You’re a business owner – how can you possibly find the time to write a blog entry? You know you need to: for SEO, to communicate with your customers, to demonstrate credibility. You’ve gone to seminars and you’ve heard all the reasons why it’s important – and you can even understand most of them. But, when it comes right down to it, you are just too busy making the business happen to figure out what to write about.
So, what are the options?
1. Have someone else write it.
I actually don’t recommend this unless the person is a full time employee or managed by a marketing department – that means your business is big enough to support a marketing function that’s integrated into your business.
Why? Because valuable content that’s going to make a difference for your business in all directions (SEO, value to your customers, credibility, thought leadership) has at its foundation subject matter expertise. That subject matter expertise is intelligence about your customer, your value, your business. Someone you hire, outside your business, doesn’t have that kind of subject matter expertise, generally. Their expertise is in writing or marketing or PR. YOU are the subject matter expert, or some of your employees.
So, if you want to hire this out, you will likely get shallow content or expensive content because research was required. Neither one is sustainable for most businesses.
2. Choose a medium that reflects how you usually communicate.
- Create an audio format if you’re a verbal person.
- Take photos that exemplify your message with captions.
- Use video if that’s easiest and natural for you.
You don’t have to write to have an effective business blog. You just need to have content your customers or prospective customers would find useful and interesting.
3. Use your blog to answer questions that your clients ask.
Pay attention to how your day goes. How many times in a day or a week do you get a certain question from customers? Instead of answering that question 30 times a week, answer it fully and completely, with details and suggestions, once in a blog entry and then refer people to it as a resource for them to go beyond just the quick answer to get a bigger picture. I suggested this to a dentist I had for a client – he started jotting down the questions he got during the day. Then he wrote short blog entries to answer the questions – his patients loved it and the process made writing his blog incredibly easy.
4. Develop a rhythm about the types of topics you’ll cover.
Make sure the rhythm relates to your business. In the food and clothing business, it’s about seasons. In the travel business it’s about seasons – but also places and experiences (food, language, tours, attractions, etc.). In the health business, it’s about regions of the body and different types of activities. Identify your rhythms then match them up to the calendar. Then use audio, photos, cartoons, text, videos, art, or any other medium to communicate about the topics in your business.
I know there are other ways of developing content. These are the simplest that I’ve found that produce worthwhile blog entries. The techniques for capturing the information differ: the media, or using an interview approach, or talking into a voice recorder then transcribing – you can be as creative as you want in getting the content ready.
The bottom line…
The bottom line is that, just like anything, you need to get in the game, try some different tactics, and then commit to something that works for you. If you do, then your effort will pay off.
