For many years now, I’ve listened to this argument repeatedly:
“I know blogs are the way to go, but no one here has the time.”
I’m sorry, but this is just wrong.
There are a couple of misconceptions and outright fallacies that contribute to the perception that blogging is too hard:
- You don’t have to blog every day (but you do have to blog every week and you do have to be consistent).
- Senior management doesn’t have to blog weekly (but they should contribute thoughts, interviews, and quotes regularly).
- Blog entries aren’t necessarily personal journal entries (but they should address topics and issues that are relevant to your audience).
So where does all this resistance content come from?
I would argue that at least 50% – maybe more – of what you need to create content for your blog already exists. So, cut your trepidation in half right now!
If you are a manufacturer or retailer, you will find that the product descriptions on your web site will bring you half way towards a blog entry. The other half is the story of how you created or found the product and the effort and care you took to introduce that product to your customers. Or perhaps the other half is a unique story or customer experience related to the product. Do you have more than 52 products? That’s a year’s worth of weekly blog entries.
If you already produce white papers, research reports, books, podcasts and other sophisticated content, you have a great resource in those pieces. Your marketing strategy has been built around the messages in that content. Your blog should also be built upon those messages. A single white paper may have enough content for half of five to ten blog entries. A podcast may be good for half of three to five. A research report or book can supply you with half of the content for six months to a year of blogs. The other half is your sincere interest in audience feedback on that content and questions to solicit information that will help you to serve your customers with better service or new products.
Have you presented at an industry event recently? The presentation you delivered is probably good for half of a couple of blog entries, and the questions you fielded during the Q & A portion of your presentation are fodder for the other half.
Your marketing strategy is about delivering messages that are consistent, well thought out, and designed to position your company to effectively sell your products and services. If you are effective at marketing, you have developed (or have plans to develop) the content that will be used to convey your message. Blogs don’t have to change the game, they enhance it. Don’t get blogged down in concerns about where all that blog content is going to come from because half of it already exists. Good strategy makes good blog content easy.
Have you encountered the same objection in your organization? How have you overcome it? Or have you? What do you use as source material for your blog entries?
Rob Teplansky
Teplansky Communications
Tags: blog, content development, marketing, strategy
