I had two clients (TWO!) recently who said 'I need to create a blog.' And my response was, 'why? what would you write about.' And then....dead silence.
Start-ups, small business owners, solo-preneurs are all trying to get their seemingly unknown brand found by who they want to find it so they can grow their business. And any marketer will tell you that content is how you can do that organically.
Write content, lots of content. Make it useful for your audience. Show them you know what you are talking about. You are THE subject matter expert on this topic.
You get the drift.
But do you really need a blog to do that for you? Perhaps and perhaps not.
How Do I Know If a Blog Is Right for My Business?
Define your purpose: The first thing you need to do is define the purpose. Is your blog going to educate your audience on a topic, provide commentary, strategic advise? What are you promising to deliver to your audience the moment you hit the 'create my blog' button?
Drawing a blank? Ok, then stop and abort your blog and revert your attention elsewhere.
Scope out the competition: What are your competitors doing? Are they maintaining a blog? What are they writing about? Ho often are they writing? Can you get a sense of whether their audience finds it useful and captivating?
Competition is not blogging? Ok, this may mean the audience doesn't respond to this type of content or this is your chance to stand out from the pack.
Do you have the time? You may want to make a blog, you can see a purpose to it but when it comes to priorities, there are only so many hours in the day. So unless you want to reflect time from another activity or hire a freelancer, you should hold off for now.
If you don't have the time to commit to a consistent cadence, hold off for now.
TIP: Not every business needs a blog. Consider your audience and how you can connect with them and deliver something valuable to them.