I've spilled a lot of ink offering advice on the best ways to generate leads, build websites, setup auto follow-up systems and much, much more. But lately, I seem to be explaining to business owners why the well-intentioned advice they’ve heard from others might actually be pretty bad advice for them. So going forward I’m going to offer some “corrective guidance” on various myths and misunderstandings of what is and isn’t good marketing.
Now let me point out that I often ruffle some feathers when I “buck the trend” and try to dispel some long-held beliefs that mainstream marketers are still desperately clutching onto. But this is the sacrifice I make to ensure YOUR success. So let me start with one of my favorite examples of bad advice…
BAD ADVICE #1: “YOU SHOULD WRITE A BLOG!”
Now before you have a panic attack, and think I’ve lost my mind, let me clarify something – YES, it would be highly beneficial to have a super-popular blog that is well-respected and lots of people love to read. But that’s the problem. To have that blog, you’ve got to be:
- A talented writer
- Who is also prolific
- And an expert in your field
- And writing about something that lots of other people care about
And let’s face the brutal facts — odds are 99 to 1 that you aren’t that guy.
You know who is that guy? Marcus Sheridan.
Marcus Sheridan is that guy.
And you sir, are no Marcus Sheridan.
I have the utmost respect for Marcus Sheridan. He is a talented and prolific writer, and an expert in “sales” and “fiberglass pools.” And he has written hundreds of articles about things that other people really care about. And he has many thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of followers who want to read his articles.
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So yes, Marcus gets a ton of traction with his prolific writings.
But you sir, are no Marcus Sheridan.
Now if you were to HIRE Marcus to write your blog posts for you, THEN you would likely get some traction. Or better yet, just pay him to let you use the articles he’s already written. Because his stuff is really good.
But to think that you can watch and follow in Marcus’ footsteps of world-class blogging is like me thinking I can watch and follow in the footsteps of Michael Jordan and become a world-class basketball player. And I can assure you, that ain’t gonna happen. Not for you, and not for me either.
Because even if you are part of that top 1% of awesome prolific writers, we’ve still got a couple of other issues to deal with, namely:
1. That train has already left the station. More than 10 years ago (back when Marcus started blogging), the internet was ripe and ready for “fresh content.” In the decade since, the internet has become SATURATED with boring, poorly-produced content that nobody reads.
2. And the internet isn’t all that hungry for our information anyway. There’s a voracious appetite for cutting-edge sales advice, marketing advice, fashion advice, healthy living/weight loss advice and more. But not so much for “new pool construction” and/or “how to maintain your swimming pool.”
Now this doesn’t mean you SHOULDN’T write a blog.
This just means you shouldn’t feel
COMPELLED to start a blog, just because some
marketing person SAID you should.
By all means, if you’ve got the writing bug, or have someone on your team who really wants to write, then by all means give it a whirl. But don’t expect it to have much impact on your overall business. There are lots of other things today that are much more important to your business success than you writing a blog.
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Whew, I’m glad I got that off my chest!
