Why should every business have a blog?
Occasionally, when I’m talking to people about the work I do building blogs for clients, they’ll ask the question that everyone still seems to have about blogging: “I don’t get it. Why does having a blog help?”
I usually look at them like they’re crazy for a few seconds, and then say, “OK. Give me an example of a business, and I’ll tell you how having a blog can help.”
Then they tilt their head for a bit and think about it. They invariable say something like “What if I have a trucking company?”
Then they smirk: they’ve got me!
“Well,” I respond, “let’s say that since you’re a trucking company, you primarily need two things: you need people to drive trucks, and you need clients who want things trucked.
“There’s a lot I don’t know about the trucking world. There’s probably a lot that nobody outside of the trucking industry knows. It’s pretty safe to say that there aren’t a LOT of people who dream of being truck drivers, but I bet that there’s something interesting, or at least oddly appealing, about traversing the open highways for a living.
“If you wrote a blog about the ins and outs of trucking, and people who were interested in trucks (or being a truck driver) could find the answers to their questions and get a sense of your (undoubtedly good) personality, what company do you think they’ll look to first when they need to get hired?”
The point of blogging for your business, in many, many cases, is about generating relationships and awareness in your target market, before they’re even looking for your product (or service, or whatever). When the times comes, they’ll look to you first, because you already have a relationship with them.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
[...] Jason Preston of Blog Business Summit explains why every business should have a blog. Jason says, “If you wrote a blog about the ins and outs of trucking, and people who were [...]
I’ve been talking to a friend of mine who has a boss that’s confused with the blogging experience. The boss is asking her to “throw up a couple blogs” so that they can increase the SEO in a few weeks and then drop it.
I’m trying to give her the tools to explain to her boss that it’s not that simple. I told her exactly what you’ve said, that the conversation is the key to success.
I think you’ve had some great things to say about this, so I’ll probably have her print off a couple of your posts and put them on his desk. Maybe hearing the same thing from a couple different places will help.
Thanks!
@Chelle hopefully it’ll help!
Let me know if “the boss” needs any extra convincing! We love to help companies get into this space the right way…
[...] Preston at Blog Business Summit says yes. I say [...]
[...] Jason Preston of Blog Business Summit explains why every business should have a blog. Jason says, “If you wrote a blog about the ins and outs of trucking, and people who were [...]
I have a website business broker site and I have been contemplating adding a blog as I am pretty specialized - not too many internet only brokers who have actually owned and developed bought and sold over 18 websites! Guess you are another reminder that I should pursue it.
David Fairley
websiteproperties.com
[...] Jason Preston of Blog Business Summit explains why every business should have a blog. Jason says, “If you wrote a blog about the ins and outs of trucking, and people who were [...]
I think that the trick is how to get the buyers on the blog. One can give good advices about using of the machinery the buyers need, give useful information etc. So the idea that each company should have a blog is great.
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