Is the company blog dead? 

Summary: In this episode of ‘Dear Marketers,’ Host Emily Kramer and her friends Jenny Thai, Head of Content at Vanta and Devon Watts, Head of Product Marketing & Partner Marketing at Mercury, discuss the company blog and whether it is alive and well. They dive into a blog versus a resource center, having a show versus having a feed, and avoiding random acts of marketing. Together, they discuss the essential factors to consider when creating content for your audience.

Dear Marketers is produced by MKT1 & Caspian Studios in partnership with Typeform. Episode 8 is sponsored by Framer and UserGems.

About our hosts

Emily Kramer is the creator of MKT1 Newsletter, a marketing advisor, and an investor. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She’s helped hundreds of startups with B2B marketing, has over 50,000 subscribers on Substack, and has reached millions through her content. Kramer’s known for her pragmatic advice, first principles approach to marketing, and her “krameworks.” When not marketing “marketing,” you can find her with her dogs in Oakland, CA or eating ice cream on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.

Jenny Thai is a marketing leader with 15 years of content and storytelling experience at high-growth B2B startups. She currently leads content at Vanta where she’s building full-funnel programs to fuel brand and business growth. Before that, Jenny was Director of Communications + Content at Clearbit and Head of Content at Asana where she scaled the content team and function from Series C to post-DPO. When she’s not thinking about doing some content, Jenny enjoys reading books, eating noodles, and playing skee ball.

Devon Watts is a long-time startup marketer currently leading Product and Partner Marketing at Mercury. Previously, she ran marketing for the high-growth fintech Anrok, and spent time building her PMM, content, and brand expertise at companies like Yammer, Asana, and Carta. Devon has led B2B marketing teams with anywhere from 1 to 25+ people, and has experience in PLG and sales-led motions. In addition to marketing, Devon loves her kids, being on/in/near the water, her dog Dolores, and eating cheese.

We also hear from Matt Hodges, Founding Marketer at Lorikeet, who asks, “Is the company blog dead?”

Quotes

 “At the end of the day, writing content with a strong point of view that leverages expertise that is built with dis or created with distribution in mind and distribution on channels that your audience cares about is what’s going to help you grow. Don’t get so stuck in this world of optimizing for LLMs and forget the point.” – Emily Kramer “[The company blog]  is evolving. It’s not dead, but I think it’s hit middle age. It’s having an identity crisis and it needs to figure out the next phase of its life.” – Jenny Thai

“If no one reads your blog, it’s not showing up in SEO, and it’s not showing up on LLMs, why does it exist? A lot of people are still doing it, but they no longer know why. And there needs to be an evolution here.” – Emily Kramer

“Don’t start with the question, should this live on our website or not? Start with the question of what you’re doing for your audience.” – Devon Watts

Time stamps

[00:00] Meet Jenny and Devon, plus fun facts

[01:39] Today’s question: Is the blog dead?

[03:04] Lightning round

[07:44] The evolution of company blogs

[10:23] “Shows” versus “feeds”

[13:26] Distribution should drive content strategy

[17:25] What real marketers are doing today

[23:39] Should companies still publish long-form content?

[31:48] Blogs versus resource centers

[33:30] Debating executive blog posts

[38:55] Research on top startups’ use of blogs and resources

[42:05] Should some content be “nomadic”?

[51:16] Optimizing content for humans or for LLMs

[57:10] Best, Marketer 

Recommended products & agencies

Typeform: Use code “MKT1” for 20% off the Growth Plan

Framer:Use code “MKT1” for 25% off

UserGems: Mention MKT1 for free onboarding

Caspian Studios

Connect with: 

Emily Kramer

Jenny Thai

Devon Watts

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