Why It’s a Mistake to Take a Break from Blogging

Why It’s a Mistake to Take a Break from Blogging

Do you publish a blog for your business? If so, you’ve probably experienced the biggest challenge of blogging: Keeping it up.

Writing a blog takes time and effort. Plus, life (and business) gets in the way. It can be easy to let your blog slip.

But if content marketing is part of your smart marketing strategy, consistent blogging is essential. In fact, letting your blog lapse can be a big marketing mistake. How do I know? I just did it.

Here’s why a break in blogging can be bad for your business – and five ways to get your blog back on track.

How Inconsistent Blogging Hurts Your Marketing Strategy

It’s been far too long since my last Smart Marketing Strategy blog post about reasons to create your next ad campaign in Cleveland.

I have great excuses: Major projects for clients of my marketing consulting firm, new business pitches, wrapping up my term as president of AAF-Cleveland, my daughter’s wedding – yada, yada, yada.

All this combined to create the longest gap between posts in my five years as a blogger and there’s been a direct impact on my business. Here’s what can happen when you let a blog lapse:

1. Reduced visibility: Publishing a blog puts you front-and-center among everyone you want to influence: Clients, prospects, followers, and colleagues. By interrupting that steady flow of visibility, you let your business fall back a bit –perhaps even dropping off the radar screens of people who might want to hire your firm.
2. Lower search rankings: My blog posts about marketing strategy, branding, and marketing campaigns have consistently resulted in top Google rankings for search terms related to my business. Not blogging for the past three months has caused my rankings to slip a bit.
3. Reduced website traffic: A major reason I blog is to drive traffic to my website to generate new business. It works: My three most recent new clients found my company from the blog. Traffic has been relatively steady the past three months, but a lack of new blog posts has definitely begun to reduce website visits.
4. Getting rusty: Blogging is like any other skill – it takes practice and it needs to be a habit. When you take your eye off your blog for very long, you can get rusty, making it much harder to get back in the groove later.
5. Missed opportunities: A lot can happen in any industry in three months. If you’re positioning your company as an industry authority or influencer, taking a break from blogging leaves you out of the conversation about important events.

5 Ways to Get Your Blog Back on Track

Creating well written, high-quality blog posts requires thinking, planning, writing, and commitment. Here’s how to get your blog back in top form:

1. Recognize the blog’s importance: If you’re using content marketing to promote your business, you’re a publisher and your blog should be the centerpiece of your publishing strategy. Recommit to your blog’s success by making it a marketing priority and supporting it with sufficient resources.
2. Analyze traffic: Review past posts to see which topics generated the most interest. What else could you write about these same issues? What have you learned that could result in a fresh perspective? Focusing on subjects readers liked best can help you get back on track faster.
3. Attend an industry conference or trade show: Get out of the office and attend a conference or trade show to learn what’s new and what your colleagues are talking about. Report on great sessions you attended or ideas you gathered. Share your perspective as an industry expert.
4. Brainstorm topics with your staff: Get everyone around a table and spend an hour thinking about potential posts. Bring food and keep it casual. Log every idea that emerges. Ask people to help author posts they suggest.
5. Search the web for ideas: Look online for resources for blog topics. Here are two I’d recommend, a terrific Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas by Kevin Allen on PRDaily.com and Eight New Sources of Blog Post Inspiration from Matt Heinz at Heinz Marketing.

Keep Blogging for Smart Marketing 

Even if you’ve published a high volume of quality content on your blog for years, blogging can’t stop if you’re serious about content marketing.

Getting your blog back on the front burner and re-engaging your followers with content that’s interesting, timely, and relevant is essential for success.