Vlog vs Blog: What One is For You?
If you are one of your business’ content creators in any capacity, you’ve likely discussed the pros and cons for various strategies as they relate to reaching your target audiences.
From short-form content like social media posts or infographics to longer-form pieces like white papers, annual reports, and blog posts, your challenge is to connect with your audience through a wide range of channels.
Some businesses utilize vlogs as a “next level” approach to reach their target audiences. If you’re not, don’t throw up your hands in frustration just yet.
Blogs are an important part of your overall marketing strategy, particularly when it comes to your search engine optimization. Depending on your business, it might make sense to offer both a vlog and a blog — it’s just important that you understand the differences between the two and when each one is most appropriate for the respective message you’re trying to deliver to your target audiences.
Vlog and a Blog? What’s the Difference?
As you probably know, a blog is short for “weblog” and is essentially an online journal. Your blog content gives readers the opportunity to engage with your business on a more personal, transparent level.
You can create a blog through several different platforms. WordPress, Wix, and Joomla are just a few of the most popular free blogging platforms (they’re free as in there are no subscription fees; you can choose to monetize your blog through Google Adsense or affiliate marketing to earn money and expand your reach even further).
A vlog is a video blog that takes the personal connection with your audiences one step further. Think about it—you can broaden your blogging platform and give viewers tours of your office or personal workspace, or feature candid interviews with your team.
This gives your audience a glimpse of the real people behind the headshots and biographies on your company’s website. A vlog is a great platform for deepening those connections to your clients, and you’ll likely generate a core group of dedicated followers. Another plus—just like a standard blog, a vlog helps to boost your rankings in search engines.
Sure, maintaining a vlog is time-consuming, but sometimes it’s better to post fewer, more comprehensive vlog posts that truly capture your company, its products or services, and your mission than posting multiple text-driven blog posts simply for the sake of posting regularly.
Bloggers and vloggers have one thing in common: they strive to create and post content that connects with readers and share information when they truly have something important to say, rather than bombard readers with daily posts.
Quality over quantity matters here.
So when is a vlog more appropriate than a standard blog?
- For highly technical information: Remember—your audience consists of all different types of learners—visual, auditory, kinetic—so if your company is in the widget-building business, it’s in your best interest to generate content that resonates with each type of learner. Let’s say you’re trying to explain how one of your best-selling widgets actually works. Rather than put it all into words, perhaps in a blog post full of dry jargon that gives readers a headache, why not put together a vlog that mixes the jargon with the visual—perhaps mixing in an infographic or two that best describes your product.
- For a new product rollout: Share your excitement for your new widget with the world and create a high-quality vlog post that gives audiences an exclusive look at your newest product. Include product specs, the team(s) behind the product, and even a behind-the-scenes look at getting the product off the assembly line and into customers’ hands. Video is a great way to convey emotion; your excitement will be palpable and customers will want to run out and test your newest offering as soon as they can.
- To give product demonstrations: You’ve rolled out your product, but now it’s time to show your customers how it works, not to mention some of your other offerings. How-to and explainer formats are perfect for vlogs.
- To share your company’s “Year in Review”: It can be hard, to sum up, 12 months’ worth of accomplishments in a few words. So don’t. Compile still photos, live video, infographics, and other images into a vlog that can speak for you.
- To mark important corporate milestones: What better way to share major milestones like marking an anniversary, announcing a name change, or sharing the good news of a prestigious industry award you recently won? Much like a “Year in Review” post, incorporate still images, interviews with key staff who made such a milestone possible, and even text to emphasize the importance of this great corporate achievement.
This Sounds Great, But How Do I Start Vlogging?
You were probably nervous about starting a blog, but now that you’ve seen just how strong the ROI can be, you should have no reservations about taking your marketing efforts a step further. Vlogging has become a key element of many companies’ digital marketing strategies, and there are plenty of online resources available to get started.
One of the easiest and most popular ways to get your vlog up and running is to start your own YouTube Channel. Serious vloggers invest in vlogging cameras to ensure their videos are of the highest quality. (Plenty of vloggers are happy with the resolution on their phones, but as you get more comfortable with the vlogging process, you may want to invest in some hardware made specifically for this purpose).
There are several excellent vlogging cameras on the market, so do some research before making the investment. Generally, you want a camera with crisp image quality, good audio capabilities, and good low light performance.
