Today I want to mess with your head a little – sorry! I know that I have contributed to your understanding of the word blog but I recently learned the difference between a blog and an article and why as business owners and content creators, it actually does matter.
So, it’s my mission to show you the differences today and redirect on the right path with them.
Why? Glad you asked.
Great content is the catalyst for all websites, no matter if they are personal or professional.
Unless you are creating unique and high-quality content, there is no way to help your website differentiate itself from competitors. If you’re part of Travel Marketing Revolution you’ll also be acutely aware that it’s integral to your middle of funnel – the fresh weekly content tactic.
Two of the best ways to engage with your audience, show off your expertise and authority, and inspire them to travel, is through the use of articles and blogs.
While both provide content that informs readers and grow your website’s authority, your site’s mission is the driver regarding if you should choose articles or blogs.
The Key Differences
Here is the 411…
Articles
- The length of an article varies, but it tends to be between 400 and over 2,000 words
- Articles feature a informative tone and better show expertise and authority in a topic
- You can find detailed, fact-based, and informative information in articles
Blogs
- The length of a blog is typically short, like between 200 and 500 words
- Blogs help brands, or other individuals connect casually and on a personal level with their readers and are opinion pieces of writing, more of a journal
- You can find frequent updates on a blog where the writer continues to add more commentary as time passes
The Importance of Article Writing
While blogs are a fun way of offering a personal point-of-view, it is more important to include articles on your website and if articles are your preferred method for creating fresh weekly content, you’ll want to be sending an article to your mailing list each week.
Here are some pro tips for writing articles for your travel business:
- Broad and vague topics don’t work e.g. What to do in Canada. You can’t get into much detail so you’ll want to drill down and make it more specific to your audience, e.g. 10 Things to do with kids in Vancouver during the summer
- Ask yourself what the purpose of the article is. What do you want the reader to know about you and what you can do for them at the end of it? Do you want them to see you as an expert? Do you want them to be curious enough about what you wrote to reach out to you for more information?
- Be sure to have a call to action at the bottom of each article. Tell them what you want them to do at the end; click through to a new page, take a quiz, read a relevant article, go to a different page on your website etc.
- Be sure to have your bio somewhere on your article page so that new visitors and strangers get to know you.
- Use a great hero image after the first few sentences to draw the eye.
- Use LOTS of white space, space between your sentences (just like we have here).
- Where possible use statistics and other data-driven facts to create articles. You might add the number of visitors to a destination in the past year to show it’s popularity.
So… start today. Think about what type of articles your audience want to hear from you and how it will help them to see you as the travel planning professional that you are.
Now excuse us while we go and start changing all of our blogs to articles because we’re all about the articles now!
Be sure to post any questions you might have below, and we’ll get right back to you! And if you like this article, give us some love by clicking on the ❤. We also encourage you to join our Facebook group for travel entrepreneurs, where we provide more great content.
