It has been a confusing task for brands to choose between content marketing and native advertising. However, there is a famous quote stated by Seth Godin, “Content Marketing Is All The Marketing That Gone.” Users prefer and love well-written content. Research says that 45% of consumers find sponsored content like advertising more relevant than others. If we look at the SEO value and increasing rankings, also shows that content marketing is certainly more effective compared to native advertising.
The study shows that focusing on content management, including blogging, organic search, and content amplification, results in the highest returns on a company’s investment. The more you focus on the content, the higher the income. Whereas in native advertising, involving publishers to create and distribute content somehow results in not as effective SEO value and not much of an increase in organic rankings. The reason behind this is that a native ad is restricted to a certain number of paid publisher associations, which makes the reach of native advertising limited, because as the links are sponsored, these types of associations are generally unable to convey worth.
There are clear differences that help to choose the best one according to our requirements. The goals of content marketing are said to be search engine rankings and conversions, while the primary goal of native ads is social engagement. However, there is a similarity in that both focus on increasing brand awareness.
The fact is that the future of marketing rests on three important pillars which are transparency, honesty and truth. Based on promotional marketing, the content mostly demanded by customers is in the form of articles. If the content is of high quality, people don’t care if someone paid to deliver it. Now the thing is how does this management work? All we need to keep in mind is choosing the right audience at the right time with the right device and delivering the right content.
However, content marketing has to face quite a few challenges. First, the lack of resources to create ‘trustworthy content’ for brands and agencies, which is one of the most sought after qualities in a web or mobile device today. Well, obviously, if some company has produced a product, that doesn’t mean that they can also create effective and engaging content to sell it. Writing user-friendly, engaging and impactful content is not an easy task and requires a creative mind. The next hurdle in content marketing is repetition. It is the sole responsibility of the merchant to ensure that ROI of branded content marketing it is exhibited with due seriousness and originality. The third and final hurdle in branded content marketing is ‘reach’. When a consumer searches for any brand-related content, it typically does not take them to the product manufacturer’s website. The volume of traffic seems to be much higher on a website created by online publishing giants compared to a brand site.
If the business needs a big reach with publishers and audiences, content marketing will prove to be a better option, hands down, unless they don’t want a guaranteed placement with a big-name publisher. Ultimately, it all depends on how familiar we are with our business and with the public. If we know what our business is and what our audience really wants, then it’s easy to find the right marketing approach for that.