Welcome to the first entry in The Marketing Lady blog. This blog has been in my own marketing plans for a very long time, but being a relatively new (when do you stop being new?) small business owner myself, I’ve never quite found the time to start writing it! I have always known that a blog was an important part of my small business marketing toolkit, so I thought a good place to start in my blogging journey was to address some of the reasons that small businesses use not to blog, to remind you why blogging is so important and to give you some tips on how to get started.
You don’t have the time …
The biggest challenge for all small business owners is time. Time is something that is within our control and if you really want something, you will always find the time. Let’s face it, if you are a busy small business owner with a passion for Formula 1 and an opportunity to spend a day at Silverstone with Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton presented itself, you’d find the time, wouldn’t you?
To overcome the time issue, you should set out your blogging strategy and develop a plan. By doing this, you make it clear to yourself and others that this is an important activity that will help your business grow. You should identify in advance what your blog is aiming to achieve and the topics it will cover, and you should also allocate a specific time in your schedule to write it and block this time out of your diary. Social Media Coach Jay Baer has published a very useful blogging template which you can use to help you to structure your blog – and again, speed up the time it takes you to write it.
You have nothing different to say …
We all have something different to say. We are all unique and experience and perceive situations in different ways. You may feel that you have nothing different to say than other experts in your field, but we’re all in the business of telling stories and whilst you may be telling the same story, the way you tell it will be different because your experiences and perception will be slightly different – and importantly, your story will resonant better with some of your target market because of who you are. And remember, you are not writing a masterpiece here – you should keep your blog short, simple and personal. Your aim should be to grab the reader’s attention, to educate and to encourage them to act on your message – by linking to your website, commenting and/or forwarding a link to your blog to their connections.
Remember you are not writing a masterpiece
You don’t know how to blog …
There’s only one way to find out how to do something and that’s simply by getting on and doing it. If you don’t know where to start, a web search on “how to blog” will quickly provide you with all of the education you need – you’ll find copious amounts of free information including ebooks and videos to take you through the hows and whys of blogging – you’ll even find people who will set up your blog for you and write it too. One great resource I came across was The Better Business Blogging website, written by blogging consultant, Mark White. This website should provide you with pretty much all of the information you need to know.
You don’t see the point …
If you haven’t noticed, the world of marketing has changed dramatically. Marketing is no longer just about you telling your target customer about your products and services. It’s more about your customers telling your target customers about your product and services, and it’s about you engaging online with your target audience by freely sharing information of value with them. They in turn will share it with others who will share it with others and so it goes on.
In the old world of marketing you typically sent out a letter; if you were very lucky it was read and acted on, but usually it was thrown in the bin. In the new world of marketing, your promotion is done online where it remains visible indefinitely and it becomes viral driving people to your website – a couple of hours spent writing your blog and telling people it exists can have an exponential effect on the number of people who have heard about you and your business. And the great news is, if you decide to implement your blog yourself, it hasn’t cost your business a penny!
So there you have it – my first blog discussing why some of the reasons you may be currently using not to start blogging to grow your business are not reasons at all. Can you identify with these? What other reasons do you use? Will 2010 be the year that you get your blog started? If you need assistance in the development of your blog strategy and plan, I can help you. Contact me at katrina@themarketinglady.co.uk
Great blog post Katrina, and very accurate. A lot of the time I hear business owners say they know they should be doing it but don’t have the time or the inclination.