As marketers, we tend to throw around a lot of terms. I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of that. Hardly a meeting goes by in which I don’t drop “impressions,” “clicks,” “keyword rankings,” or “organic footprint” at least once. The word “organic” itself has probably become the dominant one in my entire lexicon over the past few years. 

Sometimes, we use these terms with slight inaccuracy, and sometimes, we commit an even more heinous act: we use them without carefully demonstrating what they mean to our audience. 

It’s natural to assume our audience knows what we know, but that is actually logically fallacious. Good communication occurs when both parties possess full understanding of what passes between them.

So, I was thinking about content Marketing vs. traditional marketing the other day, and how these two terms are often used, as if there is a face value that we all understand. 

There isn’t. So let’s take a look at content marketing vs. traditional marketing and see what they each are and how they’re different. 

Content Marketing 

When we use a term like “content marketing,” naturally, there’s bound to be some confusion. 

For instance, what’s the difference between digital marketing and content marketing? Isn’t all marketing content marketing, in some way or other, since “content” is involved in marketing? 

Well, yes and no. there are some gray areas here. 

Content marketing is a form of marketing in which content itself is the pivotal piece. 

Of course, yes, there is content involved in all marketing, but in content marketing, the content piece is the most important part. 

It can be in any of various formats, and it can use mixed media. Content marketing can take the form of audio (like music or podcasts), video (like Instagram reels or YouTube videos), written material (like blogs and landing pages that are optimized for experience), or some combination of all three. 

Content marketing can also be much more complex. In their own right, if items like brochures, white papers, and even whole magazines, taken in sum, are optimized for the user experience, they can be considered content marketing. 

This makes content marketing unique from other forms of traditional marketing because content marketing is entirely optimized for the user experience, and in that way is based on “permission.” Because of this, some experts call content marketing “permissive marketing.” 

That is, content marketing doesn’t shove itself down your throat, nor does it even try to. 

It exists and its value is innate. If you like it, you consume it, and if you don’t you walk right on by. 

But content marketing materials can be immensely valuable to the brand managers that invest in them, because content marketing can be informative, educational, and even entertaining. Some content marketing is based on teaching, and others are predicated entirely on humor. 

Realistically, it has to do with what the target audience is interested in.

Take, for instance, meme pages on Instagram. Some immensely popular meme pages like “Memezar” and “Sarcasm Only” are based entirely on humor or entertainment. No one follows those pages for educational or informative purposes, yet they are immensely popular. 

This is sort of baked into the experience. People that follow the page know that they’re signing up for a laugh or two. In fact, too much advertising, pandering, or in-your-face messaging might turn users off and cost the account followers. 

It’s likely that the page administrators are very aware of this and are very measured in their approach to what they publish. This is the whole point of “permissive” marketing. The user makes the rules. If the marketer doesn’t follow the rules, the user leaves, and the marketer is out of a job. 

But there’s a whole other dimension to this. Take a popular magazine like AllRecipes, which is reportedly one of the most successful magazines in the country, and which supposedly has a subscription count of nearly 9 million, giving it a massive circulation even by modern standards. 

What do you think would happen to AllRecipes’ model if they started taking the approach of an IG meme page? 

Followers would drop like flies. 

It all goes back to permission. Subscribers of AllRecipes Magazine give the magazine permission to send them materials in exchange for meeting their expectations – they want interesting, unique recipes and culinary content. 

Is there traditional advertising nestled among the pages of AllRecipes? Certainly. Is there an occasional post that covers something unrelated to their core positioning? I’m not sure because I’m not a subscriber, but we can call it likely. 

But the point is this: the weight of the experience is on meeting user expectations and furnishing material relevant to cooking. That’s the meat and potatoes (no pun intended) of the AllRecipes model. 

The meme pages I mentioned and AllRecipes are diametrically opposed to each other. One creates sarcastic memes and the other teaches people how to cook. But in both cases, they must acquire the permission of the user, and in both cases, they must meet expectations.

Now, other business models can engage in content marketing as well. 

Let’s say you have a business that sells high-end footwear. Users are probably interested in how to care for their shoes, where the materials in their shoes come from, what makes the shoes unique, and other similar topics. They might even be interested in material that inspires them with ideas on how to create outfits. 

That business model might benefit from running a social media account publishing such content, or creating CMS or blog pages that have material dedicated to those topics. They don’t push the shoes which the business is actually selling, but they offer something that, though separate, is related, and adds a whole lot of value. 

So, in a nutshell, that’s how content marketing works. 

Now let’s take a look at traditional marketing. 

Traditional Marketing 

If content marketing is based on permission, what then is traditional marketing? Is it not also in a sense based on permission? 

Sort of, but not really. Traditional marketing is more like the classic advertising that annoys people. Think about PPC ads, that the vast majority of people ignore, or television commercials, that most people skip.

Basically, and in a (very) overgeneralized nutshell, traditional marketing is what you experience when you have no other choice. Print ads, billboards, radio commercials, and TV commercials are all examples of traditional marketing. 

When you were driving down the highway, did you opt to view the billboards? Did you ask to hear the radio ads playing between your favorite songs on the station you were listening to? Sure, television commercials are sort of dated, but you didn’t ask for those, either? 

That’s the difference, from a high level, between content marketing vs. traditional marketing. 

Oftentimes, traditional marketing is used to reach as wide of an audience as possible to increase brand awareness and exposure, even though the targeting is difficult (if any is even conducted) and it’s hard to measure results. 

Traditional marketing approaches (think advertising) are also conducted to raise awareness about sales, seasonal specials, and similar promotions. Some marketers also pay for traditional approaches to generate cold leads.

So now that we’ve covered some of the basic differences in approach between the two broad classes of marketing here, let’s take a look at some of the finer distinctions. 

Content Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing: Wherein Lies the Difference Between Them?

Content marketing vs. traditional marketing. One follows a permission-based approach and the other takes a more cavalier, take-it-or-leave-it approach. 

How else are they different? 

Well for one, traditional marketing focuses on branding, whereas content marketing focuses on adding value and building relationships. There is a much greater focus on satisfying the customer in content marketing than there is in traditional marketing, if there is any attention paid to it at all. 

Again, traditional marketing is “forced” on an audience, and an audience must choose to partake in content marketing. In a way, content marketing is its own product. 

Because of this, content marketing is interactive and traditional marketing is not. This often makes it very easy for marketers to collect data about user engagement with content marketing materials, and very difficult if not impossible to collect data associated with the success of a traditional marketing campaign. 

Since traditional marketing materials are not consumed in the same sense as content marketing materials, it is harder for marketers to draw direct correlations between the effects of traditional marketing and user behavior. 

For instance, if a user gets a promo code from a podcast (content marketing) and applies that to a purchase, or reads a blog and buys a product through that link (also content marketing) the marketing team will know those efforts were effective. 

Conversely, sales can increase after a commercial airs on a streaming platform, or after a radio or print ad (both traditional marketing), but there’s no way for marketers to know for sure if the sales increase was directly attributable to those campaigns. 

Another thing to consider here is that content marketing can be very finely targeted, even personalized, whereas traditional marketing materials are much more difficult to target and deliver accordingly. A print ad reaches the people that look at that page and that’s that. You don’t have direct control over it. But if it’s a carefully targeted ad on Instagram, for example, you can decide which demographics get to see it, when, and on what devices. 

This makes targeting efforts far superior, and more effective, with most content marketing channels. 

In addition, content marketing is more user-friendly and helps build relationships with users, making it a value-add by comparison. Whereas you can consider traditional marketing an expense, you can consider content marketing an investment, at least assuming the campaign is run successfully.

Because of the differences here mentioned, it is also much more likely that your content marketing materials will not be actively ignored, which is a serious problem associated with traditional marketing campaigns, like PPC ads and commercials. People get banner blindness and sometimes leave the room when commercials are on – but that doesn’t happen with good content marketing that has been properly targeted. 

Don’t take this assessment of the differences between content marketing vs. traditional marketing the wrong way. Traditional marketing is still valuable and can be a useful complement to content marketing, especially when it comes to spreading brand awareness among truly cold leads. 

As John Wanamaker once famously quipped, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” The success of traditional marketing is there, it’s just hard to track. 

At any rate, given the advanced analytical tools available to modern digital marketers, quantifying the overall engagement rates associated with, and success of, content marketing campaigns, is easier than it’s ever been. 

Now you just need to get with your digital marketing department and figure out what the prongs of those two approaches look like. Instead of seeing it as a dichotomy of content marketing vs. traditional marketing, maybe you should see it as a potential harmony of content marketing and traditional marketing. 

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