The Problem With “Just Start Creating Content”
One of the biggest mistakes companies make with content marketing is starting at the wrong end.
They start writing blog posts. Then another blog post. Then a social post about the blog post. Then an email promoting the blog post. Months later, they have dozens of pieces of content and very little to show for it.
The problem usually isn’t the quality of the content but the strategy behind it.
Blog posts tend to cover broad industry trends, general best practices and big-picture ideas meant to appeal to everyone – the kind of content that’s great at building awareness but rarely helps someone who is ready to buy.
Every prospect sits somewhere on the path to a decision. Some have never heard of your firm and haven’t even started thinking about the problem you solve. Some understand they need to make a change and have started researching answers. Others know the problem, know what they need to solve it, and are actively searching for who to hire to help them.
Each group asks different questions, so each group needs different content. A thought-leadership piece that sparks curiosity in a newcomer does little for a buyer comparing providers. A pricing breakdown means nothing to someone who doesn’t know they have a problem yet.
If you want your marketing to drive business, map your content to where people are in their decision-making journey. Then build it in the right order: start with the people closest to buying and work backward.
Start With the People Who Are Ready to Buy
When your marketing budget is limited, you don’t have the luxury of spending all your time building awareness with people who may or may not ever become customers.
Start with the people who already know they have a problem, know they need a solution, and are actively considering their options.
These are your hot prospects.
They may be searching for a specific service, pricing information, a comparison between providers, answers to a time-sensitive problem, reviews or proof, an explanation of how your process works, or information about what happens if they choose to work with you.
Building content for this audience can have an immediate business impact.
Instead of asking, “What should we write about this month?” ask: “What questions does someone ask right before they decide to buy?”
Those questions should become content.
Then Move to the Warm Audience
Once you’ve addressed the people who are ready to buy, move backward to the people who are problem-aware but not decision-ready.
These prospects know something isn’t working. They may even know they need help, but they’re not ready to choose a provider yet.
They need nurturing.
Your marketing should help them understand the problem they’re trying to solve, their options, what mistakes to avoid, what the process looks like, what questions they should be asking, how to evaluate potential providers, and what results they should realistically expect.
The goal isn’t to constantly tell them to buy. The goal is to give them the information they need to feel confident enough to decide.
Good nurturing doesn’t force someone down the funnel. It helps them move through it.
Finally, Go After the Colder Audience
Only after you’ve built content for your hot and warm audiences should you spend significant energy creating content for people who aren’t actively looking for you.
This is your cold audience.
They may have never heard of your company. They may not even realize they have a problem you can solve.
This is where educational, thought-leadership, and awareness content can play a powerful role.
But cold-audience content usually takes longer to turn into revenue, which is why companies with limited budgets can get frustrated when they start here. They create content designed to build awareness, but they haven’t built the infrastructure to convert people who are already interested. They’re filling the top of the funnel but leaving those prospects with nowhere further to go.
The Key Is to Work Backward
Think of your marketing strategy as at least three audiences.
Hot: “I’m ready to solve this.” Your marketing should help them decide.
Warm: “I have a problem, and I’m researching solutions.” Your marketing should educate and nurture.
Cold: “I’ve never heard of you, and I’m not thinking about this yet.” Your marketing should create awareness and interest.
The mistake is assuming you have to start with the cold audience. You don’t.
Work backward.
Start with the decision. Then identify what someone needs to know before they’re ready to make that decision. Then identify what they need to understand before they even begin evaluating solutions.
Now you have a content strategy.
Your Content Should Compound
A strong marketing engine is a connected system.
A hot-audience article might answer: “Do I need this service?”
That article can lead to: “How much does [service] cost?”
Then: “What should I know before starting this process?”
Then: “How do I choose the right provider?”
Now you’ve created a path.
One piece of content supports another. Your website starts answering the questions prospects have at different stages of the buying journey.
Your sales team can send prospects useful resources instead of recreating the same explanations over and over. Your email marketing has something valuable to distribute. Your social content has something substantive to point toward.
And, increasingly, your content can help search engines and AI platforms understand exactly what your company knows and what problems you solve.
That’s a marketing engine.
Don’t Ask, “What Should We Post?” Ask Better Questions.
Instead of sitting down every month and brainstorming random topics, start with your customers.
Ask: What are people asking right before they hire us? Those are your hot topics.
Ask: What questions do people ask while they’re researching their options? Those are your warm topics.
Ask: What does someone need to understand before they even realize they need us? Those are your cold topics.
This approach creates content with a purpose.
Every article has a job. Every resource fits somewhere in the customer journey. And every piece of content has a reason for existing.
The Long-Term Payoff
Working backward isn’t necessarily the fastest way to produce a mountain of content, but it’s the fastest way to build useful content.
Over time, those resources begin to compound.
Your website becomes more authoritative. Your sales team has better resources. Your prospects become more educated before they ever talk to you. Your marketing becomes less dependent on constantly creating something new.
And eventually, you can go after colder audiences with much more confidence because you have an entire system waiting for them when they’re ready.
That’s the real goal of content marketing.
Not more blog posts. Not more traffic for the sake of traffic. Not a bigger content calendar.
A marketing engine that moves people from “I’ve never heard of you” to “You’re exactly who I need.”
And the smartest way to build that engine? Start at the end. Then work backward.