5 Reasons Your Blog is Killing Your Business

Think of your blog as a living, breathing being. You can’t just “have” a blog, you have to nurture it—feed it, shape it, let it grow. Otherwise, your blog may be hurting your business rather than helping it.

5 Signs Your Blog Needs TLC

1. Your last post was 3 months ago.

To draw an audience (a/k/a potential customers) you have to post regularly. Set realistic expectations and then deliver. If you commit to the minimal amount you think you can handle, you leave room for special pop-up posts on timely topics that surprise and please your audience. Set up a basic editorial calendar with topic ideas already plugged in. Your blog posts can correspond with seasonal buying patterns and your marketing plan to complement product promotions and launches.

2. You’re focused too much on length, not quality.

Reasons #1 and 2 go together here, especially for small companies who, due to time and capacity issues, let the blog fall to the wayside when they don’t have time to write a 500-word post. Our advice? Don’t write a 500-word post. There’s no rule that says your posts have to be a certain length. For example, you just solved a problem for a customer, and you know many other people have that same problem. Write a quick paragraph or two giving advice to others, based on your experience. Your audience appreciates relevance, not verbosity.

3. Your content doesn’t match your marketing goals…or your audience’s needs.

You write and write but nobody seems to care. What’s up? You could decide “Well, blogging’s not for me. My business doesn’t need it.” But a better move would be to take a closer look:

• What topics have you written about most frequently?
• Are these the topics your customers need answers on?
• Do these topics match up with your marketing goals?
• Are you talking about the services you have expertise in?

If the answers to these questions are “no,” then it’s time to reassess your blog’s purpose and make sure your topics agree with that purpose and meet your audience’s needs. Added tip: Keep a blog topic notebook nearby or a separate memo page on your cell phone so you can jot down topic ideas anytime they hit you.

4. Blogging has become a habit not a tool.

Your audience is bored and so are you. You’ve been writing posts just to have content—any content—on your website. It’s easy to fall into a rut. That’s why it’s important to know your customers. Ask questions in your blog posts to try and spur on engagement. Remember, you’re not just blogging to boost your Google rankings, you’re blogging to build relationships with your customers and potential customers. What you write about reflects directly on you and can either boost or hurt your brand reputation. Use the blog to talk with your audience, not at them.

5. You still don’t have a blog.

Oh boy. If you have other quality content on your website that you update regularly, this might not be a problem. But, if your website is pretty stagnant otherwise, you need quality content to get found. What are you waiting for? Add blogging to your Internet marketing plan today.

Need help getting started? Talk to us. We can show you how a blog can help drive quality traffic to your website, help set one up on your website and help you create an editorial calendar that fits your business and your audience.
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