Content Marketing: Alternatives To Email Marketing

Digital marketing is an ever evolving arena that adheres swiftly to the changing needs and perceptions of consumers and online audiences, unlike any medium before it. At theContenTribe we have made it our mission to guide you through these adaptations while maintaining the very best level of service and results driven marketing. Let’s take a look at one of the most important and pivotal market shifts currently underway: Email Marketing versus Content Marketing.

Getting To Grips With The New Age Of Email Marketing

Email marketing has long been an integral form of digital marketing that produces short term and long-term results in terms of engagement and readership, which in turn has been strategically used for conversion into sales. As the world engages more and more on a digital stage, however, there has been a need for increased privacy and boundaries in terms of access - both in respect to general consumer attitudes and legislation. POPIA, the Protection of Personal Information Act, has instilled certain values and requirements into the digital marketing sphere that offer a necessary level of protection through the addition of communication barriers from unsolicited marketing. While we understand and support this legislation (you can read more about POPIA here), we know that it presents some new challenges in the digital marketing space that require not only a fast adaptation but a totally new perspective on audience contact points.

Before we go on, let’s make sure we are on the same page with a quick definition of email marketing. Email marketing is defined as: “The use of email within your marketing efforts to promote a business’s products and services, as well as incentivize customer loyalty. Email marketing is a form of marketing that can make the customers on your email list aware of new products, discounts, and other services. It can also be a softer sell to educate your audience on the value of your brand or keep them engaged between purchases.”

The take away here is that you now require a new or varied solution to address:

• Product and/or service promotion

• Incentivised customer loyalty

• New product, service, discount or sale awareness

• Brand value education

• Engagement between purchases

Enter: Content Marketing.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is defined by The Content Marketing Institute as: “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” According to Forbes, the most important part of that definition is the term ”valuable” - and we agree.

In the most basic terms, content marketing includes all the online material that your audience has access to that does not explicitly promote your company or brand but rather focuses on the stimulation of interest in the available products and services. This, by extension, builds customer loyalty and engagement through the addressing of a need or desire, instead of merely shouting your own name from the hilltops to use a metaphor. Every part of your digital presence can contribute:

• Your Website

• Social Media

• Podcasts

• Infographics

• Videos

• Blog Posts

When it comes to content marketing, even your customer interaction platforms count! The idea is to craft your marketing around the relationship between your brand and the audience you want to target. Much like our in-person relationships, you start with a conversation and engage directly with shared points of interest as opposed to simply tooting your own trumpet.

Here Are The Differences: Email Marketing Versus Content Marketing

Think of these two forms of digital marketing in the simplest sense: Email marketing is more of a push tactic, while content marketing is more of a pull tactic. Clearly, modern audiences are starved for more of the “Invite You In” format as opposed to the “Push Through The Door” format, and digital marketing strategies should be adjusting to this. Digital etiquette and customer relationships have evolved to the extent that unsolicited mailers, which are already earmarked for the Spam folder and which can hurt your search engine ranking, create a negative interaction with your company and brand just by sending them without permission. Content marketing is, by its nature, an “Opt-In” and experience-based marketing tool which automatically makes it more engaging and welcomed by the digital audience. Make no mistake, Email marketing has its place, but to rely solely on subscription-based communication is archaic and ill-advised. Diversify your reach by utilising every tool in your digital toolbelt!

Connect Better

If you would like to explore alternatives to email marketing and flesh out your content marketing solutions, talk to our team at theContenTribe. As StoryBrand Certified Guides, we will guide you through the very best of our success-driven digital marketing services to set you up for real results. Transform your digital presence by reaching out to us at +27 87 095 6471 or hello@thecontentribe.com. We can’t wait to help you Skyrocket Your Brand!