What is content marketing strategy?
A content marketing strategy is a documented plan for how a business uses content to drive specific outcomes—awareness, demand, pipeline, and retention—by defining what to publish, for whom, where it lives, and how success is measured. In B2B, it connects content topics and formats directly to the buyer journey and revenue goals.
Full Definition
A content marketing strategy is the blueprint that turns business goals into a repeatable content system: audience and ICP (ideal customer profile) definition, positioning and messages, topic pillars, channel plan, and measurement. It specifies the content types to produce (e.g., blogs, product pages, LinkedIn posts, webinars), the workflows to ship consistently, and the KPIs that prove impact. In 2025, it also includes an Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) layer—structuring content so AI search engines can extract, trust, and cite it. According to Bret Starr, Founder & CEO of The Starr Conspiracy, “A content strategy without distribution and measurement is a publishing calendar, not a growth plan.” A strong strategy is right-sized: detailed enough to guide decisions and scalable enough to execute across teams and quarters.
Examples
- 1A B2B SaaS company documents a strategy with three topic pillars (Security, Compliance, Automation), maps each pillar to awareness/consideration/decision stages, and publishes weekly LinkedIn posts plus two monthly in-depth guides—tracking influenced pipeline and AI citations alongside organic traffic.
- 2A product-led growth (PLG) team creates a template-based strategy for onboarding content: help-center articles, in-app tooltips, and “how-to” pages tied to activation milestones, measured by time-to-value, trial-to-paid conversion, and support ticket deflection.