As an online business owner contemplating content marketing to promote your business on a wider scale, you may already be aware of the usefulness of blogs and articles. But do you know what sets them apart from each other?
You most likely don’t – and that’s okay. Trying to figure out the key differences between blogs and articles is surprisingly one of the more common “head scratchers” we see lots of newbies and aspiring online marketers struggle with. We have even seen some content marketing ‘gurus’ swap the words in their posts quite liberally. So today, we have taken it upon ourselves to educate our readers on this subject.
Listed below are three key differentiating factors between blogs and articles that will put all the confusion to rest.
We’re starting the differences with where the content is published because it’s the easiest to get the hang of. On the simplest level, articles are created to be syndicated off of your site, via the high volume article directories. Blogs, on the other hand, are created to be posted on just your site. Why? Because presumably, if you’ve set up your blog properly, and are actively building your brand, most of the folks who end up on your blog know a little bit about you already. They may be on your list, they may subscribe to your RSS feed, or they may have been referred to you via the social networks, or friends you have in common. Articles make for a more “search engine” friendly strategy, as you’re leveraging the trust that the content directories get from the major search engines, and are simply trying to “borrow” some of their visitors and bring them over to your site.
The content is where things start getting interesting. Both articles and blogs have minor variations in their content, so you’ll have to look closer. But… where do you have to look?
One very striking difference between the content of blogs and articles is the style of the content. A blog is by and large a personal opinion and can be about anything at all. It doesn’t have to be a marketing material and nor does it have to try and persuade people one way or the other. It’s just a viewpoint and putting some information and opinions out there. When it comes to articles, however, personal opinions don’t hold a place. Objectivity replaces subjectivity in a content copy where the intention is mostly to convince others to the stance of the writer.
Yet another difference between the content of blogs and articles is the formation and appeal of the content. Blogs are much more likely to be more concise and more dynamic than an article. An article will have to utilize more information to make it of value for the readers and thereby, will be more serious in nature. Although it’s possible for a blog to be serious, they’re often written in a more light-hearted and fun way. A blog will often read as if it’s written by a friend, while a marketing article will read more like a professional document meant to be taken seriously and will be full of much more facts-based information.
The last difference between the two is their end objective. While one is meant to be a marketing tool for your goods or services, the other is a way of reaching out to your customers and followers. With a blog, the products may be mentioned, but just in the course of conversation and most blogs will be used to build up a relationship. If you can connect with people, they’ll feel that they know a lot about you and it’s likely that they’ll want a business relationship after they have established a personal one. Once you are getting down to business then it’ll be the articles that help. But articles can be a hard sell, with it being clear that there’s something on offer rather than a general discussion.
Now that you’ve understood the key difference between a blog and article, you’ll be able to drive your content marketing campaigns with article or blog writing to a better direction and leverage both sources of traffic in a way that creates a big community of friends, fans, readers and clients.
