When you’re trying to reach different groups of people—and move them to act—you need good content and a clear call to action to finish the job. A well-crafted CTA can lift conversions across the board. The problem? Weak CTAs still sink plenty of campaigns. You don’t have to write award-winning copy, but a few simple tweaks to wording and placement can make a big difference in how people respond to your content. Here, we’ve rounded up some practical tips and real examples that show what types of CTAs work (and why).

As you read, watch for strong examples and action-ready prompts. Use them to spark ideas for your own approach.

But first, a quick recap.

What Is a Call to Action (CTA)?

Each piece of content you create can start a real connection with the reader, but you need something to keep that interaction going. A call to action is an invitation to take the next step.

A CTA can be a button, link, or short message that nudges someone to do something specific, like sign up for a demo, schedule a consultation, or download a guide. They are prompts designed to drive a specific behavior.

The best CTAs are:

• Clear
• Concise
• Compelling

Whether someone skims a blog post, watches a video, or checks the pricing page, using a simple CTA will help them move through the next stage on the path to purchase.

7 Tips to Write an Effective Call to Action

Because CTAs carry so much weight, you need to give them extra attention. No matter your industry or budget, use these simple tactics.

1) Use a command verb.

Strong verbs help people act right away. Marketing copy can set the scene, while the CTA gives direction. Imperative verbs make that direction clear (think commanding verbs like sign up, try, get, book, download, start, or join).

These types of words cut friction and guide the click.

Examples of command verbs:

• Claim your free trial now to start enjoying our premium features.
• Get your free e-book download today and learn how to boost your productivity.
• Try our limited-time offer!
• Join our community of like-minded individuals and start achieving your goals.
• Register now to secure your spot in our upcoming webinar.
• Upgrade your account now to unlock additional features and benefits.
• Start your 30-day challenge now and transform your life.
• Download our app today and enjoy instant access to all our services.
• Book your appointment now and take the first step toward a healthier you.
• Sign up for our free newsletter.
• Schedule your custom consultation.

Example: Bombas pairs “Go ahead, make yourself comfortable” with products built for comfort. The command matches the promise.

Example: Half Magic Beauty also uses an imperative command with “Take your glitterpill,” a cheeky play on words to encourage site viewers to shop their glitter cosmetics. 

2) Speak to your audience’s desired future state.

A good brand tells a good brand story, and that is directly tied to the promise you’re making to your audience. What will they get by buying your product/service? How will they benefit? How does your product speak to their wants or needs, solve a problem, or improve their lives? Crafting a CTA that promises their ideal future state (in which they’ve bought and are now enjoying the desired results) will always make them want to click.

Connect your call-to-action to that future:

• “Streamline your workflow today”
• “Maximize your productivity”
• “Transform your life”
• “Achieve your goals”

A little energy helps. Even one well-placed exclamation point can really lift the mood.

Example: Mailchimp skips the feature pitch and goes straight to impact: “Convert more customers at scale.”

3) Speak to their pain points.

Relief motivates. If a product removes friction, say that. Show that you understand the pain and offer a clear path out. This is a smart way to not only present your brand as the problem-solver but also reinforce the pain that the user is currently experiencing.

Example: HubSpot uses “Migrate without the migraines.” The promise is simple: move fast without the headache.

4) Create a sense of urgency.

Urgency can help when it’s honest and relevant. Words like “now” and “today” help, as do limited-time offers, countdowns, or limited quantities.

Not every offer fits a flash sale, though. If timing isn’t the hook, use energy and emotion:

• “Turbocharge your sales!”
• “Save a dolphin’s life”
• “Give a child a lunch”

Add intrigue to spark curiosity when appropriate.

Example: Glossier uses the mystery of “What’s that?” in its CTA to prompt the click and reveal.

5) Use a number.

Numbers add specificity and trust. They set expectations and make outcomes tangible:

• “Make 50% more sales”
• “Save 4 hours a month”
• “Join 1,000,000 people getting fitter”

Example: LegalZoom taps social proof: “Join the millions who launched their businesses with LegalZoom.”

6) Keep it short.

CTAs work best when they get to the point. Aim for under 10 words when you can. Focus on clarity over cleverness.

Example: Grammarly says everything you need to know: “Brilliant Writing Awaits.”

7) Speak to your audience’s generational drivers.

Different age groups respond to different cues. Tailor the call to action to what motivates them.

Baby Boomers: quality, reliability, service
They respond well to CTAs that emphasize the quality and durability of a product or service.

• “Invest in quality that lasts”

Gen X: independence, practicality, value
They want control, straight answers, and no fluff.

• “Make your mark”

Millennials: innovation, convenience, experiences
They respond well to CTAs that emphasize the latest trends and technologies.

• “Join the future of fitness”

Gen Z: impact, community, authenticity
They choose brands that act on their values and speak like real people.

• “Make a difference with every purchase”

Example: ColourPop speaks native slang—“Don’t get FOMO”—to drive urgency and connection.

CTA Examples and Best Practices

CTAs turn passive readers into people who act. To work, they need to be obvious, specific, and aligned to what people want.

1) Start with your primary CTA.

What do you want most: newsletter signups, demo requests, or free quotes? Lead with that, then add a secondary CTA for those not ready yet:

• Primary: “Learn more”
• Secondary: “Get a free resource”

2) Use proven templates to move faster.

You can then refine the language to match your customer and your offer. Keep testing. Small tweaks add up.

3) Use CTAs across the buyer journey.

They should show up wherever people interact with you:

• Landing pages: “Get your free download”
• Blog posts: “Start your journey”
• Emails: “Claim your spot”
• Social: “Shop now”

Match the CTA to the moment and the action you want. When the timing feels right and the ask is obvious, more people say yes.

Of course, landing pages are one of the most important places to optimize CTAs, so pay special attention to those.

Landing Pages that Inspire Action

A landing page has one job: turn visitors into customers or leads. Make one primary call to action the focus, then design everything else to support it.

• Use a single, clear CTA with a strong verb: “Sign up,” “Get started,” or “Call now.”
• Keep the layout clean. Cut anything that doesn’t help someone take that step.
• Add an exit-intent pop-up to catch people before they leave. If scarcity is real, say it: “Only 5 spots left.”

Think about how people are viewing your landing page, too. For example, most people visit sites on their phones, so the CTA needs to be mobile-optimized, easy to see, and responsive.

• Place the CTA where thumbs naturally reach. Make buttons large enough to hit without zooming.
• Use short, action-first language that fits mobile behavior: “Tap to get your estimate,” “Shop the sale,” “Download the app.”
• Consider a sticky footer button so the CTA is always within reach.
• Test on different devices. Check speed, spacing, and how the page feels in one hand.

Most importantly, keep it simple. Aim everything at the one action that matters and make it effortless, especially on a phone. Take a critical look at all your channels to make sure you’re offering the same experience. Pay extra attention to your social media, too.

Social Media CTAs

CTAs work when they match why someone opened that app in the first place. On mobile, they should be native, fast, and easy to act on.

Design CTAs for the format:

• Stories: use link stickers, polls, and “DM for details” to start quick chats.
• Reels/TikTok: add on-screen text and captions with the CTA in the first 2-3 seconds.
• Feed posts: put the action in the first line of the caption and mirror it in the creative.
• YouTube: use end screens, pinned comments, and timestamps to drive the next step.
• LinkedIn: end with a simple ask that fits work mode (e.g., “Save for later” or “Comment with your take”).

Match the action to the moment:

• Discovery content: “Save this checklist” or “Follow for next week’s tip.”
• Consideration content: “Watch the walkthrough” or “Compare plans in two clicks.”
• Conversion content: “Book a table for Friday” or “Start a free trial today.”

Use social CTAs to build momentum, not just clicks:

• Spark conversations: “Reply with a question” or “Vote and tell why.”
• Encourage sharing: “Tag a friend who needs this” or “Share to your team chat.”
• Nudge micro-wins: “Add a reminder,” “Save this template,” or “Turn on notifications.”

Make it effortless:

• Keep the CTA and the value side by side in the creative.
• Use short links or native buttons to avoid extra taps.
• Add captions and subtitles so the ask lands with sound off.

Test where it counts:

• Swap CTA verbs by format: “Try,” “Watch,” “Book,” “DM,” “Save.”
• Rotate placement: first line, end card, sticker, or comment.
• Track with UTMs and compare by post type, not just by platform.

Keep it human, keep it native, and ask for the smallest next step that fits the moment.

How to Ensure Your CTAs Are Successful

If you want to write CTAs that always hit the mark, there are a few more ways to ensure your copy always lands.

• Keep personas up to date. Review them every six months so messages reflect real needs, pains, and motivations. Revisit your marketing personas.
• Inject your brand voice. Keep CTAs clear, but let your personality show where it helps. Familiar labels still work for high-intent actions. For example, “Contact Us” remains a strong, simple choice. But you can play with your brand voice elsewhere to add more personality.
• A/B test. CTAs are easy to test and quick to learn from. Experiment with verbs, benefits, and formats to find the most effective version for your people.
• Consider design. Use CTAs with strong visual cues, clean headlines, and smart placement to guide action. Sales pages, especially, benefit from clear prompts that remove guesswork.

That said, CTAs work best inside a strong content strategy. For alignment across your content, grab our free guide to content strategy. And if you want help bringing that strategy to life, see what it’s like to work with us on content strategy or reach out.

A good content marketing machine is a thing of beauty, each piece well-oiled and optimized for smart production. But like any machine, if a piece isn’t working—or is missing entirely—the whole system struggles. Content teams are often plagued by both issues.

• The tool that doesn’t work effectively.
• The missing perspective that could have turned a basic blog into a cornerstone asset.
• The social plan that needs sharper targeting and timing.
• The analytics setup that doesn’t track what matters.
• The process friction that drains hours.

It’s no surprise, though. Most marketing departments face headcount limits and lean budgets, so work piles up.

54% of B2B marketers only have between 2-5 people on their content marketing team. 24% don’t have anyone dedicated to full-time content marketing.

—CMI’s 2025 B2B Benchmarks Report

But just because you have limited headcount doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful content team. Whether you have two people or twenty, you just need to shift your perspective from the number of people on your team to the type of roles those people are filling.

Job Titles vs. Roles in a Content Marketing Team

Checklist hiring is common in marketing. A team needs social, so they look for a social media manager. A team needs copy, so a writer joins the team. The result often mirrors a standard marketing organization on paper, but this type of hiring means important roles or responsibilities go uncovered—and that’s a liability.

That’s why it’s important to think about roles in terms of skill sets, not titles. One person may carry several skills:

• An editor can also be a tight project manager and copy shaper.
• A marketing manager can be both data literate and social savvy.

When team members get room to use their superpowers, collaboration improves, experimentation follows, and the whole content marketing operation levels up. That’s how a small team can outperform a larger one.

So which roles matter most to build a resilient content team structure?

The Roles You Need on Your Content Marketing Team

Every brand shares the same core duties: planning, production, and distribution. Cover the full arc—from content calendar ownership and ideation to pitching and performance analysis—and quality rises. The key to covering your bases is understanding what roles need to be filled and who on your team can fill them.

This role breakdown comes from our years in the trenches. Each role drives a strategic function, fills gaps, and maintains quality control so your content marketing efforts are successful (and always aligned to your business goals).

Again, this isn’t a comprehensive list of people you need to hire but rather a list of what you need to cover with the resources at hand. Organize for efficiency, have collaborative conversations about responsibilities, and bring in support partners when needed.

For your convenience, we’ve mapped these roles to the stages of the content cycle: strategy, creation, and distribution.

1) Content Strategy Roles

Strategy anchors the entire content marketing strategy. You need to build a documented strategy that aligns to business objectives and clarifies audience segments, themes, and key performance indicators. (If you need a framework, see our ultimate guide to build a content strategy and grab the content strategy toolkit.)

To be successful, you need to include the right stakeholders.

Marketing Leader

Whether a founder, a chief marketing officer, or another senior leader, someone must steer. This role connects business development, sales, and marketing, ensuring the content strategy aligns with company goals and reflects brand voice and visual identity. The leader protects focus and ensures the marketing function supports the sales funnel and the full sales cycle.

Marketing leader resources:

• Chief Content Officer: The monthly print and digital magazine from the Content Marketing Institute.
• The Content Strategist: Contently’s publication, covering content marketing news and analysis.

Marketing Manager

A marketing manager keeps the engine running. This person aligns plans to the marketing strategy, directs team members, manages timelines, and clears blockers. They help translate the content strategy into briefs, coordinate content production, and connect distribution with campaigns. Strong operators here often have a proven track record of shipping high-quality content on time.

Marketing manager resources:

• Basecamp: A project management tool with clear visibility into project status.
• Marketing Brew: Marketing news worth reading.
• American Marketing Association: Strong resources, including the piece on the 5 types of marketing managers.
• HubSpot’s Blog: News, trends, and tips for marketers at all levels.

Data Expert

Measurement turns a content marketing strategy into a learning system. The data expert sets up analytics, defines key performance indicators, and pulls valuable insights for optimization across marketing channels. This role informs content ideas, validates keyword research, and spotlights content that drives lead generation.

Data expert resources:

• Google’s Analytics Academy: Training to make analytics useful.
• How to Determine ROI: Smart ways to calculate ROI.

2) Content Creation Roles

With goals set and keyword research in hand, production kicks off. Creation is labor-intensive, so tight planning matters. A strong content team blends editorial judgment with design and technical chops to ship quality content consistently.

50% of B2B marketers rely on multiple teams to create content.

—CMI’s 2025 B2B Benchmarks Report

Managing Editor

The managing editor owns the content calendar, keeps cadence, and ensures every piece maps to the content strategy. This role coordinates contributors, enforces voice and standards, and balances written content with visuals. It’s the bridge between planning and content production.

Managing editor resources:

• CoSchedule: Editorial calendar, social scheduling, and task management.
• Feedly: Organize sources for faster ideation.
• Stormboard: Digital whiteboard for collaboration and brainstorms.
• Editorial Calendar Template: A practical planning tool.

SEO & AEO Expert

Search engine optimization and answer engine optimization fuel sustainable growth. This expert audits the site, prioritizes opportunities, and ensures content aligns to search intent. Duties include research, technical fixes, on-page best practices, and continuous testing across search engines.

SEO expert resources:

• SEMRush: Tools, guides, and training for SEO.
• Search Engine Land: Daily coverage of search marketing.
• Neil Patel: Practical traffic and conversion tactics.

Subject Expert

Expertise builds credibility. Subject experts bring depth, data, and stories that resonate with a target audience. They sharpen outlines, validate claims, and elevate thought leadership.

33% of B2B marketers say they have trouble accessing subject matter experts.

—CMI’s 2025 B2B Benchmarks Report

Resources to increase expertise:

• Expertise Finder: Connects experts, writers, and businesses.
• Qualified data sources: A roundup of free data sources to boost credibility.
• ClearVoice: Find expert writers and creatives.

Editor

Editing still gets overlooked. A sharp editor improves clarity, structure, and polish. This role enforces brand voice and ensures quality content across formats, including blogs, reports, scripts, and social media posts.

Editor resources:

• Grammar Girl: Quick editing tips.
• Grammarly: Handy plugin for catching errors.
• Upwork: Find freelance editors.

Designer(s)

Design makes complex ideas easy to grasp and preserves brand integrity with every piece of content they create. From infographics and e-books to video and interactive content, a strong designer translates information into visuals to increase appeal, comprehension, and retention.

Designer resources:

• Behance/Dribbble: Portfolios to find the right talent.
• Data Visualization 101 e-book: A primer on chart and graph design.

Note: Depending on your content mix—static, interactive, or video—you may also need:

• Developers: You can also see our keys to make great interactive content.
• Video pros: See our tips for choosing a video agency.
• Audio pros: You may need additional support for things like podcasting.

Writer

A strong writer turns insight into narrative. This role crafts clear, compelling copy that reflects brand voice and connects to the target audience. Great writers collaborate with subject experts and editors to deliver high-quality content that drives marketing campaigns.

Writer resources:

• Ann Handley: Practical writing insights.
• Headline Analyzer: Score headlines for impact.
• Hemingway Editor: Improve clarity and flow.
• Tips to Write Compelling Messaging: Build brand stories that convert.

3) Content Distribution Roles

Great content needs reach. Distribution puts the right message in front of the right people at the right time. These roles grow channels, build partnerships, and turn content marketing efforts into measurable marketing outcomes.

Distribution Strategist

This role designs the go-to-market plan for content, including paid, earned, and owned. The strategist develops partner lists, pitches publications, coordinates influencer collaborations, and aligns distribution to the overall marketing strategy and business objectives.

Distribution strategist resources:

• Muck Rack: Find relevant journalists.
• Boomerang: Schedule and follow up on pitches.
• Respona: How to find influencers.
• The Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution: A field guide to distribution.
• How to Pitch Like a Content Agency: Tips to secure publisher placement.

Email Marketer

Email builds durable reach. The email marketer drives list growth, segmentation, and testing. They design journeys that support the sales funnel, connect content to offers, and improve conversion with clear CTAs.

Email marketer resources:

• Sumo: Tools for conversion optimization and list building.
• HubSpot: All-in-one support for automation and analytics.
• Unbounce: Rapid landing page testing to drive lead generation.

Social Media Expert

Social media marketing evolves quickly. A social expert tracks platform trends, tunes content formats, and balances organic with paid. They protect tone, plan social media posts, and report what performs, feeding insights back into the content strategy.

Social media expert resources:

• Social Media Examiner: News, tips, and tools.
• NUVI: Real-time social monitoring.
• BuzzSumo: See what’s getting shared.
• Guide to Choose the Right Metrics for Your Social Strategy: Measure what matters.

The Other Folks

Beyond the core team, pull in partners across the marketing organization and even operational professionals.

• Customer advocate: Sales and service teams surface pain points and proof. Use those insights to create relevant content and stronger campaigns.
• Tech support: Keep your site fast, stable, and flexible—essential for embeds, interactive stories, and your content management system.
• The wildcard: People outside marketing often bring fresh angles. A product marketer, a creative director, or even operational professionals can unlock stories and data others miss.

How to Support Your Content Marketing Team (Even More)

Even strong teams need extra hands or a fresh perspective. Bring in a content marketing manager or a content strategist on a project basis, or work with content marketers who can span planning and production. Integrated marketing wins when other teams collaborate across goals and channels.

• If you’re not sure what to outsource, here’s how to figure out if you need an agency or freelancer.
• If you need a content agency, here are 12 things to look for in a content marketing agency and our best tips to collaborate effectively once you find the right partner.

Remember: The goal is to create a flexible team structure that supports a durable content marketing strategy, fuels marketing efforts across channels, and gives most businesses a competitive advantage through quality content that compounds.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How to structure a content marketing team?

Organize by roles, not titles, across the full content cycle:

• Strategy: Marketing leader, marketing manager, data/analytics expert
• Creation: Managing editor, SEO, subject expert, editor, designer, writer (plus dev/video/audio as needed)
• Distribution: Distribution strategist, email marketer, social media expert

Prioritize complete role coverage over headcount; one person can own multiple roles. Anchor everything to a documented strategy, editorial calendar, and clear KPIs.

2. When should we outsource content—and what should stay in-house?

Outsource when bandwidth or expertise is the constraint (e.g., design, editing, specialized writing, dev/video/audio). Keep the core in-house: business-aligned strategy, voice/standards, briefs, and final editorial control, so that outside work still advances your goals.

3. What does a Managing Editor actually own?

Editorial calendar, cadence, and quality. They translate strategy into briefs, coordinate contributors, enforce voice/standards, balance copy + visuals, and ensure each piece maps to objectives.

Infographics are an excellent way to communicate, and the right infographic ideas can help deliver a lot of content in an easy-to-read format. And, yes, they do look pretty. But they’re much more than a pretty package. When used correctly, they are a powerful storytelling device. By combining great visuals, great data, and great copy, they stimulate powerful learning centers in the brain, helping connect ideas much quicker than images or text alone. (If you want to learn more about their application, check out our guide to infographics.)

So how do you put them to work for you? Whether you’re a newbie who’s never worked on one before or a seasoned content creator who’s produced a ton of infographics, remember that all good infographics start with good infographic ideas.

I’ve sat through a couple thousand infographic brainstorms, and I know firsthand that coming up with a killer idea doesn’t always happen at will. So, to make things easier—and share some hard-earned knowledge—I’ve compiled a list of some engaging and tried-and-true ways to come up with great infographic ideas, as well as a few examples to inspire you. I hope it helps your next brainstorm.

16 Tips for Infographic Ideas

1. Industry Trends

You’re consuming information relevant to your industry all day: newsletters, articles, blogs, think pieces, reports, etc. These can all be great fodder for an infographic. Next time you run through your bookmarked content, think about what information stands out and how it might be translated into a piece of visual content.

If a particular item you come across stays with you—or irks you—there is probably a great infographic idea somewhere in there.

2. Pop Culture Trends

Music, entertainment, sports, fashion—these are great sources for infographic ideas. These popular subjects are always trending and, when gamed right, can help elevate the visibility of your infographic. We’ve visualized everything from rap artists’ lifestyles to breakdowns of blockbuster movies, so the options are pretty endless.

3. Social Trends

Cultural trends can be a powerful source to tap into for infographic inspiration. Organizations like Pew Research are constantly releasing reports on a variety of issues relevant to the larger culture, from demographic data to social opinion polls.

Whether they’re serious or light-hearted, broad or niche, think of how these trends may be turned into interesting infographics. For example, we’ve previously tackled the selfie-obsessed generation and the brunch phenomenon.

4. News Items

There’s no shame in newsjacking. It’s a great way to insert yourself into the conversation. For example, when California’s drought was in the news (and our SoCal HQ office was withering), we created our “7 Ways to Hack a Drought” infographic to spread the word on water conservation.

Monitor headlines and take a look at Google Trends to keep your finger on the pulse. One caveat: Avoid tragedies or hot-button political issues. We’ve seen too many brands mess up royally. (See our tips to make sure you’re newsjacking the right way.)

5. Upcoming Events

Ideally, you’re working ahead and carefully planning your editorial calendar. Make sure you’re regularly reviewing upcoming events—everything from major holidays to movie releases—to spot any opportunities to plug in content.

Tip: Forekast is “the Internet’s calendar,” and it tracks holidays, awareness months, etc. We’ve used it to inspire everything from our interactive infographic in honor of Black History Month to a camping guide to Coachella.

6. In-House Data

One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from your competition is to tell unique data stories. Not only are these interesting to consumers—and the press—but they are totally original because they’re based on proprietary data. (Translation: Your competition can’t copy them.) Beyond annual reports, case studies, or sales data, there are so many ways to find unique stories in your data. See our guide to data storytelling to turn your spreadsheets into great content.

7. Surveys

Whether you coordinate with your marketing team to poll your own customers or wait for a major industry publication to release their most recent survey results, this data is ripe for visualization. Pair it with a structured narrative, and you have infographic gold.

We especially enjoyed working on CWIF’s Egg Tracker Interactive Report. It was a ton of data made easy to understand through visualization.

8. Existing Content

If your brand has been actively content marketing, then you likely have an archive of previously produced content. Everything from blog posts, to press releases, to case studies can be repackaged to tell a new story. This is the easiest and leanest way to get more mileage out of your existing content.

For example, we turned a section of our Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution e-book into an infographic on how to optimize your blog for content distribution.

9. Company Culture

Content marketing is vital to a company, but culture marketing is also integral to your brand. If there are causes, hobbies, or other things that are of particular interest to you and your coworkers, let them feed your infographic ideas.

For example, after a discussion on women’s health, our team created the#PeopleForPeriods interactive, which aims to help destigmatize the discussion of menstruation. We also once tracked our Beer Friday consumption.

10. Academic Studies

There’s no substitute for amazing scientific data, especially when it helps support the fresh perspective and message you’re trying to convey. Google Scholar can help you search a ton of studies in a variety of fields, from social psychology to tech. You can use this to inspire your next idea or to help enhance one you already have.

11. Government Reports

There is a wealth of public data available from every branch of the government, all of which can be put to good infographic use. Most of it is easily accessible, and each organization has an active newsroom that puts out press releases for notable findings, which can be a great source of infographic ideas.

Here are 00+ data sources to comb for inspiration. You can bookmark particular findings or pull a stat to chew on later. For example, we used public health data to create this infographic on pandemics throughout time.

12. Target Keywords

You are making an infographic for a reason: You want it to be seen. You know evergreen pieces will give you the most value for the work you put into them, so why not use SEO to your advantage?

Depending on your goals, you’ll want to search relevant keywords to see what terms you might rank for. Consider what type of subjects or angles might be relevant to those search terms, and turn them into an infographic. For example, we created this infographic on designing effective visual communication to help our SEO as a design agency.

13. Tutorials

You can tell someone how to do something, or you can show them. Infographics are a powerful form of information design, so they’re ideal for tutorials. However, simply slapping pictures and words together doesn’t mean you’ve created a clear and easy-to-follow instructional infographic. You need to use visual cues and strong copy to effectively guide people through a process. For example, here’s a tutorial we made about the 4 ways to fold a shirt.

14. Something Someone Else Did

How many times have you come across a killer piece of content and wished you’d thought of it? It can be frustrating, but odds are if you thought of it, you can also think of ways to make it better.

Good content is about providing great value. If you can do something better, do it. Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of visualizations for particular cocktails, but when the Kentucky Derby came around, we decided to visualize how to make multiple versions of the classic Mint Julep. It was a specific spin on a visualization style plenty of other people have done, but we made it our own.

15. Company Materials

Time, energy, and attention are precious commodities. Communication in the digital age should focus on making the biggest impact in the least amount of time. Take a look at your existing company materials: sales brochures, press releases, employee handbooks, etc. It’s likely there is material in there that can—and should—be visualized to create a more efficient and enjoyable experience for customers and even employees.

This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your creativity to turn these boring pieces into visual gold. A great example of this is marketer Amos Haffner‘s resumé, which he turned into an infographic.

16. Your Personal Passions

If there’s something that you particularly love, or are just curious about, you can sometimes find a unique angle that might be worthy of infographic exploration. It’s especially impactful if you turn your company values into interesting infographics about causes you care about or ideas you want to promote. This helps you share your beliefs and cultivate a community around them.

How to Create Your Infographics

We hope these prompts have inspired a slew of ideas to keep your publishing calendar full. If you’re ready to bring those ideas to life…

• See our guide to create infographics according to best practices.
• Find out what types of infographics catch a publisher’s eye.
• Get 104 of the best free data sources for your next infographic.
• Follow our publishing checklist to make sure your infographic gets the most traffic.
• Avoid these design mistakes in your visual content.

And if you need any help creating your infographics, bring in professionals who can turn your concepts into professional-looking infographic ideas that truly resonate. Let’s chat about how we can help.

Maintaining quality and consistency in your brand’s content is a challenge, especially if you’re creating a large volume of content (or working with many content creators). Without the right direction, you can easily end up with Frankensteined content plagued by incorrect colors, misplaced logos, and off-brand messaging. Creating a seamless brand experience is crucial. (According to research, 35% of organizations achieved 10-20% revenue growth by presenting their brand consistently.) But how do you ensure your content is always on brand?

Create a comprehensive brand style guide—and use it.  

A brand style guide acts as the blueprint for everything your team creates. It’s never just colors or logos. It’s a complete approach for a unified look, voice, and feel across every single audience touchpoint.

What Is a Brand Style Guide?

A style guide is simply the documentation of your brand identity, presented in a format that makes it easy to apply the identity to any content you create. From your logo to your brand voice, it’s a toolkit to help you present a consistent, cohesive brand to the world. 

Why Do You Need a Brand Style Guide?

Everything you create should represent your brand accurately. But the larger your network, the harder it can be to monitor content and make sure everything is up to par. (Sometimes it isn’t even a freelancer’s fault; in-house teams can get a little too lax as well.)

This is why a brand style guide is so important. Not only does this provide consistency but it actually benefits your brand in several ways.

• More quality control: Not everyone has an Art Director available to look over every project, and oftentimes you’re up against a deadline. These, and many other variables, can result in content that is disjointed and ineffective. Your reputation depends on the quality of your creative content, so having well-documented guidelines ensures that you’re always putting out content you’re proud of. 
• Increased comprehension: Clear communication and good design make life easier for your reader or viewer. Guidelines for things like data visualization, color use, or typography help creators design content that is more effective, creating a better content experience overall. Also, this simple act is a tremendous service for the people you want to connect with. It shows that you value their time and are invested in helping them get the info they need and want.
• Better brand recognition: Brand guidelines help you deliver a cohesive brand experience, making it easier for people to recognize your valuable content. When you provide consistent, high-quality content, people come to rely on you and—even better—seek out your content. They trust you will deliver what they want every time, and that trust is the basis of every strong relationship. 

Ultimately, if you want to build a successful brand, you need a style guide.

Example: Whether it’s an e-book or infographic, LinkedIn adheres to a strict visual language, including consistent use of their signature blue color, data visualization style, and other details. 

What Should a Brand Style Guide Include?

Your goal is to create a practical style guide that empowers brand creators to create a variety of on-brand content. While style guides are often thought of as design-only, you want a document that helps people understand how your brand looks and speaks. What might that look like?

Brand Heart: This is basically the high-level explanation of your brand’s core principles, which can influence everything from the way you speak to customers to the way you design your websites. It encompasses your:

• Purpose: Why do you exist?
• Vision: What future do you want to help create? What does the future look like?
• Mission: What are you here to do? How do you create that future?
• Values: What principles guide your behavior? 

Verbal Identity: This is everything related to how you speak about your company, describe your products, communicate with customers, etc. This includes your:

• Brand essence
• Voice
• Tone
• Personality
• Messaging
• Tagline
• Value proposition
• Messaging pillars/differentiators

Visual Identity:

• Logo
• Colors
• Typography
• Additional elements (if needed)
• Photography
• Illustration
• Iconography
• Data visualization

Note: If you’re a new brand, you may not have a full brand identity created. But you should at least have the basics (logo, color, typography), as well as brand voice and personality guidelines.

If there are any of these elements you haven’t built out yet, see our guides to:

• Articulate your brand heart.
• Find your brand voice and personality.
• Write a great tagline and value prop.
• Create your messaging pillars.
• Design a brand identity.

What Makes a Good Style Guide?

An incomplete style guide is basically just as effective as no style guide at all. If you want yours to be as helpful as possible, it should be:

• Comprehensive: Again, your style guide should help anyone create on-brand content, so make sure you have included as much relevant information as possible.
• Practical: You want your style guide to be comprehensive, but you don’t need to overwhelm people with information. (This will make it cumbersome, and your team will probably avoid using it.) Provide clear direction with simple, succinct language, and helpful examples.
• Accessible: Everyone on your team should know where to find your style guide.

Most importantly, your style guide should be customized for your brand’s unique needs—whatever they may be. For more insights, check out how to create brand guidelines that work.

How to Create a Style Guide

So how do you make guidelines that work for everyone? Just follow this step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Choose Your Format

Depending on your needs, you can design your style guide for multiple mediums. 

• Static (print): If you’re going old school, you can create printed guidelines. We’ve seen plenty of brands transform their guidelines into works of art in this way. (See the award-winning hard copy of the Fisher and Paykel brand guidelines.)
• Static (web): Digital guidelines are the easiest way to make your guidelines accessible from anywhere. You can simply create a PDF for your site or server.
• Interactive (web): More and more brands are opting for interactive style guides, which are easy to navigate and more dynamic. 

You may even experiment with all three formats, depending on your needs.

Step 2: Create a TOC

Your brand guidelines are the summation of your brand strategy. They basically function as your bible; therefore, they should include everything anyone might need to know about your brand. To guide your creation, outline the elements you plan to include.

Again, you don’t have to include each of these items if they aren’t relevant, but you should include the basics (verbal identity and logo, color, typography).

Brand Heart: You can also include your company history, milestones, or any other relevant info one would want to know about the company’s background. This information is important because it explains the core of your brand: who you are, what you do, and why it matters. 

• Purpose
• Vision
• Mission
• Value

Verbal Identity: In addition to these, you can include any other elements that help people communicate more effectively or provide more context (e.g., a list of words you DON’T use, or the standard descriptions of your services).

• Brand essence
• Voice
• Tone
• Personality
• Messaging
• Tagline
• Value proposition
• Messaging pillars/differentiators

Visual Identity: 

• Logo
• Colors
• Typography
• Additional elements (if needed)

Photography

Illustration

Iconography

Data visualization

Depending on the size of your company, the industry you’re in, or the content or products you produce, you might include directions for additional things, such as audio branding or even scent branding.

Step 3: Build Out Your Style Guide

Now that you have your outline, you can start to flesh out your guidelines. Focus on clarity and practicality as you write your copy and add design. To make your style guide easier to apply, you can also include tips, call-outs, sidebars, etc. We find it especially helpful to include: 

• Dos and don’ts: This is helpful to identify the key mistakes to avoid.
• Checklists: It’s probably not realistic for every single piece of creative content to be approved by an Art Director, but it’s important to give content a final edit/once-over to ensure on-brand design. A simple checklist can help catch any of those little errors like incorrect logo usage—before it goes out the door. 
• Examples: How should your brand voice be used for social, press releases, marketing emails, or product descriptions? What does your typography hierarchy look like? What are the correct logo dimensions? Showing what these things look like in real life makes them much easier to emulate.
• Tools and resources: Do you use an app to double-check your hex codes? If it helps you, it will probably help others.

For each section, give enough detail to explain but don’t exhaust your reader. If your brand guidelines are the size of an encyclopedia, they will only serve as a beautiful paperweight on someone’s desk. (And if a noob can’t interpret it, you’ll be in trouble.)

Example: The Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases guidelines provide direction on proper logo use, including when and where colored logos should be used. 

Remember: Helpful brand guidelines don’t just tell—they show. When and where you can, let design do the heavy lifting. Also, your brand guidelines themselves are a piece of branded content. Inject your brand personality wherever you can.

Step 4: Vet Your Style Guide

The whole point of a style guide is to eliminate questions about how to design on-brand content. Whether you have 5 content creators or 500 working for your brand, it’s smart to ask someone to proof and sanity-check your style guide before you distribute it to everyone. (Otherwise, you may be flooded with questions and comments.)

Share it with someone who is intimately familiar with the brand to find out:

• Is it clear?
• Is there anything missing?
• Are there additions that may improve the reader’s experience?

Ultimately, a style guide only helps a brand if it helps the people who work for the brand.

Step 5: Make Your Brand Guidelines Easy to Access

One of the most common reasons people ignore brand guidelines is simply because they can’t find them, and that’s how you end up with 1,000 brochures printed with your old logo.

Make sure your guidelines are in an easy-to-find place (e.g., company server or company Wiki) and shared with everyone, especially new employees or creative partners. Even if you have a printed version, render a digital PDF too. 

5 Awesome Brand Style Guides to Inspire You

Every brand is unique, but if you want to add a dash of creativity to your guidelines (and who doesn’t?), here are some of our favorite style guide examples that do it the right way. For more, see brand identity design and examples and our curated list of brands with a bold and beautiful visual identity.

1) Mailchimp

Mailchimp offers interactive guidelines for both copywriting and design. The level of detail they provide for copywriters is unparalleled. Want to know how to write legal content? Newsletters? Social content? They detail it all, along with writing principles, web tips, word stylization, and more.

Similarly, their design guidelines are both beautiful and succinct, communicating the brand’s design philosophy through the guidelines themselves.

2) Zendesk

A strong brand identity is able to tell a strong story, and Zendesk does that supremely well. In fact, their style guide feels less instructional and more editorial, as they break down the elements of their brand identity, including simple dos and don’ts, tips, and resources to make it easy to apply.

3) Gusto

Not every brand needs to design a clean interactive. A well-designed PDF can be just as helpful, as Gusto proves. Their brand guidelines shine because of their simplicity and efficacy. Not only do they provide practical guidelines but they really educate the user on why these guidelines are so important and how they communicate the brand’s philosophy.

4) ELM

Colorful, clean, and engaging—those are the hallmarks of ELM’s brand guidelines. Smooth interactivity, animation, and visuals make this a joy to behold. They do a fantastic job of letting design do the heavy lifting, too. For example, instead of simply explaining how the primary, secondary, and accent colors should be applied, they created a colorful data visualization that breaks down usage across the brand. This is exactly the type of creativity that can turn brand guidelines into a powerful piece of communication. 

5) Starbucks

For a megabrand like Starbucks, maintaining a cohesive brand identity is a challenge. But with their comprehensive brand style guide, Starbucks provides all the guidelines creators need to succeed.

The interactive guidelines are beautifully designed according to the brand identity itself, featuring the brand’s signature colors, as well as animation and a bevy of case studies (aka visual real-world examples) to capture attention.

Always Keep Your Brand Guidelines Updated

Your brand is always growing and changing, so your brand guidelines should reflect that. Work with your brand team to schedule regular content reviews to make sure the guidelines are being appropriately applied. Brand stakeholders should also identify what needs to be updated, expanded, clarified, removed, or edited.

Most importantly, have regular conversations about what is or isn’t working, and ask your team for any ideas that will make using brand guidelines easier. For expert help, preserve your brand integrity with professional brand guidelines.

Brand Style and Storytelling Pay Off

At the end of the day, a sharp, consistent brand style creates trust. Your content will better connect. People will start to recognize and remember what your company represents. That feeling of familiarity? It pays dividends over time.

That said, if assembling guidelines feels like too much, consider calling in outside experts who live and breathe consistency. Find out what it’s like to work with Column Five on your brand identity. We’d be happy to take it off your plate.

• Set measurable goals using the OKR method (Objectives & Key Results) to track progress and demonstrate ROI. Here are the most common marketing metrics to track by stage:
• For awareness, track:
  • Reach:
    • Impressions
    • Page Views
    • Unique visitors
    • Publication pickup
    • Social content (followers, likes, subscribers)
    • Email/newsletter (subscribers, unsubscribers, open rate, churn rate)
    • Organic traffic (SEO)
  • Perception:
    • Brand indexes/surveys
    • Social sentiment
• For consideration, track:
  • Engagement:
    • Site traffic
    • Time on site
    • Lead gen rate
    • Bounce rate
    • Return rate
    • Pages per visit
    • Comments
    • Asset downloads (e-books, coupons, etc.)
• For analysis, track conversions, including:
  • Leads
  • Qualified leads
  • MQLs
  • SAL
• For purchase, track deals closed, upgrades, upsells. 
• For the loyalty stage, track satisfaction and advocacy, including:
  • Referrals
  • Product usage
  • Customer review scores
  • Product registrations
  • Account renewals
  • Product return rate
  • Testimonials

Read more → How to Choose (and Use) the Right Content Marketing Metrics

If creating “good” content is your marketing strategy, you’re already losing the game. Good content is quickly becoming invisible content. Why? Because we live in a world where creating good content has never been easier. AI-powered tools and streamlined workflows allow us to produce in minutes what would have taken hours (or even days) a few years ago. Everyone can create good content, so audiences not only expect it but they consider it table stakes. They want something more. They want truly great content that really stands out. 

Are you giving it to them? 

Content: The Key to a Winning Brand

Brands have been generating a steady stream of content for years, but with the advent of AI, that stream has become a tsunami. A lot of it is bad, but more and more of it is actually good. It’s comprehensive. It’s easy to understand. It’s perfectly decent. 

But the truth is if it doesn’t stop scrolls or turn heads, it’s just white noise. 

Remember: Brand is the last remaining competitive advantage. Your content is often your audience’s first introduction to your brand, helping inform their perception of you. So it’s your content that directly influences whether they trust you, rely on you, or feel confident spending their money with you. 

Yes, your product/service matters. But your customer experience matters more. And that is directly affected by your content. If that content doesn’t strike them as unique, interesting, or valuable, it won’t stand out and—unfortunately—your brand will be entirely forgettable. 

Why Marketers Fall into the Good Content Trap

In this landscape, the savvy brands—those with adequate resources, the right partners, and the space and support to do truly great work—are going to thrive. But too many marketers are hampered by a range of problems that make it hard to break out of the “good enough” content rut. 

The most common we’ve observed in our clients:

• Resource constraints: According to the Content Marketing Institute, 49% of B2B marketers expect their budget to stay the same or decrease. Marketing teams that were once specialists are being forced to become generalists, spinning plates, racing deadlines, and struggling to do more with less. As a result, they often don’t have the resources or time to put in the work to create best-in-class content.
• A checklist mentality: A lot of organizations view content as a tedious marketing task, a commodity to be produced, or just another box to check. This mindset makes it incredibly hard to create an enduring brand that wins. They just continue pushing unoriginal content out the door and hoping it’ll move the needle. (In all likelihood, it leaves them fighting for scraps in a crushingly competitive market.) 
• Organizational challenges: In some organizations, it can be difficult to get buy-in from senior leadership who are either deeply risk averse or simply don’t understand the true value of content. (Or, worse, they think that AI-generated content is the simple solve.) This is one of the most significant challenges to overcome, especially when these people are the budget gatekeepers. 

No matter what the immediate barriers are, it doesn’t change the fact that content is the most important tool you have to engage your audience. And it is more important than ever, especially as B2B buyer behavior has shifted. These buyers are far more independent. They want more self-serve options (which means more content). And they’re incredibly close to making up their mind by the time they even reach out.

According to The APAC B2B Buyer Journey Research Report, 73% of the buyer’s journey has occurred before prospects engage with sellers. 

That means B2B buyers have already done 73% of the work on their own—researching, reading, comparing, etc. And guess what? A simple Google search isn’t the only way they’re going to find or assess you. Critical business decisions now happen in private Slack groups, on LinkedIn, and through AI chat tools. You need to think about how your content shows up across these channels—and how it compares to your competition.

Luckily, there is one thing that will actually make your content better and help you outshine everybody.

The Secret to Make Good Content Marketing Great

If you want to make the shift from good to great, add one thing to your content: experience. 

Anyone can create expert content (especially with AI). You can spit out lengthy guides about any topic all day long. But these pieces of thought leadership are rarely unique. They tend to sound like the same recycled piece that everyone else is publishing. There’s one thing that AI and your competitors can’t imitate, though, and that’s your experience. 

People are desperate to hear from real people’s experience (especially in a world of AI-generated fluff), so the more you can couple your expertise with your personal experience, the more people will trust you. 

There are so many ways that you can infuse this into your content, including:

• Personal lessons (wins and failures)
• Insider tips and insights
• Employee/expert spotlights
• Behind-the-scenes content
• Experiments/results
• Frameworks/processes
• Case studies and examples
• Client testimonials 
• Proprietary data 
• Polls (ask others to share their personal experiences)

And remember that experience can come from multiple individuals/teams in your company. There are probably plenty of in-house experts whose insights might be interesting to your audience; you just need to tap them for those gems. (To do this, see our tips to turn those coworkers into great content creators.)

Yes, sourcing this expert insight can be more time-consuming. But it is well worth it. 

On that note, it’s also worthwhile to reassess your entire content strategy and hone in on what’s working and what’s not. Some key questions to ask: 

• Does your content strategy align with your brand’s larger goals? If you don’t have a clear throughline, it doesn’t matter how great your content is. It won’t get you any closer to your larger goals. (Find out more about how to align your brand and content strategy.) 

• Are you focusing on quantity over quality? You should focus exclusively on what moves the needle. That means you might need to do less—but better. Create a stringent system to vet ideas and make sure they’ll resonate with your audience. When you’re ideating new content ideas, this means saying no more often than yes. But that’s OK. That’s how you raise the bar and make your content stand out. (Find out more about why we’ve been encouraging brands to make less content.) 

• Are you investing the right resources in content creation? You may be underinvesting or overinvesting, depending on the type of content you’re creating. This is why it’s important to be critical about the things you’re creating. For example, we once sunk a lot of resources into a fancy, lengthy interactive e-book, but we soon realized our audience preferred a simple, easy-to-reference downloadable PDF. We ended up translating the content into that preferred format, but we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and energy if we thought more about our audience’s needs vs. our own desires. 

• Do you have the right team and tools in place? Yes, AI tools can help increase your productivity and eliminate pesky tasks, but you still need human oversight—especially in content creation. Make sure you have the right infrastructure to effectively ideate and produce high-quality content. 

• Are you measuring what matters, not just what’s easy to track? It’s easy to fill your reports with vanity metrics that look great and tell you nothing. Focus on meaningful measurement that gives you genuine insights to shape your strategy. 

• Is your content truly differentiated, or just following the crowd? It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when it comes to marketing content. But just because you’re used to creating a particular type of content, or using a particular format, doesn’t mean it’s best for your audience. Try new things and track how they perform. You might be surprised to see what actually resonates. (You can also use our free template to conduct a proper content audit, which will help you spot gaps and opportunities to create more effective content.) 

You might not be able to makeover your content strategy overnight, but thoughtful, incremental changes will help you drastically improve the quality over time—and that is the most significant thing you can do to position your brand successfully. 

If there’s anything you take away from this, remember: Creating exceptional content isn’t just about standing out; it’s about survival. Yes, platforms come and go. Algorithms evolve. Workflows adjust. But the fundamental principle remains the same. The brands that win are the ones that can create undeniable content—content that earns attention naturally, builds genuine trust, and makes the brand the obvious choice.

A great data story starts with great data. That means it’s comprehensive, complete, and credible. But where do you find it? The best free data sources come from all sorts of places. You may have some in-house. You may come across some in an interesting study. Or you may need to start from scratch. Luckily, you can always turn to your dear friend, the Internet, to find fantastic, free data from a ton of solid sources.

We’ve used public data to create all sorts of content, from infographics to interactives, so we know what a goldmine it is. We also know that finding it can be a challenge. That’s why we’ve created this roundup—to make your search a lot easier. Here, you’ll find over 100 free data sources from reputable organizations around the world. And to make your search even easier, they’re organized by category so you can find the data you need as fast as possible. We hope it helps.

Free Data Sources: General/Academic

1. UNData: A statistical database of all United Nations data.

2. Amazon Public Data Sets: A repository of large datasets relating to biology, chemistry, economics, and physiology, including the Human Genome Project.

3. Pew Research: Public opinion polls, demographic research, content analysis, and other data-driven social science research.

4. Google Scholar: A wide array of information, including articles, theses, books, abstracts, white papers, and court opinions.

5. Datasets Subreddit: A dive into anything and everything, from English grain prices of the 14th Century to U.S. homelessness rates.

6. FiveThirtyEight: Statistical analysis that tells compelling stories about elections, politics, sports, science, economics, and more.

7. Qlik DataMarket: A place to check out data related to economics, healthcare, food, agriculture, and the automotive industry.

8. The Upshot by New York Times: News, analysis, and graphics about politics, policy, and everyday life.

9. Enigma Public: Broad collection of open data, curated for easy perusing.

10. Harvard Dataverse: A repository for research data.

Free Data Sources: Content Marketing

11. Buffer: Data insights on digital marketing.

12. Moz: Insights on SEO.

13. HubSpot: A large repository of marketing data.

14. Content Marketing Institute: The latest news, studies, and research on content marketing.

Free Data Sources: Crime

15. Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics: Statistics on violent crime, such as murder, rape, robbery, and assault; has decades of data at city, county, state, and national levels.

16. FBI Crime Data Explorer: Statistical crime reports and publications detailing specific offenses and outlining trends to understand crime threats at both local and national levels.

17. National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: Original research based on archived data concerning criminal justice and criminology.

18. Bureau of Justice Statistics: Information on anything related to U.S. justice system, including arrest-related deaths, census of jail inmates, national survey of DNA crime labs, surveys of law enforcement gang units, etc.

Free Data Sources: Drugs

19. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Drug approvals and databases, including therapeutic equivalence evaluations for approved multi-source prescription drug products.

20. National Institute on Drug Abuse: Resources that cover a variety of drug-related issues, such as drug usage, emergency room data, and prevention and treatment programs.

21. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: Research, trend analysis, and forensics with global and regional data collections.

22. Drug War Facts: Thorough look at drugs and drug policy, applied to public health and criminal justice issues.

23. Drug Data and Database by First Databank: Drug data and drug databases provided with the hope of drug knowledge inspiring change in the medication decision-making process.

Free Data Sources: Education

24. Government Data About Education: Education datasets, apps, resources for the classroom, and details about paying for college.

25. Education Data by the World Bank: Comprehensive data and analysis source for key topics in education, such as literacy rates and government expenditures.

26. Education Data by Unicef: Data related to sustainable development, school completion rates, net attendance rates, literacy rates, and more.

27. National Center for Education Statistics: The primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

Free Data Sources: Entertainment

28. Million Song Dataset: A collection of 28 datasets containing audio features and metadata for a million contemporary popular music tracks.

29. The Numbers: Detailed movie financial analysis, including box office, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports, and release schedules.

30 BFI Film Forever: Research data and market intelligence focused on the UK film industry and film culture.

31. IFPI: Global statistics about the recording industry.

32. Statista: Video Game Industry: Statistics and facts about the video game industry, ranging from global gaming software expenditure to U.S. brand equity of Nintendo Wii.

33. Statista: Film Industry: Statistics and facts about the film industry, from the number of movie tickets sold in U.S. and Canada to the number of 3D cinema screens worldwide.

34. Statista: Music Industry: Statistics and facts about the music industry, ranging from concert revenue to record company market share.

35. Academic Rights Press: A repository of historical and current music sales data with insight on how such numbers can be applied.

36. BLS: Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation: Related industries at a glance, with statistics and datasets relevant to arts, entertainment, and recreation.

Free Data Sources: Environmental/Weather Data

37. Global Biodiversity Information Facility: An international network providing data on all types of life on Earth.

38. National Center for Environmental Health: Nationally funded data systems that have a relationship to environmental public health.

39. National Climatic Data Center: Quick links  from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, covering everything from storm data to climate indices.

40. National Weather Service: Climate data, including past weather conditions and long-term averages, from specific observing stations around the United States.

41. Weather Underground: Tracked weather by regional radar, regional severe weather, and global temperatures.

42. National Centers for Environmental Information: Weather record published since 1927, including monthly mean values of pressure, temperature, precipitation, and station metadata notes documenting observation practices and station configurations.

43. WeatherBase: Travel weather, climate averages, forecasts, current conditions, and normals for 41,997 cities worldwide.

44. International Energy Agency Atlas: A look at climate change that focuses on how each country produces and consumes energy.

45. Environmental Protection Agency: Information for more than 540 chemical substances, containing information on human health effects that may result from exposure to various substances in the environment.

Free Data Sources: Financial/Economic Data

46. OpenCorporates: The largest open database of companies in the world.

47. Google Finance: Real-time stock quotes and charts, financial news, currency conversions, or tracked portfolios.

48. Google Public Data Explorer: Searchable large datasets on economic development worldwide.

 49. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: U.S. economic statistics, including national income and gross domestic product.

50. National Bureau of Economic Research: Macro data, industry data, productivity data, trade data, international finance, data, and more.

51. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Quarterly datasets of extracted information from exhibits to corporate financial reports filed with the Commission.

52. World Bank Open Data: Education statistics about everything from finances to service delivery indicators.

53.  Financial Data Finder at OSU: Plentiful links to anything related to finance, no matter how obscure.

54. IMF Economic Data: Global financial stability reports, regional economic reports, international financial statistics, exchange rates, directions of trade, and more.

55. The Atlas of Economic Complexity: Analysis of trade flows and the sectoral composition of an economy with data visualizations.

56. World Bank Doing Business Database: An incredibly useful source of information that evaluates business environment indicators around the world, including trade capabilities and costs.

57. UN Comtrade Database: Raw data on high-level trade with visualizations.

58. Global Financial Data: Covers 60,000 companies across 300 years, analyzing the twists and turns of the global economy.

59. Visualizing Economics: Data visualizations about the economy.

60. Federal Reserve Economic Database: Data on money, banking, macroeconomics, international and regional economics, etc.

Free Data Sources: Government/World

61. Consortium for Political and Social Research: Provides access to a vast archive of social science data.

62. U.S. Census Bureau: Government-informed statistics on population, economy, education, geography, and more.

63. Data.gov: Open data of the U.S. government, focuses on everything from agriculture and ecosystems to manufacturing and science.

64. Unicef: Evidence on the situation of children and women around the world to inform national and global decision-making.

65. Data Catalogs: Comprehensive list of open data catalogs in the world, curated by a group of leading open-data experts.

66. European Union Open Data Portal: Data pulled from European Union institutions.

67. Open Data Network: Government-related data with some visualizations tools built in.

68. Gapminder: Massive collection of data sources that cover everything from agriculture and employment to aid given and death.

69. Land Matrix (Transnational Land Database): A meticulously developed database of international land transactions with plenty of visualization tools.

70. The World Bank’s World Development Indicators: Huge collection of national data on hundreds of indicators, with data on every country.

71. UNDP’s Human Development Index: A ranking of country progress under the lens of human development.

72. OECD Aid Database: Visualized data regarding aid collected from governments.

73. The CIA World Factbook: Facts on every country, dependency, and geographic entity in the world; focuses on history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues.

Free Data Sources: Health

74. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Public health data and statistics by topic, from alcohol use to viral hepatitis.

75. World Health Organization: Information, data, statistics, and reports concerning international public health.

76. President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition: Information aimed to promote, encourage, and motivate Americans of all ages to become physically active and participate in sport.

77. Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce: A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations, and health sciences libraries.

78. Health Services Research Information Central: Selective links aimed at providing information and data regarding health services resources.

79. MedicinePlus: Health statistics ranging from percentage of obese citizens to rates at which people are catching the flu.

80. National Center for Health Statistics: Datasets, documentation, data access tools, growth charts, and resources for further vital records.

81. America’s Health Rankings: Health reports that view the nation holistically, with in-depth data and analysis.

82. Health & Social Care Information Centre: National provider of information, data, and IT systems for health and social care.

83. Medicare Hospital Quality: A database on complication rates by hospital for interesting comparisons.

84. SEER Cancer Incidence: Cancer-related statistical summaries, interactive tools, and publications.

85. The BROAD Institute: Cancer program legacy publication resources and cancer-related datasets.

86. HealthData.gov: High-value health data for entrepreneurs, researchers, and policy makers; includes data on Medicaid, Medicare, clincial studies, and treatments.

Free Data Sources: Human Rights

87. Human Rights Data Analysis Group: Nonprofit, nonpartisan group applying rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world.

88. Harvard Law School: A collection of links that cover a variety of topics, including everything from international relations and human rights data, from political institution databases.

89. The Armed Conflict Database by Uppsala University: A look at fragile and conflict-affected states that dives into minor and major violent conflicts around the world.

90. Amnesty International: Human rights information, run independent of any political ideology, economic interest, or religion.

Free Data Sources: Labor/Employment Data

91. Department of Labor: Closely watched measures of employment and unemployment.

92. U.S. Small Business Administration: Employment data from business owners’ perspective, including economic indicators and projections.

93. Employment by U.S. Census: Data that measures the state of the nation’s workforce, including employment and unemployment levels, as well as weeks and hours worked.

94. Bureau of Labor Statistics: U.S. government’s data collection of employment-related stats across regions, states, and local areas.

Free Data Sources: Politics

95. Gallup: Data-driven news based on U.S. and world polls.

96. Real Clear Politics: A look at everything from policy support to election polling data.

97. Intro to Political Science Research by UC Berkeley: Statistics and data for those interested in political science; an ideal starting place.

98. California Field Poll: Independent, nonpartisan, media-sponsored public opinion news service that examines California public opinion.

99. Rand State Statistics: Social science data for the U.S. at the national, state, and local levels.

100. Roper Center for Public Opinion Research: U.S. and international polling and public opinion survey data.

101. Open Secrets: Nonpartisan, independent, and nonprofit; nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.

102. Crowdpac: Calculates objective scores for political candidates showing their overall political position and their position on specific issues.

Free Data Sources: Retail

103. Love the Sales: Free data for insights into the global retail industry.

Free Data Sources: Social

104. Facebook Graph: API that pulls data about Facebook engagement.

105. SocialMention: Real-time social media search and analysis.

106. Google Trends: Data and trends by search engine engagement.

Free Data Sources: Travel/Transportation

107. Monthly Tourism Statistics – U.S. Travelers Overseas: A look at U.S. international air passenger statistics.

108. SkiftStats: Latest statistics, research, and data about the travel industry.

109. Search the World: Statistics, population, weather, webcams, and travel information for millions of locations worldwide.

110. U.S. Travel Association: Covers a wide variety of travel-related topics, from impacts of travel on state economies to analysis of what a stronger dollar means for the travel industry.

111. Bureau of Transportation Statistics: Transportation statistical data, research activities, and budgetary resources.

How to Start Data Storytelling

Regardless of the data you choose, turning that data into a compelling story is key. From copy to design, make sure to follow best data storytelling practices at every stage. If you’re ready to start:

• Find the story in your data set. Download our free e-book, The Content Marketer’s Guide to Data Storytelling, for more tips on bringing your data to life. You can also follow our step-by-step guide to uncover the stories in your data (and look into your own data if none of these sources were quite what you were looking for).
• Craft an effective narrative. Try these tips to turn your data into a compelling story.
• Choose the right visualization. Once you know your narrative, make sure to choose the right visual format for your story.
• Source your data correctly. Follow these 5 tips for sourcing to make sure you maintain your credibility. 
• Follow best practices for data design. Learn how to design the most basic charts and graphs, and follow these tips to upgrade your visualizations.

If you need any help telling your data story, hit us up. And if you have any tips for finding great data or great data sources, leave a comment and help us share the data love.

To consistently generate high-quality content, you need a steady stream of content ideas, a solid workflow, and a well-crafted content plan. That last part is the glue holding everything together. With a solid plan, you can stay organized, execute your content strategy successfully, and ensure you are creating content that will actually connect with the right people and turn them into lifelong fans. If you have never created a plan before, or if you aren’t sure you are doing it the right way, you have come to the right place. We are going to walk you through the content plan process and help you avoid common mistakes along the way.

But first, we need to go back to basics.

What Is a Content Plan?

In short, what is a content plan? It is a way to document the content marketing you want to create and ensure everyone on your team stays on the same page. Think of it as a detailed roadmap. It bridges the gap between your high-level strategy and the actual work of writing, designing, and publishing. While your strategy tells you the “why” and the “who,” the content plan tells you the “what,” “where,” and “when.” It organizes your content production into a manageable flow.

When asking what a content plan is, remember that it is not just a calendar. It is a tactical document that aligns your creative output with your business objectives.

Why Do You Need a Content Plan?

Good content marketing is strategic and intentional. It also involves many moving parts, from copywriting to design. The better you can plan, the easier it becomes to succeed. A comprehensive content plan acts as your safety net and your guide. Without one, you are likely just guessing.

Here is why a content plan matters:

• Publish consistently. If you want to build your brand through content, you need to show up for your target audience regularly. Publishing a steady stream of content is one of the most effective ways to do that. But if you do not have a reliable content infrastructure, meaning the knowledge and resources to create content, it is very difficult to produce and publish high-quality content consistently. A content plan helps keep everyone on the same page to ensure you hit your deadlines and publish the right thing at the right time.
• Tell your brand’s best stories. We like to think of content marketing as a unique ecosystem where every piece of content helps reinforce your brand story. If you are making content piecemeal or on the fly, it is harder to control the quality and message that you are sending. With a solid content plan, you can ensure that you are creating the right mix of content for your target audience. You can plan themes that weave together over time rather than just posting random thoughts.
• Maximize resources. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 54% of B2B marketers say a lack of resources is their biggest challenge. When you know what content you plan to create, you can identify and allocate resources more effectively. In fact, the more you plan, the more mileage you can get from your content. A content plan allows you to batch your efforts. You might film three videos in one day because your plan identified the need for video content three weeks in a row.

Note: What is most important is actually documenting your plan. That can help you keep track of your content, spot additional content opportunities, and more. A documented content plan is the difference between a hobby and a business engine.

How to Create a Content Plan

Creating a content plan is simple if you know what you are doing. It requires you to sit down, think about your goals, and structure your approach. Follow these steps to set yourself up for success and build a successful content plan.

1) Complete your content strategy.

Successful content marketing does not start with content. It starts with strategy. Before you make your content plan, you need to know what your goals are, who your target audience is, how your content will support those goals, how you plan to measure success, and so on. If you have not established this foundation, your content will not be very effective. In fact, you are almost guaranteed to waste valuable time and resources for little reward.

The content strategy defines the “why” behind every single piece of content you produce. It dictates your messaging, your tone, and your overall approach. Without it, your content plan is just a list of dates.

Your strategy should clarify your target audience. You need to know their pain points, their desires, and what keeps them up at night. This goes beyond demographics. You need to understand their behavior. When you know your target audience intimately, your content plan becomes much easier to fill because you know exactly what they need to engage with.

Consider your business objectives. Are you trying to drive sales? Increase awareness? Retain customers? Your marketing objectives directly influence your content plan. If your goal is brand awareness, your content plan might focus on viral social media content or shareable infographics. If your goal is retention, your content plan might focus on in-depth product guides or exclusive customer newsletters.

This is why it is important to start with the basics. Use our content strategy guide and toolkit to ensure you have the information you need to build a content plan that is aligned to your goals. Check out our Content Strategy Toolkit for additional resources.

For a more detailed guide on crafting a creation plan, explore our step-by-step content creation plan.

Before moving forward, perform a content audit of your existing content. See what has worked in the past. Look at your Google Analytics. Which blog posts brought in the most organic traffic? Which social media posts got the most shares? This performance analysis gives you actionable insights that inform your new content plan. You do not want to reinvent the wheel if you already have high-quality content that just needs a refresh.

2) Build your content pipeline.

Good content rarely happens when you are scrambling to create something last-minute. Thus, your content plan needs to account for any significant events or dates for which you will create content. This is about blocking out the big rocks before you fill in the pebbles.

This may include all sorts of notable events, such as:

• Holidays
• Seasonal events (e.g., annual tradeshow)
• Company milestones
• Launches

To make sure these events are on your radar from the start, we suggest building a content pipeline, wherein you document important events for each quarter. (Download our free content pipeline template to do it.) Although you may not be focusing on those events yet, it is important to have them in the pipeline so you can brainstorm and prepare far ahead of time.

Planning is essential for a stress-free content process. If you know a big product launch is coming in Q3, your content plan should reflect the build-up to that launch, starting weeks in advance. Content planning creates breathing room. It allows for human creativity to flourish because you aren’t panic-writing at 11 PM.

Use this pipeline to brainstorm campaign ideas that span multiple weeks or formats. A single event on your pipeline might spawn five different social media posts, two blog posts, and a video. Your content plan captures all of these requirements in one place.

3) Decide on your cadence.

How often do you plan to publish? What is a steady, reasonable cadence? This will rely on your team’s knowledge, skills, and ability to create various pieces of content. You may publish daily, weekly, or monthly. It all depends on your brand and your resources. What matters most is that you choose a reasonable cadence that you can realistically maintain.

Often, brands get ambitious with their content plan. They decide they will publish five blog posts a week and post to social media platforms three times a day. Two weeks later, they burn out. A successful content plan is sustainable. It accounts for the reality of content production.

Ask yourself how many posts you can realistically create without sacrificing quality. High-quality content always beats high-volume garbage. If you can only produce one amazing article a week, that is fine. Put that in your content plan. If you try to force more, your target audience will notice the drop in quality.

Your publishing schedules must align with your capacity. If you have a small team, a heavy content plan will crush them. If you have a large team of content marketers, you can be more aggressive.

Tip: If you do not have the ability to create something in-house, outside support can help. See our tips to figure out if you should turn to a freelancer or a content agency.

4) Brainstorm ideas by month.

Every brand’s content needs will be different, but if you are building your content operation from scratch, it helps to break content plans down by quarter (via your content pipeline), and then by month. This makes the mountain climbable.

We find it especially helpful to choose a specific topic, set of keywords, or seasonal theme to brainstorm around each month. When you plan themes, you make it easier to come up with post ideas. For example, if October is “Cybersecurity Awareness Month,” suddenly coming up with eight post ideas is easier than staring at a blank page.

Note: While you can loosely plot these themes out, they shouldn’t be written in stone. Things can and often do change. If you are brainstorming too far ahead, and something unexpected happens, it will throw your whole content calendar off. Instead, plan 1-3 months at a time. This allows for strategic decision-making when market conditions shift.

When it comes time to brainstorm specific content ideas, there are a few best practices to keep in mind:

• Include stakeholders. Don’t leave anyone important out of these meetings. More minds make better ideas. Plus, you don’t want to go back to square one if a stakeholder doesn’t approve of the idea. Sales teams, specifically, talk to your target audience every day. They have amazing content ideas based on real questions potential customers ask.
• Vet your ideas. Don’t go with your first ideas. Instead, use your marketing personas to vet and prioritize the ideas that will resonate with your target audience most. Ask yourself: does this help my target audience? Does it move them closer to our business goals?
• Consider the platform. Where does your audience live online, and what type of content do they like to consume on these platforms? This may influence the types of ideas you brainstorm. Your content plan must account for platform nuances. A LinkedIn post looks different than an Instagram story.
• Use Social Listening. Pay attention to what your target audience is saying on social media. Social listening can uncover burning questions or trending topics you should include in your content plan.
• Check Search Volume. If you want organic traffic, use SEO tools to see what people are searching for. High search volume keywords should be integrated into your written content plan.

Once you have your list of ideas, think about what order you will want to publish them in. For example, if you are just starting to publish content, you will want to publish your larger, broader pieces first. Your content plan should logically flow from one concept to the next.

5) Build out your editorial calendar.

Now you can use our editorial calendar template to schedule your content. (You may also use a calendar tool like CoSchedule.)

This is where you get into the nitty-gritty content-planning details. Build and schedule a calendar that keeps everyone on track, including all the relevant details like topic, keyword, author, etc. Again, you want to schedule things out far enough in advance that no one is unprepared or blindsided by a deadline.

Your editorial calendar is the visual representation of your content plan. It shows you the publication dates, the status of content production, and who is responsible for what. It prevents the “who was supposed to write that?” conversation.

However, this is marketing, and things change (hi, pandemic!). You may need to be flexible and move some content up, or push other content back. A comprehensive content plan is a living document. It adapts.

When scheduling content, consider the format. Are you mixing blog posts with video content? Is your content mix balanced? Your calendar will show you if you are heavy on text but light on visuals. It helps you craft content that is diverse and engaging.

For more on this, find out how to build a proper editorial calendar

6) Plan your distribution strategy.

No matter how good your content is, if people aren’t seeing it, it isn’t doing its job. You need to plan how you will distribute the work in your content plan. Focus on channels that align best with your goals and have the highest potential reach. For example, if your goal is brand awareness, prioritize channels with high visibility, like social media. For lead generation, use channels like email or gated content on your website. This approach ensures you are not spreading resources too thin.

Your content plan must include a column for distribution. It is not enough to just say “publish blog.” You need to plan the social media posts that will support that blog.

• Identify where your audience spends time. That might be LinkedIn for B2B or Instagram for younger audience segments. Your target audience dictates the channel. If your target audience loves TikTok, your content plan better include video content for TikTok.
• Tailor your content for each platform. Segmenting by platform lets you adapt your message and format, using visuals and shorter copy for social media posts or long-form articles for your blog, ensuring your content resonates effectively with different audience segments. You might take one idea from your content plan and create three different versions of it for various channels.
• Analyze your audience’s engagement patterns to determine optimal publishing times. Many platforms have peak engagement times (e.g., LinkedIn during weekdays), which can vary based on industry and audience type. Planning distribution around these patterns will help you maximize visibility and engagement. Use Google Analytics or Platform Insights to find these times.
• Leverage Email. Don’t forget to include email in your content plan. It is a direct line to your potential customers.
• Create Social Media Content specifically for the feed. Social media content isn’t just links to blogs. It’s threads, polls, and images. Your content plan should detail these specific assets.

The more you integrate your distribution efforts into the content plan, the better your results. For more tips, see our guide to building a distribution strategy that gets the right eyes on your content.

How to Make Your Content Plan Successful

As you begin to document your plan (and measure the results as you go), we have a few final tips to make sure your content-planning work pays off. Success doesn’t happen by accident; it happens because your content plan was built with strategic alignment in mind.

• Optimize your infrastructure. Follow our tips to master content creation and work smarter, not harder. Your content process should be smooth. If your content plan feels like a burden, something in your workflow is broken.
• Choose the right mix of content. Think of your content as nutrition. Your target audience needs a well-balanced meal to stay interested (and satisfied). Find out how to serve the right type of content that will keep people engaged. Your content plan should include educational pieces, entertaining pieces, and sales-focused pieces.
• Repurpose content. Maximize your content by looking for ways to repurpose content. For example, you might break an ebook into a blog post, social media snippets, data visualizations, or even a podcast episode. This strategy enhances your presence across distribution channels without requiring the creation of entirely new content. For more tips on doing this, find out how a divisible content strategy can help you work more effectively. Your content plan should explicitly state how one asset becomes ten social media posts.
• Test and tweak. Good metrics are the key to content marketing success because they tell you whether or not your content actually works. Measure your efforts, and use the insights to improve your content going forward. Look at your performance analysis. Did the video content perform better than the written content? Did the content ideas you loved flop with the target audience? Use this data to suggest improvements for the next iteration of your content plan.
• Don’t be precious with your content. If it isn’t working and you are supposed to create the same content next month, mix it up. Your content plan is a guide, not a jail cell. If audience feedback tells you they hate a certain topic, remove it from the content plan immediately.
• Use AI Tools wisely. AI tools can help you generate outlines or brainstorm titles, but rely on human creativity for the substance. Your content plan can include a column for “AI assistance” and one for “Human Review.”
• Monitor Audience Preferences. Your target audience changes. Their needs shift. Regular checks on audience preferences ensure your content plan remains relevant.
• Track Progress. Set milestones in your content plan to track progress toward your business goals. If you aren’t hitting the numbers, adjust the plan.

Strategic alignment is crucial. Every item in your content plan must serve a purpose. If you can’t explain why a piece of social media content exists, delete it. The goal is business impact, not just noise.

Of course, if you need a partner to guide your strategy and content, we are always here. See our content strategy FAQ or hit us up directly. We would love to help you create a content plan that resonates with the people you are trying to reach.

Deep Dive: The Role of Social Media in Your Content Plan

We cannot talk about a comprehensive content plan without talking deeply about social media. For many brands, social media platforms are the primary way the target audience interacts with the business. Therefore, your social media strategy must be woven tightly into your overall content plan.

When you create posts for social media, you are competing for attention against millions of other distractions. Your content plan needs to account for this high-volume environment. You cannot just post once a month and hope for the best.

Your content plan should specify which social media platforms you are targeting. Are you on LinkedIn? Twitter? Instagram? Each requires a different approach. Your content plan might have a tab for each platform.

Think about the lifespan of social media content. A tweet lasts minutes. A LinkedIn post might last days. Your content plan handles this by scheduling reposts or variations of the same message. This refers back to the idea of distribution efforts. Your content plan ensures that a single piece of high-quality content gets shared multiple times across various channels, maximizing its value.

Furthermore, social media is where you gather audience feedback. When you create posts, look at the comments. What are people saying? This feedback loop is gold for future content. Your content plan should have a mechanism for capturing this data. Did a specific topic spark a debate? Add more content ideas around that topic to next month’s content plan.

Your social media strategy also influences your visual assets. If your content plan focuses heavily on Instagram, you need to plan for photography and design resources. You can’t just have text. This is why the content plan is so vital for resource allocation. It flags the need for a designer weeks before the post is due.

Ultimately, your social media posts are the frontline of your marketing efforts. They are often the first touchpoint for potential customers. A messy social feed suggests a messy business. A curated, strategic feed suggests professionalism. Your content plan is the tool that ensures your social media presence is the latter.

The Connection Between SEO and Your Content Plan

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another critical component. While social media drives quick traffic, organic traffic from search engines builds long-term value. Your content plan must integrate SEO best practices.

When you are brainstorming content ideas, look at search volume. What is your target audience typing into Google? These keywords should become the titles of your blog posts. Your content plan should include a column for target keywords.

By optimizing your content for search, you ensure that your marketing efforts continue to pay dividends comfortably into the future. A blog post written today can generate leads for years if it ranks well. Your content plan is the place where you prioritize these high-value topics.

Additionally, internal linking requires planning. Your content plan can map out how new articles will link to existing content. This strengthens your site’s structure and helps Google Analytics understand your authority on a topic.

So, when you look at your content plan, you should see a mix of timely social media content and timeless, SEO-driven written content. This hybrid approach balances quick wins with long-term growth.

Defining Your Target Audience in the Plan

We have mentioned the target audience a few times, but let’s get specific. Your content plan should actually list the audience segments for each piece of content.

You might have buyer personas like “Manager Mike” and “Executive Erica.” In your content plan, next to a blog post, you should list which persona it targets. This ensures you aren’t ignoring a key segment of your potential customers.

If you review your content plan and see that 90% of your content targets “Manager Mike,” but “Executive Erica” makes the buying decisions, you have a problem. The content plan reveals this gap before you spend money creating the content.

Understanding audience preferences is also key. Does “Manager Mike” prefer video content? Does “Executive Erica” prefer data reports? Your content plan aligns the format with the persona. This level of detail transforms a simple calendar into a strategic weapon.

Generating Content Ideas That Stick

Staring at a blank content plan can be intimidating. Where do the post ideas come from?

1. Sales interactions: Ask your sales team what questions they answer repeatedly. Put those answers in your content plan.
2. Competitor analysis: Specific content efforts by your competitors can inspire you. Don’t copy, but look for gaps they missed. Add those to your content plan.
3. Industry news: Is there a new regulation or trend? Plan content that explains it to your target audience.
4. Customer support tickets: If users are struggling with feature X, create a tutorial and add it to the content plan.

By sourcing content ideas from data and real interactions, you ensure your content plan is filled with engaging content that solves real problems.

Final Thoughts on Your Content Marketing Plan

A content marketing plan is not a static document. It is a dynamic tool that drives your business goals. It aligns your marketing strategy with your production capacity. It ensures that every blog post, every video, and every social media post serves a purpose.

When you commit to a comprehensive content plan, you commit to quality. You commit to your target audience. You commit to growth.

Remember, the goal is not just to fill a content calendar. The goal is content success. That means generating leads, building brand loyalty, and driving revenue. Your content plan is the map that gets you there.

So, start today. Define your strategy. Build your pipeline. Fill out that content plan. Your future self (and your stress levels) will thank you. Whether you are a team of one or a team of fifty, the content plan determines your velocity and your victory.

When you optimize content processes through planning, you free up time for what matters: connecting with humans. That is the heart of content marketing. It is about relationships. Your content plan is just the structure that allows those relationships to flourish at scale.

Keep track of your success. If a particular type of post drives massive engagement, double down on it in the next month’s content plan. If something fails, cut it. This iterative process, guided by a solid content plan, is how you win.

Now, go forth and craft content that matters. Stick to the plan, but stay flexible enough to seize the moment. Happy planning.

The best B2B campaigns don’t just hit their numbers; they change how an audience thinks about a problem. A fintech startup rewrites the rules on SEO. A cybersecurity company turns its own name from an objection into an asset. A SaaS brand buys a Super Bowl ad and makes every other B2B company wonder why they didn’t do it first.

These are the campaigns worth studying — not because of the tactics, but because of the strategic bets behind them. Each one started with a specific business problem and an unconventional answer. Some are our own client work. Some are external campaigns we admire. All of them offer something a senior marketing leader can take into their next planning session.

What Separates a Great B2B Campaign From a Forgettable One?

It’s not budget. Some of the most effective B2B marketing examples on this list cost a fraction of what their competitors spent.

The pattern that holds across all 14: the campaign solved a positioning problem, not just a distribution problem. Blend didn’t just “do SEO” — they built keyword architecture for an industry that didn’t have one. HackerOne didn’t just “refresh the brand” — they neutralized the single biggest objection enterprise buyers had. Gong didn’t just “run an ad” — they signaled a category position that no amount of content marketing could have communicated as fast.

The tactical details matter. But if you’re a marketing leader looking for campaign inspiration, start with the strategic bet each team made, and ask whether a similar bet applies to your situation.

The Best B2B Marketing Case Studies

1. Blend Builds SEO Infrastructure, Increasing Site Traffic 183% (Fintech)

The problem: Blend, a FinTech company in mortgage and consumer banking, had zero organic visibility. No keyword strategy, no content engine, no SEO infrastructure. They were invisible in the channels their buyers actually used for research. A common misconception in B2B SEO is that low-volume keywords have no value. In reality, if the keywords match your business model, ranking for those terms can be incredibly impactful.

The strategic bet: To build a robust and high-ranking content ecosystem, we constructed a keyword cluster framework targeting Blend’s core audience and adopted a two-pronged approach to tackle those keywords.

• First, we optimized Blend’s core site pages to drive traffic.
• Then, we created fresh content to expand Blend’s reach.

Collaborating closely with the Blend team, we established an efficient workflow and regular publishing schedule, enabling us to scale content production and consistently support our SEO objectives.

Blend achieved significant improvements, including:

• 183% increase in site traffic
• Over 50 unbranded keywords ranking on Page 1
• Site visibility increase from 1.82% to 13.89%

Why it worked: The compound effect of keyword architecture meant each new piece of content strengthened the others; the growth curve accelerated over time rather than flattening.

The takeaway for your team: SEO requires constant adaptation, so it’s important to create a flexible strategy that can evolve as you grow. See our guide to choose the right keywords for your brand, and learn about the latest SEO practices to compete against AI. Although it’s tough to start from scratch, if you target the right keywords with a steady stream of valuable content, you’ll see your rankings improve over time.

“We would have been completely satisfied if we had only received strong strategic guidance, an actionable SEO framework, and organic traffic results that speak for themselves. In addition, we also gained a passionate and compassionate set of new teammates committed to our success.”

— Greg Babel, Lead — Brand, Editorial, and Advocacy, Blend

2. VideoAmp — A Website Redesign That Was Really a Messaging Project (AdTech)

The problem: VideoAmp had proprietary sports viewership data that no competitor could match — but no way to turn raw numbers into content that demonstrated their measurement capabilities or built thought leadership.

The strategic bet: Don’t just publish a report — build a recurring content franchise. We created “The Replay,” a monthly data report that transforms VideoAmp’s measurement data into visual stories. The debut edition took March Madness viewership data and surfaced counterintuitive cuts (cat households outwatching dog households, for example) to prove the depth of VideoAmp’s segmentation — wrapped in a playbook visual motif with custom data visualizations and interactive elements. Read the full VideoAmp case study.

Why it worked: The first edition earned coverage in CNN’s newsletter and positioned VideoAmp as a thought leader in media measurement. More importantly, the scalable framework means every future edition builds on the last — compounding brand authority monthly instead of resetting with each campaign.

The takeaway for your team: If you’re sitting on proprietary data, the opportunity isn’t a one-off report — it’s a recurring franchise. A repeatable format that gets better with each edition builds more authority than a dozen standalone pieces.

“With all the moving parts and individual tasks, C5 never missed a beat — we could not have asked for a better partner.”

— Michelle Kim, VP of Brand Design, VideoAmp

3. Lucidworks’ Interactive Educates Executives (Developer Tools)

The Challenge: Lucidworks helps companies build AI-powered search and data discovery solutions for employees and customers. To position the brand as a thought leader and provide much-needed education about data, Lucidworks wanted to create a fresh piece of content around the provocative subject of dark data.

What We Did: Dark data can be a dry and tedious topic. To make it more engaging and captivating, we proposed an interactive microsite that would immerse users in the story—through the metaphor of an iceberg. Using copy, imagery, animation, and interactivity, we guided users into the dark abyss below the surface to reveal the value of dark data. This creative treatment brought the story to life in an unexpected way, becoming the perfect hero piece to showcase Lucidworks’ expertise.

The Takeaway: Visual storytelling can be a powerful tool, and interactive content is especially enticing. If you’re not sure what types of stories you might tell in this format, follow these tips to brainstorm great interactive ideas.

4. Instacart Ads — 115 Assets in 4 Weeks for a Major Feature Launch (Enterprise)

The problem: Instacart needed to launch a campaign communicating same-as-in-store pricing at select retailers — and they needed it in four weeks. A traditional agency process couldn’t move that fast.

The strategic bet: Kill the handoff. Instead of a sequential brief → concept → review cycle, we embedded directly with Instacart’s commercial marketing team, brainstorming and iterating in live sessions. The work spanned paid social, display, OOH, grocery TV, direct mail, email, streaming audio, and three full video spots — with English-to-French Canadian translation for the Quebec market. Hyperlocal insights shaped the messaging for each priority market. Explore the full Instacart Ads case study.

Why it worked: 115 assets delivered across channels. Retailers offering price parity grew 10 percentage points faster than those with markups. The campaign became a cornerstone of Instacart’s pricing strategy — their CEO cited it publicly at Goldman Sachs Communacopia. And the embedded model worked so well that Instacart expanded the partnership to two additional internal teams.

The takeaway for your team: When speed matters more than process, embed instead of hand off. The four-week deadline that seemed impossible actually forced a better way of working — fewer approval layers, faster decisions, tighter creative.

“I didn’t know content could be this good.”

— Amanda Smith, Senior B2B Marketing Manager, Instacart

5. HackerOne — Neutralizing a Brand Objection to Unlock Enterprise (Cybersecurity)

The problem: HackerOne needed to break into the enterprise market. Research surfaced a brutal truth: CISOs and enterprise security leaders had negative associations with the word “hacker.” The company’s name — its core identity — was the thing blocking enterprise deals.

The strategic bet: Don’t hide from the name. Reframe it. We built a full brand repositioning around “Cyberstrength” — shifting HackerOne’s positioning from reactive, defensive security to proactive risk management. New messaging framework, refreshed visual identity, enterprise-targeted content. The word “hacker” went from objection to differentiator. Read the HackerOne case study.

Why it worked: The repositioning opened enterprise doors that were previously closed. Instead of softening the brand to sound more corporate, the “Cyberstrength” frame gave enterprise buyers a positive lens for the exact thing that made them nervous.

The takeaway for your team: If your target buyers have an objection baked into how they perceive you, no amount of demand gen fixes that. Fix the positioning first. Sometimes your biggest liability — properly reframed — becomes your strongest differentiator.

6. Fieldguide — Launching an AI Product to an Audience That Doesn’t Trust AI (AI Company)

The problem: Fieldguide built an agentic AI platform for accounting and audit professionals — a market that runs on manual processes, faces intense regulatory scrutiny, and reflexively distrusts AI automation. It needed to generate awareness quickly as the AI first-mover in the space.

The strategic bet: Don’t lead with AI. Lead with the outcome. We positioned the product as a “field agent” — not a chatbot, not an assistant — capable of stringing together complex audit tasks autonomously. The media mix was built for a professional audience that’s hard to reach digitally: DOOH placements in accounting firm lobbies, CTV, and proximity-based cross-device retargeting that followed targets from physical touchpoints to digital screens. Read the Fieldguide ABM case study.

Why it worked: The proximity retargeting approach proved effective enough to become our standard framework for reaching professional audiences in regulated industries. By meeting the audience in their physical environment first, we earned the digital attention that cold outreach never would have. This campaign outpaced standard media results, garnering a cross-channel CPM of under $20 and impressive non-awareness campaign byproducts such as 32 leads, a clickthrough rate of 0.75%, and a cost per click of $1.42.

The takeaway for your team: When your audience is skeptical of your technology category, lead with the job they already want done. Let the technology be the mechanism, not the headline.

7. Bloomreach — Agile Paid Media That Beat Goals by 30% (Enterprise SaaS / MarTech)

The problem: Bloomreach, an e-commerce personalization platform, wanted to run their first-ever brand campaign at scale. No existing paid media playbook, no baseline, and high internal expectations.

The strategic bet: Hyper-segment and test in real time rather than commit to a fixed plan. We used geofencing, historical data, and targeted job titles to reach specific accounts, then deployed across digital, CTV, programmatic, and podcasts. Instead of optimizing at the end, we optimized continuously — reallocating budget toward what was working within the first two weeks. See the full Bloomreach case study.

Through a test-and-learn approach, we continuously improved the campaign’s effectiveness in real time, ensuring optimal results. As a result, we surpassed Bloomreach’s goals:

• Moved 10% of their target account list from ‘unaware’ to ‘aware’
• Garnered 13 million impressions
• Maintained a $10 average CPM
• Secured 429,000 completed audio listens at an average cost of $0.03

Why it worked: Unique targeting channels allowed us to “own” face time with the audience on less competitive inventory. The real-time testing meant every dollar in week four was smarter than every dollar in week one.

The takeaway for your team: “Test and learn” sounds like a cliché, but most brand campaigns don’t actually do it. They set a plan and watch it run. Continuous optimization during the campaign — not after — is where the compounding happens.

8. SAP — A Sci-Fi Podcast That Won Content Marketing Project of the Year (Enterprise)

The problem: SAP wanted to raise awareness about SAP Leonardo technologies — machine learning, big data, blockchain — but their audience had tuned out the standard B2B playbook of whitepapers and webinars.

The strategic bet: Don’t forget to entertain. We produced Searching for Salai, a fictional nine-part science fiction podcast that wove time travel, history, and mystery into a narrative that reframed how listeners think about emerging technology. No product demos. No calls to action. Just a story good enough that people chose to spend nine episodes with it.

Why it worked: Two Content Marketing Institute awards — Best Podcast/Audio Series and Content Marketing Project of the Year. The podcast worked because it respected the audience’s intelligence and gave them something they wanted to consume on their own terms.

The takeaway for your team: The highest-performing B2B content often doesn’t look like B2B content at all. If your audience has tuned out your format, change the format — not the volume. Read the full SAP case study here.

9. Dialpad — Humor-Driven Video That Earned a Webby (SaaS)

The problem: Dialpad needed to launch VoiceAI in a crowded communication software market where every competitor sounded the same.

The strategic bet: Make people laugh. We rebuilt Dialpad’s brand strategy from the ground up — purpose, vision, mission, personas — then produced two comedic videos spoofing universal phone call frustrations. The tagline “Make Smarter Calls” gave the campaign a thread, but the humor gave it reach.

Why it worked: 300,000+ views. Webby Awards honoree in “Branded Entertainment Scripted.” The videos worked because the humor was grounded in a real, recognizable pain point — not forced or random. The laugh earned attention. The product payoff at the end earned consideration.

The Takeaway: Creative storytelling only works if you deeply understand your core brand story. If you haven’t already done it, build out your brand messaging framework to identify your tagline, value prop, and key brand story pillars, which will help you create on-brand content that is consistent and cohesive—no matter the format.

10. ELM Learning — A Rebrand That Lifted Opportunities 60% in 30 Days (eLearning)

The problem: ELM Learning had genuine differentiation — eLearning built around neuroscience and human emotion — but operated in a commodity market where every competitor claimed to be “innovative.” The brand didn’t communicate what actually made them different.

The strategic bet: Rebuild the brand around what clients actually say, not what the internal team assumed. After competitive research and stakeholder interviews, we anchored the repositioning around a “people-first” framework emphasizing ELM’s trademarked NeuroLearning methodology. New visual identity, new site, new content strategy — all built on the insight that ELM’s real edge was the working experience, not just the learning outcomes.

Why it worked: Opportunity rate increased 60% in the first 30 days, with multiple enterprise accounts entering the pipeline. The rebrand surfaced an existing strength that had been invisible — it didn’t create something new, it made something real finally visible.

The takeaway for your team: If your differentiation exists but isn’t landing, the fix isn’t a new product — it’s a new story. Rebrands fail when they invent differentiation. They succeed when they reveal it.

11. Dropbox — Shifting Market Perception by 19% Through Sustained Positioning (Enterprise SaaS)

The problem: Dropbox was competing for engineering talent against Facebook, Amazon, and Google — companies with deeper pockets and louder employer brands. Top recruits saw Dropbox as a file-sharing tool, not a place to build innovative products.

The strategic bet: Treat recruiting like a brand campaign. We researched ~3,000 employees, candidates, and alumni to understand what actually attracted and retained talent at Dropbox, then built an employee value proposition around five messaging pillars — autonomy, flexibility, and diversity among them. The year-long “Build the Future” campaign repositioned Dropbox as a place where engineers build, not maintain. Supporting content included the #LifeInsideDropbox video series — live-action pieces following employees’ daily commutes in Austin, Paris, and San Francisco. Read the full Dropbox case study.

Why it worked: Brand perception increased 19%. As Dropbox’s Head of Global Talent Brand put it, the campaign changed how recruits saw the company before they ever talked to a hiring manager. The insight: employer brand isn’t an HR project — it’s a brand strategy project that happens to serve recruiting.

The takeaway for your team: If you’re losing deals — or candidates — to bigger competitors, the problem might not be your offer. It might be your story. A 19% perception shift came from research-backed messaging, not a bigger budget.

“Column Five really understood marketing and branding in general. They’ve been super innovative in their suggestions to us. They really understand how to properly tell a story and plan for a brand.”

— Mariama Eghan, Head of Global Talent Brand, Dropbox

12. Intuit Mailchimp — The “Clustomers” Campaign That Renamed a Pain Point (SaaS/MarTech)

The problem: Mailchimp needed to reposition from “email tool” to “full marketing platform” — specifically for advanced marketers who’d outgrown basic email but hadn’t explored Mailchimp’s expanded capabilities.

The strategic bet: Invent a word. Similar to HackerOne’s “Cyberstrength” concept, the in-house team at Wink Creative coined “clustomers” — the messy, unorganized contacts every marketer has — and built a global campaign around turning clustomers into customers. The insight, as the team told Marketing Dive, came from research showing personalization at scale was the top pain point for their advanced users.

Why it worked: Naming an unnamed frustration creates instant recognition. Every marketer has clustomers — they just didn’t have a word for it. The campaign gave Mailchimp permission to talk about advanced features by anchoring to a problem the audience already felt.

The takeaway for your team: Before you build a campaign, ask: is there a problem your audience experiences daily but hasn’t named? If you can name it, you own it.

13. Gong — A Regional Super Bowl Play That Outsmarted National Buyers (AI/RevTech)

The problem: Gong wanted category-defining awareness for revenue intelligence — fast enough to outpace well-funded competitors entering the same space.

The strategic bet: Run a Super Bowl ad — but smarter than everyone assumed. As CMO Udi Ledergor explained to Demandbase, Gong didn’t buy a national spot. They bought regional media in the Bay Area, then Chicago and Boston — the metro areas where sales professionals concentrate. The cost was a fraction of a national buy. The earned media from “a B2B company at the Super Bowl” was national anyway. See the campaign.

Why it worked: Record-breaking inbound pipeline in a single week. The regional buy reached their actual ICP at Super Bowl scale without Super Bowl cost. And the earned media — every B2B publication running the story — was worth more than the paid media itself.

The takeaway for your team: The channel can be the message. Sometimes the bravest strategic decision isn’t what you say — it’s where you show up.

14. Drift — Category Creation as the Ultimate Marketing Strategy (AI/SaaS)

The problem: Drift entered a market defined by lead capture forms and gated content. Every competitor played by the same rules.

The strategic bet: Define a new category and own it. Drift coined “conversational marketing” and turned it into a movement — book, events, manifesto, and a content engine that made Drift synonymous with the new approach. As Dave Gerhardt explained on the Lochhead on Marketing podcast, naming the category was the precondition for everything — including the Conversational Marketing book that cemented ownership.

Why it worked: Drift grew from startup to billion-dollar acquisition by Salesloft. By the time competitors built chatbots, Drift wasn’t competing in “chatbots” — they’d defined a category where they were the obvious leader. You can’t unseat a category creator with a bigger budget.

The takeaway for your team: If you can’t win your current category, ask whether you should define a new one. Category creation is the hardest marketing play — and the most durable.

Why B2B Marketing Case Studies Matter More in 2026

A year ago, case studies were sales enablement collateral — PDFs your team sent mid-funnel. That’s changed.

With 84% of enterprise B2B buyers now using AI tools for vendor discovery — up from 24% just twelve months ago [Evidence: B2B Buyer Discovery Shift 24%→84%] — published case studies have become the primary proof layer AI platforms cite when recommending solutions. When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Claude for recommendations, the AI pulls from content with specific, measurable results. Case studies with named clients and real outcomes are exactly what those systems surface.

This means your marketing work needs to be:

• Published and findable — not locked in PDFs behind a form gate
• Specific about outcomes — real numbers, not vague improvements
• Relevant to your buyer’s industry — a fintech CMO wants to see fintech results

If you’re evaluating what kind of campaigns to invest in next, the examples above are a starting point. If you want to understand how to choose the right agency partner to build work like this, we wrote a guide for that too.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best B2B marketing case studies?

The strongest B2B marketing case studies combine a clear business challenge, a specific strategic bet, and measurable outcomes. Examples include Blend’s 183% traffic growth through SEO architecture, Gong’s regional Super Bowl strategy that generated record pipeline, and Drift’s category creation that led to a billion-dollar acquisition. The best examples show the strategic thinking behind the work — not just the results.

What makes a good B2B marketing campaign?

A strong B2B campaign solves a positioning problem, not just a distribution problem. It starts with a specific insight about the audience (HackerOne’s discovery that “hacker” was an enterprise objection, Mailchimp’s research that personalization at scale was the top pain point) and makes a strategic bet that the competition isn’t willing to make. Specificity beats scale.

Why are case studies important in B2B marketing?

Case studies are the most direct form of proof in B2B — they show prospects what working with you actually produces. With the shift toward AI-powered vendor discovery, case studies are also the content most likely to be cited when AI tools recommend solutions. If your results aren’t published and structured, you’re invisible in the fastest-growing discovery channel.

Want to build B2B campaigns worth writing about? See how our content strategy team works or explore our full case study portfolio.

According to Gartner’s Annual CMO Spend Survey, average marketing budgets have fallen 15%. Now, marketers have to do more with less—with more pressure than ever. Worse, marketing is a never-ending carousel of tasks, from content creation and strategy to distribution and reporting. How do you handle them all when you have a small marketing budget? Luckily, we’re here to help you maximize your budget and make the most of the resources you have. 

7 Strategies to Work with a Small Marketing Budget

We’ve been in the game for over a decade, and in that time we’ve helped our clients clean up their messy marketing, optimize their infrastructure, and create repeatable processes to improve efficiency, so we know how to hack our way into working smarter, not harder—and getting better results. If you’re looking for ways to improve your market (even with a small budget), here are seven successful strategies you should try ASAP. 

1) Put AI to use.

One of the best things about AI is its ability to automate or absorb tedious tasks that eat up time. When you’re struggling to solve big-picture problems, you don’t need to waste precious brainpower on this type of labor. Instead, consider ways you can implement AI at every level of your marketing organization to save time and build a better brand experience for your customers. Whether it’s A/B testing subject lines, synthesizing data, brainstorming ideas, or outlining content, there are so many ways AI can boost your marketing. 

Tip: AI marketing is overwhelming for a lot of people, but you just need to know how to apply it. Find out more about the 30 ways AI can help your marketing, use these 75 prompts to build an AI-driven strategy, and see our ultimate guide to AI to learn more about its applications. 

2) Choose the right tools.

AI tools are the hot new kid on the town, but there are many additional tools that can help you streamline your work, outsource labor, and create content (especially when you have a small marketing budget).

We’ve experimented with a variety of tools for a variety of tasks over the years, which has empowered our team to work quicker and more efficiently. 

Check out our tool roundups for:

• Blogging
• Branding
• Content Creation
• Content Strategy
• Content Marketing
• Copywriting
• Ebooks
• Employer Branding 
• Infographics
• AI Marketing

Tip: To avoid making your whole team go through the learning curve when working with a new tool, it can help to assign a small team to become proficient and build out a handy user guide. This makes it easier for everyone else to adopt it. 

3) Use a divisible content strategy. 

Any content takes time, energy, and resources to produce, so you want to maximize every new piece of content you create. A divisible content strategy is one of our favorite ways to do this. 

With this approach, you create a hero piece of core content intended to be broken into smaller content pieces and formats, such as blog posts, social media content, infographics, or quotes. These smaller pieces can delve into different aspects of the core content, present the info in a different package, or start different conversations with different audiences.  

Most importantly, this approach helps you expand your reach, maximize resources, and create a larger volume of content with less investment.

Tip: To do this effectively, you need to carefully plan out each piece of content before you create it. This means you start with a more detailed outline for the core content, then identify what content you will flesh out into supporting pieces. For a more detailed guide on how to map this content, find out more about how a divisible content strategy works. 

(BTW, you will also want to periodically refresh and update your core content to make sure it’s relevant.) 

4) Repurpose and recycle existing content. 

While a divisible content strategy hinges on the creation of new content, you probably have a ton of existing content that can be reimagined, recycled, repackaged, or repurposed for use. (Again, anytime you’re investing in content, you want to make the most of it.) 

Comb through your archive to find pieces you can update or, even better, translate into different formats to expand reach across channels. For example, you might…

• Convert a blog post into a video or podcast episode. 
• Turn a series of tips into a video series. 
• Turn your ebooks into eye-catching infographics. 
• Turn presentations into interactive slideshows. 
• Turn old blogs into a fresh ebook.

Tip: Data storytelling is always a good way to gain credibility and enhance any piece of content you create. Find out more about how to repurpose data visualizations throughout your content.

5) Turn your team into content creators.

There is so much untapped talent in your company—outside of your marketing team. Not only should this talent be used but it should be celebrated and spotlighted. If you are struggling to create content (thanks to a small marketing budget), get support from people outside the department. 

• Who are the experts developing your product/service?
• Who has a unique perspective on the industry?
• Who extracts interesting insights from your data?  
• What interesting conversations have salespeople been having?

There are plenty of opportunities to translate their thoughts into interesting, relevant, and even newsworthy content. 

Tip: You can certainly recruit people to write articles for you, but there are also low-effort ways to turn their thoughts into high-quality content. 

• Do an expert Q&A via email.
• Record a podcast conversation with a thought leader. 
• Ask your team for their best tips on a specific subject and publish them as a roundup. 

For more tips, see our guide to turn your coworkers into content creators.

Additionally, although thought leadership is great, you can also use other employees to showcase your brand’s culture. (This is a great way to humanize your brand to potential customers and potential employees.) See our guide to culture marketing, and try these ideas to showcase your culture on social media.

6) Experiment with agile marketing. 

There’s nothing more frustrating than wasting money on campaigns that flop. (We know this firsthand.) That’s why we’ve been experimenting with an agile marketing approach that relies on simple test-and-learn experiments to gather market insights.

By deploying these simple, constructed experiments, you can better adjust your spending, optimize your content, and improve your campaigns—with better results. 

Tip: Allocate a portion of any paid media spend to agile campaign testing. For more detail on how to implement this strategy, see our guide to agile marketing.

7) Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)

In addition to your own internal resources, your own audience can be a great way to generate low-lift content that increases engagement. This can take many forms:

• Polls
• Quizzes
• Contests
• Tips
• Customer Success Stories
• Social Takeovers

You can also piggyback off of content you’ve already created by encouraging your audience to create their own version, add their perspective, etc. 

Not only does this reduce the amount of content you have to personally create but it gives you a chance to build stronger connections with your community. (For more ideas, find out how to incorporate UGC into your content strategy.) 

How to Improve Efficiency Overall

We hope you can incorporate these tips into your existing marketing practice, but remember that maximizing your budget is, ultimately, about maximizing your investments of everything: time, money, and energy. A few more things that might help: 

• Optimize your production process. See our guide to improve your end-to-end process and produce content as efficiently as possible. 
• Improve your brainstorms. Prompts are a great way to get your creative wheels turning. Use our content brainstorm template to come up with 30 ideas in under an hour.
• Create more sales enablement content. If you can bridge marketing and sales to collaborate on sales enablement content, you can help close more deals. Find out what type of sales content you can invest in (beyond presentations) that can transform your sales process.

That said, if you’re doing the most but still getting subpar results, you may have a larger content strategy issue. If you need any expert guidance, consider bringing in the right partner. If you need a good agency, see our tips to find the right content marketing agency or find out what it’s like to work with us. 

Either way, one of the best ways to work smarter is to experiment more. Whether it’s trying a new tool or testing a new strategy, be flexible. Use what works and forget the rest. And if you stumble across any life-changing marketing hacks of your own, our inbox is always open.

If you’re a marketing leader, your mandate isn’t just to publish—it’s to create content that drives business outcomes. Every investment in marketing should build authority, influence buying decisions, and turn attention into revenue. That’s difficult to do without a clear plan for how to create content that aligns to growth priorities. Consistently producing high-quality content at scale requires more than execution—it requires a disciplined content strategy that connects every piece of content to your target audience, your pipeline, and your long-term business goals.

56% of marketers do NOT have a documented content marketing strategy.
—Content Marketing Institute’s 2023 Enterprise Marketing Report

That means the majority of marketers are working off of some vague strategy—or winging it entirely. Either way, this lack of planning shows in brands whose content isn’t cohesive, whose ideas don’t resonate with their target audience, and who struggle to gain traction. Without a clear plan for how to create content, teams end up rushing each piece of content instead of building a system for consistent impact.

Why, then, do so many marketers keep flying blind? Because building a real content creation strategy can feel intimidating—and there are plenty of excuses to avoid it.

• You’re too busy shipping this week’s blog posts.
• You’re too focused on next month’s product launch.
• It’s too late in the quarter.
• You just don’t have the resources or knowledge to create content correctly.

We get it. But crafting a thoughtful content strategy is some of—if not the—most important work you can do, no matter your size. It helps you understand your target audience, prioritize the right types of content, and ensure every piece of content supports your goals.

We’ve helped brands across industries build content creation strategies that connect with their target audience and move people along the path to purchase. Along the way, we’ve learned what separates scattered efforts from scalable systems for producing high-quality content.

Here, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to how to create content within a strong content strategy that sets you up for success.

Table of Contents

1. What Is a Content Strategy?
2. Why Do You Need a Content Strategy? 
3. What Makes a Good Content Strategy?
4. What Does a Content Strategy Include?
5. How to Create a Content Strategy
6. Phase 1: Discovery
   • Step 1: Review Your Business Goals
   • Step 2: Do a Content Audit
   • Step 3: Review Your Tech Stack
7. Phase 2: Planning
   • Step 4: Document Your Content Strategy Goals
   • Step 5: Identify Your Personas
   • Step 6: Map Your Customer Journey
   • Step 7: Determine Your Measurement Approach 
   • Step 8: Choose Your Channel Mix 
   • Step 9: Create Your Content Pipeline
   • Step 10: Assign Workflow & Governance
   • Step 11: Know Your Tools
8. Phase 3: Creative 
   • Step 12: Brainstorm Campaigns
   • Step 13: Build Your Editorial Calendar 
   • How to Put Your Content Strategy to Work 

What Is a Content Strategy?

A content strategy is a documented plan that outlines your goals and defines the stories, channels, and types of content you’ll use to reach your target audience. It ensures every piece of content serves a clear purpose.

What Makes a Good Content Strategy?

Just because you have a content strategy on paper doesn’t mean it will help your brand. There are plenty of content marketers who have a content strategy yet struggle to a) bring it to fruition or b) see actual results.

If you want your content strategy to succeed, make sure it’s…

• Tailored to your goals. The only thing worse than having no content strategy is having one that isn’t aligned to your larger goals. When that happens, your strategy will be ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst. The best strategies use every element of content marketing in service of the larger goal.
• Comprehensive. The whole point of content marketing is to create a relationship with people through consistent, quality content. But it takes a lot of moving parts to make good content happen on a regular basis. A good strategy is built to keep your editorial calendar full of fresh, interesting ideas—with the infrastructure in place to bring them to life.
• Flexible. Your strategy is a blueprint, but it isn’t set in stone. If something unexpected happens, or you realize things aren’t working the way they should, you should be able to adapt as necessary.

Remember: The best content strategy is built for your brand, crafted around your capabilities, and designed to help you tell the best stories possible.

What Does a Content Strategy Include?

We break the content strategy process into three main phases: Discovery, Planning, and Creative, with specific tasks assigned to each.

Tackling your strategy in this order lets you build a totally aligned strategy, from your high-level goals to your final execution.

How to Create a Content Strategy

It takes time, focus, and energy to document your strategy, but don’t get overwhelmed. It’s a little effort with a huge reward. Again, we’ve seen brands make every content strategy mistake in the book (and made a few ourselves), so we know what works and what to avoid.

What we’ve outlined here are the basic steps that any brand can follow to create a solid but flexible content strategy. This process will guide you through three distinct phases, covering both the high-level thinking and practical/tactical elements to consider for each. At the end, you should have a strong and actionable plan you can hit the ground running with.

That said, we know that each brand has unique needs, so you can adapt this framework accordingly. You may even have some of these components documented already, which is fine if they are up to date, but it’s still important to follow the process in sequential order. This ensures that every aspect of your strategy is aligned and optimized to get you the best results possible.

Before you start, download our free Content Strategy toolkit, which includes the templates you need to work through this process.

Note: Make sure you have the right stakeholders involved from the beginning—and that you get their approval at every phase. Keep in mind that there are many other people involved in the execution of your content strategy as well, including your sales team, technical wizards (Web & CRM), designers, copywriters, etc. While not everyone may need to be involved in every meeting for content strategy, consider how your strategy decisions will affect your team.

Phase 1: Discovery

Before you start planning for the future, you need to hit the pause button, take a step back, and reassess what you’re currently doing and why.

Step 1: Review Your Business Goals

Purpose: Review your high-level goals to ensure you create a content strategy that helps you achieve them. 

When a content strategy doesn’t work, it’s usually because it’s misaligned to a company’s larger goals. Thus, step one is going back to the basics: who you are, where you play, how you compete, and what you’re trying to achieve. You may think you already know this information, but it’s always helpful to revisit it with fresh eyes.

How to Do It

Review any documentation related to your business strategy.

• What are your business goals?
• What’s your position in the marketplace?
• Who is your competition?

Note: Understanding your competition is especially important to help you differentiate through content. When you can identify messaging gaps in your industry, and then fill those gaps (or communicate more effectively than your competition), you’ll create the strongest connections with your target personas. (Find out how to complete a competitive analysis if you need to refine your competitive landscape.)

At this stage, you will also want to review the core elements of your brand strategy, which includes your:

• Brand Heart (purpose, vision, mission, values)
• Brand Messaging (tagline, value prop, messaging pillars, etc.)
• Visual Identity (logo, colors, typography, etc.)

All three elements must be reflected in your content strategy if you want to tell stories that effectively communicate who you are. (If you haven’t documented these elements, follow our Guide to Create a Brand Strategy.)

Step 2: Do a Content Audit

Purpose: Identify what your content ecosystem currently looks like, what’s missing, and how you can improve.

A good content strategy is comprehensive, cohesive, and intentional. That means every piece is made for a specific reason and tied to a specific goal. The problem is that most teams worry about quantity over quality, focusing on hitting their day-to-day deadlines more than making a real impact.

This tunnel vision results in content marketing that’s inconsistent, imbalanced, and ultimately ineffective. The first step to remedy this is to take a holistic look at your content with a proper content audit. By looking at the type of content you’re creating, what messages you are or aren’t sending, what’s working, and what isn’t, you get the insights you need to build a cohesive strategy and tell stories that really connect with people.

How to Do It

To conduct a proper audit, you’ll be reviewing a sample of the content you (and your competitors) put out into the world. In general, that content tends to fall into five main categories.

To complete this step, use the Content Audit Template and see our Guide to Conduct a Content Audit.

Step 3: Review Your Tech Stack

Purpose: Get a snapshot of the tools, technology, and resources you currently use.

Your content marketing operation can be complex, requiring many tools and a solid digital infrastructure. These tools can be very helpful, but they can also be redundant. It’s important to audit your existing tech stack before you build your new strategy for several reasons.

1. You may find opportunities to cut costs or consolidate (e.g., you’re paying for something you’re not using, or using one thing for a task that can be performed by something else).
2. You can identify ownership, track subscription status, etc. to ensure your team always has what it needs.
3. You can identify things you will need (e.g., if you plan to create more videos in the future, you’ll need editing software).

Additionally, now that AI has arrived on the scene, there are more and more tools to help you tackle just about every part of marketing, including:

• Customer Segmentation and Targeting
• Personalization
• Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
• Predictive Analytics
• Marketing Research
• Brainstorming
• Content Creation and Optimization
• Design
• Email Marketing Automation
• Social Media Management
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Ad Targeting and Optimization
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Voice Search Optimization
• A/B Testing and Optimization
• Fraud Detection and Security
• Competitor Analysis
• Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

You may want to consider adopting new tools—or research the new AI capabilities your existing tools may have integrated (as many are constantly updating their offerings). This doesn’t mean that these tools have to replace you, but they can help drastically improve your productivity, reduce menial labor, and help your team work more efficiently.

37% of marketers say they aren’t using their technology to its full potential.
—Content Marketing Institute’s 2023 Enterprise Marketing Report

How to Do It

Use the Tool & Tech Stack Template to list the technologies and tools you use to create, host, and distribute your content across channels. This includes things like your…

• Website and web analytics
• Content scheduling and publishing platforms
• Blog
• Social media platforms and tools
• Content Management System
• Proprietary data collection and storage
• Social listening tools
• Audience profiling tools
• SEO tools
• Design and charting tools
• Marketing automation
• Email marketing
• Customer relationship management software
• Paid media platforms and software
• Landing page builder

Note: Depending on the tools you use, some of these may overlap.

Questions to Ask

• Do your tools cover your needs?
• Do you have duplicative tools that can be consolidated?
• Does everything function properly? (Look out for zombie subscription charges from past employees, vendors, etc.)
• Do you have a good user experience?
• Is automation working correctly?
• Do all the people who need access to platforms have it, and not more than necessary?
• Does every platform have someone in the organization who’s proficient in using it?

Remember: Supporting your team’s needs is vital to executing your content strategy. That said, although some tools can help you work more efficiently, we know it can be overwhelming to adopt multiple at once. In that case, we recommend having specific people or teams test and experiment with new tools, then share their findings to see if they can benefit the whole team.

Phase 2: Planning

Now is the time for you to examine your content marketing ecosystem and document how you will approach each element. You’ll be detailing the who, what, when, where, and how of your content operation. This will ensure you’re equipped to execute the content strategy and use your resources as efficiently as possible.

Not only will this work make your content more successful but it will make it easier to collaborate with content creators outside your organization, such as a content agency.

Step 4: Document Your Content Strategy Goals

Purpose: Define measurable goals that keep your team accountable.

Your entire content strategy exists to help you achieve your goals. Naturally, you need to clearly articulate what those are—and make sure everyone on your team understands what they are too. This is especially important; every decision your team makes about content, from copywriting, to design, to distribution, will be influenced by these goals.

We often find that weak strategies can be traced back to weak goals that are either too vague or too broad. To be successful, you need clear goals that you can measure.

How to Do It

In this step, you’ll document three things:

• Content strategy statement to explain the big picture of what you’re trying to do.
• Objectives that clearly define your content strategy goals.
• Key Results that help you measure your objectives.

To work through these exercises, use our Content Strategy Goals Template. This document will help you summarize your entire strategy succinctly so that everyone understands what you’re trying to do. (You cannot proceed until you have these goals articulated and agreed upon.) It will also act as your North Star, guiding your decisions and keeping your team aligned in every way. For more details, see our guide to document your marketing goals.

Questions to Ask

• What discrete task do you want content to accomplish? How does that break down into objectives and key results?
• Which objectives take priority?
• What other important considerations will influence how you approach your goals/solutions?
• How will you define vital elements, such as a lead?
• How do your content marketing goals support your larger business goals?

Your goals are truly the foundation of your entire content strategy. Take the time to get them right.

Step 5: Identify Your Personas

Purpose: Understand who your audience is, what they’re interested in, and how you can serve their needs. 

To create compelling content, you need to know who you’re trying to connect with, and how your content can best serve them.

• What do they care about?
• What motivates them?
• What problems do they need solved?
• What would make their lives easier?

By identifying your audience’s demographic/psychographic traits and distilling them into unique personas, you can better understand each group’s unique needs and come up with content ideas that will really resonate with them.

How to Do It

It’s smart to start with 3-5 distinct and detailed personas. Use the Personas Template, and follow the step-by-step details in our Guide to Create Personas.

Step 6: Map Your Customer Journey

Purpose: Identify what people need to hear at each stage to make sure your messaging is consistent and effective. 

You need to deliver the right message, in the right place, at the right time so that you can move people along the customer journey. Thus, it’s important to map your customer journey from start to finish.

Having completed your content audit, you will probably already have spotted some gaps in your messaging. But revisiting your journey will help you ensure that you are telling people what they want to hear at every stage.

62% of marketers struggle to create content that appeals to different stages of the buyer’s journey.
—Content Marketing Institute’s 2023 Enterprise Marketing Report

How to Do It

Use our Customer Journey Template, and follow our Guide to Map Your Customer Journey.

Questions to Ask

• How will prospects and customers be nudged along the journey?
• What signals help identify someone in a particular stage of the journey?
• Where in the journey will your strategy focus?
• At what point will you bring in the sales team to close the deal?

The more seamless your customer journey is, the more effective you’ll be.

Step 7: Determine Your Measurement Approach 

Purpose: Identify the Key Performance Indicators that will help you quantitatively measure your success. 

Your content strategy is worthless without a way to measure your success. The better you measure, the more you can test, tweak, and readjust your approach. Thus, knowing your success metrics for each stage of the customer journey is crucial.

How to Do It

You want to get a strong sense of how your content strategy is performing, but you don’t have to track and measure every single metric. To figure out what to measure, refer to your OKRs. Which available metrics are relevant to your key results? Those are the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that will help you identify if you are moving the needle on your objectives. Additional metrics can also provide helpful insight, but KPI matter most.

Questions to Ask

• Which available metrics are your KPI?
• How are they mapped to your objectives and key results?
• What does each KPI say about the success of your campaign or strategy?
• What are the benchmarks for your industry?
• Should you be comparing your KPI to those, or should you focus on historical data from your company’s performance?

For more tips, see our Guide to Use Metrics in Your Content Strategy.

Step 8: Choose Your Channel Mix 

Purpose: Identify what channels will help you reach your personas.

Your content can only work if it gets in front of the right people, but with so many options it’s hard to know what will help you make the most impact. There’s a lot that goes into your decision-making here, which is why having very clear goals is so important.

How to Do It

To choose the best channel mix for your content strategy goals…

• Think about your personas. Think about where they spend the most time, which publications they read, which social platforms they use, what times they’re most active, etc.
• Remember your OKRs. You’ve set your objectives and key results as a form of guidance throughout your strategy work. If your primary objective is around building a pipeline of leads, what channels are best suited to help you do that?
• Think about your content formats. Different types of content are better suited for different channels. If video tutorials are a big part of your content mix, consider how that may influence the channels you target.
• Prepare your media buys. How will you distribute across your earned, owned, and paid channels? This may include anything from internal emails, to out-of-home buys, to influencer outreach. These are important to budget in terms of cost and lead time.

Questions to Ask

• How are you going to reach people (owned, earned, paid)?
• What channels will help you meet your determined OKRs?
• What media mix will be most effective?
• How can you leverage new channels, more channels, or use your existing channels differently?

For more tips to help your content get maximum exposure, see our Guide to Choosing Your Distribution Channels, and see our steps to build a solid distribution strategy. 

Step 9: Create Your Content Pipeline

Purpose: Get a high-level view of your content priorities and opportunities.  

Now that you know what you’re trying to do, who you’re trying to reach, and how you’re going to reach them, it’s time to bring your strategy to life. However, before you plan what exact content you’ll make, you need to identify the major goals, milestones, and events you will need to build content around for your next year, based on your OKRs. This helps you plan ahead, anticipate your needs, allocate resources, and work more effectively.

How to Do It

Remember: A good content strategy is solid enough to guide you but flexible enough to adapt if things change. Use our Content Pipeline Template to build out a year-long view, with important elements broken down by quarter, such as:

• Business Milestones
• Product Launches
• Priorities
• Major events/relevant holidays (e.g., annual tradeshow or Hanukkah)

This way you know your biggest priorities are accounted for as you plan your upcoming content, but you can still shift things around if you need to.

Step 10: Assign Workflow & Governance

Purpose: Clarify roles and responsibilities to make sure your team functions as efficiently as possible.

If you’re working with a large budget, you may have a department full of people to help execute your content strategy. If you’re working for a scrappy startup, it might be you and a few freelancers. The good news is the size of your team doesn’t matter.

To create good content, you just need a team that is aligned, organized, and focused on the same goal. (This is especially true if you’re working with outside vendors.) Everyone needs to understand the workflow and who’s responsible for what. As long as you’re covering all the right content marketing roles, you’ll be surprised by how much you can get done with a little coordination up top.

How to Do It

At this stage, you want to assign roles and responsibilities to your team to both empower people to have ownership over their work—and make sure that everyone is working together effectively. For example, if your PR team wants to be involved in brainstorms to steer you toward the most promotable content ideas, you’ll want to make sure they’re in the loop from the jump.

Use the Workflow & Governance Template to identify who will be involved at every stage of content creation and what role they’ll play. This includes both your internal team and external (if you’re working with a freelancer or content agency).

Questions to Ask

• Who is involved in these efforts?
• What responsibilities does each person have?
• How are people meant to work together?
• Who owns the project?
• Who decides who handles new initiatives?
• What stakeholders need to approve/review initiatives?

Naturally, the more people who are involved, the more likely things will slip through the cracks—especially if you’re working with an outside team. To make sure that doesn’t happen, here are 7 tips to keep everyone inside and outside your company aligned.

Step 11: Know Your Tools

Purpose: Equip your team with the tools they need to do their job—and get the most out of those tools.

Content marketing takes work, but it can be a whole lot easier if you have the right tools. If you’ve done a thorough discovery, you probably already have an idea of what tools you want to ditch or what tools you want to experiment with. Remember that different types of content may require different types of tools. If you plan to experiment with something new—say, interactive infographics—you need the capability to execute it.

How to Do It 

Luckily, there are so many resources to make marketers’ lives easier, and more are coming out each year. Use our Tech Stack & Tools Template to identify what you’ll be using. And if you want more resources to help you work smarter, check out our tool roundups for:

• Brand Identity
• Content Strategy
• Content Creation 
• Content Marketing
• Copywriting 
• E-Book Design
• Employer Brand
• Infographics

Going forward, review your tools quarterly to make sure you’re using everything you’re actually paying for.

Phase 3: Creative 

By this point in the process, you should have a clear picture of your goals and your infrastructure. Now it’s time to identify the creative that will help you bring this strategy to life.

Step 12: Brainstorm Campaigns

Purpose: Create content that tells a cohesive story in support of a specific goal. 

Publishing content is not the same as implementing an effective content strategy. (And if you’ve been getting lackluster results, you know this firsthand.) Naturally, you don’t want to sink your time, energy, and resources into things that don’t really help move the needle. But with the work you’ve done, you now have the information you need to come up with effective creative campaigns that support your goals.

During this step, you’ll craft campaigns mapped to the content planning work you’ve done so far. While you may prioritize one type of content category over the other (e.b., Educational content vs.Talent content), you need to know how each will play a role in your strategy.

How to Do It

Use our Marketing Campaign Template to craft campaigns that support your larger goals. A few things to keep in mind as you work through the template:

• Brainstorm the right concepts. Good content marketing isn’t about creating content; it’s about providing value. Focus on your personas and give them what they want, whether it’s education, entertainment, or inspiration. (Here are 7 ways to know if your ideas provide true value.) If you’re hitting a creative wall, try these 9 content marketing prompts to get your creative wheels turning.
• Know your messaging. Identify your key talking points to ensure you’re telling a consistent story across all content. (Use our messaging framework if you need to do some work there.)
• Choose the right format. The medium is just as important as the message. Check out our Guide to Visual Content Marketing to learn more about the benefits of each type of content format.
• Identify your keywords. What are your top keyword opportunities? How will you optimize content around keywords? Are your publishing platforms optimized for SEO? For more, see our Guide to Find the Right Keywords for your content strategy.
• Identify your budget. To determine how much programs will cost, we typically work with one of two numbers: quarterly or annual budget, or a quantified marketing goal such as “2,000 leads this year.” You can use logic and formulas to work backward from a marketing goal and create an estimated budget.
• Don’t come on too strong in your content! Know the difference between content marketing and sales material, and make sure you’re sending the right message at the right stage of the customer journey.

For more tips, see our Guide to Run a Successful Marketing Campaign, and find out how to make the most of your content by using a divisible content strategy.

Step 13: Build Your Editorial Calendar 

Purpose: Maintain a steady publishing cadence.

Publishing consistency is one of the keys to a successful content strategy, so it’s important to keep your team on track with an organized editorial calendar. Whereas your content pipeline is a larger overview, an editorial calendar is a granular view of your content. Whether you publish daily, weekly, or monthly, using a calendar will ensure you can budget in the right amount of time and, most importantly, stick to your deadlines.

How to Do It

There are all sorts of tools you can use to create your editorial calendar: Google Sheets, CoSchedule, etc. If you’re just starting, use our Editorial Calendar Template to start scheduling your content.

• Identify your publishing cadence. Will you publish daily, weekly, or monthly? We find it helpful to schedule content by month. You don’t have to be overly prescriptive. (Again, a good content strategy is flexible and adaptable based on a brand’s changing needs.) But it helps to understand what your volume and cadence will look like.
• Include holidays and social events. These are important to note ahead of time as well, as they can interrupt publishing (e.g., Christmas) or inspire content ideas or brand tie-ins (e.g., the Oscars). Bookmark a tool like Forekast, an online calendar that compiles every major holiday and event that may be relevant to your content calendar. If your industry experiences seasonal trends (e.g., retail), make sure those changes are accounted for too.

You always want to brainstorm ideas far ahead of time so you don’t get stuck in reactive mode throughout the year.

Questions to Ask

• How often will you publish?
• How much content will you publish?
• How will you organize content for campaigns?
• How will you determine how to publish and promote each piece of content?
• Who will own each kind of content?
• What formats will you create?
• Is your calendar aligned to the “life calendar” of your target personas?

Once you’re ready to start creating your content, use the Content Brief Template to kick every project off. For more tips, see our guide to create an editorial calendar.

How to Put Your Content Strategy to Work 

Congrats. Thanks to all the work you’ve done, you can proceed confidently into content creation and do it better than ever. As you put this content strategy to work, there are a few more ways to make sure you succeed from the jump.

• Optimize your content creation process. There are a ton of moving parts when it comes to creating stellar content, and it can get more complicated depending on the type of content you’re creating. Follow our Guide to Master Content Creation, which features our best tips on brainstorming, copywriting, designing, publishing, and more.
• Follow best practices. There’s good content, and then there’s great content. No matter what you’re creating, there are plenty of small things you can do to enhance your viewer’s experience. See our tips to improve your copywriting, design, infographics, and data visualization.
• Create appropriate timelines. Sticking to your deadlines is crucial to keep your content calendar full. Give yourself enough time, especially if you’re undertaking more labor-intensive content like interactives or video. Most importantly, get approvals at every stage of content production. This prevents you from having to make last-minute edits that will throw things off.
• Craft an effective distribution strategy. To maximize your reach, follow our Guide to Craft a Distribution Strategy That Works.
• Find the right vendors. You may need to outsource some work or bring in an extra hand to complete a project. If so, do your due diligence to bring in the right creative partners. Start with our tips to find the right creative agency.

You can also check out our tips to decide whether you should create content in-house or outsource it.

Above all, remember that content strategy is part art, part science. The more effectively you track your results and gather insights from your data, the better you can refine your strategy. Even if you’re not as successful as you hope to be off the bat, you’ll learn more, get better, and adapt quicker, improving your results over time.

The truth is your strategy isn’t set in stone. A good strategy is a blueprint, not a permanent document. Your brand’s goals will shift and change over time, and your content strategy will evolve accordingly. For this reason, we recommend revisiting your strategy quarterly—or when significant events or changes occur that may affect it.

We know, of course, that everyone gets stuck from time to time. If you don’t have the resources, patience, or energy to tackle content strategy on your own, we’re happy to chat about how we can help you dig deep, uncover your most interesting stories, and turn them into a smart content strategy that works.

If you want to tell strong stories that reach the right audience (and convert them), you need a cohesive content strategy that is tied to clear goals—and optimized to support them. Essentially, you want to create a holistic content ecosystem that spans your buyer journey and gives your audience exactly what they need to move from one stage to the next. But how do you create that content experience? Do a content audit on your own brand, as well as your competitors, to understand what you’re doing right, where you’re missing out, and how you can improve overall.

What Is a Content Audit? 

A content audit is the process of taking a critical look at your content marketing, as well as your competitors’ content, to gauge how you’re presenting your brand to the world, how you stack up against the competition, opportunities to improve, etc. By reviewing your content as a whole (and comparing it to others in your space), you can get a bird’s eye view to realign your marketing, fill missing gaps, craft a more effective strategy, and gain a competitive edge.

The Biggest Benefits of a Content Audit

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it a hundred more times: When you’re working on your brand day in and day out, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. (We know this because it happens to us too.) We all have blind spots, especially if you’re deeply immersed in your brand, so it’s important to take a step back to see the bigger picture, get a sense of the competitive landscape, and assess whether the content you’re creating connects to your larger goals or not. That’s why a content audit can be so beneficial to spot opportunities to win and work more effectively. 

1. Identify best-performing content. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 57% of B2B marketers cite creating the “right” content for their audience as one of their top challenges. What is the “right” content? The content that your audience is most likely to gravitate toward. This is why it’s important to regularly assess your top-performing content, break down why it was so popular, and translate those insights into new content that is just as successful.  
2. Spot gaps in your content marketing. According to CMI, 54% of B2B marketers say differentiating their content is one of their biggest challenges. With the advent of AI-generated content, differentiation will be harder and more important than ever, and a content audit is one of the most helpful ways to find opportunities to differentiate. Whether it’s filling the content gaps your competitors have missed, tweaking the type of content formats you create, or revising your value prop to stand out, the more you know about how your competitors are positioning themselves through content, the easier it is to stand out. 
3. Repurpose content. Across the board, marketers are being asked to do more with less. (According to CMI, 58% of B2B marketers cite a lack of resources as their biggest barrier to successful content creation.) Content creation is an investment, so you need to get the most from every piece you create. A content audit helps you get a solid picture of the content you already have—and can inspire you to repurpose, reuse, or remix that content in even more effective ways.
4. Get more inspiration. Although your competition may be dropping the ball in some areas, they’re likely knocking it out of the park in other areas. A competitor content audit always generates fascinating insights and can even inspire you to adapt some of their tactics. For example, they may have created an impressive tool or a successful series of funny videos that delivered a strong message. You don’t want to copy them, but their creativity can activate your own creativity (and maybe a little competitive streak). 

Trust us, although a content audit takes time, it is an important pursuit that will generate real ROI.

How to Do a Content Audit

Whether you’re a new startup with very little content or a legacy brand with thousands of pieces in your archive, don’t worry. Here, we’ve broken down the step-by-step process—along with a free downloadable template—to get the insights you need without spending days of your life digging through your archives.

You can use the same template and steps for your competitor audit as well. (BTW, as you work through these templates, you don’t have to write a novel for each answer. Keep your answers succinct, simple, and clear.) 

Note: You may be a new startup with very little content, or a legacy brand with thousands of pieces in your archive. Either way, don’t worry. Here, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process to get the insights you need—without spending days of your life digging through your archives:)

Note: You’ll repeat the following steps for both your own content and your competitors’ content. We recommend completing your own audit first, then doing your competitor audit. 

Step 1: Gather your content.

Blog articles, social posts, explainer videos—every brand creates a variety of content across channels and across the buyer journey. This content generally falls into five main categories. 

1. Brand: This is content about a company specifically (not its product), such as the Brand Heart (purpose, vision, mission, values), events, news, etc. Some of this content may be internal-facing only; some may be external. 
2. Talent: This is content about a company’s employer brand, company culture, etc. 
3. Editorial: This is content meant to educate, entertain, inspire, or demonstrate brand expertise or thought leadership, such as articles, guest posts, infographics, blogs, industry-related content, etc.  
4. Product: This is more informational content related to products or services, such as sales materials, demos, explainer videos, or educational content.
5. Performance: This is tactical content used to drive a specific KPI, such as landing pages, CTAs, PPC, etc.

The good news is you don’t have to review every single piece of content you or your competition has ever created—just a sample for each category. 

Auditing Your Own Content

Pull a sample batch of 5-10 pieces of your most recent and successful pieces of content per category.

• Successful = top-performing content per your analytics (e.g., highest traffic, conversions, engagement, etc.).
• Recent = content from your last year or two. (While you may have a decade-old post that generates tons of traffic, you want to know how your current efforts are working.)

Frankly, you can pull as many samples as you like, but 5-10 is a healthy amount that won’t overwhelm you. If you create a variety of content formats (e.g., infographics, videos, e-books), include a variety of those most successful pieces too. Your goal is to get a representative sample that will give you a sense of how you’re communicating in each category. 

Note: If you don’t have that much content, or don’t have content in every area, that’s OK. Pull what you have. 

Auditing Your Competitor’s Content

Pull a similar batch of content. To figure out their most popular/successful content, look at their most popular content on social, content that outranks you in SEO, etc.

Depending on the focus of your content strategy, you may want to focus on particular categories (e.g., their editorial content vs. their talent content). That’s up to you. Just make sure you have a healthy selection of content from your top three competitors. (Again, you can audit as many competitors as you like, but your top 10 are your most relevant.)  

Step 2: Review one category of content at a time. 

It can be overwhelming to pull insights from 25-50 pieces of content at a time, which is why we recommend focusing on one category at a time and documenting your collective observations. This way you can compare insights from category to category, instead of piece to piece. 

Start with your first category (e.g., Brand). Review those 5-10 pieces, and answer the template questions about your observations.

• What stage of buyer journey is it made for? Your content strategy should have a healthy mix of content that spans the buyer journey. If you’re overly focused on one stage, you may need to fill in the gaps across the journey.
• What persona does this content speak to? If one persona is targeted more than others, your content strategy may need to prioritize content for a neglected group.
• Does content come in a variety of formats? Depending on your channel mix, you may want to expand your strategy to include more types of content (think articles, video, infographics, interactives, etc.).
• Does the content reflect brand voice/personality/visual identity? Would someone be able to identify your brand’s content at a glance? Remember: Consistency is key.
• Is there a clear CTA? Do viewers have a clear next step? Is it tailored to the persona?
• What does the most successful content have in common? Consider things like topic, format, etc.
• What channels are used to promote? Is this content well-suited for your distribution channels? Are there other channels to consider?
• Any notable observations? Document anything that stands out to you (good, bad, or interesting).

Step 3: Look for trends across categories. 

As you review each category, look for common threads, inconsistencies, messaging gaps, etc. These will shed light on your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. 

For example, you may create quality content on a variety of interesting subjects but your CTAs are weak. You may find that your copywriting is great but your design is lackluster. Or you may find that your branding is inconsistent across formats.

Step 4: Repeat the process for your competition. 

In reviewing your competitors’ content, you will likely see even more opportunities to fill the gap, outrank, and outshine them. You will also probably notice areas where you’re falling short. For example, they may be publishing much more often than you or creating much more in-depth posts that outrank you. 

It can be frustrating to shine a light on these weak areas, but they can also serve as inspiration. 

Step 5: Craft your takeaways. 

Having reviewed the insights from your own content audit and your competitors’, you should have the information you need to improve your content strategy. 

To make these items actionable, document your biggest opportunities for improvement in…

• Personas
• Buyer Journey
• Messaging
• Topics
• Formats
• Distribution
• Other

How to Put Your Content Audit to Use

Now that you’ve done all that work, you’re ready to build a content strategy that gets real results. For next steps…

• See our guide to improve your content strategy. 
• Revise your customer journey to make sure you’re saying the right thing at the right time.
• Follow our guide to create strong personas that help you connect with the right people.
• Find out how to choose the right metrics for your content strategy. 

And if you need a partner to help you build a strategy (or execute the one you have), find out more about what we do, and what you’ll get when you work on content strategy with us.