Business blogs have been proving itself to be an indispensable marketing tool to grow your small business. More and more businesses are starting to acknowledge the power of blogs as a marketing tool. And rightfully so! According to Hubspot’s State of the Inbound 2014,
Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI (return of investment).
And while blogging in its truest form has since been overtaken by video content, blogs still remain the second most used media in every marketer’s arsenal.
So you might be starting to wonder if starting a blog for your business is a good idea. The short answer is a resounding “Yes!”.
It is most definitely, without a doubt, beneficial for businesses to start a blog. However, there are a few things you should consider before starting your own business blog.
Read through and answer the questions below to determine if you or your organization are equipped to start a blog now.
1. Do you have the resources?
There are many blogging platforms that will let you start a blog for free and these free options are usually good enough to get you and your small business started. Money, however is not the only resource needed to get an effective blog going. This means you will need at least one of three resources: time, budget or people.
Time:
Starting a blog is not difficult, but building a successful* blog needs consistent, quality content. So be very honest with yourself, do you have the time to spare? Learning your way around a new blogging platform, planning & writing your content–all these activities take time.
People:
If you don’t have the time (or maybe you’re not confident in your writing skills) to write great content yourself, do you have people you could delegate this task to?
Budget:
If you do not have the time or people to invest into getting your business blog up & running, an option is to outsource. According to the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report published by Social Media Examiner, 12% of marketers outsourced content creation. This, of course, cost money.
2. Do you have the patience?
There’s no shortcut or one magic trick to instantly see your business blog’s return of investment. As they say, Rome wasn’t built overnight. Just like building a powerful empire, growing an audience through your business blog is slow but steady & sustainable.
A blog is just like any other tool. When used correctly, it can yield great results. However, without the resources, the ability or at the very least, the tenacity to learn how to use blogging as an effective tool, it can be a waste of your resources and effort.
*Successful: Success is not always measured by page views or visitors. Instead, a successful business blog is determined by whether it helps a business reach a predetermined goal.
If you’d like to read the latest State of the Inbound from Hubspot, you can download the report here.
Are you ready to start a blog for your business?
