I'd never tell anyone they MUST blog – that's a personal decision that has to be right for you and your business. But I'm also hearing some myths and I'd like to set you straight about them.
You say you can't blog because:
- You're too new in business so your ideas aren't well enough developed. Guess what? None of us have it all figured out yet. Sure, the ideal scenario is that you launch your blog with a clear plan, thoughtful categories and an editorial calendar. What's more likely is that you'll get clearer as you go, and your ideas and audience will grow and solidify as you blog, get feedback, and blog some more.
- You're only looking for local clients, so you don't have to bother with any online marketing. Even locally, most people these days will check you out online before deciding to do business with you. And the inbound marketing specialists at HubSpot reported that blog articles play a role in every aspect of the buying process.
- Your ideal clients don't read blogs. They may not know they're reading a blog, but as author and blogger Dr. Marcia Reynolds pointed out in this blog post about how blogging can make you more money, they're probably online reading information ALL THE TIME! And so are others in their life who may pass your information along. Blogging has other benefits as well, even if no one ever reads what you write!
- You're not convinced it will work. Content marketing takes time, but if you stick with it and do it well, you may end up like my client Val (he didn't warm up to blogging and social media right away, either, but now he's really excited about it).
On the other hand, here's a good reason to hold off on blogging:
If you see blogging as an "extra" activity you can do when you have time and drop when you don't (check out how much it cost this company to stop blogging after they'd started), without any planning, commitment or support services in place.
If this is you, I'd hold off until you're really convinced about the benefits of blogging, how blogging can make you money, why consistency is so important and why blogging beats other more expensive forms of marketing.
Only then will you be prepared to make the time for content marketing, even when that means putting it ahead of your client work.
Think this isn't the right time for you to start blogging? Why not? Listen closely to your answer because it may be one of these myths, or it may be a good reason to wait.
