Blogging is one of those things that new business owners are generally discouraged from. Many marketers will tell you that it doesn’t pay off or it is too late to get into blogging in 2018. Those observations are undoubtedly correct in some cases.

However, painting the question of blogging with broad strokes leaves out a few crucial points. Is there no value at all to be had from showcasing your expertise via an SEO blog? It depends. Before you can find out whether that’s true for you, we need to dig a little deeper and ask a few critical questions.

Can You Commit to It?

It is the question that trumps all others. If you don’t have the resources to commit to a blog, it doesn’t matter whether it would benefit your business or not. Time is an essential resource if you’re going to be writing content for it yourself. If not, the most important resource will be money.

However, even if you’re paying someone to maintain your SEO blog for you, you still need to work with them closely. If you know you won’t be having enough time for it, investing in blogging might not pay off.

Can Your Business Benefit from Blog Marketing?

It can be a difficult question to answer for small business owners. Depending on your business, niche and product or service offered, having a blog can be extremely beneficial. Alternatively, it might not have any impact at all on your success.

If you’re in an industry where showcasing your expertise by building thought leadership can draw in more clients and customers, great! That means that blog marketing is likely to pay off for you. However, if you can’t come up with good blogging topics that are relevant to your business, maintaining a blog will get hard at some point.

Can You Come up with a Good Blog Marketing Plan?

As with any marketing, blogging requires meticulous planning and no small amount of knowledge and research. It’s not enough to simply start writing and publishing content. There are a couple of conditions your content has to meet if it’s going to make any positive impact.

The first condition is that it has to have a clear voice which is in line with your brand. So, if you haven’t built your brand yet or thought about it, it might be best to hold off on blogging for now. Furthermore, your content should address your intended target audience and help solve their problems. Finally, you need to have a clear vision and goal for your blog. What exactly is it going to do, and how will you make sure it meets the metrics you want?

Working with a professional could help you meet these conditions as well as promote your blog through all relevant channels. Ultimately, that is what ensures success.

Blogging can be an extremely efficient digital marketing tool if done correctly. However, it usually doesn’t yield fast results, especially when you’re trying to find the right formula through trial and error. If you wish to see the results of your digital marketing efforts faster, contact me, and I’ll be happy to discuss how I can help.

Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 20 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.