A recent article on Inc. had me thinking about a familiar topic.
The article, How to Achieve True Job Security, has some great insight into the current landscape in the workforce. If you aren’t making yourself irreplaceable then you’re treading water until someone comes along that provides more value for your employer.
Scary right?
For the business owner, something just as scary is waking up one day and realizing that your business model is gone. It can happen and it is especially possible for those working in the online world.
The danger of losing your business model is always there. The ability to acquire new customers is one of the most important aspects of your business. Without a way to acquire new customers for a profit, you will soon go out of business.
The frustrating thing is that the way you acquire new customers tends to change.
If your business is focusing on social media or even search as a way to regularly acquire new customers you are taking a risk that something out of your control will one day change.
Then you’ll be left to struggle to find a new business model.
Blogging for Business Security
I’ve written on this topic before:
- An Example of Why You Can’t Yield to Facebook
- Google+, Your Business, and Your Blog
- Are Business Owners Missing the Blogging Opportunity?
- Producing Unique Content for Facebook…Smart Idea?
- Social Media Strategy Starts With a Content Strategy
This is a topic I’m passionate about. I do not want you to lose your business model easily. It’s happened before to others that focus too heavily on a single marketing channel that is really out of their control.
If you are focusing on Facebook, Twitter, or even Google as the main or one of the main contributors to your customer acquisition then you are playing with fire. All of these marketing channels and others like them have shown they are willing to make changes that impact the strategy of businesses. The moves these companies make is usually in their best interest. They are not looking out for the best interest of their business users.
So what is a better strategy?
My personal belief is a content strategy, including a blogging strategy, is the best way to acquire customers online.
A content strategy can involve the creation of any kind of content. You could create content for a blog, for a guide on your website. You could create videos for your website or graphics. There are a variety of different ways to create content including blogging.
The idea is that creating content for your own website, including blog content, is an investment in yourself first. You want to create content that is for your website first and the other channels second.
Blogging and other content strategies you own on your own site can spread out the ways you acquire new customers. You can acquire new customers via the following channels:
- Search (Google, Bing, etc.)
- Social (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- RSS
- Word of Mouth (Yes, this still happens)
The reason businesses consider ignoring content strategy and blogging is because it seemingly takes more effort. That is true. It does take more effort to create content for your own website as opposed to paying Google for clicks or spending time posting content on a social channel as you try to interrupt your target audience.
It’s a much better strategy in the long run, and a more secure method of customer acquisition, to focus on your own content strategy, such as blogging, instead of investing in other online marketing channels.
Do you agree? Disagree?
Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments.