Content marketing: the expert guide to creating content that captivates and converts

You've hit 'publish' on yet another piece of content—but did anyone notice? Your audience scrolls through hundreds of articles, videos, and social posts every day. So what makes them stop for yours?

The difference between content that simply exists and content that drives real results comes down to understanding what makes content marketing actually work and putting it into practice.

In this guide, we break down the fundamentals of content marketing, combining theory with practical techniques from 4 Contentsquare experts who’ve tested and optimized content across industries.

You’ll learn 

• What content marketing is 

• How it performs across channels

• How to create content that doesn’t just get published, but actually delivers results

Because posting content is easy—making it work for you is where the magic happens.

Key insights

• Execution trumps ideas: the gap between mediocre and exceptional content marketing isn't just creativity but how systematically you implement, measure, and refine your approach to content

• Data tells stories: look beyond surface metrics to understand how different user segments interact with the same content in different ways and optimize their experience

• Cross-functional content wins: the most effective content marketing bridges the gap between departments—it supports sales, educates customers, and drives marketing goals

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. By helping your audience solve problems and make informed decisions, you earn their trust—so when the time comes to purchase, your brand is already top of mind.

By focusing on your customers’ needs through helpful articles, videos, or guides, you

• Build trust and credibility with your target audience

• Establish your brand as an authority in your industry

• Drive organic traffic through search engine optimization

• Nurture leads through the customer’s journey

The 3 stages of content marketing

What makes a truly successful piece of content work? Is it the topic, the format, or something deeper, like the unique perspective that makes readers think, "Wow, I never considered that"?

It might be a specific combination of all of these. What’s important is that it resonates with your audience, which is what good content marketing is all about. It's purposeful, audience-focused, and designed to drive specific business outcomes.

Anyone can publish blog posts—content marketing is about publishing the right content, for the right people, at the right time. Let’s briefly break down what that looks like based on your customers’ needs at every stage.

1. Top of the funnel (TOFU): awareness

At this stage, people are just realizing they have a problem or question. They're not looking for your product yet—they're looking for information.

Content types that work best 

• Blog posts addressing common questions

• Educational videos and webinars

• Infographics explaining industry concepts

• Social media content that builds awareness

• Podcasts featuring thought leadership

For example, HubSpot doesn't immediately push their customer relationship management (CRM) software. Instead, they establish trust by answering questions and offering value first through their website. This positions them as helpful experts before prospects are even considering a solution.

2. Middle of the funnel (MOFU): consideration

Now your audience is actively researching solutions to their problem. They're looking for proof that your approach works.

Content types that work best

• In-depth guides and ebooks

• Case studies showing real results

• Email nurture sequences

• Webinars demonstrating solutions

Look at Zendesk’s in-depth case studies and whitepapers. They use these content marketing examples to show potential customers how their platform solves real problems for companies like yours. The long-form content resources below build trust with prospects who are researching customer service platforms.

3. Bottom of the funnel (BOFU): decision

At this point, your prospects are ready to make a choice. They’re comparing solutions and they need content that gives them confidence in selecting your solution.

Content types that work best

• Product demos and tutorials

• Customer testimonials and reviews

• Comparison content (like Contentsquare vs. Amplitude)

• Free trials or samples

• ROI calculators

• Detailed specification sheets

Salesforce does this by offering free trials of their CRM software. Along with the trial, they provide product demos and customer testimonials, giving prospects the hands-on experience they need to make that final, confident decision.

Pro tip: use Contentsquare's Funnel Analysis to track how what moves users from awareness to action.

Say you’ve published 2 pieces of content: a TOFU blog post and a MOFU case study. With Funnel Analysis, you can build a funnel that starts with users landing on the blog, continues with viewing the case study, and ends with visiting your product page or booking a demo.

Contentsquare shows you 

• Drop-off rates between each step, so you can see where users lose interest

• Completion rates, or how many users made it through all the steps

• Segment-level insights, like how traffic from paid social compares to organic reach

Maybe the blog post brought in the most traffic, but users who read the case study were 3x more likely to visit your pricing page. That’s a clear signal to invest more in similar MOFU content and potentially optimize or retarget blog readers who didn’t convert.

Funnel Analysis shows you which pieces of content drive the most conversions at each stage of the funnel

6 content formats to captivate your specific audience

The format you choose makes all the difference in the results you get from content marketing. The key is aligning the format with your audience's preferences and the nature of your message. 

1. Articles

Articles (like this one) serve as the home base for your content marketing strategy, driving organic traffic through SEO and addressing topics at any funnel stage. They're versatile, searchable, and can be repurposed into other formats.

2. Video content

From short social clips to in-depth tutorials, video builds connection and simplifies complex concepts. It's especially powerful for product demonstrations and emotional storytelling.

3. Podcasts

Audio content builds thought leadership and reaches people during commutes, workouts, and other times when they can't read or watch content.

4. Social media content

Platform-specific content helps you reach audiences where they already spend time, with many social media platforms requiring their own approach—what works on LinkedIn often fails on TikTok, and vice versa.

5. Email marketing

When done right, email is one of the highest-converting channels. It allows you to deliver the right content at the right time based on user behavior.

6. Infographics and visual content

When you present it visually, even the most complex information becomes easier to understand. Infographics help break down data, processes, or timelines into simple, eye-catching visuals that are quick to scan and easy to remember. 

Content marketing benefits: business essential or optional extra?

Still wondering if content marketing is worth the investment? Consider how it directly addresses these common business challenges:

Content marketing IRL: how Contentsquare experts create content that stands out

Now let’s get practical. We interviewed our team of content marketing specialists and they shared their tried-and-tested strategies to help you cut through the digital noise. 

From SEO and video content to overarching content strategies, these 4 digital marketers have created, optimized, and measured content across multiple formats, channels, and industries. Here's how you can apply their expertise to your content marketing approach.

1. Blend data types for better content decisions

The most effective content strategies leverage qualitative and quantitative data to give you a complete picture of content performance. Organic SEO and Content Lead Sean Potter explains how this blend of data works in practice at Contentsquare: 

“On the quantitative side, historical analytics enables me to understand which topics, themes, and formats drive business impact. Customer research, surveys, and session replays then allow me to better understand why some of the numbers translate how they do on the qualitative side."

Quantitative data tells you what's happening:

• Which content gets the most traffic

• Where users drop off in your content

• Which call to action (CTA) converts best

• How much time users spend with different content types

Qualitative data tells you why it's happening:

• What questions users still have after consuming your content

• How content makes them feel

• Whether it addresses their specific needs

• What might be missing or confusing

Put it into practice

Say you notice users jumping back and forth between 2 sections of your site. Contentsquare’s Journey Analysis (quantitative data) shows which pages they visit, but it’s the Surveys capability (qualitative data) that helps you understand why—maybe they’re searching for feature details they can’t find.

Surveys give your customers a voice, helping you understand what content they actually want more of and where you can do better

2. Create content for actual human beings, not search engines

Yes, search engine optimization (SEO) matters—but the secret is understanding search intent, not just stuffing keywords. As Contentsquare’s Senior SEO Content Marketing Manager Thomas Busson, puts it: 

"A common mistake is to think 'SEO content' is meant for algorithms, not humans. This results in content that reads awkwardly because of keyword stuffing instead of providing clarity, actual value, and a good user experience."

With AI-generated overviews now appearing in search results, Thomas recommends a strategic pivot:

"Don't focus all your efforts on high-volume queries: target lower-volume queries with higher purchase intent, where your product or service is clearly positioned as a solution to their pain points."

Put it into practice

Not sure if your content is really speaking to the right people? Content segmentation helps you go beyond generic metrics to see how different audience segments interact with your content.

You can compare how new vs. returning users, or enterprise vs. SMB visitors, engage with the same page, and spot whether your messaging is resonating or missing the mark.

Contentsquare helps you tailor content that actually connects with each group, not just ranks in search

3. Align content with business goals

Successful content marketing ties content efforts to measurable outcomes. The key to demonstrating this alignment is tracking and analytics. Sean explains:

"In a perfect world, your high-level Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) would relate to product sign-ups, paying customers or revenue, depending on the business in question. It also makes sense to have traffic as a measure, to see broader user engagement and how people move from initial touchpoint to conversion."

Put it into practice

The right content marketing analytics set-up allows you to measure the success of your content and how it impacts your business outcomes. This approach turns content marketing from a ‘nice to have’ into a strategic business driver with provable return on investment (ROI).

Pro tip: use Contentsquare’s Impact Quantification to see which pages actually lead to conversions—not just clicks.

Not all traffic is created equal. For instance, if your shiny new glossary-style content is driving traffic but isn’t generating leads, whereas a less flashy guide is quietly converting at a much higher rate, that’s your cue to double down on what’s working. Let the data guide your next move.

With Impact Quantification, you can see how your content impacts conversion rates, revenue, subscriptions, and more

4. The power of strategic repurposing

Creating content for different platforms and formats can quickly drain resources. A practical solution is to find ways to make one content topic work across multiple formats. For example, turn a webinar into a blog post, a series of social clips, and a customer story. 

In other words, focus on repurposing—and do it in a way that’s systematic and scalable.

At Contentsquare, repurposing isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential to our content strategy. Nea Björkqvist, our global content expert, shares:

"We're focused on repurposing all of the amazing content our event teams work on. For example, we add speaker quotes into our subject matter expert (SME) quote database, which are then used across content assets."

Put it into practice

To be effective, repurposing needs to become a strategic part of your planning process, not an afterthought. Here are a few ideas to get you started: 

• Start with alignment, not output: work across organic, paid, product marketing, and sales teams to understand which outcomes your content should support, from traffic and sign-ups to revenue

• Create multi-use video content: script and shoot videos with reuse in mind, cutting highlights for social, blogs, or paid ads

• Let data guide your repurposing roadmap: use qualitative and quantitative insights to prioritize what to repurpose based on performance and impact

• Think cross-channel: plan ahead so one asset can be adapted for email, paid, organic, and sales enablement use

5. Localizing content for global impact

For global brands, true localization means making your content feel native, not just readable. As Thomas puts it:

"Localization opens up entirely new markets for your business. It allows you to reach (and hopefully, convert) prospects that don't speak your language." 

Not only is it more cost-effective than creating content from scratch, but it also helps lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) and boosts ROI.

But localization isn’t just a matter of translation. It’s about relevance. That might mean

• Swapping brand references in an ebook for ones that resonate locally

• Changing a web page into a downloadable one-pager to match market preferences

• Using a tone, example, or customer story that actually reflects regional realities

Put it into practice

When done well, localization ensures your content truly connects with each audience. Here’s how to get it right:

• Start with your internal resources: before diving into translations, get everyone on the same page. Make sure you’ve got core resources, like your Style Guide and Glossary of Terms, ready and localized. These will be your go-to documents for consistency across teams.

• Align your content with local culture: collaborate with regional content managers to ensure your tone and examples feel natural for each market. For example, a case study that works in France might need a complete overhaul to make sense in Japan.

• Test and adjust: once your content is localized, get feedback from your local teams to see what’s clicking and what’s not. Then, tweak things until it feels just right for each region.

6. Match format to purpose (and your budget reality)

Choosing the right format for your content ensures it works for your goals, your audience, and your budget. As Nea explains:

“The format depends on several factors, such as your audience or ICP, the stage they're in your conversion funnel, the topic, and your marketing plan or channels.”

For example, in B2B, ebooks are often great for generating leads early in the funnel (TOFU), while case studies or one-pagers are better suited for later stages like MOFU or BOFU—helping sales teams nurture leads or upsell to existing customers.

Put it into practice

When you're choosing formats, always think about the purpose of the content and where it fits in the customer journey:

• Understand your audience: different audience segments need different types of content. Are you speaking to prospects just getting to know your brand, or to current customers ready for deeper engagement? Tailor your format accordingly.

• Consider distribution channels: certain formats work better on specific platforms. For instance, short, snappy posts work well on social media platforms, while more detailed reports or ebooks might be better suited for email marketing campaigns or landing pages.

• Maximize event content: help your team stretch budgets and extend the value of every event. Treat them as both a distribution channel and a high-quality content repurposing goldmine.

Pro tip: use regional engagement data to identify the best times to publish content for different markets.

For global distribution, timing matters as much as channel. For example, if your Contentsquare AI CoPilot points out that your audience in Japan tends to engage with content later in the evening, while your US audience is most active in the morning, you can schedule your posts to go live at peak times in each region.

This way, you ensure your content is seen by the right people when they’re most likely to engage.

Ask AI questions about your content and it’ll run the analysis for you

Next steps

Content without purpose is just information. Content marketing turns it into a business asset.

Creating effective content means balancing creativity with data-driven insights. Now that you understand the fundamentals, here's what to do next:

• Track content marketing analytics: learn exactly how to measure, analyze, and report on the metrics that matter for your content marketing success

• Build an impactful content marketing strategy: develop a comprehensive, cross-functional approach that aligns content marketing across your organization

• Explore content marketing software: find the right tools to optimize every aspect of your content marketing efforts

FAQs about content marketing