Chances are you’ve heard of both content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). These digital strategies use long-form content to attract audiences and convert them into customers. However, there are subtle differences between the two tactics. Understanding each approach can help you decide which content strategy is best for your marketing goals—or why you might want to use both.
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant content intended to be educational, entertaining or inspirational to your target audience. Rather than trying to sell readers on your product or service overtly, content marketing places your brand as an industry expert or thought leader by establishing authority on a particular topic. Over time, effective content marketing campaigns capture reader attention, build trust and convert audiences into leads. But to be successful, it’s critical to have a deep understanding of who your audience is, what problems or interests they have and what motivates them to take action.
Examples of Content Marketing
So, what does content marketing actually look like? Content takes all sorts of shapes and forms these days. Blogs offering readers industry insights and tips, educational videos, case studies, infographics, e-books and any other form of content that provides readers value while also portraying your brand’s positioning and expertise is probably content marketing.
Parkway worked with Eastman Machine Company to introduce potential customers to the company’s new and existing outdoor product manufacturing equipment as part of a marketing initiative around an industry-specific trade show. This content marketing piece features conversations with company leadership as well as one of Eastman’s well-known clients in the space.
What Is SEO?
SEO is the process of improving a website’s visibility on search engines like Google. The goal is to increase organic traffic quantity and quality. At its core, SEO focuses on improving your site’s ranking in search results, making it easier for users to find your content. With a solid understanding of who your target audience is and what their problems are, you can use SEO to address an ideal customer’s pain points and help them find a solution to their questions on your website.
Examples of SEO
Keyword and topic research, which means identifying relevant words and phrases potential customers are searching with, is one of the most important aspects of content-based SEO. These keywords inform what content you should create and what sub-topics to include within the content. Other optimization strategies include strategically updating site architecture, meta tags, headers and images.
Parkway uses ongoing content-based SEO to support continuing medical education (CME) companies American Medical Seminars and CME Seminars. We target highly relevant terms like “how to use CME money” to capture the attention of doctors and other medical professionals who aren’t familiar with these CME providers—yet.
How Content Marketing and SEO Work Together
SEO and content marketing are complementary strategies that are often combined to maximize impact. Content marketing provides readers with valuable brand-forward information distributed across emails, social media, advertisements and blogs while SEO serves as a top-of-funnel tool that answers general questions potential customers are searching for in a way that makes your content easier for search engines to find.
Should You Focus on One or the Other?
While content marketing and SEO often work best together, there are times when you may want to focus resources on one strategy. If you are trying to build brand awareness, foster a relationship with potential customers, and share information about new products or services, content marketing and distribution are probably more relevant. On the other hand, shift efforts toward SEO when you want to bring more traffic to your website and capitalize on non-paid traffic.
