Differentiating Content Marketing Strategy from Brand Strategy

If you ask people how to build a brand, everyone will have their own set of opinions. The Chief Officer, brand teams, marketing teams, sales team and a slew of other people's decisions affect the brand-building process. Each person has its own set of role to play in building a brand. But there's often some confusion when it comes to executing content marketing and brand strategies.

No, content marketing strategy is not as same as brand strategy. Assuming both to be the same is one of the reasons why people's plans fail. Understanding the difference between the two is crucial as it will distinguish roles of everyone they have to play to achieve the brand's goals. Before we get into dissecting content marketing and brand strategy, let's dig into each individually.

What is Brand Strategy?

Brand Strategy is the big game plan, which lays down the foundation for every other program within the organisation. It's the articulation of the brand's aspirations and purpose. It's a plan which outlines the goals and how can everyone help to achieve it.

Creating a brand strategy is not a simple job. It requires deep thinking and foresight. You need answers to questions like, what is your brand, who is your target audience, what do you care about, what will be your influential elements, etc. When creating a brand strategy, you need to consider these points:

• What are your vision, mission, values and purpose?

• Does your content align with the brand's core?

• Does your brand have a persona?

• What is your brand's perception?

• What is your motto/tagline?

• What will be your brand's identity and guidelines?

• What will be your content marketing strategy?

Hence, you can now see that content marketing is a part of brand strategy, which is like the base of every other policy. Content marketing strategy is its own strategy with its own set of moving parts.

What is Content Marketing Strategy?

How the brand strategy works as a blueprint for the company, just like that, content marketing strategy works as a blueprint for the content which will be used to support the brand strategy. This blueprint includes:

• The goals and definitions

• How the success of the content will be measured

• The journey

• Marketing persona

• Brand messaging

• Editorial calendar

• Keyword strategy

• Media planning

• Budget allocation

To sum things up:

Brand strategy = the big idea

Content marketing strategy = the tool to execute the plan to achieve the big idea

Brand strategy and content marketing strategy must comply with each other. Each plan needs to be aligned and articulated and must work together in sync.

Often, brand and content marketing strategy might look similar to each other, creating confusion. This confusion will render both strategy ineffective. Here's how you can keep things clear:

1) Keep clear documentation of each strategy. It is essential to have a solid brand strategy to start off things with. Documenting your brand's core values, identity, purpose, vision, mission, etc. can help keep things clear.

2) To avoid inefficiencies, help team members identify their responsibilities and make them crystal clear. When there's no guidance or clarity, there will be wastage of resources. Help everyone understand how the teams will be working together, which will help keep everything aligned.

3) Keep the talk on. With regular meetups and status updates, keep track of things happening inside your organisation. This tracking will help keep track of success as well as failure.

It is essential to learn the difference between content marketing strategy and brand strategy. To make the brand strategy to be efficient, you need to keep track of everything, especially since there's confusion between brand and content marketing strategy. If your business needs a brand strategy, we at ValueHits – an ORM company in India - can help you out. The experts curate our brand strategies, thanks to their years of experience in the field. This experience also helps them in keeping brand strategies and content marketing strategies different. If you'd like to learn more, hit us up on the phone or visit our website, we'll be happy to help you.