The biggest problems with blogging as a strategy

Blogging and content marketing are fab ways to help your business stand out online. They drive more traffic to your website and social media and play their part to increase your leads and clients. Ultimately, growing your business.

The thing is, it can be tricky to start and to keep it going.

In this blog, I shine a light on the problems and challenges you may face so you have the information you need and how to proceed with your blogging and contenting marketing strategy.

It’s always useful to know what problems may be lying in wait for you.

When it comes to blogging and content marketing as a strategy, what’s the key problems for businesses?

#1: Creating Content Takes Time

You’re busy. As a business owner there’s always so much to do but let’s be honest from the get-go, to create useful and helpful content and making sure it’s being shared where it needs to be shared, takes time.

The time to create and share your content takes commitment too. It can be so easy to be excited at creating useful content to help get you more leads and clients but it takes commitment too.

And results won’t happen over-night. It takes time to create and time to make an impact with your audience.

What Can You Do To Manage Your “Time” Problem?

Block time out in your diary to create the content and the other tasks required to create a useful and helpful blog for your audience.

You might need to do some research for your blog, create images, decide which of your other blogs to include links to and what call to action to use.

If taking a full day out to do this works for you – great.

You might prefer to spread the tasks over a few days.

And not forgetting, you can outsource tasks too. Either to someone in your business or by hiring a Virtual Assistant to help you.

How To Break Down Your To Do List For Your Blog

Create a task list and an indictation of how long tasks take and who will do the tasks.

It might be you, a team member or outsourced.

Breaking it down into its smaller parts, such as writing, researching, editing, sourcing images, creating the images, publishing, repurposing, and adding to social media etc.

#2: Creating Content Costs

To create your useful and helpful content comes at a price.

Whether it’s you taking time out of your day, your employee’s day, a copywriter or other freelancers, your content comes with a price.

How Do You Keep The Cost Of Creating Your Content Marketing Strategy Down?

Spend time on making a plan.

A plan for the content you will create, when and how you’re going to implement it.  With this plan you can work through it creating what’s needed and before long you’re creating your useful and helpful content which will be a part of your marketing strategy and routine.

You want your content to earn its keep and play its part helping you to achieve your business goals and objectives.

Check out my blog How to create your 12 months marketing plan to achieve your business goals and objectives.

Creating your content yourself helps to keep the costs down but the downside is it may take you a bit longer to create and a bit longer to get out there and re-purpose.

#3: You Can’t Be 100% It’s Responsible For Your Success

What is it you want from your content marketing strategy? More leads and sales?

But here’s the thing. If you get a new enquiry or gain a new client, how can you know if it’s down to your marketing strategy and a particular blog?

You can’t!

It’s not easy to plot the steps from a blog and directly relate it to someone buying from you.

Unless you do this.

Ask them.

When you get new clients ask them if they checked out any of your blogs to help to decide to buy from you or work with you.

If they did be sure to ask which ones.

What Else Can You Keep A Check On?

As well as visitors to your website you’ll want to know:

• How is your email list doing?
• How’s engagement going on social media (reach, engagement, likes, comments and shares).

Perhaps there’s other things, like:

• Being invited onto a Podcast or to speak at an event
• Comments on your blogs
• Asked to write a guest blog
• PR opportunities

What Will You Gain From Tracking Your Contents Performance? 

You’ll know what’s working and what isn’t which is always good to know as a business owner.

#4: Useful And Helpful Content Doesn’t Equal A Consistent Flow Of Leads And Clients Overnight

It takes time to create your consistent flow of leads and clients with your content marketing efforts. The good news is the more useful and helpful content you create using keywords and phrases your audience use in their search, the more often they’ll be presented with your website.

The more people that are presented with your website on Google means your audience is growing.

But that’s not going to happen for you and your business overnight.

An effective marketing strategy takes patience and consistency. Turning up for your audience and providing them with content that’s useful and helpful so be sure that when you create your content, you’re clear on its objective.

Part of your content marketing strategy may be to:

• Increase traffic to your website
• Increase sign-ups to your lead magnet
• Build awareness for your business
• Launch a new product or service

#5: It’s Getting Tougher To Stand Out Online

The internet is awash with content and it can feel like everything for our audience is out there already.

What If You Made It Your Mission To Write The Best Content You Can For Your Audience?

Write for them.

Not for the “big names” in your industry.

Write for the person that needs your help answering the questions they are typing into Google.

Without worrying what your competition thinks.

Without worrying what other business owners think.

Write for your audience the most useful and helpful content you can.

Have A Plan For Where You’re Going To Put Your Useful And Helpful Content

There’s no guarantee your useful and helpful content is going to be given to your audience on a plate so make it easy for them.

Think about where you can share your content.

Your website. That’s the most obvious place to put it but it’s not the only place you can put it.

Where Else Can You Share Your Blog After You’ve Published It On Your Website?

A blog isn’t just for your website. There are so many other places you can share your useful and helpful content. Remember, make your blog earn its keep.

Publish it on platforms such as LinkedIn and Medium.com to help people find your content.

But be sure to prioritise your website because you own it. Think of the other platforms as where you’re renting space from them. On a whim they could close down tomorrow.

Send your blog to your email list too. Who doesn’t like useful and helpful content appearing (as if by magic) in their inbox?

Do You Publish Your Blog Onto Another Platform On The Same Day As Your Website?

Always publish onto your website first. This gives Google a chance to know that it’s there, then wait 7 days before publishing elsewhere.

Create a blog regularly and consistently.  Share it regularly and consistently and it won’t be long before you create and build a fab relationship with your audience.

Wouldn’t that be the best thing!?

Be strategic about who you’re targeting with your content, where you’re promoting it and how frequently. It pays off.

#6: So Many Shiny Objects

It seems like every few months there’s a new platform that’s the one you HAVE to be on. How exhausting and overwhelming can that feel?

And then there’s the need to feel you have to “be everywhere” to make the most impact.

When you’re first starting out on your content marketing strategy, I suggest you focus on one or two formats for you content and stay with them.

Blogging is great because it’s content you can put on your website and then repurpose.

Perhaps you prefer video. The great thing about video is you can use software like Rev.com to add captions and create a transcript you can then repurpose too.

Whether you pick video or blogs, take time to get good at creating your content. Give yourself 8 to 12 months and by that time you’ll be able to see what’s making impact for you and then you could look to include another format.

The same goes for social media. Pick the one you know your target audience is on and then be useful and helpful so you can make connections and relationships.

How can you ocus on being effective where you are rather than focusing on being everywhere?

In Summary:

You may face problems and challenges when you start out with your blogging or content marketing strategy so it pays to know what they are:

#1: Creating content takes Time

#2: Creating content costs

#3: You can’t be 100% it’s responsible for your success

#4: Useful and helpful content doesn’t equal a consistent flow of leads and clients overnight       

#5: It’s getting tougher to stand out online    

#6: So many shiny objects

Recognising these problems and challenges will go a long way to helping you make more impact with your blogging efforts.