Great big blog-stoppers (and how to overcome them)
We’ve all met them — big hairy, scary blog stoppers — the things that stop you from getting on with it and starting your company blog.
Putting off your blog for another year is no longer an option. The numbers are in and the results are unanimous — regular, strategic blogging for business gets results. Wider audience, more sales leads, competitive advantage — who doesn’t want that for their business??
Here are 4 common blog-stoppers and their antidotes:
1) Lack of knowledge
Not understanding what consistently creating rich content means and how that translates into benefits for you business is one of the biggest barriers businesses face. Not only do they not understand, they feel overwhelmed as they see other businesses blogs really getting traction and taking off.
If only we’d started the blog a year ago…
Learn
By investing some time and energy into understanding what blogging really is, and how it can help your business do things like get better SEO rankings, create warm leads, expand brand awareness and set you apart from your competition you will start to see what the benefits for your business will be. There are volumes of information available for free on the internet or you can do a course or workshop to get started.
2) Lack of time
Running a business is a big demand on your time, your energy and your finances. Every single thing you do adds up to a block of busy-ness. Another new thing will tip you over the edge — even though you can see WHY you need to be doing it.
We’re never going to make grand claims about how easy and free blogging for business is, because it’s not. It requires attention — as do the thousand other aspects of your operations.
energy, not time = money
Prioritise
Most people who operate a run-of the-mill business are fire-fighters. They are reactive and only do tasks that require attention NOW. Proactive people plan, schedule and strategise in order to manage their time and resources. Things that are strategically important for the long term goal of the business will get a higher priority, and more energy than those that are not. If you wish to have a successful blog, you need to put it near the top of your priority list — and make sure it stays there.
3) Lack of focus
A good business blog has focus — the sharper the focus, the more effective the blog will be. Your topic, message and the way you convey that message must be super-sharp and aimed at a particular individual — not a client-type, or a demographic, but an individual.
but how do I know what to write about?
Define
Take the time to define your message. This is the over-arching belief about your business. For example, we believe that well-crafted content is the best way for a business to find a wider audience, expand brand awareness, create more sales leads, and stake a competitive advantage — and the most effective (and fun) way to deliver this content is through your business blog. So everything we post supports that belief. We also spend time thinking about the individual — you!- who is reading this right now, and we want this post to scratch an itch, satisfy a need, raise some questions and ultimately take some action and get started on a business blog.
4) Lack of confidence
Blogging can feel a bit scary — what if people think what I say is stupid, I can’t write anyway, everything has already been said, who reads blogs anyway — thinking about blogging is very fertile ground for your inner critic. There are ways to slam the lid on that voice and get confident.
Confident blogs mean a confident business
Research
Take a look at some competitors blogs — some may not have one at all, many will have an inconsistent blog with unfocused content and posts that belong in Case Studies, News, the internal newsletter, or not on a company site at all. Some will have great blogs with regular posts and interesting content (when you find these ones, take a look at their very first posts — every one starts somewhere!). Now dust off your business plan and find the find the page where you listed all the ways you are different from your competitors. This, along with your overarching message will give your blog a direction. If you really can’t write (and we’re pretty sure you really can), then engage a writer to take your post ideas and craft them into content you are happy to post on your site, and broadcast on social media.
The one thing you should not do this year is push your blog to the bottom of your goal list. Think about it — businesses who started a blog at the beginning of 2016 now have 52 posts — 52 items of content — under their belt.
Get started today so in 12 months you can be 52 post ahead, and not behind, again.
