Starting a content strategy from scratch

When creating a content strategy with a new business or brand, it can be tempting to turn straight to AI tools for help. While AI can speed up content brainstorming, creation and research, it can’t replace the strategic thinking needed to guide it.

A strong content marketing strategy still starts with people — defining your goals, understanding your audience, and shaping a message and voice that reflects your brand. This guide walks you through the essential steps to build a strategy that works, with or without AI.

1. Define your purpose

Before you start writing, filming, or posting anything, you need to know why you’re doing it. Content marketing should support a clear business goal. That might be to:

• build brand awareness
• attract leads
• improve search visibility
• drive customer education
• support the sales funnel
• attract talent or partners
• nurture existing customers

Take a step back and ask: what are we trying to achieve? What would success look like in 6 and 12 months?

This is the best time to engage all the stakeholders in the business. Meet with the managers of each department – sales, product, support/ customer service, product, etc… The more buy-in and feedback you get during the creation of the content strategy the more effective it will be.

2. Know your audience

Without a clear understanding of your audience, your content marketing efforts could be wasted. Start by identifying who you’re trying to reach. Are they decision-makers? Technical users? Small business owners?

Build simple audience or buyer personas based on real data, not assumptions. Use insights from your CRM, website analytics, social media, and customer interviews. You need to understand their pain points, goals, and what kind of content they already engage with. When you know your audience well, you can create content that actually gets their attention.

There are buyer persona tools available from platforms like Semrush and HubSpot. There are also many downloadable templates that are easy to find online.

3. Choose your channels

Not every platform suits every business. It’s better to do one or two channels well than to spread yourself too thin, especially if resources are tight. Think about where your audience spends time, what type of content fits each channel, and how much effort you can realistically commit.

Here are the current content marketing channels:

• Owned Channels – Website/ blog, Email newsletters, resource library, video hub, podcast, customer portals/ help centres
• Social Media Channels – LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Reddit
• Paid Content Distribution Channels – Sponsored LinkedIn posts/ InMails, Google Ads, native advertising (Outbrain, Taboola), social media ads, content syndication networks
• Earned or Shared Channels – PR and media coverage, guest blogging, influencer partnerships, community forums (reddit, etc.), customer advocacy
• Events Channel – printed collateral (guides, flyers, brochures), webinars and virtual events, speaking engagements, conferences, workshops, lunch and learns.

For example, if you’re in B2B, LinkedIn and your company blog might be the priority. If you have a strong visual product or a younger audience, Instagram or YouTube might make more sense. Match your channels to your audience, not just to trends.

4. Plan your content pillars

Content pillars are the main themes your content will focus on. These should reflect both your audience’s interests and your business expertise. A good starting point is to choose three to five key topics that you can consistently create around.

For example, a cloud training business might focus on skills development, certification prep, real-world use cases, and career advice. Under each pillar, brainstorm specific topics or questions you can address. This makes planning much easier and helps keep your messaging consistent.

5. Create a schedule

A solid content strategy needs more than good ideas. It needs a system to turn those ideas into published work. Start by mapping out your content workflow. Who comes up with ideas? Who creates the content? Who reviews and publishes it?

Here are some suggested section headings for your calendar:

• Title – short internal name or draft headline
• Pillar / Theme – helps group your content by strategic topic
• Funnel stage – Top, Middle, Bottom, Customer
• Format – blog, video, LinkedIn post, email, webinar, etc.
• Audience / Persona – who the content is for
• Primary Goal – awareness, SEO, lead gen, engagement, nurture, etc.
• CTA – what you want the audience to do
• Keywords – primary search terms
• Author – who is responsible for creating the content
• Status – draft, review, scheduled, published, etc.
• Publish Date
• Channels – where it will be published (Website, LinkedIn, Email)
• Link – final content link or location

Use simple tools like Trello, Notion, or Asana to manage your calendar and tasks. Set realistic timelines. Keep it manageable — especially if you’re a small team. The goal is to make content creation consistent and repeatable, not overwhelming.

6. Measure the results

A marketer said to me once – “I just wanna go viral!” And I had to laugh. The chances of your content going “viral” is very slim. And many businesses that have had content go “viral” don’t necessarily see an uplift in sales as a result.

The best metrics that matter, are the ones tied to your content marketing goals. These are the to-go metrics I like from Content Marketing Institute:

Goals	Common Metrics
Brand Awareness	Website traffic – page views – video views – document views – downloads – social chatter – referral links
Engagement	Likes – shares – forwards – inbound links
Lead Generation	Form completions – downloads – email subscriptions – conversion rate
Sales	Online sales – Offline sales – Manual reporting – anecdotes
Customer Retention	% content consumed by existing customers – retention/ renewal rates
Upsell/ Cross Sell	New sales to existing customers

7. Test and improve

Content marketing is never finished. You learn by doing. Over time, you’ll start to see what works, what falls flat, and what makes your audience keeps coming back for more.

Use this feedback to shape your next round of content. Double down on successful formats or topics. Experiment with new ideas. Refine your process to make it smoother and more efficient.

The best content strategies evolve — they’re not set in stone.