Online businesses have become more and more popular as the technological age we live in keeps advancing. These have their own system and language that you should be familiar with beforehand; even with something that at first glance seems basic, like knowing if your business requires a web page or a blog.
Although these two terms are often used interchangeably, they appeal to two different systems, so you should first investigate which is more convenient for the business in question, possibly discovering that all this time what you were looking for was an e-commerce website in the process. That is why the purpose of this article is nothing more than to speed up the process of defining priorities when creating online businesses.
Table of Contents:
Definition of a web page
Definition of a blog
Types of blogs
Definition of an e-commerce
A web page or a blog: which one is more recommendable?
I can create a website and an e-commerce website, which one is more recommendable?
Using a blog as a marketing strategy
In summary…
Definition of a web page
In order to make the necessary contrast, you must first be familiar with the definitions of each particular topic. In this specific case, we are going to start with what a web page is.
Web pages are digital documents that serve as subcategories of websites, thus allowing particular parts of the main content to be emphasized. These may contain different multimedia files that fit with the World Wide Web (WWW) such as audio, video, text, programs, links and images that serve the purpose of contributing to the topic or topics they cover. They are the internet equivalent of a magazine or newspaper.
Definition of a blog
The difference between a web page and a blog can be appreciated if you keep in mind the static format of web pages and how ambiguous their purposes can be, which gives them endless possibilities even if they are limited to being an extension of the content present in the main website, all thanks to its versatile format.
Meanwhile, a blog has a pre-established format: a website where the editor can publish the content of his interest that they want to share with the rest, even allowing readers to leave comments. Blogs are constantly updated and organized chronologically from the most recent to the oldest, as well as being able to have more than one author for each article written.
Types of blogs
Of course, the previously given information is not set in stone, because it depends more on what kind of blog we are talking about. We can count at least 6 subcategories given to a blog which can help you clarify the type of blog your business is looking for, or if it actually needs one. It can also help to determine the format that's more convenient for your business.
Personal blog:
First of all, a personal blog is a purely subjective work with a single individual's perspective where they can talk about basically anything they want. Since this is exclusively the author's personal space, they fill it with their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, personal experiences and others with the audience.
Business blog:
Even though a business blog is not as versatile as a personal blog since its main focus is business, it can be more convenient. A business blog is focused on the services that the company is offering, just updating information constantly to allow clients to catch up with them. This feature is what allows it to be more flexible than the company's website, and the ability to keep in touch with your audience constantly is useful in order to suffice them properly.
Professional blog:
A professional blog is about the blogger creating high-quality content in order to appeal to a huge audience. Now, what characterizes a professional blog relies on how high is the blogger aiming: While a personal blog can be a just-for-fun activity where you get to have a creative license and a free space, a professional blog is more like a duty.
Niche blog:
A niche blog is a blog that is entirely focused on a specific topic on which it will base its content. Despite the fact that every single blog can be considered one with that description in mind, a niche blog in marketing is more specific than that.
Niche blogs in marketing are usually filled with links that are meant to attract the audience and pique their interest so they can pay for its offered services, and it's important to offer valuable content in order to distinguish it from spam and prevent your potential audience from losing interest in your services.
Reverse blog:
Traditional blogs are usually written by a single person sharing their content with their respective public, so a reverse blog is the opposite of that, the users being the ones who create the content instead of just being an individual doing all the work.
Affiliate blog:
This kind of blog consists of bloggers affiliated with companies by reviewing their products on their posts and encouraging the audience to purchase the reviewed products.
Definition of an e-Commerce
After defining what a web page and a blog are, we only need to define what e-commerce is. A web page and a blog are both means for business to expand, while e-commerce is more of a specific action.
E-commerce is a rather self-explanatory title as it means the action of buying and selling goods or services in retail, or the transmitting of funds and data, both of them electronically.
Seeing that it's completely an electronic system, it works for smart devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones and yet its transactions offer a wide variety of products; from plane tickets to financial services, like online banking. From startups to large companies, e-commerce is a useful key to sell products at scale and reach clients all over the world.
A web page or a blog: which one is more recommendable?
A blog can be an extension of the content of your company's website; after all, a blog is a web page. If your business gains benefits from keeping in touch with the audience through a system that allows you to update the status of your offered services constantly, then a blog might be what you're looking for.
However, it doesn't work the other way around, a web page not necessarily being a blog. In other words, any other kind of web page doesn't need to follow the requirements for a blog. So, if you're looking for something more stable, without the time-consuming updates, another type of web page would be more fitting.
With all the previous information in mind and the ability to tell the difference between a web page and a blog, all that remains is looking at the current status of your business and making a decision based on that.
I can create a website and an e-Commerce, which one is more recommendable?
Since we're talking about two different things according to the given information, it is necessary to look at your situation, especially the tools you already have and the ones you're missing, giving priority to the ones that are more convenient for you.
First of all, if your business' website needs an extension of its content to focus on a specific service or subject that no other pages are providing, then you're looking for a web page. Meanwhile, if you're focusing on how you can sell your services through an electronic device in order to expand your business, then you're trying to use e-commerce.
It strongly depends on what your business needs, as previously stated.
Using a blog as a Marketing Strategy
When we talk about using alternative marketing strategies such as a website or a blog, it is important to know that a blog has a greater capacity to apply inbound marketing. This is based on the interaction with the audience in order to better relate to users and gain their trust.
Customers tend to feel more comfortable with businesses with which they feel a closer connection. So blogs are a more feasible option for those businesses that seek to be better known by their users and establish stronger links with them.
Another advantage of having a blog can also be that users have the option to comment and give you feedback, which will serve as valuable information to improve and reinforce those weak points that your business may have.
However, having a blog is not as easy as it may sometimes seem. If you decide to create a blog keep in mind that:
A blog must provide solutions that your clients demand. If your publications do not contribute anything, few will be those who seek such information
A blog must be constantly updated. So you must have the necessary resources not only to create it but to take care of its maintenance and regular updating.
A blog represents a medium-term strategy. Which means you won't get immediate results.
In conclusion...
A web, a blog and e-commerce clearly appeal to different things: one being the extension of a bigger site, the other being a specific format to said extension and the last one being a system. The ability to tell them apart is vital if you truly want to adapt yourself to this technological era. But, even if you do know the difference, you still need to work hard for any of them to give you the results your business needs. That said, creating strategies that bring benefits to your business with the tools you have access to is the true art of marketing, technological or not.