Product marketing and content marketing are two essential components of a successful marketing strategy. Knowing when to use each can be tricky, but it’s important to understand the differences between the two and how they are used to maximize your efforts.
What is Product Marketing?
Product marketing is focused on promoting a specific product or service. You talk about the features and benefits of the product, why it’s better than competitors’ products, how it can solve customers’ problems and why to buy now.
Product marketing is used to increase sales, build brand authority, and create loyalty. Ultimately though, it’s all about facilitating Sales.
Product marketing includes press releases, case studies, product brochures, infographics, landing pages etc. However, Pay per Click advertising is the primary marketing tool used.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is focused on “why buy from you”. The aim is to demonstrate your expertise by creating and distributing valuable content to engage and educate potential customers.
Content marketing is all about Brand Awareness, and helps to generate leads, build relationships, and increase conversions.
Content marketing includes website content, blog posts, videos, infographics, testimonials, ebooks, social media, webinars, and more.
Product Marketing versus Content Marketing
|
Product Marketing |
Content Marketing |
| Promotion of specific products or service lines | Brand building and awareness |
| Aim : Sales | Aim : Brand awareness and trust |
| Short term impact : “why buy now?” | Long term impact : “why buy from us?” |
| Outbound marketing | Inbound marketing |
| Cues : Product features, benefits, specifications, case studies, reviews | Cues : Solutions to customer problems, industry insights, testimonials |
| Bottom of sales funnel : Looking to buy | Top of sales funnel : Researching |
When to use Product Marketing
Product marketing is best used when you have a specific product or service to promote. Your copy focusses on the features and benefits of the product and how it can fill a particular hole in your customers’ lives.
The key objectives of Product Marketing are :
- Increase sales : Winning the first sale, repeat business, upsells and loyalty
- Conversion : Turning a browser into a buyer
- Feedback : Customer interaction gives you some great feedback on your products or services. Don’t forget that customer generated content is also good for your SEO!
When to use Content Marketing
Content marketing is best used when you want to educate and engage potential customers. It drives you to create content that is valuable and helpful to your target audience. Content marketing is also used to generate leads, build relationships, and increase conversions.
The main objectives for Content Marketing are :
- Brand recognition : Develop the know, like and trust factors for your site
- Engagement : Building long term relationships with your customers
- Long term impact : Brand building takes time, but a healthy mix of great evergreen content and fresh updates are great long term investments in your digital shelf life.
The benefits of using both
Using both product marketing and content marketing is beneficial in many ways as you are talking to two stages of the sales funnel. Product marketing is used to promote a specific product or service, while content marketing is used to showcase your brand to engage and educate potential customers. The combination is a powerful way to generate leads and increase conversions.
Conclusion
Product marketing and content marketing are both important components of a successful marketing strategy to incorporate into your marketing plan. Understanding the differences between the two and how they can each be used or combined will help you to achieve your marketing goals.
If this article has piqued your interest, and you’d like to find out more about how it works, simply contact us for a chat!
