Gas Stations Don’t Need Blogs
January 16, 2008
I read a post today on how a corner gas station owner could benefit from having a blog.
Challenge: Can You Stump Business and Blogging?
I know you’re going to read it and then tell me it was not about gas stations needing blogs, but about the benefits of blogging for any and every business. My argument is that this post is absurd and misleading in its self-serving logic. (Of course a site that generates ad revenue based on content for business blogging would say every business needs a blog!) I know the piece was meant to be fun and attract traffic, but this was just over the top. I would also not take such offense if I didn’t see this same sentiment echoed by 95% of the web developers and marketing professionals out there. To combat this problem, and to help the non-tech people just looking for advice on marketing their business and their website, I offer this:
Every business does not need a blog!
As I have written before, there are many reasons why some people should not have a blog. To elaborate on this with the gas station owner:
Writing skills are important.
Many gas station owners, especially in this area, either don’t speak English, speak English as a second language, or lack the writing skills of a professional writer. Running a gas station requires good management skills, but not necessarily good written and oral skills. If you do not speak English fluently or do not write well, your blog is not going to be a strong marketing piece for your company.
Blogging is not cost-effective in this niche.
Which of these takes less time and costs a gas station owner less:
- Setting up and maintaining a blog, or
- Putting out a sign on the corner with prices and specials?
I’m going to make an educated guess in saying the sign is also more effective as well.
This niche has already been done.
Do you think the local gas station will have more internet marketing power than Yahoo! Answers, AAA, or About.com? There is just no way my local gas station is going to surpass the power of a search engine or a social media site.
Conversions and traffic are not guaranteed.
After composing his posts, the gas station owner would then have to spend time building traffic to his site … so now he is spending time marketing both his blog online and his company offline. All of this effort does not mean any of his stumbling-in readers will convert to regulars to build trust, nor does it mean his blog readers will convert to sales at the pump. In fact, I’d guess that the conversion rate from first-timers to regulars, and from readers to gas-purchasers, is pretty low in this scenario.
Gas stations are local businesses.
Very few people will drive more than a mile or 2 out of their way to fill up their gas tank, and it usually has to be quite a deal to be worth it. Having a blog will not attract customers to your station from 3 cities over. What are the odds that people living in your immediate area will find your blog through Google, become a regular reader, and then start using your station instead of their regular one?
Gas stations don’t require experts.
It’s gas, not rocket science—the station provides it and you put it in your car. Many people don’t even know who works there or owns the station because they just pay at the pump and drive off.
The proposed questions can be found on Yahoo! Answers.
Most single-topic quick-answer types of sites don’t have long-term readers or regulars.
Running a gas station is time-consuming.
When the owner is not running his business, do you think he’d rather be home blogging or spending time with his family? My husband works long hours, and I know that thinking about work is the last thing he wants to do when he gets home.
Your Opinion?
What do you think? Do gas stations need blogs? Can every business benefit from having a blog?
Update
The discussion has been continued over at Business and Blogging and the StartupNation Community. Follow the links for direct access.
Comments
13 Responses to “Gas Stations Don’t Need Blogs”
Got something to say?
-
NHG Projects & Portfolio
-
Recent Posts
-
Most Requested
-
Noteworthy Links
- Bad, Bad Business Blogging Practices - The Short List
What not to do with your business blog. - Death to Procrastination: Use the 4-day win to get your goals moving
Martha Beck thinks you can get anything done if you can break it down into a 4-day action plan. - From 0 to 2000+ Subscribers in 90 Days
Learn strategies on growing your blog subscribers that are also relevant to any website's traffic. - How Five Years of Blogging Has Changed Me
Rob May reflects on the experiences and lessons learned from blogging over the years. - How not to do a FREE calculation, Trent Reznor edition
Giving away something for free is a hot marketing topic right now, but there's definitely right and wrong ways to do it. - Subscribe to the Links Feed »
- Bad, Bad Business Blogging Practices - The Short List
Great point. Unfortunately far to many small businesses will get carried away with the latest fad rather than getting the basics right.
Thanks for your perspective on the business and blogging challenge.
We are not encouraging every business to jump on the blogging bandwagon - but with a mere 5% adoption rate there is obviously room for growth.
Our point, as you said, is to illustrate that almost any business can create a blog, if it fits in with their overall marketing strategy.
And with the low overhead involved, we do feel it should at least be considered as an option before being abandoned.
Where do you get the 5% adoption rate and what are you using to define it?
I think the “low overhead” part is a myth as well. Yes, anyone can set up a blog for free … but what is their time worth when they are writing and marketing it? Is a free blog going to achieve their goals for a branding strategy? I’d compare it to something like free VistaPrint cards … yes, they work, but spending $500 on a nice card design and some quality printing is going to do a lot more for my branding and making a statement. So when you start talking about a blog that will actually do it’s job, you could end up spending 10-15 hours a week on it and $2K for a nice design. Many small businesses can get a lot more effective advertising for less.
Location Location Location … basics of marketing. Are you ever going to purchase gas online? Now let me be a devil’s advocate!
I am not sure if anyone has tried this, but the gas station owner can accept payments online, since for most gas stations now-a-days the real margin is in the store - not the gas itself.
If you go to gas stations in small communities, you will find the owner out there chatting up with his customers. But in a busy city, I do not think so!
How many gas stations have you come across that advertise their blog? And if you do, as a blogger what would you do? If a gas station promotes their blog on permises, I’d definitely drop by to see what they have to say. And if I like it, then maybe the gas station has converted me over as a regular customer.
It could be a great way to differentiate themselves and engage people in the community.
So, who’s going to do a cost benefit analysis and present it to this forum :)
Oh man, I really cannot agree with Liz on this one. People are busy, busy, busy, and they are not going to surf a blog to buy a commodity product that is not a significant purchase – its an inefficient use of their time. People develop habits that accommodate their other routines, and this is often driven by convenience.
Suppose I sold organic seed to the Hamish, or taxi services for seniors … You have to respect the marketing delivery preferences of your target market, or you will not be in business for long.
I do not find blogs to be low cost . . . I consider them to be a major investment in time and thought. Value is not cheap! To build trust, a great deal of the material cannot be outsourced. If you are not a verbal communicator and have some technical comfort, this is not a successful strategy. Surely the entrepreneur deserves some respect for understanding their own strengths, and playing to them. Sure, consider a blog, but it is not for many (in my view – most) small businesses.
I guess others view of their part of the universe differ, but . . . I’m with you on this one.
Mike
[...] though we got some attention from Small Business Essentials, who was offended by our article. She referred to the premise that almost any business could have a blog, especially a gas [...]
Hi!
I started to explain myself further in the comments of this blog - but it got so long - I realized it really was another post!
Please stop by and see my response to Nikole’s post on today’s businessandblogging.
While I hear what you all are saying, I still stand by my original premise - a blog is a low-cost tool that could be useful in more businesses than are currently adopting it.
Also, to Nikole’s question as to where I got the 5% number - it came from a NYTimes article that quoted a study by AMEX researching how many small businesses (defined as busineses with less than 100 employees) have blogs. The answer was 5%. The survey was based on less than 400 businesses - out of a population of 23 million. If you accept that it was a valid sample, then you can assume 5% or 1.25 million businesses are blogging.
I haven’t been able to find any stats more valid than that - but I sure would be interested if anyone has any other sources to support/deny.
I can think of several ways that a blog could benefit a gas station, although it might not operate as a traditional marketing strategy.
Consider the various alternatives some gas stations are beginning to offer, especially in the Midwest. A gas station could use a blog to communicate about the benefits of switching to bio-diesel, etc. to consumers.
Furthermore, several of your arguments seem spurious: there’s actually a fair amount of downtime at the average gas station — making blogging a legitimate use of time. Many gas station owners do not even work regularly in their own stations: some own multiple stations, some use franchise systems. I think you’ve drawn your conclusions based on the assumption that every gas station operates along similar lines. However, many gas stations use very different operating structures, some of which could be conducive to blogging.
I completely agree that there are too many pundits out there making it sound like blogs will solve all problems.
But your premise that gas stations don’t need blogs makes a bunch of false assumptions about gas stations, and about blogs. Any business that has something unique to communicate with customers or potential customers might be a good candidate for a blog. Might not.
Definitely no one should make a big commitment of time and energy to something that won’t improve their relationships with customers, suppliers and community. Nor should they ignore considering the possibilities.
[...] Gipps presents Gas Stations Don’t Need Blogs posted at Small Business [...]
[...] Gipps at Small Business Essentials insists that ”Gas Stations Don’t Need Blogs.” She presents a good argument that a gas station owner can better spend his time elsewhere. [...]
[...] not the best person to list the reasons for Not Blogging, I’ll refer you to this article on Small Business Essentials and this conversation at Start Up [...]
Hello my friends :)
;)