Bloghound

Going more narrow is an under-valued marketing strategy. When we focus on a narrow slice of an issue or focus on a very specific audience it’s often easier to provide insightful advice and perspectives than appealing more generally. Going narrow doesn’t mean that we don’t understand broader aspects of an issue or industry, but that we understand the issues so well that we’re able to hone in an especially relevant or or overlooked area of importance.

Don Dodge of The Next Big Thing blog and director of business development for Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team gets this. Don and I met this week at a conference where we were both speaking. I asked him why he thought his year-and-a-half-old blog has generated such a following, upwards of 25,000 people a week.

“When I blog I talk about topics that are relevant to to a relatively small group of people — venture capitalists and technology start-ups,” he explained. “I only write about what I think will interest this group, which in reality is maybe just 2,500 people. And I only blog when I have something to say.”

Next time you’re wrestling with what to talk about, try going narrow.

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