Not Every Brand Needs A Blog, Does Yours?

Blogs are a highly contentious content marketing tactic. Some consider them the very heart of the discipline. Others think them a luxurious distraction from leading prospects down the marketing funnel. And both points of view are actually right, depending on what type of business you are.

Blog Challenges

But blogs are inherently tricky because they’re very hard to do well, and the Return on Investment (RoI) is relatively low, or at least harder to establish, compared to other content tactics that consume the same amount of time and resources.

Subject Matter Expertise

Blogs require steady sources of Subject Matter Expertise, so having an in-house Subject Matter Expert (SME) doing the writing can be a very good thing. Experts who’ve got the writing bug can create a lot of content, often very quickly, putting your brand in a good position to get a lot of eyeballs by offering interesting ideas, discussing the technical concerns your customers face, and capitalizing on the buzzy issues of the day.

But such an SME may have a hard time concentrating on what Marketing wants to talk about, and you risk alienating a vital cog in your company if you try to rein them in. And if they happen to leave the company for any reason, you’re screwed. Few companies except the larger ones are lucky enough to have more than one SME who’s productive enough to propel a blog.

And no, most professional writers who you might have in house are not SMEs, even if they say they are. They might have a level of knowledge similar to that of a trade journalist, but there are already plenty of trade journalists out there who have their objectivity intact producing the same quality of insight, so why would anyone need you?

Thus, you might consider outsourcing the writing of your blog, and I think this can be a good option if you want to blog about an industry/vertical that you sell to but are not really experts in.

Writing Skills

A good blog can consume a LOT of a skilled writer’s time, and that’s time that they’re not spending doing other things. And no, you can’t delegate this work to the kid you have writing your social media copy. The reason why is because blogs, unlike many other things that your company writes, typically aren’t read for work purposes, which means they have to be good enough to hold your audience's attention during their free time. In other words, people have to enjoy them, so it has to be A-level work, or B+ at the minimum. 

And even if you have a skilled writer, a blog tends to be a slow grind, especially if the writer's name is going on it. The reason why is unlike product pages or press releases, there’s no template for blogs. Each one is unique, and the title is very important, so they require more consideration and decisionmaking, and thus more time, than other forms of content of the same length.

This is where a content calendar comes in handy. The less time a writer has to spend choosing a topic the better. The calendar also comes in handy as a guide for writers on how to use their limited time with SMEs more efficiently.

As to how many writers you’ll need. A high-quality blog (1500 words or more) takes 1-3 weeks to get publish-ready. So if you’re dead-set on publishing a blog a week, you’ll need three writers, though four would be better so you can have at least one spontaneous post per month, or in case you suddenly lose one of your writers.

That’s a lot of writers, so you’ll probably have freelancers writing the blog if you’re a smaller company. If you’re a larger company, you might consider keeping the writing in house, as the benefits of outsourcing might not outweigh the costs (more on this below).

Return on Investment (RoI)

Blogs don’t have a single purpose. They vary somewhat by business type. But regardless of who you are, blogs are meant to be read in an audience’s free time, which means they shouldn’t sell, at least not directly. This makes blogs primarily an Awareness or Brand-building tactic, making them unjustifiable in situations where sales and marketing lack sufficient quality lead-gen content (which is often). Your first duty in any content operation is to create a steady trail of breadcrumbs that sell across the funnel. Worry about a blog once that’s done.

However, a good branded blog can create real value for your business, especially in B2B. A well-tended blog establishes trust and creates perceived authority. And though they may be a mere Awareness or Brand-building tactic, B2B does not have a plethora of Awareness and Brand-building options.

Awareness is where it all begins, and Brand-building is grease for the funnel.  

Who Benefits Most From a Blog? 

The usefulness of a blog does not correlate neatly with business size. In fact, I see blogs as most useful at the two ends of the spectrum, dropping off significantly in the middle.

Industry Leaders

Notice how I said “industry leaders” and not “market leaders,” because a market leader can win on cost or logistics or some other non-technical advantage. An industry leader, on the other hand, is a brand that has some kind of IP or technical advantage. And if you have one, people will listen to you and want to learn from you, which will allow a blog to build your brand further by building mindshare and influencing the shape of the discourse.

However, a blog is not the only way an industry leader can do this. There are less frequent though perhaps more impactful content alternatives available, such as whitepapers and bylines, so ask yourself if your internal resources can support a blog. And I wouldn’t outsource a blog if you’re a market leader (at least not entirely), because it’ll be harder to get a quality worthy of a leader from freelancers, especially if you have a large number of them to wrangle with. And a blog’s SEO benefits will probably be minimal to your brand if you're already a leader.

Startups/SaaS

Blogs are useful to startups for three reasons. One, they establish credibility by demonstrating that you understand your customers in ways that extend beyond the limited exposure they’ve had through your website. Two, they provide further opportunities to illustrate the benefits of what you sell, or how to use it. And three, the SEO benefits of a blog can make a big difference to your brand when you have a digital footprint that is otherwise small.

But despite these benefits, a startup’s first content priorities should be customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies. A blog is just gravy. If I ran a startup, I’d rather spend my money producing three outstanding case studies over thirty blog posts.

Follower Brands Might Not Need a Blog

Most established brands are follower brands, and most follower brands, regardless of their size, don’t need a blog, with the primary reason being that when you’re a follower, you’ve got no street cred. In other words, nobody cares what you think. Sure, you can hire good knowledgeable writers to write a blog, but the odds of it being read are low. Your middling brand name will discourage readers. Would you read a blog on gourmet meat preparation from McDonalds?

People will take a chance on a startup blog because they have youth and novelty on their side. But once your industry has figured out that your brand is an also-ran, they’ll stop coming. Why bother when there are blogs from respected leaders out there they could spend their precious time on?

And if a follower brand is maintaining a blog, this often means that something more important is being neglected, such as whitepapers, case studies, or even sales materials. And yes, unlike blogs, vertical-specific whitepapers from a follower brand can get read because they promise a lot and are typically aimed at readers who don’t know you that well, and therefore may not know your middling reputation.  

And finally, the SEO benefits of a blog to an established follower brand will be minimal. There will be plenty of prior art written by you and about you already, and too many leaders out there already who are doing blogs better.

So What Would You Do on Social Without a Blog?

Blogs are a common organic social media food group, especially in B2B. But if you’re a follower brand, the business value of your social media followers is modest. A big chunk are current and former employees, especially on LinkedIn, and the current employees might be the ones actually getting the most value from following you, as social media is often a faster way to move content around the company than your internal channels.

And when it comes to customers or potential customers, the leaders in your industry can probably drown out the noise of whatever you try to do on social. A big company can publish five pieces of content to every one of yours. And your brand doesn’t need followers for paid lead-gen activities.

Yes, I’m sorry to report that there’s nobody out there waiting for your brand to publish something every Tuesday and Thursday at 4pm. Nobody at all, except for a few of your own employees (the branded social equivalent of your mother). So publish because you want to, and because you need to, not because you think the beast is hungry, because it isn't.