Should Small Businesses Even Have Blogs?

[Ben Bowen]

A blog, done properly, is a huge asset. But, as has been alluded to, there are a couple issues: (1) Most SMB owners don't have the time and/or skill set to do it themselves. (2) They also don't have the amount of $$ it would take to effectively outsource it.

This is actually what I love about my landscape company's blog. Almost everything else we do can be easily copied or duplicated by my competition. Our blog sets us apart in a way that matters to the bottom line. Our typical client reads multiple posts before contacting us. When they do contact us they have a pretty good understanding of what we do. And they almost always have eliminated my competition from consideration. We rarely bid a project against anyone else. It is typical for a prospective client to mention a specific post during our initial consultation.

I think the set up of a blog lends itself to browsing, clients hop around and take in more than they would if the info was siloed (just my impression). Having a blog also lends itself to helping you, as a writer, find your voice. And when a client calls you because they connected with your voice, then you meet and give the same impression? Selling becomes much easier.

A couple examples of posts that have been huge for us:

"Why We Might Decline Your Project"- In this post I explain why we turn down close to 40% of the inquiries we get (in a very nice way). Potential clients reference this post more than any other as the reason they contacted us!

"Landscaping a Mid Century Modern Home"- This was a quick, silly post originally. I was getting into MCM and decided to see if there was an accepted style of landscape design for this. Within a couple days of posting I started getting contacted by people with MCM homes. Since then I expanded the post and did a landing page focusing on it. We have done over $400K with MCM homes since then!

"4 Portland Nurseries You Should Know"- This post took maybe an hour to do, and now brings in about 25% of all my traffic. Some weeks it tops my home page. And about 30% of the visitors click to another post after reading.

These are just a few examples. So, yeah, any business owner who can have a good blog should. The problem is that so few can.

 

[Gsmithmike]

JoyHawkins's When you say " I blog a lot and it works really great" Could you tell me what exactly you mean? - Cause i have been working with local businesses long enough to understand quantity is not the the best option!

Blogging for a small businesses should be based on your buyers persona and data you gather time to time from different offline and online analytics, emails, even reviews.!

The most important part of a Blog is the Topic and the Headline! that itself guarantee more reads! more visitors, and probably more shares!

have that in mind, some industries such as Fashion industry! But again i am not sure writing a blog each day can transfer to lots of leads! Blogging should be more educational. and it is not easy to gather information on daily basis and post! Unless the business and their marketers, have a strong documented content strategy base!

for that I have to strongly disagree with those who keep writing and posting everyday, or hire a content writing team to do it!

 

[painperdu]

I think the article linked to is arguing against the structure of a blog rather than the content, and I agree with the article.

I have too often come across an excellent blog-structured article only to not be able to find the article in the future. Or, I'd have to search through a long linear list of blog posts just to reach the article again. Why?

Why not structure such content in a hierarchical manner, a silo as the article calls it? Keep producing content but structure it so that it all relates to each other in a more intuitive way.

 

[JoyHawkins]

JoyHawkins's When you say " I blog a lot and it works really great" Could you tell me what exactly you mean? - Cause i have been working with local businesses long enough to understand quantity is not the the best option!

I was speaking particularily about the blogs I write myself. As a professional in the marketing industry I write a lot of articles about Google My Business or Local SEO and it results in people hiring me. I was using myself as an example of when blogging does actually make sense. However, my personal strategy probably wouldn't work for lots of business types.

These are some of the places that I blog/write for that I was referring to:
Google My Business (GMB) Expert | Local SEO Tips
Joy Hawkins - Search Engine Land Author
Joy Hawkins | Imprezzio Marketing
https://moz.com/community/users/102034

 

[Gsmithmike]

JoyHawkins now that make sense thank you.

 

[Local Mixed]

I think it depends on coming up with an overall content strategy. The clients that we work with on their content strategy have an increase in organize traffic and lead conversions from organic.

Another use of a blog post is for a landing page for PPC. While a topic makes sense to target with a campaign, it might not make sense to have as a top level page/service. A blog post can help you develop a relevant "landing page" of sorts and ensure a good QS for the ad.

You can't generalize the idea of a blog post, it is how you incorporate it into an overal content strategy.

 

[Laustin1878]

Something I thought about recently... Google loves fresh, new, unique content. For e-commerce sites, adding new products can fulfill this. For informational sites, new blog posts can fulfill this.

If you aren't blogging, how are you appealing to Google, giving their bots a reason to visit your site? What other ways are you placing breadcrumbs out there for Google to find?

Im not an advocate for pumping out crap blog posts but if a client doesn't have the money, you have to rely on their abilities & knowledge. I provide content ideas and optimize them after they are drafted but I have yet to see an post that knocked my socks off from a client.

 

[JoyHawkins]

"If you aren't blogging, how are you appealing to Google, giving their bots a reason to visit your site?"

Links will accomplish that

I'm starting to be a huge advocate of better content, less often and then also keeping that content up-to-date. One of the biggest strategies I'm going to be doing this year myself is going back to old articles I wrote that performed well and updating them since half the info is now outdated. This article was extremely inspiring.

 

[advicelocal]

We use blogging as a strategy for our clients, but it needs to be content that is needed, educational and adds value. Blogging just for the sake of blogging does not work ever.

 

[Laustin1878]

By links, are we talking the local kind such as citations or legitimate backlinks? I was always taught quality content is the best way to get links. This discussion seems to go against that grain slightly.

If we are talking backlinks, inbound links, etc., are you earning them or are you contacting websites and asking? This has long been a hurdle, I think for most of us. I'd love to hear if you've discovered a viable way to achieve this.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

I completely agree with what most people are saying in this thread when it comes to having a content strategy.

Blogging is definitely a commitment and while it doesn't usually provide immediate results, it can pay off in the long run.

It all comes down to strategy, I think Ben Bowen's comment shows how you do need to be creative with what you're writing about, but there could be a huge amount of business traffic if done correctly.

In this case, if the dentist isn't providing a unique service or has identified what makes them stand out, finding a way to write about local through the context of dental hygiene etc. would be a smart strategy to get on the local radar.

 

[Blake Denman]

If we are talking backlinks, inbound links, etc., are you earning them or are you contacting websites and asking? This has long been a hurdle, I think for most of us. I'd love to hear if you've discovered a viable way to achieve this.

Buzzstream is your friend.

 

[JoyHawkins]

By links, are we talking the local kind such as citations or legitimate backlinks? I was always taught quality content is the best way to get links. This discussion seems to go against that grain slightly.

If we are talking backlinks, inbound links, etc., are you earning them or are you contacting websites and asking? This has long been a hurdle, I think for most of us. I'd love to hear if you've discovered a viable way to achieve this.

These are some of the types of backlinks I'd go after: The Ultimate List of Local Link Building Ideas and Tactics - Nifty

 

[markwaldin]

I agree that a blog is often not the best structure for small local businesses. Blogs are newspapers. Putting out a newspaper on lawn maintenance is just not interesting or worth having a newspaper for. Having relevant content available when people are looking for it is more of a book or brochure structure and what these businesses need.