There is a common misconception that information marketing is the same as marketing. While they are closely related, they are not the same. Information marketing focuses on disseminating relevant, timely, and valuable information to people who have an interest in or are potential customers for your product or service.
This blog post will dive into A-Z Information Marketing, breaking down the differences between marketing and information marketing and the roles that each play in a business or organization. We’ll also cover the five steps to creating a personalized customer experience that will make them feel cared for and valuable enough to keep coming back for more.
Marketing Versus Information Marketing
To start, it’s important to understand the difference between marketing and information marketing. According to the HubSpot Blog, marketing is defined as “all of the activities you undertake to attract, recruit, and retain customers.” While marketing can certainly include information dissemination, it is more traditionally associated with advertising and word-of-mouth publicity.
On the other hand, information marketing is defined as “the process of communicating valuable and relevant information to an intended audience to achieve a specific goal.” As you might imagine, this could include advertising or social media campaigns, but it can also be accomplished through web content and email marketing. Additionally, HubSpot points out that information marketing can encompass “marketing research, analysis, and other functions necessary to understand and predict marketplace behavior.”
The main takeaway from this is that information marketing is much more broad than marketing. It can involve a wide variety of activities, including advertising, public relations, and analysis of your sales and social media data.
Put another way, marketing is what you do to get customers – whether directly or via word of mouth – while information marketing is focused on keeping those customers.
Why Should You Care?
It’s critical to establish the reasons why you should care about information marketing, especially if you’re new to the concept. In today’s world, people are willing to get almost everything done online. That being said, there is a huge group of consumers who want to feel like they’ve gotten as much information as possible before making a purchase.
For most consumers, feeling like they have adequate information is a critical point in the buying process. According to HubSpot Blogs, this point can be referred to as “the information parity phenomenon.” In other words, people are more likely to make a purchase if they feel like they have sufficient information about the product or service, regardless of whether or not they actually do.
In the quest to gain more customers and retain those customers, you should care about information marketing because you want to ensure that this mindset of wanting more information is ingrained into your customers’ minds. This means you will be presenting your customers with as much information as possible about your products or services. And, of course, you want to make sure they leave feeling encouraged about making a purchase. When your customers have a positive experience during the research phase of their buying process, they are much more likely to have a good experience during the purchase phase. So being involved in the information dissemination process can help you increase sales and grow your business.
The Differences in Focus
While marketing is more focused on getting customers, information marketing is about keeping customers. As a business owner, you should be aware of the differences in focus between marketing and information marketing; however, these differences can be a bit difficult to discern. For example, it is quite easy to advertise a product or service and then follow up with a phone call to sell the product or provide service. So, while marketing is getting the word out there and encouraging prospective customers to reach out, information marketing is acting as a middle man and guiding the process with helpful tips and insights.
This fundamental difference in business objectives means that, while you may enjoy some of the activities associated with marketing, such as advertising, you should not confuse marketing with information marketing. As you read the next section, you’ll discover how each role plays an integral part in the A-Z Information Marketing process.
Marketing Vs. Marketing
If you’re looking for traditional marketing jobs, you might find it useful to know the differences between marketing and marketing. Market research is a necessary part of market development and can help you identify potential customers and plan marketing initiatives. Ultimately, the goal is to increase sales and grow your business.
Before diving into the function of marketing, it is important to understand the differences between marketing and marketing. To begin with, marketing is defined as “the process of attracting, engaging and satisfying customers to promote, sell and retain business.” While traditional marketing might involve advertising, digital marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing, the line between marketing and marketing is becoming increasingly blurred. Moreover, today’s marketing experts emphasize the importance of digital marketing in today’s world.
In the context of marketing, marketing is a form of attracting, engaging, and satisfying customers. That being said, marketing can also include activities such as advertising and public relations. When performed effectively, these activities can help businesses thrive.
Marketing Planning
While marketing is often viewed as a one-time activity, marketing planning is an ongoing process. Just as you would develop a plan for an upcoming vacation, you should formulate a marketing plan for the next 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days. Moreover, as you work on developing a marketing plan, you should also be considering how you will track the success of your plan. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are adequately prepared before embarking on any marketing campaign. That being said, once you have your marketing plan in place, you should consider reviewing it at least once a month to make sure that nothing is missing and that you are staying on track.
Marketing Execution
Once you have your marketing plan in place, you must set out to execute it. Just as you would coordinate with your travel agent to make sure your flight options and hotel rooms are confirmed, you should coordinate with your marketing agent to make sure you have the right mix of online and offline marketing activities.
According to HubSpot, marketing execution involves “conducting marketing activities to promote products and services, acquiring and engaging customers, and measuring the results of your marketing efforts.” Just because you have a plan does not mean that your marketing will be executed perfectly; instead, it means that you should be aware of the factors that could potentially derail your plan. For example, if you were to launch a new website but did not build enough traffic, it could result in fewer sales.
Marketing Analysis
To determine if your marketing efforts were successful or failed, you must analyze its results. Just as you would analyze the results of a vacation trip or business investment, you should analyze the results of your marketing initiatives. This involves taking a hard look at the various metrics and measurements to determine if you achieved the desired results. Additionally, you should consider the time it took to achieve these results.
A key metric that you might track is the number of leads that you have generated via organic searches. That being said, you should track a variety of metrics to determine the success of your marketing efforts. For example, did your paid ads generate any sales? Were your social media posts shared enough to result in new customers? How many people came back to your website from a paid search and, if so, what were they looking for?
The Importance of Information Marketing
As you might imagine, with so much information out there, it is vital to ensure that the information you provide is as useful and helpful as possible. To that end, you should care about information marketing because it helps you provide valuable and relevant information to people who want to learn about your product or service. Moreover, since so much of the information world is now accessible online, it is critical to ensure that the information you provide is easily accessible and easy to understand.
Key Roles in A-Z Information Marketing
While marketing is a broad term that can encompass a variety of activities, A-Z Information Marketing is a blueprint for businesses that want to get the most out of their marketing efforts. Just as you would have different roles within a traditional marketing team, you should consider having different roles in your A-Z Information Marketing team. Specifically, you will need a product marketer, a salesperson, a social media strategist, an online marketer, and a content creator. Below, we’ll discuss the responsibilities of each role.