As a small business owner, you’re looking for inexpensive ways to drive traffic to your website. One of the most popular methods to capture visitor attention is by hosting a blog.
It’s an attractive prospect. Blogs can be affordable to produce, and don’t rely on a bottomless advertising budget to get the word out about your business.
Yet is blogging right for your business? Should you invest your precious time and energy into building up a library of free blog content, or focus your limited resources elsewhere?
To make the right decision, it’s important to consider the following:
- Does your products or services require extensive education before customers make a purchase?
- Is the niche you’re in completely devoid of blog articles from your competitors?
- Are you a prolific writer, expert in your space and already have a following?
- Do you have the time to spend days generating a high-quality blog post?
If you answered “NO” to any of the above, blogging may not be the right marketing path for your website.
Here’s why:
As a sales tool your website has a single mission: to lead customers to a solution you sell for a problem they’re having in the shortest time possible.
Unless your sales process requires customers read complicated instructions before closing a deal, a blog will just act as a distraction and cost you sales.
Need proof? According to Forrester Research, around 97-98% of those visiting your blog will leave without identifying themselves or taking an action on your website.
1st Page Search Results Is Key For Engagement
If you’re not a prolific writer, top expert in your space, and there’s significant competition in your local area, the likelihood Google or Bing will put your blog articles on the 1st page of search results is slim. Getting on the 1st page is critical, as it’s reported less than 6% of website clicks come from the 2nd page of search results.
Google has indexed at least 35 trillion web pages. Competition for the top results of a search query is fierce, and many credible SEO (search engine optimization) professionals advise a budget of at least $1K per month for professional blog writing services to cut through the noise.
Poor Ranking Leads To Blog Abandonment
As a result of poor ranking and the time it takes to write high-quality articles, most small businesses abandon their blog a few months in.
Unless the blog articles are timeless and infinitely shareable “evergreen” content, it’s not a good look to have a “dead” blog. It makes your business look dead too.
For Most Small Businesses, Social Media Is A Better Marketing Strategy
Your future customers use social media everyday. Which social platforms they utilize most depends on your niche, but you have a golden opportunity to reach them directly through organic conversations and highly-targeted ads.
“Guerrilla” social media marketing campaigns can be more cost-effective than blogging, and your website’s SEO is boosted when links to your website are shared across social platforms. Google recognizes these links as “social buzz” and increases your website’s ranking in organic search results!
Perhaps the greatest benefit of engaging with prospects on social media rather than a blog is the “social proof” factor. People are more at ease purchasing when they see others had a great experience, and social platforms are poised to provide this validation.
Your Blogging Options With A Turnkey Website
If you’ve read this article and are still interested in starting a blog, let’s cover your options.
At Turnkey we do not offer a blogging feature on our platform. While this policy may change in the future, there are inexpensive 3rd party blogging options available to you today.
Once you’ve got a blog set up on your chosen platform, share the link to your blog with us and we’ll add it to your Turnkey website!
Which Is The Best Blogging Platform?
We’re always looking to provide the best value for our clients. When it comes to blogging as a marketing tool, the best value we’ve found is Medium and here are the reasons why:
- Medium is an open platform with a massive inbuilt audience of 170 million readers. If you write quality content, you’ll naturally get attention.
- You can join the Medium Partner Program and get paid whenever a member reads one of your blog posts.
- Unlike a traditional blog, you’ll get quality feedback about your content and how to improve it in the future.
- You don’t have to limit your writing to business topics. You can write about anything and find an audience for each topic.
- It’s incredibly easy to use Medium. No technical skills required.
- It’s free to join, and there are no membership fees as a writer!
If you’d like to learn more about Medium, here’s a detailed video review:
