Have you been creating content for years and seen little return on your investment? Then now is the moment to think about making better use of your marketing efforts elsewhere, says Katrina Bell.
If you've been starting to wonder whether the time and money spent on your blog section is actually worth it, then it's time for a little reflection. The fact is, the PR-driven hype bubble has finally passed for company blogs and there is little danger of ‘brandicide’ if you ditch it.
Remember, you are not primarily a content creator, no matter the pressure you feel to constantly fill your target audience’s phones and feed the multiple algorithms at play on social media. And it’s a fallacy that those people want or need to hear from you every day. Or every week. Their lives will be of the same quality if you hit the delete button.
It is almost always financially expedient to be your harshest critic regarding your dusty site sections. Good news is, there is a way to make cuts without losing eyeballs.
Your first question is: Who is the blog for? That’s an easy one. Next: What is it for? Forget why you started in the first place – what function does it have today? If your initial impetus was to create leads then can you honestly say that it has? Or perhaps you hoped to undergo some reputational fluffing up?
Is your audience really likely to use their limited spare time reading your content? When the answer to ‘Do I need a business blog?’ kicks back Google results saying they are a great way to introduce yourself to new customers, it’s just not true. Many consumers don’t have the time or mental bandwidth to give 3 or 4 minutes to every brand that wants to sell them something by stealth. Even when the subject might be of interest, who has time to devote to blog after blog when they are more likely going to be reading reviews and comparing prices?
Having a killer website and engaging socials with up-to-date reviews is the only way you need to do that. Once you get into the weeds of your site page analytics, should it die a death just because not enough people visit the content? If that’s the current situation, is there a better format for your ideas? For instance, are you actively engaging with influencers, the press and your peers? Can theft make use of your expertise?
Having said that, there is one exception. Do you have a small but regular number of visitors to your blog that aren’t related to you, who are persistently loyal and may wish you to continue?
Supermarket loyalty schemes place great importance on what’s known as 'longitudinal customer data', which shows that if a small number of people repeatedly visit the store specifically for a niche product, these superfans should not be chucked away just because they are small in numbers.
If your blog has a similarly loyal readership, could they be encouraged onto a different platform or channel, so your content can be more economically outputted? Perhaps consider a less text-heavy version such as a video reel of new trends or products that can be cross-posted on Insta and Facebook? They will thank you for it.
