To Blog or Not to Blog? – by Christopher Ryan
My colleagues and our clients at Fusion Marketing Partners sometimes ask a question that was rare just a few years ago: should I begin blogging? I’ve been a blogger for some time, so people assume that I always recommend blogging, but actually, in many cases I do not. Let’s start with six good reasons you should consider starting a blog.
- Assuming you are posting relevant and compelling content on your blog, it will give you good exposure to your target audience.
- Blogging forces you to produce fresh content and the search engine crawlers love this. A blog site that is updated frequently can improve your Website visibility and increase visitor traffic.
- Writing about a given topic in a disciplined and consistent way forces you to stay on top of your game and present a better public image. Conversely, if your content is stale or lifeless, people won’t read your posts and it will negatively impact your image.
- A blog will give you access to strategic alliance partners in your industry, especially if you are generous in recognizing others in your field. It may take time for you to establish this industry clout but if you are persistent, you will find good partners.
- Blog content can be leveraged and used for other purposes such as content for articles and white papers. In fact, quite a few book authors got their start as bloggers.
- If you provide an easy way for people to subscribe (both RSS and email recommended) to your blog, this is an excellent way to build a database of potential prospects.
However, despite these benefits, blogging is not for every company or every individual. In fact, there are many instances where blogging is not advisable. If any of these four conditions exist, take a pass for now and let others do the blogging
- You have nothing important to say. To earn the title of ‘competent blogger’, you need a fairly steady stream of decent content – decent that is, by the standards of the reader.
- You are not willing or able to say it. Perhaps you have a phobia about writing. Or perhaps you don’t want to give away that which you consider valuable trade secrets. In either case, this is an indication that you should not enter the world of blogging.
- You are not willing or able to say it often enough. Repeat after me: I will not start a blog and abandon it after a few half-hearted postings. I recommend that you post at least weekly to start and never let more than two weeks go by without a blog update. If you can’t keep to this schedule personally, perhaps you can involve others at your company. But either way, post often or don’t post at all.
- You don’t have enough people to talk to. If you are in a market where your target audience is small, blogging may not be for you. You need a critical mass of people to read your blog, subscribe to updates, make comments, etc.
I hope this helps you make the correct decision of whether or not to join the legion of bloggers. If the decision is no, don’t fret. There are many other B2B marketing methods to drive awareness, leads and revenue.
Anne Marsden
Christopher, I wholeheartedly agree. As a B2B Marketing professional, I also have a measured view of blogging as a marketing tool. Like most marketing programs – you shouldn’t start it unless you are committed to it (with the appropriate resources, not just conceptually) and you have realistic expectations of what you will get out of it.
Unfortunately many companies think a blog is “free” marketing. Your time, or that of your hired marketing person, is far from free. And the return from investing in a blog comes over the long haul – unless you have a hidden talent for writing about your business, and as you pointed out, your industry is large enough to create a sizable readership base.
The real return for a blog comes from 1) creating a stronger bond with your community, 2) creating a vehicle for exchange and dialogue, and 3), increasing your prospect base by contributing to your search engine page rankings.
None of these happen over night. So if you can’t be sure that you can stick with it, or you lack the ability to write convincingly on your subject, then keep that tool in the bag and leverage the other marketing tools to your best advantage.
Christopher Ryan
Anne, thanks for your comments, especially the one about how some people think blogging is free marketing. Anyone who has spent time with any social media quickly discovers that, while there may not be an outside media fee, there is certainly a cost to be paid in time and energy. And of course there is the opportunity cost – what you could be doing instead of blogging. But those who commit to the process will usually find that their time turns out to be a wise investment.
John Leavy
Chris,
I guess another reason not to blog would be that your ideal prospects are not into reading blogs…we need to spend our resources … in this case “time” … wisely. Perhaps a podcast or slideShare presentation might be a better fit to attrtact prospects. Thanks for your insight.