
Are blogs still relevant to small businesses? Yes!
Worldometers estimates that there are approximately 3.7 Million blog posts per day. It’s not surprising that many content creators have difficulty cutting through the noise and reaching their target audience. They also struggle to find a positive return-on-investment (ROI).
If you wonder how to make your blog work for your business, keep reading.
Myth #1: If you build it they will come.
Let’s create some amazing sporting venues for the Olympic Games. They said that many people will use the venues after the two-week Games.
Four years after the Athens Games’ closing ceremony, 21 of 22 venues were abandoned.
Many small business blogs and websites end up looking like abandoned ghost towns.
Warum is this possible?
Small business owners tend to spend too much time, money, and resources creating content, while not marketing it.
For content marketing, Pareto’s 80-20 rule can be applied.
- 20% Content Creation (Production)
- 80% content promotion
The same goes for your marketing budget.
MYTH #2 – You can fly it
You can’t just build a blog and expect to be successful.
Paul Higgins, co-founder of Trackzen and a genius at helping business owners scale up, approached us to help him with his content. He had previously published a few blog posts, but was having trouble getting engagement.
Paul clarified his strategy and edited his posts to make them more interesting (i.e., he shared one on “The everyday habits successful businesspeople use to accelerate their business” via Linkedin.
We were thrilled with the results.
A content marketing strategy is essential.
You can see the 5 reasons a content strategy will make your more effective (including the 5 types of content that every small business should create).
MYTH #3: You can’t prove ROI
Every business owner wants to see a return.
Marketing isn’t a science. It’s all about planning well-planned experiments and then comparing the results. Ask any chief marketing officer or marketing manager and they will tell ye.
Some tools can help us measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.
Google Analytics should be installed on every small business website. It tracks traffic to the site and sets goals for the blog.
MYTH #4 – You must blog about your product/service every day
You can produce content for many reasons. The ultimate goal is to create a following for your company and convert some readers into customers.
You can share content about the benefits and features of your product or service, but that’s not all that you should be sharing.
Your company culture, values, and stories should be shared.
People trust and buy from people they feel comfortable with.
MYTH #5 – You cannot outsource content
Content creation can distract founders from more important tasks such as improving team performance, creating culture, onboarding new customers, and ensuring existing clients are satisfied.
You can outsource content – but make sure you find someone willing to invest the time to get to know your business, tone, voice, target audience and objectives.
So there you have it, we’ve just covered the top 5 myths around blogging for business and some practical steps for making your blog profitable.
Next, choose one thing you want to do – creating a content strategy, installing Google Analytics, setting up trackable goals for your blog, and outsourcing content creation. Once you’ve completed that, you can move on to the next task.