Three Types of Content to Keep Off Your Blog

Before we start, it is important to realize that having a blog is usually better than not having a blog. Additionally, well-written content is preferable to poorly written content. Finally, regular posting is also a good thing. Regular, well-written posts that break the “rules” below are far, far better than irregularly posted garbage that follows these guidelines.

Nothing listed below is so off-limits that you should start clicking ‘delete’ on existing posts.  But when you start to understand that the blog is about building rapport with prospects and your website is about selling them on you and your wares, it becomes clear why these topics should be avoided if possible.

Here are three types of content that do not belong on your blog.

Blog Content About Your Product

“Huh?” you might think. “But our blog is where we put information about software updates.”  If that’s the case, use the blog to write a short post announcing a new release then link to the technical documentation or release notes.  Announcing a new feature or bell-and-whistle?  Introduce it via a press release, place the info on a product page, and then write a blog post detailing how the problem you can now solve affects the industry and the reader.  Your reader will put two and two together and appreciate the frame of reference instead of just a billboard for your new whatever-it-is.

If you are using your blog to highlight features in an effort to sell something then you are doing more harm than good.  Your company blog is a safe and comfortable place for readers to learn more about the sector and form a favorable opinion of your business. People are smart and, believe it or not, they don’t need to be hit over the head to find their way to the main website. Leave the product promotion off the blog.

Blog Content About Your Company

Some of the least-read posts on company blogs are posts that spotlight a member of your team. Internally, these feel-good pieces can help with the company culture. Understood. But your intended blog audience likely has very little appetite to read 600 words about one of your employees. Additionally, these kinds of posts do not do much for organic search rankings but take the same time and energy to craft as a post that can help move the SERP needle. 

The same goes for posts about your new office, the business’s origin story, your hiring spree, etc.  Those news items can and should be shared. They simply shouldn’t be shared on their blog. Posting this news on your blog is disruptive and distracting to people that want to learn how to solve a problem they have.  

Remember, your blog is a marketing tool and marketing tools drive sales. That starts by connecting with people that have a problem your company can solve. And that happens when you aren’t spending time introducing the dogs that come to the office, sharing how your latest event went, or announcing that you have crossed some arbitrary important employee count.

Actually, the dog introductions are fine. Forget we wrote that.

Blog Content About Your Last Funding Round

The only people that care about your funding round are the people that wrote the check, and the people that deposited the check. To think that customers, clients, or prospects want to come to your blog and read how VC Company A or PE Company B just invested a truckload of money is silly. 

Are funding announcements news?  Absolutely.  And that is what press releases and social media are good for.  If your blog tells me that you just raised X million dollars to invest in product/sales/marketing then I will click the X and likely never come back.  And I promise you that a lot of readers share that sentiment.

Are you in complete disagreement?

If you insist on adding thing things like “User’s Guide” or “Release Notes” as a post, at least have the good sense to have that content on a second blog. A blog filled with too many different threads of content quickly feels disorienting to the reader.  The reaction you want is one of, “the company behind this post really understands this industry and the problems people like me face.  Let me click over here and see what they do…”

If you disagree or would simply like to better understand what kind of content SHOULD be on your company blog, head over to our site and get in touch.  We love talking about content strategy as much as we love writing. It would be great to get to know your point of view.