Business today relies heavily on technology – it’s almost impossible to conduct business these days without an online presence of some sort. In fact, IT research company Gartner, Inc. predicts that by 2020, 85% of customers will manage their relationships with companies without benefit of contact with a human being. That’s just five short years from now.
What does this mean?
Quite simply, it means that consumers are going to be interacting with their devices far more than they will be with actual human beings as they move through the purchasing process. In the process of deciding who they want to business with, people will do research on a company before they make that first human contact. If they have questions, they’ll turn to your website first. And your website had better be ready to answer those questions – not only product/service questions, but questions about who you are as a company, how well you understand their pain points, and what they can expect from you. This is where a blog can really help to flesh out who you are as a business, not to mention helping you to get found more often in search results.
And yet, some companies don’t have a blog on their website. If your business is one of them, you might be using one (or more) of these top ten excuses.
Top Ten Excuses For Not Having a Blog
- “I’m too busy.”
It’s all a matter of priorities. As my parents would often tell me when I whined about not having enough time to do something, “You have to make the time.” It was maddening back then because I knew they were right, and the actual truth of the matter was I just didn’t want to do it. (For the record, parroting that advice back to your parents when you’re an adult goes just about as well as you would expect.) - “I’m not a writer.”
Some people enjoy writing (that’s me) while others would rather eat a goldfish. If you’re not a writer, someone else on your staff might be able to take up the cause. And if no one is willing or able to take on the task of blogging, there are always guns for hire – writers who can take your company’s topics and help tell your story. (Me again.) - “I’ve got nothing to say.”
Sure, it’s easy to talk about your product or service offerings, but (hopefully) your website already does a pretty good job of that, so you don’t see what the point would be to blog about what your company does. What about pulling the curtain back a little, letting your customers see behind the scenes? What about talking to your customers about the challenges they face? After all, the person at a party who’s the most interesting is often the one who is interested in others. - “Someone else does my website for me.”
It might be tempting to use this excuse because you’ve entrusted the design and build of your website to an outside party, but adding a blog to a website can be a simple matter. - “I don’t have money to spend on blogging.”
Here’s the good news: blogging doesn’t have to be expensive. If you already have a website, adding a blog isn’t going to break your budget. - “We’re already doing social media.”
You’re already on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest… whatever makes sense for your business. That’s great. But a social media feed doesn’t tell your story in the in-depth way a blog can. A blog can enhance your social media efforts, and vice versa. - “We tried it once, it didn’t work.”
This has to be the all-time, number-one rejection phrase for anything related to marketing. There are plenty of reasons why a blog could be less than successful. But trust me, a blog that’s thoughtful, consistent, and useful to your customer CAN work in your favor. - “There’s no value in blogging.”
This is pretty closely related to #7; if you’ve tried it and it didn’t work, it’s easy to conclude that there is really no value in having a blog. But consider this: more than half of consumers say that blogs help to influence their purchasing decisions. I’d say that’s pretty valuable, wouldn’t you? - “My business is too small/too local.”
I hate to break it to you, but this is a pretty poor excuse. Yes, the Web reaches everywhere. It’s probably not very likely you’ll attract customers from Croatia, if you’re not actively trying to reach them. That’s okay. Local search attracts local folks, and without a blog, you probably won’t rank very highly… which means you won’t get found. Thinking you’re too small or too local to benefit from a blog is thinking pretty small, indeed. - “No one would read it.”
If you don’t write it, how will you ever know?
If the predictions are true and in the future 85% of the sales cycle takes place without benefit of human interaction, doesn’t it make sense to give your customers a good reason to do business with you? A blog can be part of that good reason. Don’t let excuses rob you of profits.