During a MarketingProfs PRO webinar with Mack Collier just now, an attendee expressed concern in the chat room about not blogging because it will show competition what she is up to.

She asked:

“What about any concerns about blogging about topics/issues that may give competitors info about your services that you may not want them to know?  My client may not want her competitors to know what she’s up to…”

This is a concern I’ve seen clients express, so I offered my thoughts, which are:

“You can’t spend your valuable time worrying about your competition. They can’t do WHAT you do HOW you do it, so you just have to put your head down and do it.  The downside to staying under the radar is too great to let it hold you back.”

You can’t go through your professional life not showing your clients and potential clients what you know because it might tip off your competition. Trust me, if your competition needs to watch your activity for ideas about how to run their business, they have other issues, so you are way ahead!

If they want to scurry around watching all of their competitors in an effort to steal their ideas, then let them try. There is no way they can do exactly what you do, and do it how you do it.

If you are working from a strategic marketing perspective, where you know who you are writing for, are writing about topics they are curious about, AND you are adding in a heavy dose of interacting and discussing these issues with them, your competition will not be able to duplicate your efforts.

Stop putting up these roadblocks to progress. That’s all they are…roadblocks. Worse yet, you’re the one putting them there, which is unnecessary and unproductive.

• Get out there.
• Write about what you do.
• Write about what your clients do.
• Write about what concerns your clients.
• Write about what is going on in their industry that is troubling them.
• Talk to them.
• Let them know you are a real person, not just a keyboard.
• Answer comments and questions.
• Be consistent.
• Stop hiding your skills.
• Help your clients.

If you do at least these 11 things on a regular basis, it won’t even matter if your competition has your office bugged because they are not going to be able to put together the package that is you.

If you don’t do these things, you are not going to be worthy of competition OR clients copying or knowing what you do, and what good is that?