I Don’t Have Time to Blog!
I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BLOG!
…sound familiar? These could just be the words of a hypocrite who’s not kept to her New Year’s Resolutions, or they could be your default reaction when you hear the dreaded term “content marketing”.
Why you need to blog
Now, perhaps I am a bad example here for not practising what I preach, but in my defence, I recall a certain admission from a colleague some years ago. “If we’re servicing our clients correctly, then we don’t have time do our own marketing.”
That’s not verbatim, but it’s a belief (excuse) by which I stand – the last couple of months have been incredibly busy for me and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I’ve been working with some fantastic clients and hope this continues!
This is what got me thinking, however, about the importance of keeping your website content fresh. Far be it from me to say I’m an expert in Google’s ever more fickle and complex algorithms, but word on the street says that a continually updated website signals to search engines that your site is alive, relevant, and deserving of high rankings. Wahey.
Not only that, but content (I must confess, I find this to be a bit of a buzzword and am not a fan, but there we are) gives your brand a voice. It’s more than just some category pages that somebody in work experience wrote while your website was being developed back in 2012. It’s a voice! It’s the face of a brand, the assurance that human beings are the driving force behind the words on the screen, not just a bunch of faceless corporate suits. By giving your audience, or customers, or whatever you want to call them, updates on what’s going on and a general insight into your personality, you’re establishing a rapport without even being in the same room. Magic.
Excuses for not blogging
So, we’ve seen why you should do it…now why are you not doing it?
I don’t have time to blog!
Reason number one – time. Indeed, a well thought-out blog might take time, particularly if it requires lots of research. However, there are ways around this.
I don’t know how to blog…
Skill is another – I’ve seen many organisations whose staff members fear they simply “cannot write” or need to brush up on their WordPress or other CMS skills. Where there’s a will…
I don’t know what to blog about!
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, some of us may just find ourselves thinking: “I’ve got nothing to share!” Well, to all those naysayers, I say nonsense, particularly on the third point. If we’ve got time in 2017 to share a picture of our avocado on toast, then we’ve got time to share something more important.
How to get into blogging
You can probably guess what I’m going to say here. Hire somebody to do it for you! We’ve all got hectic lives and inevitably just want to go home and curl up in front of a box set after work. Wouldn’t it just be nice if we could give somebody a brief and have said person put together the content for us? If time is the issue, I will happily talk over your branding with you and put in the hours to make sure the content is on point.
What’s more, if you’re uncomfortable with using tools such as WordPress, I’ll even step in and upload the blogs for you – pictures, H2 tags, meta descriptions and all that jazz. To tackle the final point, my background in magazine journalism has provided me with invaluable experience into planning content – in the magazine feature world, we would always have to be thinking months in advance. As such, I can discuss your brand with you and create a content calendar to ensure you have a steady stream of blogs published which can be shared on social media. (Oh, and did I mention I offer social media management too?)
If the thought of putting together content for your website excites you as much as the washing up, I sympathise. Believe me, I’d much rather be doing someone else’s. That somebody could be you! For more information on my previous work, or to get an idea of just how I can help you, give me a buzz today and we can talk proposals.
Happy blogging!
12th March 2017