Company playbook / 03 / Content & trust
PostHog
Write for developers, not search engines
PostHog publishes unusually direct advice about developer marketing. Its message is simple: engineers notice shallow content. Give them something useful, specific and technically correct.
01 / What they actually did
Start with what it calls defensive SEO
In its 2025 marketing lessons, PostHog recommends competitor comparisons, integrations and “best tools” pages before chasing giant informational keywords. It says SEO can take five to six months to show progress. [P1]
Developers review marketing
PostHog says it hires developers into marketing, reviews content like code and prefers depth over breadth. The site is treated as a product, not a brochure. [P1]
Transparency used as a trust signal
PostHog says its public handbook helped address early objections about whether the team was strong and whether the company would survive. [P1] [P2]
Content sits beside product use
Its public sales handbook shows how the commercial team approaches new business. For a self-serve tool, product behavior and real needs are more valuable than an anonymous pageview. [P3]
02 / What you can learn
Lesson to keep: A strong technical article answers a specific question so well that a developer shares it—even if they never buy. Then make the next step useful: runnable example, free tool or trial.
Don’t over-copy: Don’t confuse a few high-ranking posts with a full acquisition engine. SEO takes time, and some PLG tactics only work if users can self-serve.
03 / How to do something similar
- 01Start with search terms that show someone is choosing or integrating a tool.
- 02Ask an engineer to write or review the draft. Include commands, architecture, trade-offs and failure cases.
- 03Put a working example, repo, calculator or demo next to the article where feasible.
- 04Add a relevant next step, not an aggressive sales popup.
- 05Refresh articles based on technical accuracy and reader behavior; track qualified trials and opportunities over time.
Examples you could publish or run
What to measure
Qualified organic signups/evaluations and assisted pipeline, not pageviews alone.
04 / Copy the framework
Inspired by PostHog
Engineer-written technical article
A guide that someone can actually use, test and share.
TITLE: How to [specific task] with [specific stack] 1. The problem and where it shows up in production 2. Prerequisites and environment versions 3. Small architecture diagram / mental model 4. Exact implementation steps + runnable snippets 5. Expected output and how to check it 6. 3 failure modes and how to debug them 7. Trade-offs / when NOT to use this approach 8. Links to docs, repos and an optional product demo EDITORIAL REVIEW: - Engineer checked commands and screenshots - Claims are reproducible and limitations visible - Useful even if the reader never buys - No generic “everything is changing” introduction MEASURE: Qualified activations and assisted opportunities.
05 / Original sources