Business and Marketing Observations

Don't leave your readers frustrated and stumped. Photo by Suzie Tremmel via Flickr Common Creative

My new pet peeve is a blog that doesn’t say anything and here is why.

As marketing is an ever changing entity, I spend much of my time reading blogs on different strategies and tactics. Reading what other people are doing and finding successful helps me generate new and fresh ideas for my clients. Where many years ago, we turned to books and encyclopedias to research topics, we now turn to the Internet.

Recently, I posted an article on why short copy isn’t always better. I addressed how our attention spans have greatly reduced and what impact that has on the information delivered to us. With good intentions, many companies reduce the number of words shared through collateral, newsletters, or other media knowing darn well that they only have a very short amount of you attention. The thought is not to bore you with lots of details, but just get you interested so you will call them. This same philosophy is mimicked through many corporate blogs.

Many companies think they should start a blog, but aren’t really sure how to truly deliver meaningful content. Falling short by only covering a very high level can leave the reader wondering or needing more information. This happens to me every day. As I research topics, my search engine results give me lots of options, but as I click on the links, I find the information I link to falls short.

Trust me when I say, you do not want your customers to feel the same way. The point of blogging is to share valuable information with your audience in a near instant medium while allowing the reader to engage by sharing their point-of-view or ask questions. Engagement is a two-way conversation and blogging allows that two way conversation with your prospects or customers.

With that said, failing to deliver detailed content that is thought provoking or entices someone to take action, is useless. I think as business leaders there is a fine line between sharing too much and not sharing enough.

One of my favorite quotes is by Ben Franklin. It reads:

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”

I just love Ben. He was an amazing leader. I share this with you so that as you develop a blog for your company, you will remember these words. If it isn’t worth reading, don’t write it. If you aren’t going to truly share your insight and your company with your reader, don’t start a blog. You will be wasting your readers’ time as well as your own.