Content marketing strategies: how to build one that works, with 15 strategies to use
The Coavon team · · 21 min read
Most businesses do content marketing. Far fewer have content marketing strategies behind it. The difference shows up a year later: one business has a library of articles, guides and videos that bring in visitors and customers every week, and the other has a blog that was busy for three months and then went quiet.
This guide covers both halves of the job. First, how to build a content marketing strategy from scratch: goals, audience, topics, formats, channels, workflow and measurement. Then fifteen content marketing strategies that work for small and growing businesses, when to use each one, and how to combine them. It ends with a 90-day starter plan, the mistakes that sink most content programs, and how to run the work as a team.
Short on time? Jump to the nine steps to build a strategy, the 15 content marketing strategies, or the 90-day plan.
What is a content marketing strategy?
A content marketing strategy is a plan for using useful content (articles, guides, videos, templates, emails, social posts) to attract a specific audience and move them toward becoming customers. It answers five questions: who the content is for, what problems it helps them with, which business goal it serves, where it will be published and shared, and how you will know it is working.
People often use “strategy”, “plan” and “calendar” as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and mixing them up is one of the most common reasons content goes nowhere:
| What it answers | How often it changes | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content strategy | Why we make content, for whom, on which topics, and how we measure it | Reviewed once or twice a year | “We help owners of small accounting firms run their practice, so they trust us when they choose software.” |
| Content plan | Which pieces we will make this quarter, in what formats, for which goals | Every quarter | “Six guides on client onboarding, one original survey, a newsletter every two weeks.” |
| Content calendar | What gets published where, on which date, and who owns it | Every week | “Onboarding checklist guide: draft due the 4th, published the 11th, newsletter on the 12th.” |
A calendar without a strategy produces a steady stream of posts that do not add up to anything. A strategy without a calendar stays in a document nobody opens. You need both, in that order.
Why content marketing strategies matter for small businesses
- Content compounds. An ad stops working the moment you stop paying. A useful guide that ranks in search can bring visitors for years after it was written.
- It builds trust before the sale. People research before they buy. If your content answered their questions, you are already the expert when they are ready to choose.
- It feeds every other channel. One good article becomes a newsletter, several social posts, a sales email and an answer your support team can send.
- It is affordable. The main cost is time and thinking, which makes it one of the few channels a small team can win against much bigger competitors.
- You own it. Your site and your email list cannot be taken away by a change to a social network or an ad platform.
The catch is that content marketing is slow and easy to do badly. Publishing more does not help if the content is generic, aimed at nobody in particular, or never shared. That is what the strategy is for.
How to build a content marketing strategy in 9 steps
You can work through these steps in a few days. Write the answers down in one short document: two to four pages is plenty. If it is longer than that, nobody will use it.
1. Tie content to one or two business goals
Start with what the business needs, not with what content you would like to make. Pick one or two goals for the next six to twelve months, and be specific about how content will contribute.
| Business goal | What content does for it | How to measure it |
|---|---|---|
| More qualified leads | Brings in people researching the problem you solve and gives them a reason to get in touch | Sign-ups, demo requests or enquiries that started on a content page |
| More sales from existing traffic | Answers the questions people ask just before they buy | Conversion rate on product and pricing pages, assisted sales |
| Lower cost of getting customers | Replaces some paid traffic with search and referral traffic | Organic visitors to pages that lead to sign-ups, cost per lead over time |
| Better retention | Helps customers succeed with what they bought | Repeat purchases, renewals, fewer support requests |
| Awareness in a new market | Makes your name known to a group that has not heard of you | Branded search, newsletter sign-ups, mentions and links |
Avoid goals like “post more” or “grow the blog”. They describe activity, not results, and they make it impossible to tell whether the work is paying off.
2. Define who the content is for
Write down the audience as specifically as you can. Not “small businesses” but “owners of service businesses with five to thirty staff who are outgrowing spreadsheets”. For each audience, note:
- Their job and situation: what they are responsible for, and what a bad week looks like.
- The problems they are trying to solve, in their own words. Their words become your topics and your keywords.
- What they already know. A beginner and an expert need very different content on the same subject.
- Where they look for answers: search engines, AI assistants, YouTube, LinkedIn, communities, newsletters, colleagues.
- What stops them buying: price, risk, effort to switch, needing approval from someone else.
The best source for this is real conversations. Read support emails, sales call notes, reviews of your product and your competitors', and the questions people ask in forums and communities. Ten customer conversations will teach you more than any persona template.
3. Audit what you already have
If you have published content before, list every piece with its topic, format, date, and how much traffic and how many conversions it brings. Then sort each piece into one of four groups:
- Keep: it performs and is up to date.
- Update: the topic is right but the content is thin, dated or ranking just off the first page. Updating is often the fastest win in content marketing.
- Merge: several short pieces cover the same topic. Combine them into one stronger piece and redirect the old addresses.
- Remove: it is off-topic, wrong or worthless to readers. Delete it or redirect it to something better.
An audit also shows the gaps: questions your audience asks that you have never answered. Our free SEO audit template has a sheet for this.
4. Find the topics your audience is searching for
Topics come from two places, and you need both: what people search for, and what they ask you directly.
- Keyword research. Use a keyword tool, or the free suggestions in search engines, to find the phrases people search for around your subject. Note how many people search each one and how hard it would be to rank.
- Search intent. For each keyword, look at what already ranks. If the top results are all step-by-step guides, a product page will not rank, and the reverse. Match what the searcher wants.
- Customer questions. Every question a customer asks your sales or support team is a topic. If one person asked, many more searched.
- Competitor gaps. Look at what competitors rank for that you do not, and at the questions their content leaves unanswered.
- Your own expertise. The things you know from doing the work, which nobody else has written down, often make the most valuable content of all.
5. Choose three to five content pillars
A content pillar is a broad subject you want to be known for, and which connects to what you sell. A bookkeeping firm's pillars might be cash flow, tax preparation, hiring and payroll, and choosing accounting software. Every piece of content you make should sit under one pillar.
Pillars keep you focused. They stop the blog drifting into whatever was in the news, and they build the depth on a subject that search engines and readers both reward. Three to five is enough for a small team. Fewer, done well, beats more done thinly.
6. Pick formats and channels you can sustain
Choose formats your audience uses and your team can produce well, at a pace you can keep. A good long-form guide every two weeks will do more than a rushed short post every day.
| Format | Best for | Effort | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-depth guides and articles | Search traffic, building authority on a topic | Medium to high | Years, with updates |
| Templates, checklists and tools | Links, sign-ups, being genuinely useful | Medium | Years |
| Original research or surveys | Links, press coverage, standing out | High | One to two years |
| Customer stories | Persuading people close to buying | Medium | Years |
| Email newsletter | Staying in touch, turning readers into customers | Low to medium per issue | Builds an asset (your list) |
| Short social posts | Reach and conversation | Low per post | Days |
| Video | Showing how things work, YouTube search | Medium to high | Years on YouTube, days on social |
| Webinars and live sessions | Leads and deeper relationships | High | Longer as recordings |
| Podcasts | Loyal audiences, partnerships with guests | High | Months to years |
7. Plan how content gets made
Most content programs fail in production, not in planning. Decide up front who does what, and what “done” means at each stage. A simple workflow:
- Idea: a topic added to the backlog with its pillar, keyword and goal.
- Brief: a one-page outline of the angle, audience, search intent, key points, sources and call to action.
- Draft: written by the author.
- Review: checked by an editor for accuracy, clarity and fit with the brief. A subject expert checks anything technical.
- Design: images, screenshots, charts and the page layout.
- Publish: final checks for title, description, links and formatting.
- Distribute: shared by email, on social, with partners and with your sales team.
- Refresh: reviewed every six to twelve months and updated if it has gone stale.
Give every stage an owner and a due date. Content with no owner does not get finished.
8. Plan distribution before you write
Publishing is not the end of the job. For every piece, decide in the brief where it will be shared: your newsletter, which social accounts, which communities, which partners, and which sales or support conversations it helps with. A good rule of thumb is to spend as much time getting a piece in front of people as you spent making it.
9. Decide how you will measure it
Pick a small number of measures tied to the goals from step one, and look at them on a schedule, monthly for most teams. More on which ones in the measurement section below.
15 content marketing strategies that work
A content marketing strategy is built from a handful of individual strategies. You do not need all fifteen. Most small teams do best picking three or four that fit their goals and audience, doing them well for six months, and then adding more.
1. Topic clusters and pillar pages
Write one comprehensive pillar page on a broad topic, then a cluster of narrower articles on its subtopics, all linking to the pillar and to each other. A pillar on “project management for agencies” might link to articles on client onboarding, resourcing, scope creep and reporting.
Why it works: it shows search engines and readers that you cover a subject in depth, and the internal links spread the authority of your strongest pages to the rest. Best for: businesses that want steady search traffic on a defined subject.
2. Search-intent-first SEO content
Before writing about any keyword, look at what currently ranks and ask what the searcher wants: a definition, a step-by-step guide, a comparison, a template, or a product. Then make the most useful page for that intent, not the longest.
Why it works: content that matches intent ranks and converts. Content that does not, does neither, however good the writing. Best for: everyone doing SEO.
3. Answer every customer question publicly
Collect the questions customers ask before they buy: about price, how your product compares, problems they worry about, whether it suits a business like theirs. Answer each one honestly in its own article or page, including the uncomfortable ones.
Why it works: these are the exact questions buyers type into search engines and AI assistants just before choosing. Answering them openly builds trust that sales calls cannot. Best for: any business with a considered purchase.
4. Templates, checklists and free tools
Make something people can use straight away: a template, a checklist, a calculator, a planner. Give it away without making people jump through hoops, and write a short guide to go with it.
Why it works: useful tools earn links and bookmarks, and they show your expertise in action rather than describing it. People search for templates by name, so they also bring steady traffic. Best for: businesses whose customers do repeatable work. Our own templates library is an example.
5. Original research and data
Survey your customers or your industry, or analyze data you already have (anonymized and with permission), and publish what you find. Even a modest survey of a specific group can produce findings nobody else has.
Why it works: journalists, bloggers and other businesses need numbers to cite, and they link to the source. Original data is one of the most reliable ways to earn links. Best for: businesses with access to an audience or data others do not have. Be honest about how many people you asked and how.
6. Comparison and alternatives pages
Write fair comparisons between your product and the alternatives, and between approaches to the problem you solve. Be accurate about competitors: use their own published information, date it, and say where they are the better fit.
Why it works: people comparing options are close to buying. A fair comparison earns their trust; a one-sided one loses it. Best for: businesses in a crowded market.
7. Customer stories and case studies
Tell the story of a real customer: the problem they had, what they tried, what they chose and why, and what changed. Use their words and real results, and only with their permission.
Why it works: buyers trust other customers more than they trust you. A story from a business like theirs answers “will this work for me?” better than any feature list. Best for: the decision stage, and sales conversations.
8. Repurpose every major piece
Plan each substantial piece as the source for several smaller ones. One in-depth guide can become a newsletter issue, a short video, a handful of social posts, a slide deck, a checklist and a sales email.
Why it works: most of the effort is in the thinking and research, which you only do once. Different people prefer different formats, and repetition across channels is how messages get remembered. Best for: small teams that need to get more from less.
9. An email newsletter that is worth reading
Build a list and send a regular newsletter with something genuinely useful in every issue: an idea, a lesson, a resource, not only links to your latest posts. Choose a schedule you can keep. Our guide to email marketing campaigns covers the details.
Why it works: your list is an audience you own. Search rankings and social reach rise and fall; your subscribers stay. Best for: every business, as the place your other content leads.
10. Expert-led and point-of-view content
Have the people with real expertise, often the founder or senior staff, share what they have learned, what they disagree with, and how they would approach a problem. Put a real name and face on it.
Why it works: opinion and first-hand experience cannot be copied from the first page of search results. Readers, and increasingly search engines, look for content written by someone who has done the work. Best for: service businesses and any business whose people are its advantage.
11. Video and short-form content
Show rather than tell: walkthroughs, how-tos, behind-the-scenes, quick answers to common questions. Longer videos suit YouTube, which is a search engine in its own right; short clips suit social feeds.
Why it works: some things are much easier to understand when you see them, and many people prefer watching to reading. Best for: products and skills that are visual or hands-on.
12. Webinars, workshops and live sessions
Teach something useful live, take questions, and send the recording to everyone who registered. Partner with a business that serves the same audience to share the work and reach both audiences.
Why it works: an hour with someone who registered is worth a hundred passing visits. Registrations are also leads. Best for: businesses selling to other businesses, and anything that needs explaining.
13. Community and social distribution
Go where your audience already talks: industry communities, forums, LinkedIn, Reddit, Slack and Discord groups. Answer questions and join conversations first; share your content when it genuinely helps.
Why it works: communities trust members, not marketers. Being helpful there over time builds a reputation that sends people to your content. Best for: niche audiences with active communities.
14. Partnerships and guest content
Write for publications your audience reads, appear on podcasts, co-create guides or webinars with businesses that serve the same customers without competing with you, and invite experts to contribute to your own content.
Why it works: it puts you in front of an audience someone else has built, and it often earns links. Best for: newer businesses without much reach of their own yet.
15. Refresh and consolidate what you have
Set aside time every month to update your existing content: new information, better examples, fresh screenshots, stronger titles, and merging thin pieces into one complete one.
Why it works: an article that once ranked well and slipped can often recover with an update, for a fraction of the effort of writing something new. Up-to-date content also keeps trust. Best for: anyone with more than a year of published content.
Matching content marketing strategies to the buyer’s journey
People need different content at different stages. A strategy that only produces top-of-funnel articles brings visitors who never buy; one that only produces product content reaches nobody new. Cover all three stages:
| Stage | What the reader is thinking | Content that fits | What to measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | “I have a problem, or a goal. What are my options?” | Guides, how-tos, templates, research, educational video | Visitors, newsletter sign-ups, links earned |
| Consideration | “Which approach or kind of product is right for me?” | Comparisons, checklists, webinars, expert opinion, buying guides | Return visits, downloads, webinar registrations |
| Decision | “Is this the right product, and can I trust this company?” | Customer stories, product walkthroughs, pricing explained, honest FAQs | Trials, demo requests, sales |
| After purchase | “How do I get the most from what I bought?” | Help guides, onboarding emails, tips newsletters, community | Product use, renewals, referrals, fewer support requests |
Content marketing strategies by type of business
| Business | Strategies to start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Software or online service | Topic clusters, templates and tools, comparison pages, customer questions | Buyers research heavily online and compare options before trying anything |
| Online store | Buying guides, product comparisons, how-to video, email newsletter | Content answers “which one should I buy?” and brings people back between purchases |
| Local service business | Customer questions, location-specific pages, reviews and customer stories, short video | People want to know what it costs, how long it takes and whether you can be trusted |
| Agency or consultancy | Expert point of view, case studies, webinars, guest content | Clients buy your thinking and your track record |
| Business-to-business with long sales cycles | Original research, webinars, customer stories, newsletter | Several people are involved in the decision, and trust is built over months |
Content marketing in the age of AI search
More people now get answers from AI assistants and from AI summaries at the top of search results. That changes some things and not others.
- Generic content is worth less. If an AI tool can produce the same answer from the first page of results, a page that merely restates it adds little. First-hand experience, original data, real examples and clear opinions are what stand out.
- Clear answers get used. Pages that state a direct answer near the top, use descriptive headings, and include plain-language definitions, steps and FAQs are easier for both people and machines to quote.
- Being the source matters. AI answers often cite their sources. Original research, templates and expert content are the kind of thing that gets cited.
- Your brand and your list matter more. When fewer people click through from search, the audience you own (newsletter subscribers, customers, community) becomes more valuable.
- The fundamentals have not changed. Useful, accurate, well-organized content written for a specific audience still wins.
AI writing tools can help with research, outlines and first drafts, but have a person with real knowledge check facts, add experience and examples, and make the final call. Publishing large amounts of unedited AI text is a fast way to fill a site with content nobody needs.
How to measure your content marketing strategy
Measure against the goals you set in step one. Look at the numbers monthly, and judge a strategy over six to twelve months rather than week by week: content takes time to be found and ranked.
| What you want to know | Measures to use | Where to find them |
|---|---|---|
| Is anyone finding it? | Visitors from search, impressions, rankings for target keywords | Search Console, your analytics |
| Are they reading it? | Time on page, scroll depth, return visitors | Your analytics |
| Is it building an audience? | Newsletter sign-ups, followers, subscribers | Your email tool and social accounts |
| Is it earning trust? | Links from other sites, mentions, shares, replies | An SEO tool, your inbox, social accounts |
| Is it bringing customers? | Sign-ups, enquiries and sales that came from or passed through content | Your analytics with conversions set up, your CRM |
| Is it worth the cost? | Cost per lead or per customer from content, compared with other channels | Your own records of time and money spent |
Content rarely gets full credit in “last click” reports, because people read several pieces over weeks before they buy. Ask new customers how they found you, and look at which pages they visited before converting, not only the last one.
Common content marketing mistakes
- Writing for everyone. Content aimed at no one in particular helps no one in particular. Pick an audience and write for them.
- Choosing topics by what you want to say. Start with what your audience is asking, then connect it to what you sell.
- Publishing and walking away. Without distribution, most content is never seen. Without updates, good content goes stale.
- Chasing volume. Five excellent pieces beat fifty forgettable ones, for readers and for search.
- Ignoring search intent. A brilliant essay will not rank for a keyword where searchers want a template.
- No clear next step. Every piece should offer the reader something to do next: another article, a template, a newsletter, a trial.
- Giving up too early. Search content often takes months to rank. Judge the strategy over a year, not a few weeks.
- Measuring only traffic. Visitors who never become subscribers or customers do not pay the bills.
- No owner. If content is everyone's side job, it is nobody's priority. Someone needs to own the calendar.
A 90-day content marketing plan to get started
If you are starting from nothing, or restarting a stalled blog, this plan gets the foundations in place and the first content out within three months, at a pace a small team can manage.
| Weeks | Focus | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Strategy | Set one or two goals, describe your audience, talk to at least five customers, choose three pillars |
| 3 to 4 | Research and audit | Audit existing content, build a keyword and question list for each pillar, pick the first twelve topics |
| 5 to 6 | Set up the system | Agree the workflow and owners, write a brief template, build the calendar, set up analytics and a newsletter sign-up |
| 7 to 10 | Produce | Publish one in-depth piece a week, update your two best existing pieces, launch the newsletter |
| 11 to 12 | Distribute and connect | Repurpose each piece for email and social, add internal links between related pieces, share with partners and communities |
| 13 | Review | Look at what is getting found, read and acted on; adjust the topic list and the plan for the next quarter |
Running your content marketing strategy as a team
The strategy is the easy part to write down. Keeping the work moving, week after week, with briefs, drafts, reviews, design, publishing, promotion and updates all happening at once, is where most teams struggle.
Coavon gives a content team one place for that work. In Flow, keep the content calendar as a project, with a task, an owner and a due date for each piece, and custom statuses for each stage (Brief, Drafting, In review, Ready to publish). Set up recurring tasks for the work that repeats, such as the newsletter and the monthly content refresh, and automations for the hand-offs: when a draft moves to In review, give it to the editor; when a post is published, create its promotion tasks. Write and review drafts together in Docs, and keep images and files in Drive. For more on automating the routine steps, see our guide to workflow automation.
Frequently asked questions
What are content marketing strategies?
Content marketing strategies are the approaches a business uses to attract and keep customers with useful content, such as topic clusters for search, templates and tools, original research, customer stories, an email newsletter and video. A content marketing strategy brings a few of them together around clear goals and a defined audience.
What are the main parts of a content marketing strategy?
Business goals, a clear audience, content pillars (the topics you want to be known for), the formats and channels you will use, a production workflow with owners, a distribution plan, and the measures you will use to judge success.
How long does content marketing take to work?
Expect several months before search content brings meaningful traffic, and judge a strategy over six to twelve months. Email, social and partnership content can show results sooner. Content keeps working long after it is published, so the results build over time.
How often should a small business publish content?
As often as you can while keeping quality high. For many small teams, one substantial piece every week or two, plus a regular newsletter and updates to older content, is a pace they can sustain. Consistency matters more than volume.
What is the difference between a content strategy and a content calendar?
The strategy explains why you make content, for whom, on which topics and how you will measure it, and changes rarely. The calendar lists what gets published where and when, and who owns each piece, and changes every week.
Which content marketing strategy is best for a new business?
Start with answering the questions your customers ask, a small set of in-depth guides on your core topics, and an email newsletter. They are affordable, build trust and give everything else you do a foundation. Add templates, research or video once those are running.
Should I use AI to write my content?
AI tools can help with research, outlines and first drafts. Have someone with real expertise check the facts, add first-hand experience and examples, and edit the result. Unedited AI content tends to repeat what is already published, which gives readers and search engines little reason to choose it.
How do I measure the return on content marketing?
Track the sign-ups, enquiries and sales that came from or passed through your content, and compare them with what the content cost in time and money. Because people often read several pieces before buying, also look at which pages customers visited before they converted, and ask new customers how they found you.