So we talk about blogging a lot around here. And why not - I mean after all Marketing Trenches IS a blog so it does make a whole lot of sense. We’ve also found that our blog is one of the best, and probably THE best, tools for our business.
Yet despite that ringing endorsement, and all the reasons that companies, organizations and individuals blog, all too often we still run into the same most common objections to blogging. So, I thought rather than listing all the reasons you should blog, many of which we have covered before, I would set about answering these 5 most common objections.
1). “This is going to require a lot of time and resources.”
This one is probably the most common, and does have some legitimacy. In a recent client meeting I mentioned that starting a blog is really easy, blogging…not so much. The point is, it takes some commitment and you need to have a level of dedication and consistency to it or it won’t pay off. But unlike many other marketing endeavors, the investment here really isn’t much in the way of hard dollars, but instead is time. There may be some initial spend in blog creation, hosting etc. but that is minimal. Some folks even use free hosted blogging platforms, although for a variety of reasons we opt not too. At any rate, the investment here is time. And really, how many things that are worth doing don’t take some time commitment? Set aside a small block of time a couple days a week to write and the impact will be big. If you hit writer’s block and aren’t sure where to start, you can even call yourself and leave a voicemail with the start of a post idea. You can use a transcription service like Google voice or Jott to send yourself voice to text notes. The key is making the commitment to do it. As I said above, things that are worth doing almost always take some level of commitment. And those who can’t commit often find themselves with a boat load of the “bad kind” of free time - while their competitors who did commit reap the rewards.
2). “We don’t have enough to say.”
Really? I mean really? While this one comes up frequently, I’m not going to give it much attention here because I think it is the weakest of all the objections. I’m sorry, if you don’t have much to say then your problems run much deeper than whether you should have a blog or not. If you don’t think your company has anything to say that is relevant, useful and interesting then you may want to start polishing that resume.
3). “We don’t want to take away valuable employees from their primary roles.”
This one ties back to number 1 a bit. Sure resources at companies are tight these days, and people are being asked to do more. Often the marketing team will be responsible for the blog but needs subject matter experts from the company to provide content. The key is finding a way to make this as easy and efficient as possible. One idea is to prepare a list of questions and ask for an email response, or do a quick impromptu video. Sometimes once an employee appears on the blog once, and receives some feedback/ego boost/praise they’ll be excited to do it again. This works particularly well if you link to their bios and or provide a feedback loop through comments or email. A lot of the time this is also because people don’t understand what you are doing and why - a good explanation and a walkthrough on the value makes a lot of sense. And if it turns into a lead or a new client, trust me all that apprehension goes away very quickly. As with objection #1, if it’s important enough - and they see the value in it — people will make time
4). “We’re afraid of opening ourselves up to complaints and criticism.”
Trust me, complaints and criticism are already out there. You having a blog is probably not going to start - or end - that. By not being involved in the conversation, you are simply letting the complaints and criticism happen without you, and not having the chance to address them and often resolve them. Wouldn’t you rather be involved in the conversation and have a chance to make it right, or at least learn from this one so you don’t have the same complaints and criticism again? Most people will generally give you a fair shake if you genuinely try to address their issue.
5). “It’s going to be hard to measure.”
I’m shocked we still hear this one because there a ton of ways to measure your blogging efforts. Like with any other marketing, take a look at your goals and then set the right measurements. Between measures like unique and return visitors, length and depth of session inbound links, online mentions, views, followers, subscribers (RSS and Email), retweets, awareness in your market, inbound leads, opportunities converted to sales or just a nice letter or blog comment from a happy customer, there’s no way it’s going to be “hard to measure.”
So if you can’t seem to get over those common blogging objections I hope this has given you fuel for your fire. These are the top 5 objections we hear, but I’m sure there not the only ones. Feel free to add your own in the comments below and we’ll add them to the list - maybe we’ll even get one that stumps us!
About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post. If you liked this post, follow @willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.
