(Everyone, Net Profit Marketing would like to introduce our newest official member: Michael Danielson, our in-house content creator. He’ll be adding his own expertise to our blog from time to time — we hope you enjoy him as much as we do!)
Everyone — myself included — loves to tout the effectiveness of a blog as a platform for publishing your content. But as with anything in the world, blogs aren’t perfect for everyone — there are definitely some entities that should be engaging in some alternative content distribution techniques.
Don’t Blog If You’re Already a Household Name
Not that this is going to apply to a lot of you, but if people already refer to your product by name — or better yet, refer to anything like your product by your name (i.e. Frisbee, Xerox, Formica, Band Aid) — you don’t need to be blogging. In short, blogging is for people who need to get attention. If you have all the attention, you have better uses for your time and/or money than blogging.
Don’t Blog If the RoI of Blogging Sucks Compared to Your Other Options
Oftentimes, Internet marketers like to pretend that offline marketing is irrelevant or doesn’t exist — but seriously, if your direct-mail system of mailing coupons is already pulling in 3 new customers to your bakery for every $10 you spend, don’t waste $10 paying for a blog post. It’s not going to pull in 3 customers, especially not if your website isn’t already getting hits. If your other channels seem to be getting worse over time, you can reconsider blogging when it seems like it might be a stronger option than your current other choices.
Don’t Blog If Your Industry is Insanely Technical
I’ve seen some pretty odd blogs in my lifetime. Heck, I’ve written some pretty odd blog posts in my lifetime. Any time you find yourself researching mining and earth moving conveyor belt cleaning systems because your client is trying to break in to the vulcanized rubber blade market by blogging, you can be pretty sure there’s a better option for that company somewhere. Publishing white papers, case studies, or even trade industry magazine articles would be far stronger choices.
Don’t Blog If Your Industry involves Secret Information
Similarly, if you provide a service that isn’t — and generally shouldn’t be — common knowledge, you probably don’t want to be blogging about what you do all day. One solid example: tax avoidance specialists. Sure, it’s legal to utilize crazy loopholes like the Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich (if you’re a multinational company) or the ‘Jackie O.’ Charitable Contributions Trust (if you’re just insanely rich), but you probably don’t want to go around advertising the fact that you spend your time helping the top 0.001% keep even more of the world’s money locked up in inaccessible financial vehicles.
Don’t Blog If Your Content Is 100% Deciduous
Deciduous content, of course, is the opposite of ‘evergreen’ content — it’s content that will be relevant for a little while, but will eventually go bad. For example, right now, there are a ton of Breaking Bad blogs that are essentially dead, and a ton of Sherlock blogs that will be dead for another year (at which point they will burst to life for two months, then go dead for two more years.) Blogs need to be content that are always — or at least predictably, seasonally — relevant.
In short, if your blog isn’t going to be the best way that you can spend your money to grow your business, don’t blog. Or, at the minimum, rely on your blog as a secondary or tertiary platform for accomplishing your goal, and treat it appropriately in your budget. Blogging when you don’t need to is a huge waste of time and effort, and no one needs that.
Leave a Reply: