August20, 20208 min read

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On the internet, content is anything that expresses thoughts, informationor experiences through written, visual, or audio form.

This article is content. The 95 million photos uploaded to Instagram today are content. The 500 hours worth of videos uploaded to YouTube in the last 60 seconds are all content.

The internet is built with content and always has been. It also means everyone has content, and everyone creates it all the time.

That creates some confusion when it comes to content versus content marketing. A lot of content is intended to market a brand but that doesnt mean the brand does content marketing.

Heres why.

Content marketing is a strategic approach to marketing that emphasizes the creation and delivery of valuable content to attract, retainand convert a clearly defined audience.

In other words, its using content strategically to provide solutions to problems that either your business or your readers have. Great examples abound:

Do you see a difference? All of these efforts position you as an authority in your industry, demonstrate your expertise in your topic over the long run and cultivate trust in your audience by putting their needs and interests first.

Youre doing content marketing (and not just content creation or digital marketing) if your content:

Related:How Do You Improve Email Marketing? Start by Improving Your List.

High-performing content is central to your content marketing, but the way you craft it can make or break your strategy. Its not enough to simply create eBooks, blogsand catchy social media that provide helpful information thats still biased toward your brand.

People are catching on to even that now.

Yet, with all the content creation that you will still do, it can be easy to lose your focus. Heres an overview of how to use the eleven main types of content in content marketing:

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By now, I hope Ive demonstrated how content creation is intrinsic to content marketing. However, just because youre creating content, it doesnt mean youre doing content marketing.

I want to drive things home with an example.

Lets say that were growing an athletic clothing brand and looking for ways to attract more customers to our e-commerce site. Weve decided to turn to content marketing for help. It might look like this:

1. You want to increase your brands presence on Google and social media, but you dont want to constantly annoy your readers with ads. How else can you get your brand in front of your readers?

You decide that the best way forward is to start a blog full of topics that interest your readers. A few things that come to mind include clean eating, exercising at home, and personal empowerment. You can also talk about clothes, of course,but your models can all wear your brand, which eliminates the need for more direct advertising.

2. You start your blog, set up your social mediaand let your following know about it.

Engagement metrics indicate that readers are most excited about exercising at home. Looking through their comments, you notice that things like staying focused, finding the right space, and keeping a schedule are all major pain points that they have.

3. You respond by creating an online guide to exercising at home.

You use a combination of eBooks chock-full of challenges that are available as lead magnets, and video tutorials for exercises hosted on your site. To demonstrate how popular your guides are, you create a way for users to record their progress and encourage each other.

4. To maintain engagement, you start up an email newsletter with the latest challenges, shoutouts for people who have achieved their goalsand occasionally a promo here or there.

Throughout this, you continue to grow your online community, adding more content to your blog that addresses questions or pain points. You even start a hashtag that your followers can use to highlight their fitness efforts so that they can spread the word about you.

5. At some point, you realize that you can enrich your readers experience with case studies and white papers.

You begin to include white papers about health and fitness that are relevant to your target audience. You also start to create case studies of success stories from your community.

6. As fitness centers start to notice what youre doing, you start getting offers for sponsored classesand requests to sell your brand in their shops.

Your content marketing is now extending your brands reach into the offline world. Youll continue all of the efforts above, as the results are feeding further content production.

Can you spot all eleven content types above? Look carefully. Theyre here.

(Bonus: Do you know what brand I just described? Spoiler: This is Athletas content marketing strategy. Check it out at https://events.athleta.com/)

The main difference between content versus content marketing? Content marketing involves a lot more than just content creation. In fact, the emphasis isnt content creation at all, but crafting an experience that improves the lives of your readers. If youre putting your readers first, addressing pain pointsand producing exceptional quality content consistently, then youll grow your brand while you cultivate authority and trust. Thats content marketing.

Hopefully, Ive left you with an idea or two about your content marketing strategy. Now, go forth and convert that target audience into passionate fans.

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Content and Content Marketing Are Not the Same. Here's How to Frame the Top 11 Content Formats. - Entrepreneur