Content is King (or Queen), now more than ever.

Content Marketing, often to the frustration of those who practice it in B2B, has historically been pigeonholed as a top-of-funnel (TOFU) tactic. Create blog posts, rank in Google, generate traffic, and hope some of that traffic converts into SQLs. At that point, the lead is handed off to Sales and the content team goes off in search of the next one.

While that was always an unfair picture - do you really think prospects neatly stop reading content once you've internally "handed them off"? - it is less true now than ever. It's crucial Revenue leaders understand the critical role content plays further down the funnel, and Marketers need to take responsibility for demonstrating that revenue impact internally.  

There are two reasons why we believe that now, more than ever, content is absolutely essential to an efficient and effective go-to-market strategy.

Digitisation of B2B Buyer Journeys  

Today, over 75% of B2B buyers prefer to avoid speaking with sales reps. Why? Because they have access to vast amounts of digital information and prefer to self-educate. Buyers now arrive at websites later in their decision-making process, often with a clear intent to take action having conducted early research through conversational AI.

This means content needs to work harder at middle-of-funnel (MOFU) and bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) stages, answering nuanced, solution-oriented questions rather than just grabbing attention.

Content is how you influence deals without a Sales rep in the room. And increasingly, it's very expensive to get a Sales rep in the room. As leadership focuses in on go-to-market efficiency as a core metric, content is amore efficient and effective way to influence deals.

Decline in Informational Search Traffic  

Yes, AI was around long before ChatGPT (if you ever want to wind up an AI enthusiast mention the "invention" of AI by Sam Altman). But the surge in day-to-day usage since its release has had a big impact on the Search landscape. Put simply, AI has taken a sledgehammer to the "informational" search traffic that dominates top-of-funnel.

Those broad “how-to” or educational searches are gaining far less organic traffic. While terms like “best sales strategies” are losing traction, commercial and transactional keywords remain steady.

It's very hard to see this trend reversing; we aren't putting AI back in its box. In fact, in time it's likely we see AI begin to disrupt commercial, navigational and transactional search terms too. New developments like ChatGPT's operator hint at that future, but this will take time, particularly in respect of more complex B2B purchasing journeys.

Want to learn more about how AI has impacted Search traffic? We went into more depth here.

This is a Matter of Survival...and a Massive Opportunity

Two things are clear.

1) If your content marketing strategy is still defined solely by traffic and engagement metrics, you’re on shaky ground. What happens when traffic inevitably declines? Without a clear connection to revenue, the value of your work will be questioned, and your budget might be on the chopping block.

2) This is a tremendous opportunity.

Yes, your site will see less traffic. The traffic you do see, though, is arriving on the site educated, and with intent thanks to AI. It's really difficult to see how that can be a bad thing.

Rather than bemoan a changing landscape, it's time to see it for the opportunity it represents and think about how to thrive within it. Not only is content a GTM organisation's most efficient and effective way to influence in-flight deals, with buyers increasingly avoiding interacting with Sales, but AI has also shifted its role further down-funnel and closer to revenue.

Content strategies should hinge on maximising high value BOFU traffic and delivering measurable, revenue outcomes.

This has a bearing on the content you write. Rather than keyword optimisation, focus on answering questions and influencing perspectives. (Sounds more fun to me). It also brings content experiences into focus - do you really want a poorly timed content gate to turn away a high-intent prospect?

It also changes the way we need to think about measuring performance. Traditional TOFU metrics aren't obsolete, particularly more engagement-oriented metrics, but more than ever it is critical to gain granular insight into how different forms of content influences later stages in the buyer journey.

Again, this represents a huge opportunity. Content's pigeonholing as a TOFU tactic has always been a source of huge frustration for Content marketers and a major obstacle to career (and financial) development.

‍

This is an opportunity to reposition content marketing as a core revenue driver, not a “nice-to-have.” Core revenue drivers earn more, and they get bigger budgets. It's that simple.

Building a Business Case for Content

So, how do we build a business case around our content strategy that is a) more compelling and b) more durable within the context of the current digital landscape?

1. Track the Right Metrics  

It's important to be able to track metrics that reflect the full-funnel role content plays in the modern buyer journey. It's not about casting a wide net, at least not onsite - it's about maximising the value you extract from a smaller number of high intent visitors.

Here’s the basic metrics you should be tracking across the funnel stages.

Top-of-Funnel (TOFU)  

Still critical for brand awareness and lead generation, but needs rethinking.  

• Engaged sessions
• Scroll depth (are users reading your content?)

Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU)  

The stage where prospects explore if your solution solves their problems.  

• Time on site for high-value assets (e.g. whitepapers, webinars)  
• Content downloads / newsletter sign ups.  Known Users, willingly exchanging information, is a great indicator of content value.  
• Conversion from content -> product pages.
• Pipeline influence (has content engaged leads that move forward in the sales process?)  

Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU)  

Where content has a direct line to revenue.  

• Content-influenced SQLs (are you directly contributing to pipeline?)
• Pipeline impact (does content influence leading Revenue KPIs like close rate, deal velocity and ACV? Are you helping to uncover stakeholders to deals, and capture key data?)  
• Revenue impact (can you draw a clear line from content to closed-won revenue?)  
• Sales Distribution (are reps leveraging your content? This is a clear sign of whether they view your content as relevant and impactful).

It is critical that you solve this problem first. That might mean working with your Marketing Ops team to make sure you're familiar with dashboards and tools at your disposal. You may have a Marketing Attribution tool like HockeyStack or DreamData which will provide some of this insight. A tool like Demand-Genius offers a cheaper route to track content metrics and report on revenue impact without spending time manually integrating siloed data or building dashboards in a Business Intelligence tool like Looker or Tableau.

Whatever route you take, you need to be on top of the data.

2. Align Content with Business Objectives  

You need to develop a clear understanding of what the company wants to achieve at a strategic level. One thing's for sure, no c-suite leader has a goal of increasing traffic by 20%, unless you're selling brake fluid (yes, it's a traffic pun).

It's critical that you understand not just the headline goal, but wherever possible understand the "why" and a nuanced picture of the "how" beyond your own sphere.

For example:

Goal: Increase revenue +20%.

How: Increase net revenue retention to 110% and improve close rates from 25% to 30%.

Why: The business is looking to raise a Series B next year and these milestones have been identified in early conversations with investors.

Armed with this information, you can start to plot a roadmap for how your resources can contribute to the goals that truly matter to the organisation.

In the example above, understanding the "how" might allow some of your budget to be diverted away from SEO and towards thought leadership content that adds value to in-pipeline prospects and existing customers. Without that context, it would have been very easy to present a completely different strategy focused on "revenue generation" but out of keeping with the broader context of your GTM strategy.

Understanding the "why" might reinforce this further. To successfully raise a Series B, it's essential you clearly differentiate your value prop and show that you have a compelling and unique vision. Focusing on thought leadership provides this secondary benefit.

Whatever the tactics, the key is developing a roadmap that aligns with top-level strategy and objectives. Where you don't have this level of insight into your company's objectives, that is a red flag and you need to proactively solve that problem. This is information a revenue-critical leader needs to do their job.

3. Pitch Against Those Objectives

It's important to remember that your c-suite aren't experts on marketing or content, you are. It's your job to draw a clear line from what you'll do to what they want. Put simply, you need to speak their language and show why your strategy is going to meet their goals, not just yours.

This means you need to be able to present a realistic, specific and data-driven business case. This should align clearly with the vision and objectives for the company, the c-suite's strategy to achieve those objectives (for example, improving NRR or Close Rates) and be validated with clear historical data as the basis of expected performance.

This is where it's essential that you're able to measure content performance with granularity.

It's one thing to say that you'll improve close rates by doing more webinars, to help reps engage and influence in-pipeline prospects. It's another to back that up with data that shows the historical impact of webinar engagement from in-pipeline prospects on close rates. Again, if you don't have this level of insight, then you need to fix that first. Work with your Marketing Ops team or at the risk of a second plug, explore a platform like Demand-Genius that can take the headache out of the data analysis.

It's also useful to remember that you don't operate in isolation. You don't just need to show investment in content can provide ROI - you need to show it will do so more effectively than alternatives. That doesn't mean you should behave politically or work against other functions. It means you should collaborate to understand the relative impact of your function within your prospects' buyer journey and think about how you can maximise that impact.

4. Communicate throughout the organisation

I dug out an old post by Jess Cook that I loved. As she puts it, your job is to create a culture of content internally.

You need to communicate your strategy beyond just your executives. This isn't just about self-promotion. You are building a business case around full lifecycle impact. Sales and Customer Success reps just became your best distribution channel. As Marketers we spend a fortune on intent data - call me old school, but actual conversations with customers are the best intent data you'll get your hands on. And it's free, you just have to build a working relationship with the people having them!

Marketing has always been a discipline that blends strategy, data analysis and storytelling. It's just time we directed more of the latter towards our own internal perception.

Conclusion: Don't be Afraid to Show your Worth

Reframing content as a revenue-driving function isn’t just about protecting your job. It’s an opportunity to finally step out of the TOFU pigeonhole that’s held content marketers back for years.

Previously, content budgets were often seen as nonessential, an easy target for cuts during tough times. But marketers who succeed in building a business case centred on measurable revenue-impact will unlock bigger budgets and enormous career opportunities.

You also serve a critical function for your organisation. Getting Sales into the room is harder than ever. Now is not the time to be cutting investment in Content, which lets you influence deals even when Sales aren't in the room. It's your job to demonstrate this to leaders that may be entrenched in a traditional, sales-led way of thinking.

Demonstrate your True Impact with Demand-Genius

Demand-Genius makes it simple to build a revenue-focused content strategy, and demonstrate its impact internally. Our platform provides precise revenue attribution and deep insights into the buyer’s journey, so you can connect every piece of content to measurable business outcomes. Track the metrics that matter, align with Sales, and confidently show leadership exactly how your efforts drive growth.  

‍