If you're like me you're tired of agencies and marketing professionals telling you that you need to blog and write content if you want more leads.
I'm always reading websites that make claims such as:
"A company blog is a business’ number one opportunity to tell all the layers of the story that you want to tell." - Queen Bee Media
"Having a company blog is just not an option anymore….its mandatory!" - Writing My Destiny
"Don't want more traffic, leads, fans and followers? Don't blog more." Co-Grow
Are these quotes right? Sure if you want more leads content is a viable tactic. What they are not telling you is how difficult writing effective content is. They act like content is the only viable strategy left when in reality it is one of the most difficult to master, requires a substantial amount of effort and time, and is hard to create content that actually gets results.
If you enjoy writing and waiting 6+ months before you start seeing any meaningful results blogging is the right tactic for you. For most companies today they are creating content just because someone said, and not because it's right for their business, and that's the problem. Responsible marketing professionals are advising every client to create a blog regardless of what challenges they may be facing. Not every company is at the point where blogging will actually help their business.
The truth is the old digital marketing tactics that don't involve content are easier, and for a lot of companies more effective because they don't have the time to invest into writing. You don't need to blog to generate leads, but you need a solid business strategy.
- Are we properly differentiated in the marketplace to ensure that our audience would even care about what we say?
- Are we properly positioned to help greatly reduce the amount of competition that we have?
- Does our website copy and design speak to our ideal customer and encourage them to take action?
- Are we doing everything we can to convert our current leads?
Most businesses are failing online and not generating leads because of the points mentioned above not because they don't blog.
Stop looking into the stats of businesses that blog 3-6 times a month generate X amount of leads than those that don't. The stats are irrelevant. There is so much competition out there today, it's so hard to create content that actually resonates and gets real results. Most business professionals don't have the writing skills to create truly great content - and that's just the facts. Simply putting out lines of text that isn't professionally written and unique - doesn't make any sense for your business or clients.
If you're tired of hearing about content marketing, and how blogging is the only viable online lead development strategy you're one of us. Take care of your business first. Differentiate and position so that you're so unique your customers seek you out regardless of how many times a month you blog.
So before you get your entire company on board with blogging make sure you sit down and determine if blogging really makes sense for your company. Blogging can be a benefit for a lot of organizations, but most of the time they need to take care a lot of other necessities first.
