear about the latest movie releases. We’re proactively reading tweets and blogs to stay on top of the latest trends. What does this shift imply for marketers? It means that we can no long rely on traditional, “old-school” advertising tactics such as radio commercials or newspaper ads that are less effective in competing for consumer attention. Instead, we have to attract our audience’s attention with ardent marketing approaches such as content marketing. We have to create interactive, timely content such as how-to articles or entertaining videos to arouse our audience’s interests in our offerings and increase their engagement.
By utilizing content marketing, you can achieve the following:
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Become searchable on Google
There are over 1 billion searches on Google everyday from users across the world. In order to capture this massive audience, you must use content marketing. After all, the only reason why a person searches on Google is because he needs an answer to his question and he needs it in a simple, digestible content form. By producing authentic, useful content, you can enhance your website’s visibility to your target audience on search engines and extend your connection with more consumers -
Prove authenticity
While display ads can induce shoppers to visit your website, content is what keeps them engaged. By creating pertinent web content, you can showcase that your company has solutions to your consumers’ problems - whether it’s a digital marketing service to help local apparel retailers increase revenue or web design service to help revamp a college’s website. Regardless of the offerings, content is what proves your authenticity and relevancy to your consumer market. -
Enhance brand visibility economically
By producing intriguing blog articles, infographics, or videos, you can increase your content’s shareability. This will enhance your brand exposure cost-effectively as all of your advertising investment is just the cost of producing that piece of content. What’s more, you’ll be able to further target consumers who are likely to fall under your target market as people who share content will likely share it individuals similar to them. This in turn will help you explore new markets without having to profusely bombard new prospect with traditional, disruptive advertisements. -
4. Remain competitive
According to Forbes, 60% of companies are now using some form of content marketing as part of its marketing strategy. For the remaining 40%, they’re missing out. By having a dearth of web content, these companies are missing out on the opportunity to increase their web visibility, tap into new markets through word-of-mouth, and boost on-page engagement. This as a result can cause these companies to lose their clients to businesses that are creating content diligently as the latter companies using content to poach their competitors’ customers. To avoid this catastrophe, businesses must content produce content to protect their current market share while gaining more market dominance.
Undoubtedly, content marketing creates an array of benefits. It allows a company to humanize it brand, entertain its customers, and remedy their clients’ problems. They are key to staying competitive in today’s ever-changing business world.
