Disclaimer: The content in this article MAY NOT apply to you or your company. However, if your company wants more clients or customers, please keep reading!
Yes, you should be blogging!
Should your company be blogging? In a word. . . YES!
Unless your company only serves the government purchasing machine, or you have all the clients or customers that you want, you should be blogging. (Thus the disclaimer above.)
Blogging regularly takes discipline and time, but it produces measurable results in increased search engine traffic, more people engaging with your company, more highly-qualified leads, new customers, higher average sales, and reduction on overall marketing expense.
Research data supports the effectiveness of business blogging
A new Hubspot report out this year discovered that:
- Blogs, social media and organic search maintained the top slots as least expensive.
- 55% of companies who blog indicated leads from this channel were “Below Average Cost”.
- Trade shows, PPC, direct mail and telemarketing were most frequently ranked as more expensive.
The study went on to report:
- Outbound marketing (such as Direct mail, PPC (paid search), Telemarketing and Tradeshows) shows lead costs average $373
- Leads generated by blogs and inbound marketing (SEO and Social Media) averaged only $143 per lead
- Spending on direct mail and telemarketing is decreasing
- Small businesses are leading the way on blogging and inbound marketing
Better business blogging – Free download
Jeff Ente of Who’s Blogging What has created a new 24 page ebook that provides business blogging expertise from some of the best bloggers on the web. The ebook includes advice and commentary from blogging experts including Tamar Weinberg, Mitch Joel, and Joe Pulizzi, as well as others.
Check out a sample section of the ebook contributed by Mitch Joel:
1. Blogging = Critical Thinking
If everything else went away (the readers, the comments, the community, the feedback), Blogging was (and still is) an amazing place to think about an issue or news item and work through it. I liken myself as a Media Hacker. A Blog is a great place for anyone to be a Hacker of whatever it is that they love. If you don’t believe me, then
just watch Seth Godin and Tom Peters in this video: Blogging Still Matters… Now More Than Ever.
2. Blogging = Ideation
In using your Blog as a platform for your critical thinking, you will quickly start uncovering new and interesting business models and ideas for how you can push your industry forward or how it can/should be thinking differently. Writing a Blog, reading the comments and feedbacking into them is the ultimate Petri dish for ideation and innovation.
3. Blogging = Tinkering
The ideas and critical thinking are not always one hundred percent final. Blogging allows you to tinker with ideas. To work at them (like a complex mathematical formula). Slowly, over time, you start realizing how wrong you were, how visionary you were and how much further you still have to go.
4. Blogging = Relationships
It’s not about sitting in the dark recesses of your basement as you tinker away with words and thoughts. It’s about using this platform to connect. It’s about real interactions with real human beings. Some of my best friends are people that I would not have otherwise met were it not for Six Pixels of Separation (the Blog, not the concept). If you Blog, step out into the physical world. Meet other Bloggers. Share, learn and collaborate with them.
5. Blogging = Business
Make no mistake about it. My business blog started out as a means for my agency to tell the world how we think differently about Media, Marketing, Advertising and Communications. Over the years, this has attracted many world-class clients, speaking engagements, a book offer and many other amazing and interesting business opportunities. So, while it is not a place where we shills our wares, it is a place that is directly tied to our overall business objectives/strategy. It consistently delivers a very solid ROI to our bottom line (take that, you Social Media measurement naysayers!).
6. Blogging = Sharing
As each day passes, I like Charlene Li’s latest book, Open Leadership, more and more (her first book, Groundswell rocks as well). Many people think that Social Media is all about the conversation and engaging in the conversation. I believe what makes any media “social” is the ability to share it. To help you to open up. Not only can you share the concepts by telling your peers and friend about a Blog, but everybody shares in the insights as well. It has changed/evolved our corporate culture. A Blog makes you think more about how you can share your content, your thoughts and why others may want to work/connect to you.
7. Blogging = Exhaust Valve
A great Blog is great because the Blogger actually cares and loves to create content. If it’s forced, if it’s your “job,” then the passion rarely comes through. The biggest lesson I have learned in my seven years of Blogging is that my blog is my exhaust valve. After working a full day with clients and their many challenges, my Blog is my playground. It’s the place where I can let off some textual steam. Make your Blog your exhaust valve. Caution: be careful that you’re not Blogging simply to blow off angry steam. The steam and exhaust I am talking about is the pent up energy of passion that I have from doing what I love to do.
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