An honest assessment of blogging for a small local business, including when it is genuinely not worth the effort.
The honest answer is: sometimes, and less often than content marketing agencies suggest. New Zealand's search volumes are small, so the arithmetic differs from the American case studies the advice is usually based on.
Run the numbers first
Suppose you write a post targeting a term with 100 searches a month in New Zealand. Rank first, take perhaps a third of the clicks, and that is 30 visitors a month. At a 3 percent enquiry rate, that is roughly one enquiry a month.
Whether that justifies the effort depends entirely on what one customer is worth. For a business where a client is worth $10,000, one enquiry a month is excellent. For one where a sale is worth $50, it is not.
When it does work
- Your customers research before buying, and the purchase is considered rather than impulsive
- One customer is worth four figures or more
- You have genuine expertise that is hard to fake
- You can sustain it for at least six months before judging results
When to skip it
- You need enquiries this month. Content is slow, and paid search is the tool for immediate need.
- Nobody searches for what you do. Some businesses genuinely have no search demand, and that is worth finding out before writing fifty posts.
- You cannot commit consistently. Four posts then silence is worse than not starting.
If you do it, do fewer things properly
Twelve genuinely useful posts that answer real customer questions outperform fifty thin ones. Write down the questions customers ask you on the phone. Those are your topics, they have proven demand, and you already know the answers.
Target long tail terms with clear intent rather than broad head terms. 'How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Auckland' is a better target than 'bathroom renovation', because the person searching it is closer to buying and the competition is thinner.