Are Your 100,000 Going Into Your Business Blog?

“You may not think of yourself as a writer, but research says that you are,” observes
Tom Searcy, CEO of Hunt Big Sales. The average sales person, with emails, proposals, quotes, texts, and other documentation, writes more than 2,000 words per week,  he explains, which adds up to 100,000 words a year.

Not that more is necessarily better, Searcy hastens to add. In fact, he cautions, you want to use as few words as possible to communicate your idea, a tactic he calls ”writing tight.”

Writing tight is good advice for sales presentations and for business blogs.  Interestingly enough, though, the business owners and professionals I talk to tend to be worried about the opposite thing happening – running out of material. month or two into blogging for their business, the glaring question for them is, “So, what else is there to blog about?” 

That’s where those existing 100,000 words might enter the picture. Repurposing content that, while valuable, may be languishing in the email newsletter archive is one way to give it new life. Paul Chaney of Practical Ecommerce points out that “for many companies, email newsletters are relegated to monthly syndication. That means the prospect or customer is only contacted 12 times per year, not nearly enough to establish a ‘top-of-mind’ relationship.” Business blog posts can fill that gap, at the same time making use of the already-written material.

As a business blogging trainer, I’ve always prescribed RALA (Read-Around-Learn-Around) as the cure for content deprivation. Ideas are all over the place, all of the time, I explain, but you’ve got to do a lot of reading and listening and be alert for connections to your own topic. Sharing OPW (Other People’s Wisdom” is one valuable service you can provide your readers.

But, as Tom Searcy is showing us, we blog content writers can look within for our content as well. In line with that idea. NPR Digital media uses the acronym C.O.P.E. standing for Create Once, Publish Everywhere.

How many of YOUR 100,000 words are ending up in your business blog?