Many of the Solo PR Pros I meet express intimidation around the idea of blogging: “What will I say? I’m not known enough to get much traffic, so what’s the point?”
I recently attended an excellent presentation by Mark W Schaefer on “Why you should blog, even if no one is reading it.” In a related post on his {grow} blog, he outlines the full 10 reasons, all of which will come in handy when you’re talking to clients.
Specifically for independent PR consultants, two of these opportunities stood out (and see below for a great video with Mark!):
Differentiation
Can you finish this sentence: “only we….”? There are many indie PR practitioners out there, so how is a potential client going to find you? Beyond the significant search engine optimization (SEO) benefits (Hubspot research shows that sites with blogs get 55% more traffic than sites without), a blog can give you the opportunity to demonstrate your unique selling points in a more complete way than a static website.
Even if you don’t have regular readers, when a prospective client comes poking around your site, they’ll get a better grasp of your expertise and key differentiators if it includes a blog. As Mark stated, “Content is power.”
Infinite search life
Mark has an interesting anecdote on the power of having extensive content indexed by search engines:
I received a call from a potential new customer in the Middle East looking to me as a possible marketing consultant. I had to wonder how in the world they found me! Turns out they were looking for somebody who could help explain where the future of social media was going and when they entered this into Google, a blog post I wrote a year ago popped up! Your content keeps working for you month after month!
Blogging about what you know is a way to build credibility well into the future. As Mark notes, “The blog is the content engine at the center of the info eco-system.”
What can you blog about?
Of course, the question of what to write is a common one, especially among PR pros who are trained to look for unique angles and content that appeals to a particular niche. I sat down with Mark to get his thoughts:
If you're unable to view the video, you can watch it on Youtube.
As we’ve noted before, it’s not absolutely necessary to blog, but there are benefits to blogging to be sure. What do you think? What’s been your decision-making process when deciding whether you want to blog?
Great post. I really enjoyed this.
Thanks for the kind words, Jachel!
Thanks for the kind words, Jachel!
Creating content is key to success for any business or professional enterprise today. People used to find you in the Yellow Pages. Without it, you were starting with a serious handicap. Search engines are today’s Yellow Pages for business. The more rich content people find about you, your services or products combined with a demonstration of your expertise, the more opportunities and leads you get. Simple as that. And as the article points out, it keeps working for you months and even years later. The question isn’t whether you should blog. The question is – why AREN’T you seizing this opportunity and exploiting it to the fullest!
You’re exactly right, Gayle — thanks for adding the Yellow Pages analogy. Very illustrative!
PR firms (even solo firms) that don’t blog are like doctors that don’t bother managing their own health.
If I go to your website and you don’t have any copy promoting yourself, I assume that you don’t actually know how to promote anyone.
And if you’re too busy to promote yourself, you’re certainly too busy to help me.