The Advertising Agency Blog? Worth The Effort?
You know all about blogging so I won’t go down the pedantic click-bait road of using a headline like: “24 Unbelievable Reasons That Your Advertising Agency Should Blog”.
But, do you actually know if your advertising agency should blog? Here are the pros and cons and a path beyond running and jumping through the hoops of doing it right… like writing over 7,000 words per month (I made that up, but it’s about right if you want Google to dig you).
Blogging: The Pro’s
Blogging is an incredibly powerful new business attractor tool. Virtually all of my incoming leads and new ad agency clients come to me because I have over 500 well-targeted blog posts… just like this one. It works for me.
What about you?
Your agency blog allows you to self-publish thought leadership on a daily or weekly basis.
Your blog delivers SEO chutzpah to your website that results in more repeat views than your ‘brochure’ website could ever generate.
You have a refined content plan based on agency objectives.
You target the right viewership (as in future clients) with targeted posts.
Your blog is Ta Da… 24/7 national owned media.
Your best blog posts will get shared accross the universe.
Your posts are designed to build your new business pipeline.
Your blog is used to reinforce agency culture and acts as a new employee attractor.
Blogging: The Con’s
Blogging is a pain in the ass. Unless of course you have sound writing skills and the time to get the job done. There’s more.
Your agency blog will never ever generate significant traffic.
Your blog does not have a clear content strategy designed to attract a well-defined target audience.
Your blog subjects are all about you and not the client or their category. Unfortunatly, this is often agency SOP.
You are too busy to create an ongoing content plan and an agency culture that is slavish to a content calendar. Slavish is the keyword.
Your management just doesn’t get it.
The Guest Posting Alternative
Why write for yourself when you can put your thoughts on someone else’s blog? There are many advantages to guest posting / blogging.
Write for high traffic blogs. In most cases, you’ll be exposed to an exponentially larger audience than your agency blog could ever deliver.
Select your third party blogs because they target your new business categories and potential clients. An example is how I use HubSpot’s Agency Post (16 guest posts so far.)
Insert one or two links in the guest post website to your agency blog. Love the traffic boost.
You use the Rule of Five to amplify your posts. My post on advertising agency storytelling, “Have Agencies Abused The term Storytelling”, was first posted on Agency Post. I then posted a version on my blog, “Does Your Advertising Agency Use Storytelling In Its sales Pitch?”, and corporate Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. That’s five distribution points.
In less than 2 weeks, this storytelling post has been viewed 198 times and has generated close to 200 shares – nice ratio. Storytelling is an evergreen subject so views will only go up from there. I am sure that the original Agency Post article has been viewed much more.
Bottom Line?
Blogging works if you have clear objectives that support your business development program + a blog leader + one or more agency staffers that can write long-form copy + its baked into agency culture + you actually write so well that even your agency folks read it.
Last point. Guest posting works because it is inherently symbiotic. You get to put your words on someone else’s blog and they get free content.
That said, go forth and guest post / blog.
What’s not to like?
Leave a Reply