The difference between marketing and advertising and branding is sometimes complicated. All three work together to the same end goal, but have specific approaches to how to get there.
Branding is all about who you are and what story your audience is hearing about you. It is the impression your business leaves on someone.
Advertising works to get attention worked up around a new product, service, or brand. It is using various forms of media to get a message out to the audience you want.
If branding is who your brand is, and advertising is how you get people to see it, then marketing is the big plan. What you want to accomplish, what you need to do to get there, and how all the pieces come together.
Laying out a plan for social media with content re-purposing
Below is a marketing plan I laid out for my creative brand: Zilvmay Creations. This plan goes over a few key ways to really boost awareness and engagement of my brand on Facebook and Instagram and direct potential customers or fans to the new website.
I sat down and really tried to think about how I could improve as a brand and why I wanted to make those changes. I wanted people to associate Zilvmay Creations with quality, versatile, trustworthy, and, well, being cute.
I then had to figure out how exactly I wanted to implement my big ideas, why they were important ideas, and how to show all that to my followers. To make my brand work for me to tell the story I wanted followers to hear.
Armed with an idea of what I wanted to present, I was able to come up with some content ideas that framed my new efforts. I wanted to make two similar posts for each new idea and a/b test them, then use the ‘winner’ to create a Facebook ad.
The plan was to do two posts on the new materials I had started using, a couple about the new website, and a pair of posts about a new product. The best way to know if my big ideas will work is, honestly, to just do them!
Once the posts have been released into the wild of the internet, I just need to establish my KPIs to be able to know if I met the goals I really wanted. For ZC I really wanted to watch my engagement and the number of click-throughs to the new site. This would highlight the fans that would be more open to the brand’s narrative.
When I know the official ‘winners’ we turn around and repurpose that content into Facebook ADs and Instagram stories. We already know that content is effective and will get attention.
When I boost content that is effective with my organic audience, chances are that it will also interest a new, similar crowd of people!
