Even though they may have a website and they may have a blog, it is clear that some business owners don't necessarily know the difference between the two. Some websites have blogs and website pages that are more seemless, while other sites have their blog and website pages completely separate. Regardless of how it's set up, pages and blog posts still should be thought of as different from an editorial standpoint. Let's explore..
A Website Page
This is a page on your website that is focused on your industry, products, services, etc. While we try to urge businesses to avoid the simple, About, Services, Capabilities, Contact, etc., that's the type of things that website pages usually consist of. In a corporate world these tend to be more information based than opinion based and probably aren't all that fun to read. Your website visitors go there for the information. If you're doing a good job with your website content people should get more out of it than just the boring old information, but let's face it...that's what it tends to be.
A Blog Post
A blog post is editorial based content. Sometimes it's still about your own products or services, but it shouldn't be focused on the sale. On the flip side a blog post can be about something completely different than your own products and services, but it should still be relevant to your business. A blog post is usually written to educate, entertain, or inform. They can and should be much less formal than a corporate website page. Your blog posts should be fun to read and even if they aren't fun hopefully the reader still walks away thinking, "I'm glad I read that".
4 Example Types of Blog Posts
- Many people write how-to posts in an effort to help their readers. This post for example is a how-to style post.
- Lists. People love to read lists! The 5 best ways to..., the 10 reasons you should..., 3 easy steps to... You get it.
- A video or presentation post. This post is a summary of something else. People like these because they are more visual, less text.
- Newsjacking style. This is taking a topic about something else that is in the news and writing about it from your perspective or how it relates to your business. Just use your common sense here. It should still be relevant and sensitive to the situation. There have been times in the past where a newsjack effort hurt more from a PR standpoint than it helped from a blog standpoint.
Good luck in your blogging efforts!
Blog post about inbound marketing.
