Content Explained

Charlotte Booth • 24 April 2025

Knowing what content is right for you


Recently when speaking with a client, he told me categorically he needed me to write his monthly blog, which is great. I love writing blogs as I enjoy getting deep into a topic. However, with further discussion it was discovered he didn't mean a blog post at all. What he actually wanted was a monthly newsletter.


It made me realise that I may have been suffering the curse of knowledge. Just because I know what a blog post is, doesn't mean that everyone else does.


Hence this blog post to explain the difference between varying types of content.


Blog Post

A blog post or blog as it is often referred to is basically a piece of writing, normally on one topic which is posted to a website (personal or business),  or static page. Essentially, you lead people to your blog, where there may be a feature allowing them to comment and interact. 


The important thing about a blog is that it is a focused piece of writing on a single topic or answering a particular question. Like this one. It is often 400-800 words long, and provides easy to digest information.  


Article

An article is generally a lot longer than a blog post and will cover a single topic in more detail. These are also published on static platforms like a blog or website, but also in magazines, other printed material or online publications. 


An article can be anything from 800 words to 4,000 words, and they are not used to sell but to provide information.


Newsletter

A newsletter is as the name would suggest a 'letter' or email, which gathers all the news of your business and is disseminated to the audience. Whilst some are kept in online archives their objective is to 'approach' the audience.


Whilst many newsletters are themed, they don't have to be on a single topic or a continuous piece of writing, but can be a hodge podge of bits and bobs separated with headings and can cover new products or services, new staff, charity events, updates from the CEO or company wins.


They are generally quite short to ensure people read them, and many are used for marketing with links to websites, products or events.


Getting it Right

There is no superior form of content, as blog posts, articles and newsletters all have different purposes and audiences. The main difference is blogs/articles are in a location where the audience has to visit, and newsletters are sent directly to them. 


So, if you want to use content within your business, knowing what you want to achieve will help you choose the right format. This is where I can help, as I love writing all forms of content. I would love to have a chat with you about how content could help your business, so please drop me a line.

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There is nothing more amusing than checking out mediaeval artistic renditions of lions and other heraldic creatures. These beasts, grimacing and gurning are a strange juxtaposition of human, animal and demon and as far from the cute image of Alex from the Madagascar franchise or in fact a real lion as you could possibly get. There are three main reasons mediaeval lions are so ‘bad’ and un-representational; The artists were following a very tight brief. Some of the artists may never have seen a lion, and were following the descriptions they were given. These lions were representing heraldic principals of bravery, nobility and authority; all very human characteristics. When viewed through this lens it becomes more understandable why they look the way they do, but they are still ‘not right’ and not a great tool for learning about lions. Generative AI is very similar to an uninformed but talented mediaeval artist. There is a element of intelligence but at the end of the day it is following a brief, with no actual ‘knowledge’ of the thing it is producing. As an example, if you prompt your generative AI (ChatGPT and the like) to produce a blog for your new product or service, aimed at your ideal customer avatar you will in all likelihood get a mediaeval lion out the other end. Sort of recognisable, and sort of not. This is because AI doesn’t know what a customer is (ideal or otherwise), has no idea what your product or service is and does, and has no true understanding of how this service or product will serve your ideal customer and their needs. Of course, AI is pulling all the information available from the internet to help with its answer but there is no understanding there. There is no determining fact from falsehoods or even which websites are trustworthy and which are not. So, it skims the internet and puts together content which suits the brief as it understands it. This is then when the actual work should start as this content shouldn’t be used in the raw. It should be edited and tweaked by a human who DOES understand the brief, has been a customer (ideal or otherwise) and can imagine what your ideal customer will feel when using your product or services. We are in a world now, where we have generative AI promoting products and services to humans, when it has no concept of what a human is and how it thinks, meaning the marketing department are in fact more important than ever for ensuring content and copy is aimed at humans and human emotions. You could argue that the world would be a more entertaining place if there were more mediaeval lions in it, but it wouldn’t be a great environment for learning, or for basing purchasing decisions on. If you want to maintain the human element in your content, then I would love to help . Explain the brief, your CTA and your ideal client and I will know what I need to ask to get a clear idea before writing. Then you can rest assured your content was written by a human for a human and we can leave the mediaeval lions to the museums.
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