This question is often asked a few days after my clients get their bill for our services. It’s not a bad question. If I have done my job correctly they are excited for the new marketing campaign and are deeply involved in the new project and are committed to making the plan a success. I always have to break the bad news to them. The blog is usually not an overnight success. Like telling my children Christmas is a whole year away, my customers often become quickly discouraged.
Sticking with the child analogy, I begin by telling them that they have recently given birth to a new child and that child will not be running for President of the United States on her first day of school. They must first learn to crawl before they run. Unless of course they are my children and they seem to be able to shed the straight jacket quicker than usual. As a father of four children 7 years old and younger it seems they are always running making me feel like I am trying to herd cats.
There is a time period while the new blogger produces enough content to really be able to impart their company message on the public. There is a period of waiting while the blog is finally indexed by the search engines. There is a period of time that they get established as an expert in their field or niche. There is a time while word gets out about their service or product and that they use their blog to communicate their vision and message. People will start to come to the new blog to read your message and if you are providing something of value, they will return. This also takes time. There is a time period while building subscribers to your blog through feed readers and email subscriptions. All of these things can take some patience.
I often ask them to remember the first time they were open for business. Were they an overnight success? Did they meet their sales goals the first day of business? Not usually. They took time to build a reputation. Blogging is no different. It takes a little time for your reputation to precede them. Don’t expect blogs to be that injection of adrenaline your business needs to make it to the next level overnight. Blogs are an investment just as any other long term goal. I can assure you however that the investment will pay dividends.
Tags: Blog Marketing, Business Blogging
I see this as well and it is also true for clients who get their websites. I explain all of this in the beginning though before we ever even sign a contract so they know going into it that it will take time and effort to have their blogs help them reach their goals.
Good point Sara. We do explain that is is a big commitment to have a blog, kinda like having children, and explain this up front. Not everyone pays attention to the downside.
Hey Jim! I think you’re right on about this, but I do think there are some immediate returns on investment in blogging.
I posted about them over at BBS, but I couldn’t find a trackback URL, so I’m commenting and leaving the permalink to my post in the “website:” field.
Click on through if you’re interested.
Wonderfully said, Jim. Building a website - especially if you are going the SEO way for popularity, takes time. I would say, at a bare minimum - 6 months to a year.
Unfortunately, a lot of people crave instant gratification and expect their site to jump to the first in rankings overnight which is pretty impossible, even with the best SEO services.
You’ve got a good point Jim. Sometimes it is hard for clients to really grasp the big picture. They hear all of the great things, but sometimes the downsides and anything remotely negative turns to static