Brand Content and Content Marketing: what are the differences?

Content is what works on the Internet today! You know it. It is constantly talked about on social media, with many hashtags: #MarketingContents, #Brand Content and others #MarketingdeContenu. So obviously you’ve started. Renewing your website and creating a blog: it costs little but it’s worth it. It didn’t take you long to write your first articles, share them on social media and then… nothing. Why is no one interested in your content?

What if you confuse Brand Content and Content Marketing?

To make the most of the marketing levers at our disposal we must understand them well. We all agree on this. Therefore, when a concept is misperceived, it will consequently be misused and produce results lower than our expectations. This is the case of Content Marketing, extremely appreciated by marketing managers. Indeed, 86% of marketing and digital managers believe that Content Marketing is a performance lever (source: Activis BVA/Limelight Content Marketing Study) and is also the trend leader in web marketing on social networks (source: Barometer of digital marketing trends on social networks).

Despite this popularity, these managers are not entirely convinced of the business issues related to Content Marketing. The budgets assigned to it are limited: 36% allocate less than 10% of their marketing budget to content marketing. Basically, everyone talks about Content Marketing because it’s trendy, but few achieve concrete results. Why such a denial?

Brand Content and Content Marketing, Brand Content, Content Marketing, Content Strategy, …

32% of digital marketing managers of CAC 40, SBF 120 and TOP 100 media investors do not distinguish between Content Marketing and Brand Content (source: Activis BVA/Limelight content marketing study). Perhaps the crux of the problem is here.

I make this observation regularly when I have the opportunity to discuss with marketing managers. Recently, a school asked me for a course on Brand Content. Reading the program it was difficult to say whether it was about Brand Content or Content Marketing. Even Wikipedia is in trouble.

Still, the challenges of these two disciplines are totally differentpoles apart from marketing in terms of design and values. This is not to say that one is better than the other, simply to support the distinction between them. Until this confusion is resolved, it will be difficult for Content Marketing to establish itself in France, as has happened for example in the United States.

What is brand content?

Brand content is focused on the brand. It is often compared to advertising, as it enhances the qualities, history and values ​​of the brand. This content production brings value to the brand and helps achieve objectives related to corporate culture (brand culture). This content can inform and entertain, just like content marketing, but it is brand-focused. In summary, here are some examples of effects that we can look for in a Brand Content strategy:

In short, it is Brand Centric and the challenges are the opposite of Content Marketing. Many brands have developed a media strategy. RedBull, with its extreme sports events and publications, Guinness beer brand and Book of Records, Michelin Guide, etc. Brand Content allows you to build a strong identity around the brand and highlight its values.

Thus, Michelin and its guide invite you to travel around France, to discover nice restaurants (and wear out your gum at the same time). Red Bull, the energy drink, talks to us about surpassing ourselves. Consumers who identify with these behaviors or values ​​will naturally become attached to the brand.

And Content Marketing in all this?

On the contrary, Content Marketing, or content marketing, is consumer-centric. The consumer becomes the center of the marketing strategy. AS, the brand fades to highlight the needs of the consumer. Content production no longer aims to highlight the company, its products and what it represents. The approach is emphatic and the brand will try to understand the questions of its customers and prospects, to provide them with adequate and valuable content. And, suffice it to say, we are not naturally inclined to this type of practice. We want our logo to be bigger, we want our brand to appear everywhere and this approach goes against marketing habits acquired over time.

Of course, this is also not a completely altruistic approach. The goal for the brand is to make itself known thanks to this content, to obtain greater visibility and new perspectives. Therefore, the content serves to attract new visitors to your site. On the other hand, do you think you will attract new customers by talking about your company, focusing the conversation on your products, telling how you are the best in your industry?

Obviously not, forget it! Nobody cares… except you. And this is the heart of the Content Marketing problem. We often write what we would like to read, without worrying about what our customers and prospects really want. What a mistake! Find out what your reader really wants, think about the different stages of the purchase funnel and provide them with quality content.

You create value for your potential customer and then you will try to retain and convert this reader. This is the key! Only under this condition will you get qualified and perfectly targeted traffic. AS, Content Marketing is closely linked to inbound marketing. They work together. It is present in every phase of inbound:

• Content Marketing attracts targeted traffic thanks to timely work on the keywords used by your audience and sharing on social networks
• Content Marketing contributes to conversion through the ebooks, white papers and other resources you share in the early stages of the conversion
• Emails, which contain content, help your prospects close
• Finally, Content Marketing contributes to the joy of your customers (there are obviously many other components of customer satisfaction) thanks to the content you share that will help them use your products or services better, excel in a field, etc.

Brand Content

Small or large company, B2C or B2B, whatever your sector of activity, you have everything to gain because if it is well designed, your Content Marketing takes you to the top of the SERPS, becomes viral, creates a climate of trust and projects you into an expert. I invite you to discover all the advantages of Content Marketing.

However, don’t just start. Content Marketing is not limited to producing content and even less to talking about itself. This is why it seemed important to me to return to the definitions of each of these two popular practices in marketing today. Often little understood, they generate few results and quickly discourage those who attempt the adventure.

You will understand that the purpose of this article is not just to argue about words but to re-establish their meaning to associate it with good practices. Content Marketing is much less widespread in France than in the United States, perhaps one of the reasons lies in the use of English terms that do not adapt well to our language and that sometimes make us lose the concepts.