While blogging is still a lever to attract leads and customers, the way blogs are structured is evolving.
Taking your blog to the next level involves adapting with the field into content forms beyond just blogging.
The reality is that blogs are starting to be much more than just blogs.
Some examples?
- Guides
- Templates
- YouTube videos
- Tutorials and lessons
- Customer stories
- Case studies
- An actual blog, sharing posts in chronological order
- A help center, which is like a blog for customers
And you can see this trend elsewhere too:
Hubspot has an education section with the following:
- blog
- ebooks
- guides
- courses, and
- microsites section
Wistia has a learning center with its blog, customer stories, events, and programs.
Just a few years ago, everyone had a blog. In 2024, everyone has a blog plus a few other content destinations.
What’s the evolution of blogging driven by?
The evolution of blogs is driven by the three basic limitations that blogs have:
At their core, blogs are reverse-chronological lists of posts about a topic
A blog works well if you’re writing about a subject that has time relevance.
This also works if your audience keeps coming back to your blog to check your latest articles because you’ve already built up so much authority over time.
Blogs are not sequential
If you’re learning about a new topic, you should start from the beginning.
Blogs don’t lend themselves to this.
Some blogs have a “relevant content” or “recommended articles” section at the bottom, but are not great for a series of dedicated lessons.
It’s hard to do great storytelling or produce experiential content
A regular blog post ranking in the top few spots for competitive keywords is generally 2,000-3,000 words in length.
The average post is somewhere between 1,000-2,000 words.
But readers in 2024 are looking for something more.
How do you break these limitations?
Here are some ideas here to bring your blog to the next level:
Add a resource of guides and long reads
Whatever your niche or industry is, there is probably guides or long-form content that would work well with your audience.
Build an academy or university
Education is one of the pillars of society.
People are always looking for content that helps them get closer to their goals.
Layer on podcasting, videos, and multimedia storytelling
Some content is better in video form.
If you’re doing a post on ‘how to tie a tie’ nobody wants to read 2,000 words on that. A video or GIF is probably better and will help solve the person’s problem sooner.
Think of the views that some YouTube videos get and compare that to the average blog post.
There is still a lot of untapped potential in YouTube and video.
Final word
Evolving is a big part of business.
There are many options to help you keep up with the evolution of what content consumers want.
Think of your own wants as it pertains to your interests. If you were your customer, what would you want to see?
It’s up to you to decide what makes the most sense for your business.
