Posted by Alec Jones on 22 Sep 2007,
(49) Comments — Marketing Web & E-Commerce
Blogging can be a wonderful marketing tool if you’re trying to build your personal brand as a lawyer, consultant, or other independent service provider. However, for promoting services and products as a business concern, I think using a blog is not only insufficient but also inefficient. (I love to blog, so it’s hard for me to say this! Please tell me I’m wrong.)
Publishing a Blog versus a Website
For the newcomer to the small business world, the thought of setting up a website may feel daunting. As such, the newcomer may be tempted to start a blog instead, due to its ease of setup and the word that blogs can help you get noticed on search engines such as Google.
However, if I had to choose between a blog and website for my small business, I’d go with a standard website, driven by static HTML pages, a database, or a content management system (CMS). Websites simply provide more robustness and flexibility than blogs for communicating your business value proposition. Information is not forced into strict templates or set priority listings. Plus, you can integrate a shopping cart, FAQ, forum, and other modules.
Blog and Branding: Oil and Water
The nature of blogging is counter intuitive to the nature of product marketing. In blogging, you have to come up with new interesting stories and messages on a regular basis, listed in reverse chronological order, or other standardized ranking. In product marketing, on the other hand, you want a single-minded marketing message that’s on target” and delivers a consistent message that registers into the subconscious mind of the consumer. Using a blog that has a new message each day just doesn’t make sense.
For example, imagine blogging on P&G’s most advertised product, Tide laundry detergent. How much can you talk about Tide every day? What else do you want to say beyond “A powerful clean that won’t wear out your clothes”? Sure, you could talk about how to get rid of stains, how to get soft fabrics, etc. However, perhaps all you need is a once-a-month email newsletter, or a FAQ section in your website that’s updated twice a year.
Cost / Benefit of Having a Blog
Yet, some would still argue today that you need a blog to improve SEO for your website, build marketing hype, and have “conversations” with your customers. Surely, these are worthy benefits. However, they come at a huge cost to your small business, called time.
Trying to get your blog noticed takes significant upfront and consistent effort. Believe me, just ask any blogger about how hard this is. Unless you enjoy writing, I honestly believe your time would be better spent on talking your customers, seeking lower cost suppliers, and optimizing your current website and marketing materials.
Just a couple years ago, when blogging first became a hot topic, every company was jumping in to set up a blog. The media, including Business Week (May 2005), hyped up blogs, stating that companies can not attract consumers or maintain loyal customers without a blog. Today, how many companies do you know maintain both a website and an active blog, let alone one that actually generates more sales?
Nothing is Black and White
Now, of course, there are some niche business models where having a blog in addition to a website might make sense. If you have a website selling electronic hobby kits, for example, you might justify maintaining a blog to provides tips and new ideas that hobbyists can try with their kits. This creates greater value for your kits and the potential for incremental sales, especially from repeat customers who may want to buy add-ons for their kits. Again, however, do this if you feel the incremental sales from the blog justifies the incremental time needed to maintain the blog.
Personal blogging is bigger today than ever, but it still doesn’t mean that your small business needs a blog. In general, your first bet should be to go with a traditional website by picking up a WYSIWYG HTML editor, learning code, or hiring a web developer. Only after that and some careful thinking should you flirt with the idea of adding a blog. Wouldn’t you agree?
See more practical business tips.
Comments for "Does A Small Business Really Need a Blog?"
24 Sep 2007 at 12:34 AM
Hello Asako,
Yes, my fellow blogger, I do agree with you on this one. A company would have to hire a full time IT person to oversee a blog...to do it right. After all, we do know how much time we devote to our blogs, and micro managing them.
However, it seems like I have heard a “buzz” of how corporations are now starting, what I believe, are “internal blogs”. i.e. corporate officers use them to communicate with the employees.
I’ve been on many corporate websites, but I, personally, don’t look for their blog. I’m usually looking for a particular piece of information, and can usually find it within their links.
24 Sep 2007 at 09:12 PM
Hello Barbara,
Yes, we do know how much time we spend on our blogs! And it is never ending story how much we can do to improve this.
I think the intention is all about SEO. These days, I have a difficult time to find a very specific information on web, partly with a number of blogs. Particularly for a small business, SEO is a life line, as we do not have other means of awareness creation. And I would understand if people try to use blogs to get search ranking up.
Although Alec seems to be doing well on SEO without a blog for his small business. I will ask him to write an SEO tip for a normal website!
25 Sep 2007 at 02:15 PM
Hi Alec and Asako. I wouldn’t choose a blog alone for a service business. We use a blog attached to the main website, and it definitely works well for SEO purposes. But, I have to confess that it is difficult to come up with new posts to blog about on a business blog. And we have now cut down on the frequency of our posts and use that time in other areas of our businesss.
27 Sep 2007 at 01:06 AM
Hello Catherine,
Writing a post on a specific business is definitely much more difficult than writing a post on our aspiration and learning in running a business.
I am enjoying your business blog site - Kwik Fix as well as your personal blog site Success Passcode.
31 Oct 2007 at 10:56 AM
Our blog has been invaluable. It is a great place to pass along sale information and other important news to those who subscribe.
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31 Oct 2007 at 09:19 PM
Hi Mark, what kind of information news do you write about in your blog so as to generate sales? And about how much time do you spend each week on the blog. I’d like to get a better understanding of which business blogs strategies work in terms of ROI (including cost of time), and which ones don’t. I would imagine if you have a very large subscriber/customer base, a “newsletter” blog might be helpful. But for smaller bases, the ROI may not pan out. I’d like to get your thoughts on this.
01 Nov 2007 at 07:03 PM
In our blog, we let customers know about new items we are carrying as well as what sales might be going on at any particular moment.
We also post news about our company, such as the new look for our website that will be live as of next week.
We post an average of 1-2 times per week, but sometimes less.
Cheers!
03 Nov 2007 at 10:12 AM
Mark--I checked out your blog and our website and noticed that that there no easily identifiable link between your website to to your blog. I also found that your website ranks better than your blog on Google.
So, that made me wonder, what is the strategic purpose of your blog, and is the strategy working? Is the strategy of having a blog so that one can integrate with the blogging community by posting on other blogs? That’s quite okay (to post here by the way). I’m just trying figure out the strategy and its efficacy. Or, do you have a blog because it easier to syndicate? Or is the blog intended to target a different segment (since there is no link from our website). That’s pretty smart.
Love to get your thoughts on this.
15 Nov 2007 at 04:40 PM
We use it as an alternate place to get information and to reach a different segment of the market. We do not necessarily want current customers leaving our website where than can make a purchase to visit our blog, where they can’t.
Take a look at our redesign. We would love to hear feedback.
http://www.cheapestees.com
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I want to reach more people with my products. Also, I want them to be interested in my product. We hand set gem stones, do beadwork and sell pre-made jewelry.
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02 Jan 2010 at 02:57 AM
The business blog, or corporate blog, is a relatively new experience. They are generally an attempt by the business owners to show a “human face” to their business, to engage with their customers. A business blog will contain the more ‘human’ side of what is happening in the business, to show that rather than just being an entity with a sole purpose of making money there is a more “responsible” side to the business.
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