Your blog content is a business driver – not a cost
If you run a small business or consultancy you need think strategically about your website content. Even today it’s not hard to find business sites that are the same brochure-ware type setups that were popular 20 years ago. Obviously a lot has changed since Bill Clinton was president. So why haven’t these sites?
There are generally two arguments I hear when I bring up content creation. The first is that the site owner doesn’t have time. The second is that paying someone to write it isn’t cost effective.
Saying you don’t have time to write a blog is like saying you don’t have time to exercise – you have the time, it’s just that you’ve chosen to prioritize something else.
But let’s say you’re not about to change your priorities. What about paying someone to create original content for your website? Let’s say you pay a writer $100 a week to write an original piece of content that is targeted at your ideal clients. Does that sound like a good deal?
I’d argue it is.
In fact I’d suggest that any content you publish is actually a driver of business growth – without any real cost at all – even if you’re paying for it initially. Blogging is an investment that will eventually show more substantial returns than any paid advertising you’re likely to do.
The traditional methods of lead generation are simply not as time or cost-effective as blogging. B2B marketers that use blogs get 67% more leads than those that do not. (source)
Another factor to consider is that websites with a blog generally have 434% more indexed pages on Google. (source). And more indexed pages on the Big G means more traffic and more opportunities to make the case for hiring you.
Content is more valuable than you think it is
Creating evergreen content that lives on the internet for months or years is amortised over time – with it’s cost going down every time it comes up in a search, is read by a prospect or is repurposed and shared on social media.
One of the big mistakes is simply writing a blog, publishing it to your site and then forgetting all about it.
Obviously if that’s your strategy, it’s not going to show you much of a return. But if that content is consistently re-shared on social media using a tool like Revive Old Posts, it can constantly find new audiences and bring them back to your site.
I have blog articles that I wrote 2 or three years ago that are still driving traffic to my site.
I write my own blog. So my investment is time. But even If I paid $100 to have someone else create something new and compelling and it drove 1 new prospect to my site every couple of days then, measured against cost per eyeballs, that investment would quickly drop to nearly nothing in a little over a year.
Writing a blog consistently also signals that the lights are still on at your business. I was recently speaking to a prospective client and discovered that their last blog post went up in 2012.
With so many businesses coming and going, having content that is current and relevant shows your prospective buyers that you’re still in business. Remember that most people do their research online before making a buying decision. So you are competing against others in your space who are already creating content on a regular basis.
In a study 47% of buyers viewed between 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a company. (Demand Gen Report, 2016) So if you don’t have content to read you’re already at a disadvantage.
So stop thinking about your blog as a cost or waste of time. Think of it as an investment that will show you returns well beyond your initial outlay and make a list of possible topics today.
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