Should You Write About Your Products on Your Blog?

It can seem questionable to write about your products or services on your blog.  And sometimes it is.  If you do it wrong, it can go south pretty quickly.  If you keep one rule of thumb in mind when you're creating blog articles, no matter what the topic is, you'll be fine: 

What would help the customer? 

Blogging about products the wrong way.

There are a few things that happen when companies get a little too lackadaisical about this rule of thumb.  Here's the most common mistakes: 

• There's no compelling reason to talk about their products.  They're just selling. It's boring and, honestly, no one cares. 
• The blog sounds like marketing gibberish. As soon as your blogging doesn't sound like a human, you've lost your audience.
• The blog doesn't illustrate the value of the product in a way that's interesting to the reader. 

Why people will read your product blogs

Look, there are only a few reasons why your customers or prospects will read a blog about your products.  First, whatever you're writing about your product should help that person look like a rockstar to their spouse, boss, children, parents or whomever is putting pressure on them to solve a challenge. This should be true for every. single. post. 

So, if you're tackling the art and science of blogging about your products, start with these quick guidelines: 

1. Keep it short. No one wants long form content about your product unless you're Google or Amazon.  And if you're reading my blog, you're probably not Google or Amazon.  So, keep it to 300 words. Demonstrate value and get out of there before things get awkward. 
2. Tell people about upcoming sales. Better yet, offer them a blog reader's discount to keep them coming back for more great deals. They save money?  They are a rockstar. 
3. Tell them when you release a new feature or service. Every time you add something to your product or service that might help your customers be more effective, efficient or save money, you'll help them win.  So, make sure you frame the feature or service from the perspective of benefit to the customer.  Make it clear how they win so they don't have to make any difficult leaps to understand how they will look like a rockstar. 

Wrapping It Up

So, if in doubt, make sure that you're framing all of your content in a way that makes it obvious for your customer to win.  And if you're struggling with that, maybe it's time to do one of two things: make sure your product/service is actually helping people win or you need someone to help you create a clear brand value message for your product.  

What's Next?

If you like learning about content strategy, you might also be interested in my overarching content strategy blog. It shows you the different level of content you should have in your content strategy. And there's a picture of a cake.  Who doesn't like cake?