Stop trying to write a blog post everyone will read
"Be consistent" isn't the worst blogging advice going. That's a different post for a different day. This one's about a piece of advice that sounds just as sensible and does just as much damage: write for a broad audience.
Nearly every client who comes to me with a blog that isn't working has done exactly this. Pictured as many readers as possible. Written something broad enough to catch all of them. Sounds like common sense, right? But it's usually the exact reason nobody reads to the end.
A post trying to be useful to everyone tends to end up useful to nobody. It's too general to answer anyone's actual question, so nobody thinks "that's my situation!". Nobody shares it, nobody remembers it, and nobody comes back for more.
Why do narrow blog posts perform better than broad ones?
Narrow posts perform better because they match how people actually search. Nobody types "everything about marketing" into Google. They type the specific, possibly slightly awkward version of their own problem. A post written for one specific person, in one specific situation, will always beat a post trying to be useful to everyone in general.
Of course, writing something more broad feels safer. It’s not a daft instinct. It comes from a real fear: what if I get too specific and miss all the people who don't have that exact problem?
Except that's not how people actually search or read. Nobody scrolls a general overview hoping something in it happens to apply to them. They search for their situation, because that's what's rattling round their head. "Everything you need to know about X" doesn't match anyone's real search. "Is Product X worth it if I only need it twice a year" matches someone's search exactly.
Going broad doesn't protect you from missing readers. It just guarantees you never fully reach any of them.
What does a narrow blog post actually look like?
Picture two versions of the same topic.
Version one: "A Guide to Choosing a Marketing Consultant." It includes pricing, qualifications, red flags, questions to ask: 1,000 words trying to be useful to anyone considering any kind of marketing consultant, anywhere.
Version two: "Is It Worth Hiring a Marketing Consultant If You're Only Turning Over £40k a Year?" Same broad subject, one specific angle, written for one specific person mid-decision.
Version two will get fewer readers. It also converts a far higher share of those readers, because everyone reading it recognises themselves immediately. That's the trade you're making on purpose. Now you’re getting intentional.
How do you actually narrow a topic down?
Here are three checks you can try.
Say it out loud, as a question, not a title. "A guide to X" isn't something anyone asks out loud. "Is X worth it if Y" is. If your topic doesn't sound like something a real person would say to your face, it's still too broad. If a handful of real people could genuinely ask the question out loud, it's not too narrow. The risk isn't narrowness, it's vagueness dressed up as broad appeal.
Check who it excludes. A genuinely narrow post should clearly not be for some people. If you can't name anyone it's obviously not written for, it's probably still trying to cover everyone.
Pick the smallest true version of the question. Not "how does X work," but "how does X work if you're already doing Y". That added condition is what makes it specific enough to actually matter.
Won't I miss people by being this narrow?
The truth is, you won't miss the people who were never going to convert from a broad post anyway. Broad posts don't reach a wider useful audience. They reach a wider audience of skimmers, most of whom were never anywhere near a decision. A post trying to be useful to everyone tends to end up useful to nobody. Vanilla, basically.
Narrow posts reach fewer people, but a much higher share of them are close to exactly the decision you can help with.
I’m also not saying you should limit yourself to only writing narrow posts, forever, for all time. A handful of narrow posts, each answering one specific version of a common question, will cover more real ground between them than a single broad post ever could. And each one individually works harder for it.
What should you do with this?
Next time you sit down to write, resist the urge to broaden it "just in case". Say the topic out loud as a question. Check who it clearly isn't for. Pick the smallest true version of it, and write for the ten people actually asking it, not the 1,000 who might skim past.
So next time you sit down to write, don't ask "who could this be useful to?" Ask "who is definitely, unmistakably, hand-on-heart going to read this and think that's literally me?"
If you can't picture that person, you haven't narrowed it enough yet.
