If you hate writing, then blogging without a blog could be the best way forward for you.
While it has never been easier to start a business than today, there’s no denying that building and growing it is still the long, tough slog that it always was. You can pour months of your life into the effort, only to be left with no energy and nothing to show for it all.
If you’re determined to make your business work, then blogging is no longer a nice thing to have but a necessity. Blogging will boost your business, and it has evolved from the days when it was – somewhat unfairly – judged as an open diary of thoughts best kept to the writer.
These days, a blog is a great way for businesses like yours to reach out to people, tell them about your business, and build your B2B and B2C relationships. However, there’s a lot more to it than that; you can’t just throw up blog posts on the wall like spaghetti and hope something sticks… although that could work for a food blog.
When you’re getting started, it’s a great idea to check out your competition and industry leaders to see what they’re blogging about. This isn’t just going to keep you up to date with developments in your industry: it’s also going to give you lots of ideas about what you can write.
Now, you may still not want to start your own blog – and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean that you can’t take advantage of other people’s blogs to see what they’re doing, and how you can leverage their posts to help your business to grow.
Here are three things you can start doing today to start kicking some major ass in the blogosphere without your own blog:
Gain that Sweet, Sweet Name and Brand Recognition from Blogging
When you start your business, you’re a nobody – which means nobody cares. The most urgent task you have is to get your brand and message out there so that your first customers start to filter through.
First, you need to decide who your target marketing group is. Let’s say you sell fishing accessories. Most likely, your target market is men who like fishing. You should have a bit more demographic data than this (such as age group, income, and other useful metrics to help you paint an image of your perfect customer), but this will do for the purpose of this blog post.
You should already have a blog with posts that focus on things that your target market likes – such as the best kind of bait, or are view of a new fishing rod. But what you want to do here is some smart outreach.
Visit other blogs, find a post that is useful to your target market, and write an intelligent comment that contributes to the discussion.
DO NOT SPAM THEM WITH AN ADVERT!
Really, DO NOT SPAM IT!
Nobody likes blogspam posts, and it’s a quick way to kill any reputation you might have. Instead, join the conversation, add your expertise, and minimize your marketing efforts to a signature with your company’s website.
This is a lot subtler, doesn’t make you sound like a walking spamwich board, and helps to slowly get your brand’s name out there as an expert. In time, this blog commenting strategy can lead to very strong results as your name becomes more familiar with your target market.
Be warned: this isn’t quick, and it’s rather time-consuming. You should account for an hour,maybe two a day on this strategy. Done right, it will pay you back in glorious dividends (and don’t forget, you can hire a minion to do this…)
Get Guest Blogging and Build Your Business’ Brand Recognition
Guest posting is a great way to get your brand name out in the wider world, too. This essentially involves creating and posting your own blog post on someone else’s blog – or, as I call it, “blogging without a blog”. This works really well when you work with influential blogs in your industry or niche, so it’s a strategy that you will want to pursue, especially if the thought of keeping your own blog up to date makes you break out in hives.
One point here: you don’t have to write these blog posts. It’s perfectly acceptable to hire a professional copywriter or article writer to ghostwrite your content. This is a secret cheat which many leading professionals use, especially when they have no time to sit down and crank a post out themselves. It’s not cheating – it’s #winning!
A secondary tactic you can use here is to find blogs in which people review products and services. If you can get your brand featured in these with a review appropriately singing the high praises of your product, they can be an invaluable source of traffic and revenue to your site – and be fantastic evidence of all-important consumer testimonials.
This blogless blogging strategy takes time, but it can really increase consumer confidence in your products while getting your name out to the wider world and increasing your reputation and recognition.
I would still recommend also having your own blog in tandem with this strategy: the more pages you have, the more expertise you can demonstrate, and the more organic traffic you can potentially claim.
Be Smart – And Always Focus on Building Relationships
At heart, business is really all about relationships – and this is really no different. As a small business owner, your business thrives on relationships. Not just with your customers, but also with other businesses in your niche or industry.
Just posting on their blogs as a regular poster is one way to build that relationship, as is guest posting. In time, you may find that opportunities turn up that mean you can work with these businesses. It could be something as simple as an ad swap, or even a cross promotion. At this early stage of your business, every little counts, and blogging is a powerful way to start building those relationships.
Blogging is an incredibly powerful business tool, and these three points really just underline how much you’re missing out on if you elect to just ignore the whole blogosphere. Even if you don’t want to deal with the demands that come with running your own blog, blogging without a blog is a great way to enjoy the benefits of blogging without the content mill demands it comes with.
Even if you decide that having your own blog is too much, there are still many things that you can do to make blogging work for you. It may seem like a lot of work for very little reward at first (it is!), but if you persevere and stick with it, you’ll be very glad that you did.
It’s worth noting that one of the biggest plus points of blogging is that it’s practically free advertising, and incredibly targeted free advertising if you do it right. No TV or radio ad could hope to give you this highly converted audience – and certainly not for free!
Overall, this strategy is the best way to get your business and brand name out to your target market and start building a strong relationship with them. As your reputation grows, you’ll discover that people don’t just recognize you, but also start to trust you – which is where opportunities start to flow in.
So, if you’re ready to start building relationships and opportunities, you know what you need to do. Get started today and see what happens!
