As the online medium is an ever-changing landscape, marketers and businesses must be on top to match up with the latest trends and updates. Content creation plays an important role when branding and marketing a product or service in the digital medium. Knowing what kind of content is effective and what digital platform helps in reaching the right audience depends upon the content strategy. When talking about content and content strategy, we cannot ignore blogging and vlogging.
Blogs and Vlogs are two of the most popular forms of content these days. So, which is suitable for your business, Blogging or Vlogging? This article tries to discuss further on this aspect.
What is Blogging?
As we, all know blogs and blogging have been there for quite some time now. It is more like a journal where a writer shares his or her views, ideas, knowledge and information. The blog may be intended to target a particular audience and the information shared might appear relevant to a certain group audience. In short, blogging is the process of publishing articles about a certain topic, event, news, or latest trends typically for online publication.
From a branding and digital marketing perspective, the benefits of blogging are clear. It helps organizations and marketers to connect and reach existing and new audiences. A well-written blog can help to educate and deliver the brand message to the audience. A good blog can also help in generating quality traffic, which will surely reflect in high ranking on Search engine results pages (SERP). Well-presented blogs help in building trust, brand authority and help businesses to establish themselves as leaders in the field.
Blogging has been an integral part of the marketing strategies of organizations over the years and years comes. There are different blogging sites like WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Medium, etc., which are commonly used by businesses and marketers. Nowadays every organization and marketer has integrated blogging into their content marketing strategy. They have created a separate section for Blogs and Case Studies on their website itself.
What is Vlogging?
Vlogging is the short form of “video blogs” which is a recent phenomenon that is getting prominence in the mainstream, as videos are becoming the dominant content on online platforms. A vlog is similar to a blog but is in a video format. Vlogging is a form of blogging that uses video content instead of written content.
The vlog can be short-duration or long videos depending on the topic we are planning to cover. Vlog has a visual appeal and is effective in conveying the right message to the targeted audience. Vlog acts as a solution for discussing and sharing a boring topic in a much more engaging and exciting way. Vlogs have become a medium by which we can reach out to a wider audience and provide them with rich content. As the attention span of people is reducing, visually rich content attracts the audience.
This has made vlogging popular and many bloggers have started making vlogs. Vlogging is here to stay and will evolve more in the days to come. Organizations and marketers cannot ignore vlogging because, in online media, video content is getting more views, likes and shares compared to text and images. Video content has the power to evoke strong emotions that would encourage the viewers to interact, likes, comment and share. A good vlog with better content and presentation can receive more interactions. Video hosting platforms are YouTube, Instagram, etc., which are commonly used by businesses, marketers, influencers and prominent personalities to create their Vlogs. Vlogs help in creating brand awareness and are emerging as an important part of the content marketing strategy.
Importance of Blogging
Blogging has become a critical element of business and marketing strategy. No matter what kind of company you are running, businesses need a blog. Here are some of the reasons why every business needs a blog:
1. To engage with the targeted audience
In this competitive world, promoting a product or service is no easy task. Blogs come as a handy way by which organizations can share relevant and helpful content, which attracts their targeted audience. Relevant content shared will keep the audience interested which in turn will the companies promote their products and services. The overall quality of the content is the key while writing a blog
2. Improves the Traffic and SERP of your website
A good and relevant blog can increase the traffic to the website and it can help to improve the search results in search engines as well. Blog posts help in gaining visibility and adding a new webpage to the site. This would help in SEO, as the search engines like Google would re-crawl to your website.
3. Attracting new prospective customers
Blogging is the best way to attract new prospective customers by spreading the word about your products and services. Sharing the blog on social media platforms can attract a wider audience to your business. Blogs improve the level of trust in the business and help in creating long-term partnerships with your targeted audience.
4. Help in Building Brand Reputation
Blogging is an effective tool for building a solid reputation for your brand. Blog helps in sharing business views and perspectives with the audience in a creative way. Sharing relevant information through blogs on a consistent basis will make the audience visit the website frequently making you an industry leader.
5. Free Advertising by sharing Relevant content
The blog is the free mode of advertising your products and services to a targeted audience by sharing relevant content. Companies can write a series of articles related to their products and services, in promoting them to the right audience without spending a single penny.
Importance of Vlogging
Vlogging has come to prominence in recent times. It is an effective way to educate and inform customers about business products and services. Here are some of the reasons why vlogging is important:
1. Vlog gives a Home Touch
Vlogging provides a human face for the company that helps brands to connect with their customers on a personal level. By vlogging, businesses offer a more personalized experience to their customers and buying from you feels more personal rather than buying from a random website.
2. Helps in demonstrating your Expertise
Vlogs help in establishing you as an expert in a particular field, as you are providing valuable information in video form. It builds trust among them and makes them aware of your business and products.
4. Vlog getting Viral
Creating engaging and relevant content could see your vlog going viral and can help get quality traffic to your website. It can in turn help in getting good leads and conversions and will help in SEO as well. Social media sharing makes it easy to reach a wider audience in an exponential way. The quality of the content is key and the more entertaining and helpful the vlog is the chances of sharing increase.
4. Free Video Marketing
Video content grabs the attention of the audience more than any other form of content. Vlog provides free video marketing to the brand and you can promote your business free of cost. It helps in building a good network of audience and subscribers for your videos, indirectly benefiting your business
5. Earn Money from your Vlog
Companies can upload their vlogs on their website, as well as Video hosting platforms are YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo etc. If the content is informative and entertaining, surely, it would increase the views and subscribers for your vlog, which would help you, earn money.
Pros and Cons of Blogging and Vlogging
Both blogging and vlogging have their advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the million-dollar question is which the right option for your business is. According to current digital trends, the importance of video content is increasing day by day. Similarly, blogging has been a practice that businesses have been following for quite a time now and it is a less time taking process compared to vlogging. Here are some of the pros and cons of Blogging and Vlogging:
Pros and Cons of Blogging
| Pros of Blogging | Cons of Blogging |
| Strong Written Appeal | Difficult to Get Readers |
| Generates More Referrals | Takes Time to Build a Community |
| Great for SEO and Website Traffic | Doesn’t have a Visual Appeal |
| Easy to Create Content | Less Interactive |
| Builds Trust and Reach Targetable Readers | Difficult to become Unique |
Pros and Cons of Vlogging
| Pros of Vlogging | Cons of Vlogging |
| Strong Visual Appeal | Readers Aren’t Always Visual |
| More Interactive | Time-Consuming Process |
| Chances of Getting Viral | Harder to Track Conversions |
| The importance of Video Content is Increasing | Finding Your Voice |
| Can Grab the attention of the audience easily | You Can’t Control the Timing |
Conclusion
Blogs and Vlogs need to go hand in hand and both are important for businesses. Vlogs can be the answer to making a boring topic into more engaging and exciting way. Blogging can be helpful for an audience who looks out for writing appeal. Anyway, both are here to stay for the times to come and businesses cannot ignore them while developing their marketing strategy.
You people can also have a look at our blog explaining the importance of Video Content in Social Media.
