213: What is the difference between investing in social media and content marketing?

What is content marketing and what is social media marketing? Who do I outsource to? Who can help me?

Last year I had a potential client say “I didn’t know if you offered social media content”. And this got me thinking. Do business owners know what to outsource when it comes to marketing? 

Do I hire a content marketer or a social media marketer? What is the difference? Or if I am doing it myself, what do I focus on? 

Don’t worry, your questions will be answered.

If you LOVED the episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

✨ BUILD YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY NOW - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GET BOOTCAMP⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

  • What is the difference between social media marketing and content marketing? 

  • Where do I need to focus my energy with my marketing? 

  • What to outsource content marketing or social media marketing? 

  • The 6 questions to help you with your content marketing and social media

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 213. And I'm talking all about the investment in a social media marketer or a content marketer. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast.

I'm your host Mariah entrepreneur, storyteller, digital nomad, creator of content bootcamp and founder of Content Queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content and market your business with strategy to the channels that work for you. Each week, I'll deliver a story to help you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business and content creation.

I'll also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs who are here to share their own journey, along with actionable steps to help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful online marketing and content. Strategy. Let's do it.

Hello, gang. As you've noticed, the intro has changed. We are back to reg regular scheduled programming around the world in 90 days was an amazing marketing campaign that I absolutely loved.

The landing pages still up if you want to go back and listen to any of the episodes related to that. You can also purchase the workshop replay but if you still want to join boot camp, you absolutely can because our live first live call isn't until next Wednesday or Thursday, depending where you are in the world. So the first week is the homework week and the second week is our live call.

So if you want to join you still can basically someone asked me yeah, what is the promise, so to speak? So basically what I find is a lot of entrepreneurs don't have strategy so they don't get results they posts on social media, they post blog, they whatever and they're not getting the results from content marketing the eyes that they want the traffic that they need to generate the conversions. So basically, that's the first thing having documented content marketing strategy will help you get the results for all the work you put in.

But then also there's this massive time-saving element because you're not sitting there thinking about what to post you know exactly what you need to post whether you're scared you're promoting something or not, you know, the themes around what you're sharing and everything is intentional and in alignment with your business goals. So the promise or the transformation is really these marketing-related results and this time-saving elements so you can also be consistent when we're consistent. We know we learn more, and we do this without burning out or being on the content hamster wheel and be like, Oh my God, what do I have to post today?

What do I have to do today with my marketing, you know exactly what you need to do. So that's the promise. If you're ever wondering, we also have payment plans available.

So if you need a payment plan option, you totally can do that. And the link is in the show notes if you'd like to join us. But essentially what I'm talking about today and you might be at this point where you're not ready to outsource you are doing the thing, you're learning the thing, but eventually you might want to outsource your marketing in any way, shape or form, even if it's just scheduling or something like that.

You will at some point, I imagine. But basically what I want to go through is the difference between these two and I'm going to share sort of the three watts to understand so you can make better decisions in your business. But what I want to paint a picture for you is an amazing graphic that I have that was not done by me.

I will credit the source. The source was where I found it was visma. co and basically it's this visual showing you how content is more than just social media basically.

But if you visualise your content marketing as a house, so you have your kitchen, your lounge room, your bedrooms, bathrooms, your outside, you have different elements to your house, some rooms you'll spend more time in and others and some have a different meaning and a different purpose. So basically, you know what could be a really important part of the house might not be the one that's the most prettiest. So I look at you know maybe so as search engine optimization, making sure you're showing up on Google keywords, maybe not the sexiest part of marketing.

That could be the bathroom and I'm sorry for any SEO marketers. What I mean is it's a very functional and important part but it might not be where you spend all of your time. Depending if you're me, maybe you do.

Post post with both Operation jokes Sorry, guys. But basically, if you look at a house content plays different roles. So they're different rooms of your house, whereas social media is just one room of your house.

So maybe investing in one room of your house might not be the best option. So that's what we're going to talk about today. That graphic is going to get posted on socials.

So you'll see it and you completely understand what I mean. The graphic is not to overwhelm you to think that you have to do all the things like you might remodel one room of your house and then leave the other for another time or another room of your house might just stay as is it doesn't need remodeling but really a tea to empower you to understand content has different forms. It's not just one form like social media.

Cool, amazing. A K, all right. So you get the analogy of the house.

But basically what I want you to understand is when you put your eggs in multiple baskets, you will have the ability to benefit in different spaces, or so to speak if you put more effort in making each room feel nice. You have multiple nice spaces. It does not mean you have to do the whole house or every room or every basket.

It's identifying and understanding what is important for you and your business. And you might do eggs in different baskets at different times. Right so you might put all your eggs in one basket at one time and then move them around in another time depending on what you need to do in your business.

For example, if you're launching something and you're launching it to a specific audience that you know they hang out on social media, you might spend more time on social media at that given moment. So that's what I want you to understand. And putting eggs in multiple baskets does not mean wearing yourself thin.

It's about being strategic repurposing and having strategy and if you're wearing yourself thin because you're trying to show up on too many platforms, then you don't have a proper marketing strategy or repurposing strategy and we need to chat. So let's go through the through the three watts to help you understand the difference between the two so you can make the best decisions for your business. Now I have done a podcast on this before and I will link it below.

This is purely about investment of your time and money and if you're looking to make an investing decision in outsourcing, you know where to start because I get people saying oh, I didn't realize you did social media. So this is where this come from.

So the first thing is what is the difference? What is the difference between social media marketing and content marketing and I guess when you're investing in it, so to put it simply, content marketing is the strategy is a part of a marketing strategy or tactic within your marketing strategy. Social media is the channel that allows you to continue to communicate with your customers.

But again, it's not the only channel. Content Marketing gives you an understanding of how to promote your brand. And social media gives you the channel to do so.

And when we're creating content, we're not necessarily creating content for social media, we're creating content and it's getting pushed out to the places it needs to go. And then social media also acts as a sales tool. It allows you to have conversations with your clients, whereas content marketing is this sharing of value.

It's really like pushing people down the further down the funnel. And that's where you know when I was doing some research content marketing really does focus on the marketing funnel. You know, it's bringing people further down so if you've got top of funnel that's how people find you.

They start to consume your content or look at your you know what you're doing and then they start to consider you so they're moving forward further down the funnel until they get to the bottom and they purchase. So content kind of gets people at every aspect, but there is an element of you know, interacting with your audience where That's where sales comes in. You know, a lot of people invest in marketing thinking that sales and marketing is about visual it's about getting people to see what you have to get to your website to get the traffic.

You know, we can get traffic to your website. We can get people into your inboxes but if you're not nurturing them, your website isn't converting. That is a sales problem.

That's when you need to start looking at sales. So content marketing is about building the funnel, creating this value added piece of information, getting people to see you. And social media is a place a channel where you can put that content on there.

But there's an element of social media where you need to be selling. You know, if you've got an event coming up and you're just posting content, there's other things that you need to be doing. There's free outreach, there's, you know, it's not necessarily cold outreach.

It's getting people in your space to share it for you and sorry, there's someone's selling something on the street. That's what happens in Colombia. There's someone we'd like a speaker and they just like drive up and down the street selling things anyway, got to do a TikTok on it, because I think it's brilliant marketing.

And yeah, as I said, social media is where you interact with your customers as well. You're not just putting content out there. You're also interacting.

It's a two way channel. It's a social media channel. It's also where you provide customer service, get feedback.

It basically acts as like the shop window to your store and your website is your shop, basically. So that is the difference. Content marketing is the strategy, the tactics, social media is the channel.

Right? So that's the first w that is the what is the difference. So when we're thinking about investing, when you're investing in a social media marketer, you're investing in one channel and it could be across multiple channels could be Instagram could be TikTok, but you're investing in one channel.

When you invest in content marketing. You look at the big picture, you look at content as a whole. We're looking at email marketing, McClean long form channel.

We're looking at you know what, like, what are your lead magnet and things like that we're looking at everything as a whole and making a sustainable strategy. Of course, a lot of my clients, social media is a big focus. So we do focus a lot more on social media, in terms of that's where we show up the most, but there's so many elements that come with content marketing, that isn't just you know, for example, it's creating blog content help with your SEO, so it's pulling in other marketing elements.

Social media, arguably is now working with SEO. So if you are working with a social media marketer, you just want to make sure that they aren't just the content producer. You know, they are looking at ways to help you with your marketing.

So that is a difference when you're looking to outsource social media is just one channel content marketing is all of the channels and looking at all of the spaces and depending on the content marketing, you know, adviser that you hire or the person that you talk with. They will be looking at other elements of marketing that would complement paid ads doesn't necessarily mean they offer paid ads, but they're looking at paid ads. They're looking at networking.

You know, when I work with clients, I help them with all elements to suggest other marketing efforts to complement our content marketing So, now we you know, you understand the difference now right you understand. The next is what should we focus on?

Now, this is all about understanding what works in your business and when. So as I mentioned earlier you might be promoting a certain thing in your business that focuses more on social media so you might up the amount of content you're creating, you know, in business as usual, you might be focusing on more the long game so you might be doing consistent blog articles. If you're nurturing your email marketing list because that's where that's who buys the most from you.

Then you might focus on a really aligned marketing email marketing strategy, so that you know you're creating consistent newsletters and then when you're promoting something, you're sharing more content. So if you're looking at understanding where you should invest your time right now, because this is when you know, right now, you might not be outsourcing, so you need to understand where you want to focus your efforts. So my first question to you is what are your business goals in the next 12 to five years?

sounds huge. But we need to know these things, and what will help you get there? Right, what marketing efforts going to help you get there, what channels what other things in general business related but if we're talking marketing and then if you're not sure where the second one is?

Where do your leads come from? Where does your website traffic come from? Where are the people coming from right now?

And then of course, understanding what you're going to be offering so the next question is What am I going to be offering in the next three months? And where should I focused my energy marketing wise based off where my leads come from? The next question is, where do I spend most of my where do I like to spend most of my time like, because if you're doing the work right now, you need to understand what you love.

And it's okay if it's not social media, right? Because we can work on a strategy to repurpose wherever you do like to spend your time. And where do you not like to spend your time?

And do you need to look at outsourcing this in the future? So there's some questions that you could ask yourself, to help you understand where you should focus your energy. Then you build a strategy around that a content marketing strategy, which is the third we'll go into that what do we need to do next?

You will test it, you will learn from it. It doesn't have to be complicated. And then you start to understand where the efforts are coming from, oh, wait, sorry, where the reward is coming from based off your efforts, and where you could spend time for example, I had a client that didn't actually like social media, but spent most of their time there.

When we looked at the numbers most of the traffic from her website, and her Lead Gen Z went into her email list came from YouTube, and she actually really enjoyed YouTube. So what she did is she outsourced the social media to us, and she focused her energy on her YouTube, and we could use her YouTube to repurpose onto social media and she didn't need to overcomplicate it, right. So there's an example of a strategy that's not overcomplicated.

That's based off where the audiences hanging out, and how we can just spread that reach a little bit more. Because of course she was getting people and engagement on social media just wasn't her main channel. So then you can understand where you need to focus your energy and then when based off what as I mentioned, for what you're selling, where it makes sense.

So when you're deciding to sell something just going over your marketing strategy or your content marketing strategy, and making a few tweaks based off where you should be in accordance to your audiences hanging out based on the offering that you are creating for example, for me, my if I'm I'm at the moment promoting content bootcamp. Most of my audience is on social media. It makes more sense for me to invest in social media, my email marketing, and Facebook ads for this particular campaign.

But in March and April, I want to scale the business more in our retainer clients in our one on one clients. So I might just scale back a little bit on the content creation and focus a little bit more of my efforts. On networking and outreach and relationship development.

So this is where you can also see the difference between content marketing, and social media marketers, when you're investing your type social media market is only known to focus on social media. And yes, they actually might have experienced in other places, but you're paying for the social media. Element.

When you're paying for a content marketer, it's the big picture. And we can tweak and change based off where you need to be. Right and if, say, for example, one particular social media channel isn't working.

You can try a different content channel with that content marketer as opposed to a social media marketer, just looking at other channels. So that's how you understand what you should focus on. And where you should invest based on time or money.

So you can start to understand where you could outsource. Now, what do you do next? You're listening to this.

What's next? Mariah where? What do I do?

I understand the difference now, what can I do? Okay. The first thing is you do need to have a content marketing strategy.

That is why bootcamp is definitely the next step for you. It's not you hiring someone to do it. It's you doing it and understanding it and learning it properly.

Because I am a content marketer and you join the live calls, you will get me helping you with other marketing strategies, not just content. I will be able to help you with that. So you join, we talk about that.

Then you start to do the work you start to create then you understand where the holes are and where you don't like to spend your efforts. If you actually think you're really good at the marketing element from long form in terms of blogging, podcasting, wherever that is an email marketing then yes, you might go you know what, I just need a social media marketer, or maybe even a VA to help with more of the admin side of the content creation. I don't need a marketer because I feel very confident in that area.

If it's the other way, and you feel like you just need someone to help you with everything, then you know, you'll need to eventually hire a content marketer. This might feel like it sounds expensive, but trust me, it's actually not. It is generally the same price as hiring a business coach, or any kind of coaching or any courses the like long-term mentorships that you do, but you get execution as well.

So don't be don't think that it's out of your reach financially. Because you will be surprised. So when is the right time to hire Okay, you've got the strategy of building when is the right time to actually hire someone because I hired someone very early in my business.

And whilst when I first did it, I thought, oh my god, did I make the wrong decision? I was exactly ready to hire someone. From a logistics point of view.

I just wasn't ready from a leadership point of view. So that's why if you join our email list, I'll put a link in the show notes. I have an email going out this week.

If you don't listen to this live, email me I will send it to you. It is a resource on how to outsource. Because I know this is hard.

And as business owners, we need to become leaders because these freelancers become part of our team. We need to treat them as part of our team and we need to lead lead just as much as they need to lead you in the right direction. It's a two way street here right?

So when I started I thought, oh my god, I did it too early. But no, no, no, it wasn't the case. I just didn't have the leadership skills.

And then I upskilled I've invested quite a lot of money in in leadership things. And now I an elite team, and that is a very important skill to have. But I'll never forget someone saying to me, you're ready to outsource when you're taking too much time.

And if you pay yourself say $100 an hour while you would like to pay yourself $100 An hour and that's taking you up to three hours you're losing money. You could hire someone to do that for a lot cheaper. That is when you need to outsource now you might start small and hire a VA or you might hire someone just to do a project for you to understand the process of hiring.

And then once you start, it is so much easier to keep that person going. I have a perfect example. I hired Mitch in 2020 Now I need to pay him enough to sustainably live because we were traveling.

And I got a really good opportunity that I was I was able to hire him. Then of course I lost some clients and I did have to make shifts in my business and I did have to let go of some people in my team. But what happened with hiring meetings I got used to paying him that amount.

So no matter what my income looked like I could still afford to pay him and that's when money things come in. That is not my forte. Please go to an expert on this and if you need an expert I know people message me but you start to understand that outsourcing is not scary, you will be able to pay them.

It's okay. And you can work and navigate through it that way. So what to do next, get a strategy, implement the strategy and then work out where you're spending too much time where you're losing money.

And where you potentially need to outsource. So there were the three we went through the differences between hiring a social media marketer and a content marketer went through what you should be focusing on right now and what to do as soon as you leave this episode. So let me know what you think.

Are you hiring someone at the moment? Are you ready to hire? You know, I'd love to know where you're at.

You can comment below. You can like if you're on Spotify, there's like comment section. If you're on Apple, leave a review or email me email me message me on Insta and tell me where you're at and where you feel like you need to go next and I can totally help you.

So basically, let's circle back to this house analogy. I have a really good example of where we should be focusing our energy and what we should be outsourcing. So my amazing beautiful friendly and isn't OPM chart Talia?

She asked me where I should be focusing her marketing efforts right now. Given where she's at in her business. She's not actively creating content on social media, but she has a lot of leads coming in.

And I said to her, of course, you want to set up the foundations. She was asked me about a website. She said should I invest in a website now or should I wait and I said to her if you have a good amount of leads coming in, I would focus on getting some social media content up and a link tree or some kind of milkshake website.

So you've got links there. Then, what you can do next is look at the long-term goal. So for her, the long-term goal was yes to get consistent leads coming in that she doesn't have to necessarily go out and find all the time so that is when she needs to start investing in a website.

But right now she doesn't need to find leads because she's got them but she should be setting up the foundation's so doing a bit of social media content to get a name out there, having at least a milkshake website so that when you know she gets referred someone, she can send them a place to go. And then as she starts to do those more leads come in, like convert those leads that she's already got. Then she would invest in some kind of website and the same thing happened with another client I had a strategy session with.

She's inundated with leads at the moment purely from social media and word-of-mouth marketing. But her goal again is to get leads without her doing much. You know too much work.

So SEO will be a focus website will be a focus but not right now. So meet yourself where you're at, look at the future and set them as goals and then work step by step. And that's like with a house.

When you're renovating. You do one route. You focus on the most important rooms to you in that moment.

And then you do the work and you move through the rooms there's no point in trying to do all the rooms at the same time because then you won't have a working kitchen. You won't have a working laundry and bedroom bathroom all at the same time. Right so if you're not sure where to turn now you don't have a content strategy.

Let's chat content bootcamp life course starts next week. I'm more than happy to welcome you in this payment plans reach out have any questions you can email me I've had emailed questions in the last couple of days. So reach out via Contact Cleaner King and remember that developing your strategy and story develop your business.

Thank you so much for joining me today and please don't forget to share this with all your entrepreneurial and business friends could do this by adding it to Insta Stories and tagging me at content Queen Mariah or just tell them that rate and review. Please if you're listening to this and you haven't, it helps me get more fantastic guests like we have next week who found me through, you know, referrals and all that so we won't have these guests if we don't have more rankings in the charts. on Apple, Spotify, all the things follow me on Instagram, TikTok, let me know any questions about this episode.

Any topics? I'm here for you and I will talk to you next week. Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment