What’s in Your Blog? [Chart]

How Different Blog Types Stack Up

It used to be easy to tell a website from a blog. Websites were online business brochures while blogs were personal online journals (the term blog is short for weblog.) Since then, content has become king and businesses have discovered how easy it is to use blogging tools for branding, marketing communications and audience development.

Today, blogs are used for all the major types of web-based communications: B2C, B2B, NFP as well as individual writing. Attributable to their related business models, these major blog types vary across the seven major stategic elements outlined below.

1. Goals. Decide what you want your blog to help you accomplish. This is a critical step that many bloggers often overlook in their eagerness to dive into the actual blogging.
2. Audience. Determine whom you’re writing your blog content for. To this end, create appropriate marketing personas to ensure that you (or your blogger) is writing your content for real people.
3. Content. Blogs require an on-going stream of content to feed social media. Further, you want readers to feel that they have a real connection to you. Therefore, develop an editorial calendar to ensure that you cover a variety of topics rather than write about the same issue, from the same perspective, day in and day out. As part of this process, consider your audience’s appetite for new information and how frequently you can produce content satisfying their needs.
4. Metrics. Using your blog goals as a guide, determine what’s important to track to measure your blog’s progress. Despite most bloggers’ desire for comments, this is rarely the correct measurement of success. You must start with your goals to ensure your blog is delivering on its promise for your organization.
5. Marketing support. How will you develop a blog following? Often this requires marketing to induce readers to stop by and check out your blog.
6. Blogger. Who will create your content? Select the individuals who will be responsible for the various blogging activities. Businesses must remember that: if it’s not part of someone’s job, it won’t get done! Don’t forget blogs involve more just writing posts. You need copyediting, technical support, creative, editorial, marketing, and analysis.
7. Budget. How much money will be needed to achieve your goals? Don’t forget that this includes marketing your blog to attract an audience.

To better understand these relationships, here’s a chart showing how strategic marketing elements compare across the major blog types: business-to-consumer, business-to-business,  not-for-profit (NFP) and individual.

Remember, it’s important to start your blog by considering your goals and your target audience’s needs and interests to ensure that you develop the blog content your readers will want and look forward to.

Would you make any changes to this chart? If so, how would you modify this chart. Additionally, is there anything else that you’d add? If so, why would you add it to the list?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related blogging resources to help you build your blog.

• Blog post length: Does size really matter? 
• How often should I post new blog content?
• How to turn your professional blog into a lead generating machine.
• Help, who will write our company blog?

Photo credit: LisaClarke via Flickr