Blogging is one of my key services for other business owners, however, I still suffer from a lack of time when it comes to writing my own blogs. It can be a real challenge for small business owners who are busy servicing their own clients, to set aside time to create engaging and relevant blog posts. It is even harder when writing without a content plan.
There is also the challenge that we talked about in the first of our Content Simplified series, relating to content overwhelm and comparisonitis. Remember just like social media, everyone has their own personal take on common subjects. There is always enough space for everyone to share their value and at the end of the day, only you can talk to your own audience in your own special way.
3 common business blogging misconceptions
1. How many times a week
Statistics show that blogging circa 2 times a week can really help with growing your website traffic, generating as much as 3 times the amount of traffic than companies with less than that. However, as a small business owner myself, I just don’t think this is always achievable or sustainable. Whilst search engines might like you to be posting to your blog once or twice a week, there are a growing number of content specialists who are advocating for content to be more intentional and that longer form “ever green” content is more powerful and impactful for your blog traffic.
When there is constant pressure to blog weekly and you don’t have the luxury of outsourcing that content, inevitably the quality will suffer and you won’t really be meeting the needs of your clients and prospects. If you can work on a plan to support your content goals throughout the year, it could be that traffic is not the ultimate goal, but it is to reduce the number of customer support calls for example.
2. Blogging is dead, long live video
At the other end of the blogging discussion, every second you get discussion is the belief that blogging has had its day. Video is certainly king when it comes to how content is consumed these days but your blog can help you with SEO and also help clarify your thoughts before recording video. There are also some brilliant apps that you can use to transcribe video to text that could be great time-savers.
3. Size really does matter
Long blog posts that ramble on can be improved in two ways. Start by editing and cutting out any waffle! Read your blog out loud to yourself, you will spot if the messaging is off or not making your intended point.
If your blog is packed with value and still feels long, consider creating a series of blogs about the topic that can be easily digested and shared.
If you would like some help to understand the value of blogging and content marketing and to start to scope out your own plan, I have a Masterclass download that includes practical exercises to help you identify your ideal customer and plan out content topics for your own blog.
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