Are You a Content Marketer or a Blogger? How to Find Out

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As someone who owns and writes a blog, how would you describe yourself?  You would likely use terms like blogger, blog writer or maybe just writer.  But would you call yourself a content marketer? 

Possibly not, because the idea of being a marketer seems far removed from what most of us bloggers do.  Yet by creating content in the way that we do, many of us are also content marketers. 

So, what is the basic concept of content marketing and how does it impact our roles as bloggers?

Definition of content marketing

We’ve all heard that overused phrase about ‘content is king’ on almost every post that recommends starting a blog.  And because we have already taken that first step and we have a blog, we know that content is the single best way to connect with people. 

And at its heart, this is what content marketing is all about – using any type of content to reach people, get across a message and potentially move them to be a customer of a service or product that you offer.

Content isn’t just blog posts – it is everything from a Tweet to an infographic you share on Pinterest.  It is all the social media updates that we send to the various sites, it is the guest posts we submit to other blogs and the articles we publish on sites such as Huffington Post, should the opportunity present itself.

And we are content marketers because if we are serious about our blogs and have goals around them, then we are already marketing our business through our content.  This might be to sell a course, an eBook, affiliate products or even something we have made to sell.  We may even simply be seeking to market ourselves, as bloggers and writers, to encourage others to use our services to fill their own blogs.

Building blocks of the content marketer

So how do you step from a blogger to a content marketer?  In truth, you probably already have because the building blocks of the content marketer are also those of the organised blogger.

Editorial calendar

Hands up if you have some kind of editorial calendar for the month or even further ahead?  For me, I have a system where I store inspirational posts in Notion. Then I use CoSchedule to add these ideas to a calendar and decide when I’m going to publish them. It works the same for seasonal content – I use my Easy Content Planning Assistant kit to figure out when I need to publish the content and add this to my calendar.

Content strategy

Do you consider keywords, current topics or use tools like Keysearch to get ideas about what to write?  Then you are already creating a content strategy of sorts.  You are researching what you think your audience will relate to and what information they require then you are creating content based around this.

Social media marketing

If you have a page on Facebook, a Twitter profile or a presence on the other social media sites, then you are already involved in social media marketing in a basic form.  The next step is to add some strategy to your posts, use tools to help and to base the content you are creating around that audience you have researched for your blog posts.

Visual media marketing

This is an extension of normal content creation and involves other types of content such as video, infographics and photography.  These elements might work alongside blog posts such as an infographic being hosted within a post or might stand on their own such as a Facebook Live video on your Facebook page or a webinar replay on YouTube.

Analytics

Perhaps the thing that separates marketers from bloggers is the extensive use of analytics to measure what works.  Most bloggers will check Google Analytics and see where their traffic comes from, monitor their page views and a few other key metrics. 

But to step up towards the level of a content marketer, you need to have a plan for analytics to see what you are measuring and how you are doing towards your goals.  Then you can see what is working and what needs to change to reach goals. I use an Airtable base to track what’s happening with my blogs.

Why content marketing works

Now that we realise that we are often already content marketers or close to it, then let’s look at the benefits of embracing this addition role and look at why content marketing is such a popular option for businesses of all sizes.

Brand awareness

Branding is something that is discussed nearly as often as content marketing itself.  Your brand is a combination of the look and feel of your blog – logo, fonts, colour palettes, brand voice, icons, imagery, all of these elements add up to your brand.  And there’s no better way to gain brand awareness among your target audience than to use content marketing.

Creating content gives your audience something to talk about. When they’re talking about you, they’re teaching each other about your company, passing recommendations and links around in the process. This awareness of your brand is marketing gold – Moz

Improved profile

This is a little like brand awareness but comes at the level of B2B – business to business.  If you offer services to other businesses and you can demonstrate through your own content that you know what you are talking about, this improves your profile. 

It works towards placing you as an expert in your field and this can open up further content marketing opportunities – writing for big-name blogs, being featured in mainstream media, that kind of opportunity.

Improved SEO and site traffic

Then there’s the simple fact that without content, you have much less chance to improve your SEO and therefore gain more traffic to your website.  By offering quality content that answers questions that your readers have (like this piece hopefully does), you, therefore, build your SEO profile. 

This, in turn, increases the ranking position of your website, meaning more people see your posts.  These two factors then bounce off each other until you reach the lofty heights of the First Page of Search Engine Results – or at least that’s the plan.

Better opportunities to monetise

If you are aiming to make money from your blog with sponsored content or with affiliate marketing, then taking a content marketing approach can work well.  According to The Social Ms, 70-80% of people ignore paid search ads so this is not always the best way to make money on your site.  However, by offering high-quality content connected to products that you can support, you have a better chance of making money from your blog.

Remember, marketing takes time

While there are clear benefits to stepping up your game as a blogger and taking an approach more in line with a content marketer, don’t think that this will guarantee results or make them happen quickly.  The process is often described as being like a flywheel – it takes a bit of work to get it moving and after a while, it builds up its own momentum and keeps going on its own.  But the key phrase there is ‘after a while’ so don’t start taking a marketing approach to your blog and think you will get overnight results!

Don’t forget if you want the benefits of content marketing but you don’t have the time to create the content yourself, I can help!  You can see my packages here for content creation to help you bring that crucial traffic to your website.