This is the question a lot of creative entrepreneurs have. Everyone seems to be doing it but you’ve got a business to run. Do you have enough time to add another recurring task to your todo list? And what will a blog do for your business anyway?
To figure out if blogging is worth it for you, it is important to discuss what blogging is. Technically blogging is just a structure for content on a website. But what can it do for your business?
Blogging is marketing
Blogging doesn’t have to be marketing. People have personal blogs. People have blogs with cat pictures. People have blogs about their travels. But we are talking about your creative business and in that context, blogging is marketing. It is vehicle to attract visitors and convert them into readers and customers. It is not the only vehicle, there are other marketing avenues. But it is one option, and one worth considering seriously.
Blogging is communicating
As business owners, we all have to communicate. We are communicating with clients, customers, staff, other entrepreneurs. Some of this communication is verbal, but a lot of it is written. You’ll probably be surprised how many words you write every week in emails.
So if you are busy communicating one to one, why not communicate one to many? Do you ever send a similar response to a similar question from a client? If you write the answer as a blog post, you can send a quick reply and point them to your blog post. This will actually make you seem more professional, not less.
Blogging is supporting your positioning
Positioning is critical to the success of your business. In a nutshell positioning is who you provide services to and what services you provide.
Who will a potential client trust more – a business that makes it clear what they do and who for, or a business that does that AND has a ton of content to support that position?
Blogging is trust building
If a client is doing to hand over money to you, they need to trust you. Blogging is a great way to accelerate trust. If you are educating readers, show casing your expertise and generally being helpful to anyone who comes across your website, people will trust you more for it. So when they contact you, they are figure along the trust ladder, making it easier for you to convert them into a reader.
Decide based on your goals and constraints
The ultimate decision will come down to your goals and constraints. If you don’t need more clients, or have other ways to attract the ones you do need, blogging might not be necessary. If simply don’t have any spare time to give to writing blog posts, and you can’t pay someone to help you, it might not be the time to start a blog. But if you do need more clients, or better clients, and you can spare some time to commit to writing articles on a regular basis, then blogging is a fantastic long term marketing strategy.