For some marketers, deciding whether or not to start a blog is a difficult decision. Let's face it... it's a lot of work if you're going to do it right. You need to have something compelling to say that will capture and keep the interest of your audience. And you need to be consistent, continuing to create compelling content even when you don't feel like it and even when you aren't sure what to write about. Plus, you need to promote the blog in order to build an audience. For some marketers, it's simply a matter of not being sure that the return on investment is worth it for all the time and effort they will have to put into it. Right? So for all of the marketers that have been fending off the pressure to start blogging, I'll offer up five solid reasons you can use to defend your decision to never blog.
Five good reasons you can use to defend your decision to never blog:
- Your product or service is undifferentiated. If what you are selling (including your experience and knowledge of the industry) is completely commoditized and the same as everyone else in your line of business and region, you have the perfect excuse to not crow about it. Even if you did start a blog, you'd likely be saying the same thing as everyone else, so nobody would find what you have to say interesting anyway.
- Your prospective customers are completely unknowable. If you cannot identify who your prospective customers are, then it is extremely unlikely that you will know what information they would seek out in order to make informed buying decisions. Because customers will likely choose to do business with those who can help them understand the product/service options and how to make better decisions, by you not knowing who those prospects are and what they need, you have a great reason to not blog aimlessly.
- You already have all the business you can handle, and have no fear of losing the customers you have. For heaven's sake, why would you even consider blogging? You don't need more customers, and the customers you already have are thrilled with you, and don't want or need anything additional from you (including insights into your products, services or industry changes). If this is the case, blogging would just be a huge waste of time. Blogging would likely just bring more unwanted leads to your door anyway. Just keep doing what you're doing, because clearly, it's working great!
- You have no competition, and are unlikely to experience any competitive threats in the future. Without competition, if you have a product or service industry that is growing and in no risk of obsolescence, there's probably no need to blog. You have no competition that might be better informing, better educating, or doing a better job of converting customers into raving fans, so there's little point in you doing that for your current or prospective customers.
- You dominate the search engine rankings and are confident that you always will. Blogging can be particularly helpful in improving search engine rankings, but if you're already at the top of page one, you clearly don't need the additional bump. Blogs can also give you something to talk about within your social media (which you also probably don't need to do), drive engagement, and create qualified leads. But if you're already at the top of search engines, you probably have all the leads you need anyway, so you certainly don't need to blog.
I've got to say, if you are one of those business owners or marketers that can base your decision to not blog on these factors, I'm a bit jealous. Must be nice! On the other hand, if these things are not true of your situation, and your reasons historically are more like...
- you aren't sure where to start...
- you aren't the best writer...
- you don't know how you'd find the time to generate the content...
- you are unfamiliar with the best tools and platforms to support a blog...
... and you'd like to discuss how you too can generate rich, meaningful content that will help drive search engine rankings, attract potential customers, and convert existing customers to raving fans, please don't hesitate to give us a shout. We can help you produce just such a blog!
