Classic blogging decision. Someone else is killing it so you decide to do the same thing. If it seems to be working for them then clearly you should be doing it too.
The truth is what they are doing might be a great decision for their business, but not necessarily the right decision for yours. Then again, maybe they aren’t even doing the right thing for their own business in which case copying their strategy would be even more foolish.
We’ve all been there. Those “deer in headlights” moments where we are at a loss for what to blog about. I know, I’ve been there plenty. Considering how many great marketers are out there, and how great a job so many of them do with their blogs. I get it. It’s scary. And that is coming from me, someone that I’m going to be bold enough to claim as a blogging expert. For you, the business owner that is focused on running your business I fully understand how daunting this entire “blogging” thing is, particularly if you are starting to see a number of your competitors “run away with it.”
A Tailored Blogging Strategy
So what are you supposed to do? Blatantly copying a strategy is certainly an option. But again, you need to appreciate that someone else’s blogging strategy is entirely built for someone else – someone that is not you… So, it is VERY UNLIKELY that someone else’s strategy is the recipe for you to be the leader – after all despite being a competitor your business is probably very different from theirs in many ways.
Instead, what you should be doing is taking notes. Figuring out what parts of other blogging strategies seem to make sense, and even more so seem to make sense for your business. Learning and applying best practices, but as with all things best, molding these ideas in ways that add value for you.
What you should be doing is giving some real hard thought to your customers instead of only focusing on your competitors. You should be creating an approach to blogging that will give value to your customers. An approach that will encourage potential customers to become new customers. An approach that will be representative of your business and an approach that will ultimately feel like YOU.
At the end of the day your goal is not to copy someone else’s approach to blogging, but rather to do such an amazing job that you see that your competitors are copying you! And then guess what – your competitors will have this amazing approach to blogging, except that they will be using the wrong approach for their business (which also happens to be the best approach for yours!)
If you want to dig in further and to begin to craft a framework for your own customized business blogging success I suggest you take a look at my new book Better Business Blogging (this link takes you to Amazon.com) – currently available through Amazon’s Kindle marketplace. To learn more, and to access the free worksheets that I created to support the book please visit the Better Business Blogging main page here on Gadarian Digital.