Do I need a blog for my business?

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For most small business owners, “blog” is a four letter word. As soon as I mention a blog to most entrepreneurs and small business owners, they cringe.

So do you really need one for your business?

That answer is pretty simple: You’re reading this right now, aren’t you?

Somehow I was able to attract your attention to this blog post. I’m not quite sure how, maybe a friend shared it on Facebook or Twitter, maybe it was an ad I ran, maybe it was a Google search you did … somehow I gotcha ;-).

You might not even be reading this on one of my blogs. Maybe you’re reading this right now on LinkedIn Pulse or Medium where I syndicate my content to reach a larger audience.

Chances are, you could have gone your entire life without ever hearing the names Chris Searles, Searles Graphics, or Searles Media (me and my businesses of course) if I’d never written this article.

Hopefully I’ve attracted the attention of some of my existing customers or followers too. After all, Searles Graphics has been in business since 1974 so we probably have a number of clients that have no idea how much we can actually do for them to drive attention to their businesses digitally.

Why does it matter that you’re here?

That’s the real question, because traffic on your website alone doesn’t mean anything if you’re not able to make money from it (or accomplish whatever other goal you’re striving towards).

But traffic is the first step in building a relationship.

It’s after you read this article that the magic really happens. Hopefully you’ll subscribe to our email list so you can hear from me again on a regular basis.

Hopefully you’ll follow me on social media so the next time I publish you’ll see it.

If you don’t do any of those things (or really, even if you do), you’re still going to see what I have to say.

Using remarketing technology, I’m going to pay Facebook and Google so you see my posts anyway.

Through all of these mediums (a.k.a. blogs), my goal is to publish content that is so valuable to you that I prove to you over time that there’s nobody else your business should even consider working with on your marketing.

None of this would be possible if this blog didn’t exist in the first place and if I didn’t write quality content regularly.

If you found me from Google, consistently publishing quality content is how I got that ranking in Google.

If you found me on social media, publishing content was the only thing that gave someone a reason to share it.

I wouldn’t be able to continue to target you with advertising and marketing after reading this post if you never showed up and indicated an interest in what I have to say.

So do you absolutely NEED a blog for your small business?

Nope. Some businesses do just fine without one and haven’t the need nor the desire to spend the time and money to market themselves effectively.

But if you’re like most small businesses who are actively looking for ways to bring in new customers or upsell your existing customers, a blog is the first place you should be looking.

Use your blog as a hub for your business and what you have to say, then market the hell out of it.

And that last point is extremely important. Too many people take what I call the “Field of Dreams” approach to content marketing (i.e. “If you write it, they will come.”)

Believing people will find you simply because you’re putting out great content is what causes most businesses to stop producing content altogether.

A good rule of thumb is that you should spend at least four-times as much time promoting your content as you do writing it.

So should your business have a blog?

Yes, with the caveat that if you’re not going to dedicate the resources (time or money) to doing it right that you’re better off not wasting those resources on something that won’t be effective.

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