Last week I went to a networking breakfast.

You know the type. The early morning, tea and English breakfast, stand-up-and-tell-us-what-you-do-type meetings. Not quite as rigid as BNI but a tad more formal than a casual meet-up.

So there I am, sitting in my chair, anxiously awaiting my turn to speak.

I’m not a fan of public speaking. Or mornings. Combine the two and it’s just not my day.

But I love what I do and I’ve got my elevator pitch all prepared. I’ve practiced it and I’m feeling fairly confident.

I stand up and start to speak…

I’m no more than 30 seconds through my pitch, explaining how I can help companies to keep their blogs fresh, fun and profitable, when the guy on the table next to me sniggers.

Actually sniggers.

I assume that it must be a coincidence and perhaps the guy next to him just did something funny.

But no. I keep talking and he does it again.

He is definitely laughing at me.

My. Worst. Nightmare.

I’m speaking in public and someone is laughing at me!

Now, if you know me, you’ll know that while I may be dying a little inside, my approach to awkward situations is to jump right in and deal with that baby head on.

So I asked him “I’m sorry, is something funny?” Not very British of me I know, but I just can’t bear the suspense otherwise.

He went a little pink but answered “Yes. You’ve obviously missed the memo. Blogging is dead. It’s over. It’s a big fat waste of time. You’re pitching people on this half a decade too late”

I have to admit that kind of floored me for a second.

I thought perhaps he was laughing because I had something in my teeth or maybe I had forgotten to put my bra on that morning.

But no. He genuinely believed what he was saying. That blogging was dead and I was a fool for suggesting otherwise.

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve come across this opinion. You don’t have to go far to find many others who think what he thinks. Who believe that blogging is dead.

But they’re wrong.

Blogging Isn’t Dead – It’s Just Different

They’re right in some ways. Blogging is no longer the easy, whack-anything-up-on-a-website and it will bring you traffic goldmine that it used to be. There’s way more competition, attention spans are getting shorter and people are feeling a massive information overload.

It’s no longer good enough to just write a blog post.

It used to be that anyone could put a few words together, add it to their blog and get a bit of traction. That’s no longer the case. These days your blog posts have to be useful, relevant, entertaining, well-written and give massive value to the reader.

Basically, your content needs to be really good or you won’t get any attention.

So yes. For the amateur, who is throwing poor-quality content at the wall and hoping it will stick, it’s dead. Don’t bother.

But for the experienced content marketers that know how to write, engage, enthral and inspire, the opportunity is just getting started.

Strategy Matters

One of the main differences now, is that strategy really matters. If you’re hoping to raise your search ranking or bring more organic traffic to your site through blogging, then you need to have an effective content strategy in place. You need to know what to write, when to write it, where to share it and what to link it to, if you want to get results.

Just writing random blog posts on anything in your field will no longer do it.

You Need a Crystal Clear Objective

Blogs are wonderful, flexible tools that can many great things for your business. But if you try to do too much, it loses its power.

So what’s the main objective of your blog? Is it to improve your search ranking? Or to engage with your current list of customers and prospects? Your content and strategy should be tailored to suit your main objective.

Sure, you’ll catch a little of all the benefits whatever goal you choose. But if you don’t set out with a clear objective in mind then you’ll dilute your strength and weaken your results.

So Is It Still Worth The Effort?

Absolutely. There’s no denying it. Creating regular, high-quality blog content that is relevant to your reader, gives massive value and demonstrates your expertise is an excellent way to build trust with your prospects and clients, bring more traffic to your site and turn more leads into customers.

But now more than ever, you’ve got to do it right. Nail it and you’ll be blown away with the results.

Now, I realise I left you hanging there. Back to my networking nightmare…

So, there I am stood up in front of a room full of strangers, being laughed at by a man I have never met.

Did I share what I have just shared with you? Did I put him right? Start spouting statistics and try to convince him otherwise? Tell him he is rude and threaten to phone his mother?

I admit, I really wanted to. But no.

I took a deep breath, gave him a big smile, then looked away and continued with my pitch.

Why? Because the number one rule in marketing is to know your customer avatar and he wasn’t it.

The rest of the meeting went fine. A few people apologised for his behaviour. They didn’t know him but I think they felt embarrassed on his behalf.

And I came home with a few solid leads… Because when you get your message right, it doesn’t matter if you have a critic in the room. The people you can help will hear you.

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