Website or Blog? Which Should I Use for My Business?

Website or Blog?

We are often asked this question.

website or blogRight behind it is frequently, “What about Facebook for business?” “How can I use Twitter to help my business?” or “Is online video right for my business?” These are important questions for today’s increasingly socialized business climate.

The answers to these questions lie in an integrated marketing strategy built on your business plan goals, resources and budgetary requirements.

An integrated marketing strategy should include a hub and spoke approach centered on creating and publishing useful, relevant, and interesting content that your prospects and customers are looking for online.

This is at the heart of what a blog does best.

Usually, the website vs blog question is about which one should be at the hub of your online presence.

So the simple answer to the question, “website or blog” is … yes.

What?

The Traditional website option

Traditional websites have their pros and cons. Here is a short list:

  • Provide useful, brochure style information on products, services, support, etc.
  • With proper SEO can rank the well in search results
  • Secure sites for eCommerce
  • Not easily updated
  • Not interactive
  • Not well suited to today’s social media friendly climate.

The Business Blog option

Then benefits of a blog are clear in today’s social media friendly marketing environment.

  • A blog content management system (CMS) enables you to update content easily – as easily as writing an email using a web-based email account.
  • Search engines LOVE blogs. New, fresh, relevant content is a key component of what search engine algorithms seek.
  • A blog is far superior to corporate Web sites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts with regard to inbound marketing (lead generation)
  • Your posts that are never deleted and will be found by someone searching on a particular topic and that will introduce them to the rest of your blog.
  • A blog is interactive and is ideal for engaging your readers/ customers, building up loyalty and trust between the company and customers.
  • You can add multi-media such as pictures, audio podcasts and videos very easily
  • A blog has an RSS feed that sends out notifications whenever it is updated so subscribers get your latest update.
  • For thought leaders and small businesses, it may take time to blog, but after the initial set up costs and some training, it’s a very cost-effective way to promote your presence online.

But you don’t have to choose between a website and a blog.

A Socialized Website

Instead of choosing between a website or a blog, create a website on a blog platform.

You can build all the static pages you would include in a traditional website using a blog CMS to tell visitors about your products, services, support, etc. and still feature a blog to share your company voice.

Think of it as a “socialized” website.

Once you have built your “socialized website,” then build a larger online presence to share your brand and your content across the web in an integrated content marketing strategy, including Facebook business pages, Twitter and YouTube with custom web video, making your socialized website your online business hub.

No doubt, your company has lots to say. A socialized website is the place to start. Adding an integrated content marketing strategy will give you a home base and social media outposts to build relationships across the social web. And wasn’t the reason for the question in the first place?

That’s what I think.

What do you think? Website, Blog, or Socialized Website?