Define content strategy

Most content strategies fail because they are not strategies at all. They’re a collection of disconnected posts. You get the occasional spike in impressions, but it never compounds. It doesn’t build anything that lasts.

I have a strong view on content marketing: it must drive revenue. Your content should either generate leads directly or help build a brand that leads to revenue over time. If it does not, it is hobby content.

To achieve this, your content strategy must mirror a buyer’s journey, not your internal sales process. The model you choose does not matter. Whether it is stages of awareness, AIDA or Pirate Metrics. What matters is this: someone moves from ignorance of a problem, to recognising it, to exploring solutions, and finally deciding to buy.

If your content stops somewhere in the middle, it lacks momentum. If it is too sales driven, it drives people away. The real opportunity lies in the balance. That sweet spot is around problem-aware and solution-aware content. That is where you offer genuine value, make people remember you, and earn their trust.

In this article I will share a process you can copy: how to connect your content to that buyer’s journey, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to build a system that actually drives revenue over time.

Why this matters

Mapping your content to a buyer’s journey prevents disconnect. If you do not follow a clear path toward a decision, your content will not deliver results. According to DemandScience, aligning content with each step of a customer journey improves engagement and conversions by ensuring your messaging matches where customers actually are in their decision process.

At each stage, people need something different. Early on they need education. Midway they need options and clarity. At the end they want proof and reasons to act. High-quality content at the right stage builds trust and influences revenue

The first step in building a real content strategy is to pick a single persona.

That might feel narrow, especially if your product serves multiple use cases. But the reason I always start here is simple: if you try to speak to everyone, you end up saying nothing that sticks.

Even if your product stays the same, the problem it solves changes depending on who you’re talking to. And that difference matters more than most people realise. Your content should press directly on a specific pain. The harder you press on that pain, the more likely it is to hit a nerve, earn attention, and drive action.

Let me show you what I mean with a practical example.

Fireflies.ai is an AI-powered tool that transcribes meetings. One product, one feature set. But there are multiple types of people who might buy it. Here are three personas:

• Recruiter: wants to remember exactly what a candidate said and reduce bias in hiring decisions
• Salesperson: wants to stay focused in calls and follow up with better notes
• Podcaster: wants to turn audio into SEO content and repurpose it quickly
  

Now imagine writing a generic post titled “5 Benefits of Taking Better Meeting Notes.” It’s fine, but it’s forgettable. It speaks to everyone and no one.

Here’s what happens if you write directly at each persona, one at a time:

• “Why your hiring decisions are skewed by poor note-taking”
• “You’re missing deals because you’re too busy writing during calls”
• “Every podcast episode you post without a transcript is lost SEO potential”
  

That’s the difference. Same product, but each version of the content speaks directly to a problem that person is already feeling. That’s what good content does. It reflects the reader’s reality before introducing your solution.

This is why I always advise clients to start with one persona. Pick the person where your product fits naturally. The one you can help today, not later. Write content for them, not for your full audience. You can go back and address other personas once the first batch is working and driving leads.

This approach forces clarity. It also improves performance. When your content is laser-focused, your message lands harder, your engagement goes up, and your credibility grows faster.

After choosing your persona, the next step is to define three content topics. These are categories of problems they face that your product helps solve.

This is where a lot of content marketers get it wrong. They write posts that are relevant to the persona, but not close enough to the product. You end up with content that might go viral, but doesn’t move anyone closer to buying.

The goal here is to pick problems that your audience genuinely cares about and that your product helps solve. Below are two examples of how to do that well, and how to do it badly.

Sales example

Good topics:

1. Sales qualification: what happens when discovery calls don’t surface the right signals
2. Follow-up: how faster and clearer follow-up improves win rate
3. Closing more deals: using transcripts to spot pain points and handle objections better
   

These are good topics because they’re directly tied to what happens inside sales meetings. The product (AI transcription) is a natural part of solving each problem.

Bad topics:

1. Objection handling techniques: relevant to sales, but not tied to meetings or note-taking
2. Sales team motivation: a broad leadership topic with no clear link to the product
3. Pipeline stage definitions: might be useful for a sales manager, but doesn’t involve meetings

These might feel like helpful content for a sales audience, but they lead away from your core product. That means less relevance, less traction, and fewer conversions.

Recruiting example

Good topics:

1. Follow-up efficiency: why recruiters lose time rewriting the same notes
2. Collaboration on candidate feedback: how structured summaries help align hiring teams
3. Spotting candidate red flags: how transcripts help reveal patterns across interviews
   

These are good because they deal directly with interview conversations, which is where Fireflies creates value. If someone wants to solve these problems, transcription is a logical next step.

Bad topics:

1. How to write a compelling job description: useful, but has nothing to do with meetings
2. Sourcing passive candidates: relevant to recruiting, but not to interview problems
3. Improving your employer brand on LinkedIn: might perform well, but not tied to your product
   

If you follow these paths, you might attract the right role, but the wrong problem. And when that happens, your content doesn’t convert, no matter how well it performs.

Once you’ve defined your three content topics, the next step is to turn them into a working system. This is where most content strategies fall apart. It’s easy to write a few posts when inspiration strikes. But a real strategy means publishing consistently and improving as you go.

Here’s how I recommend setting it up.

Content strategy is how posts work together

The job of a content strategy isn’t to make one post go viral. It’s to make sure all your posts work together so we are building trust, warming up your audience, and creating momentum.

That’s why your calendar matters. It’s not just about hitting publish. It’s about building a system that compounds.

Once that system is in place, the next step is to distribute your content and make sure it actually gets seen. We’ll cover that next.

Pick one channel

Don’t spread yourself thin across five platforms. Pick one. For most B2B teams, that’s LinkedIn. It’s where your buyers are and where your content can still get reach without a big budget.

If you’re just starting out, focus all your energy on learning what works on that one platform. Once you’ve seen traction and built momentum, you can expand.

Pick your frequency

Start with a cadence you can actually maintain. If that means one post per week, great. If you’ve got the time and ideas, go up to three. If your main goal is to learn quickly, then post every day. More reps mean faster feedback.

But if you’re struggling to hit your schedule, reduce the frequency. The number doesn’t matter. Consistency does.

Use atomic habits

Make your process so small and easy that it feels ridiculous not to do it. That’s how you build a long-term habit.

A common mistake is trying to do too much up front. You burn out or start skipping posts and then the system collapses. Instead, start with something you can always hit, no matter how busy your week gets.

Write in batches

Create buffer. Block out time once a week or every two weeks to write a batch of posts. You’re not just writing for today, you’re preparing for when things get chaotic, deadlines creep in, or you go on holiday.

Aim to always have at least four weeks of posts scheduled. That’s enough to stay consistent, but not so much that you lose the chance to adapt based on what performs well.

Keep your system lightweight

You don’t need complex tools. A simple content calendar in Notion or Google Sheets works perfectly. Here’s what I include:

• Post title or short description
• Publish date and time
• Topic tag: choose one of your three content pillars
• Persona tag: useful now, essential when you start writing for multiple personas later
• Prompt or idea input: include as much context as possible here so you (or AI) can generate multiple variations of a post
  

This structure keeps you focused. It also makes it easy to track what you’re posting and where the gaps are.

Balance value and selling

This is the part most marketers get wrong. You’re not just here to teach; you’re also here to sell. But that doesn’t mean every post should be a pitch.

I follow a simple rule: 80% of your content should be useful, valuable and non-promotional. The remaining 20%, so roughly every fifth post, should make a clear ask or explain what you offer.

This balance builds trust while still driving business. If all you do is educate, people won’t take the next step. But if all you do is sell, they’ll tune you out.

By tracking this balance in your content calendar, you can spot whether you’re leaning too far in either direction.

If this is your first time working on a content strategy, just stick to the system above: one persona, three topics, one channel. That’s more than enough to get results. But if you’ve got more capacity, bigger goals, or you’re starting to see traction, here’s how I think about scaling content marketing. This is also how you can expand the system gradually over time, even if you’re building it solo.

Scale your content strategy

Once you’ve built a repeatable system and you’re getting results, the next question is: how do you scale?

The answer is not to do everything at once. Scaling means building on what’s working, in the right order. That means growing your strategy without breaking it.

Here’s how I recommend scaling, step by step.

Increase your frequency

Start by posting more often. If you’ve been posting once or twice a week and you’re getting traction, try increasing to three or four times a week. If that works, post daily. Posting more frequently gives you more data, more reach and faster feedback. It also helps you refine your message, explore more angles within your current topics and build deeper authority on your chosen platform. Nothing else changes here. Keep the same persona, topics and platform.

Expand your topics

Once you’ve hit saturation with your first three content pillars, expand the topic set for the same persona. Think about what else this person cares about that your product helps solve. What problems are adjacent? What supporting topics would make your product an even more obvious next step? This lets you stay focused on one audience while widening the range of content that brings them in.

Add a persona

When you’ve built consistency and results with your first persona, you can introduce a second. This is where you repeat the same system: choose a new persona, define three new problems they face, and build content that connects those problems to your product. We want to build on top of the previous success, so I would launch both at the same time for most situations. If that doesn't fit, you could split the people on your team. One sales person posts for persona A, and the other sales person posts about persona B. If you are by yourself, just post both on the same profile.

Add a new channel

Only after your frequency, topics and personas are running well should you add another channel. Each platform has its own rhythm, language and best practices. Jumping into a new one before you’ve mastered the first will just create noise. Instead, stay focused on one channel until you’re posting consistently and getting feedback. Once you’re there, choose a second platform where your content can be adapted.

That’s how you scale content without losing momentum. That’s how you compound results.

Even with a clear strategy, there are a few mistakes that will throw you off course. These are the ones I see most often.

Doing too much at the same time

The biggest mistake is trying to do everything at once: writing for multiple personas, posting across multiple channels, and covering every possible topic. When you do that, you get stretched thin, your message gets diluted, and you lose the chance to learn what actually works. Stick to the system: one persona, three topics, one channel. You’ll go faster by going narrow.

Not giving it enough time

A lot of teams give up after two or three weeks because results aren’t immediate. But content takes time to build trust, generate engagement and create momentum. You need at least 90 days of consistent output to get real feedback. That’s why we build a calendar with buffer, so you can stay consistent even when things get busy. If you stop too early, you’ll never know what could have worked.

Changing the strategy too soon

Another mistake is rewriting the strategy every time a post underperforms. One low-performing post is not a signal, it’s just noise. You need patterns before you change direction. If the strategy is built around real problems and linked to your product, trust it. Post consistently, review results in batches, and only adjust once you’ve given it enough time to produce insight.

A content strategy is not about writing more. It is about writing with intention: solving real problems for the right people, in a way that leads naturally to your product.

If you want content that actually drives growth, here’s the system to follow:

1. Pick one persona Focus on a real audience you can help today, not everyone you could help someday.
2. Choose three topics Identify three clear problems your product helps solve. These become your content pillars.
3. Pick one channel Start with the platform where your audience already spends time. For most B2B teams, that’s LinkedIn.
4. Set a posting frequency Choose a pace you can maintain. Consistency is more important than volume.
5. Create a content calendar Write in batches, build a four-week buffer, and tag each post by topic and persona.
6. Balance value and selling Aim for four posts that educate, followed by one that sells. Trust builds the brand, but you still need to ask.
7. Scale slowly Only add frequency, topics, personas or channels once the base system is delivering results.
   

If your content works as a system, the results will compound. That’s how you move from disconnected posts to a strategy that actually drives growth. In the next chapter, I'll show you how to turn your profile into a landing page, so the profile visits from the content strategy also turn into leads.