Creating a Lead Generating Content Marketing Strategy

Published on 04.01.2026 by Chizoba T

Statistics indicate that over 90% of B2B marketers utilize content marketing as part of their lead generation strategy. Other statistics suggest that 53% of marketers consider content marketing to be the most effective tactic. Additionally, blogs generate 67% more leads each month. 

All the above statistics indicate that if you are not using a lead-generating content marketing strategy, you may be missing a lot. Unless you are doing content marketing right, it will be hard to generate traffic, build your audience’s trust, or effectively use TikTok for generating leads. Fortunately, with a good content marketing strategy, you can use content to generate leads. Here is our detailed guide on how to do that.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing plan that involves creating and distributing valuable, consistent, and relevant content to attract, retain, and drive engagement among your fans. Content marketing aims to create and share content that is helpful and attractive to your target audience.

It differs from traditional advertising, which focuses on interruptive, product-pitching. Since you are not pushing your products directly to your target audience, it helps to build trust by educating, informing, or entertaining them, as this addresses their needs. This makes it a good strategy for building credibility and trust. It also helps to establish your brand as an authority in your niche.

While many businesses use content marketing to generate visibility for their companies, the strategy is also suitable for lead generation. When doing content marketing, you will need to consider the content formats you will use, the distribution platform, and how you will use the content to engage your audience.

Benefits of a Content Marketing Strategy 

Building a good content marketing strategy can offer various benefits, such as:

More Brand Awareness

A good content marketing strategy usually focuses on placing your brand in front of the right audience. Statistics back this up: 87% of marketers say content marketing has helped them increase brand awareness. Whether it’s a blog article, an email, an IG lead generation reel, or a social media article you share, you are basically enhancing your digital footprint. 

A good content marketing strategy can position you as an expert in your niche. That means your network will begin sharing your content with their own networks, increasing visibility. With time, their network will start following you, compounding the effect.

Better Quality Leads

Content marketing can help you engage potential customers in the different stages of the sales funnel. For instance, someone might be thinking of a challenge they are facing. When they come across your blog post detailing how to solve the problem or an outstanding short-form video providing a solution, they feel your brand meets their needs. Content marketing also helps brands create good-quality leads.

Even though content marketing is 62% cheaper than outbound marketing, it generates three times more leads. Therefore, it can be a good strategy for low-cost lead generation.

Increased Credibility

96% of people say they mistrust ads. On the other hand, 64% of customers say they trust a brand more when it creates educational content. Their trust rises to 73% in their second week of consuming your educational content. That explains why you are likely to trust a mechanic who explains to you the technical problems with your car in a way you can understand. This is the same way content marketing offers brands more credibility.

How to Create a Lead Generation Content Marketing Strategy

When using content marketing for lead generation, you can use the following steps:

Set Goals

Just like any other social media marketing plan, you need to begin by setting your goals for what you want to achieve and the reasons for creating the content. As per our topic, the goal you are setting in this article is to generate leads. Secondly, ensure your marketing goal can be acted upon. You can use the SMART goal framework, an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.

For instance, rather than saying that you plan to generate more leads, you can set your goal to generate 30% more leads from content marketing in the next three months. This is a goal that is trackable, measurable, and achievable.

Understand Your Target Audience

Next, you will need to determine your target audience. You need to ensure that your content is reaching the person you are speaking to and that it includes the information they need to know. No matter how compelling your content, it will not generate leads if it does not reach the right audience. 

You can determine your target audience by using buyer personas, semi-fictional profiles representing your ideal customers. These personas will provide you with fundamental insights into the kind of content your audience may be interested in. Since your goal is to generate some more leads, you need to create content that targets your ideal customers.

Using the personas, ask yourself various questions, such as:

  • What are the biggest concerns of your buyer persona?
  • What information are the buyer personas seeking?
  • What does the buyer persona need to improve?
  • What are the buyer personas watching or reading?

The first three questions will help you determine the right topics for your videos, blog posts, or other themes. The last question will help you conduct competitive keyword research.

Perform Keyword Research

For your content to generate leads, ensure it reaches your target audience through SEO and by using the right distribution channel. This is essential, as 63% of web pages don’t receive any organic traffic. When performing keyword research, start by entering the terms your target customers use as seed keywords, then add them to a keyword research tool.

After getting the results, consider your audience and their level of interest. Take time to look at the other sites your audience is reading. You can use a top keyword research tool to see their top-ranking pages and the ones generating the highest traffic. You can use the data to find blog posts or video ideas for your brand. Otherwise, if you create content on topics with zero search volume, it might not be a good match for the search term.

Consider the Search Intent

Search intent is the term used to describe the purpose of an online search. For instance, if you are in Salt Lake City and looking for a place to eat, search for a keyword such as "Restaurants Salt Lake City." You need to rank for the keyword your audience is searching for. This is why it is vital to remember the search intent. These can be divided into four categories:

  • Informational
  • Navigational
  • Transactional
  • Commercial

When considering search intent for content marketing, focus on commercial and informational purposes. These are the people searching for information about a topic or a purchasing guide. The transactional and navigational keywords are best left for the pricing or login page.

Prioritize Creating High-Quality Content

A high-quality and compelling lead-generating strategy should also prioritize creating outstanding content. With statistics indicating that we have over 3.75 indexed web pages, the competition for visibility can be stiff. Remember that modern social media users have many content options, such as watching Instagram reels or scrolling through TikTok. Therefore, for your content to be visible, it must be outstanding. 

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be challenging as long as you focus on creating content that answers the user’s search query and provides value to your audience. After that, you need to edit the content to avoid mistakes. Once you create high-quality content, not only will it rank, but it will help you generate high-quality leads.

High-quality content should be helpful, accurate, relevant, and entertaining. No matter the format you choose, storytelling can help ensure your content sticks. Storiers can be effective at helping your stories stick, especially when combined with proven facts and solid data. Here are the qualities of high-quality content:

Content Presentation

Remember that the content presentation and format will affect its success rate. In most cases, visual content performs best because it is easy to consume and can even be shared. Therefore, make sure you use videos, outstanding images, and infographics to convey your message effectively.

On the other hand, white papers and long-form content can help to position your brand as an authority and illustrate your in-depth knowledge. Make sure you have a balance by using content for different stages of the buying process and different preferences, and that you consistently produce content that resonates with the target audience by using a wide range of styles and voices.

SEO-Optimized

Make sure your content is optimized for search engines by including relevant keywords. This will also enable the content to be discovered by the appropriate audience. However, when doing that, avoid sacrificing quality and readability for SEO. A good idea would be to create well-ranking content that also engages readers.

Accessible

You need to ensure that everyone can access your content. You can do that in various ways, such as using plain language, adding video subtitles, and making a navigable website for people with disabilities. When you do that, you can reach a broader audience and ensure an inclusive content marketing approach.

Call-to-Action

For lead capture, ensure your content is well-optimized for maximum conversion. Have an outstanding call to action to guide users on their steps, such as trying the product, creating an account, or learning more. Call-to-actions can help you segment audiences and guide them along the most appropriate path. Remember that your content should target people in the different stages of the sales funnel.

If you are doing video marketing, you can create thumbnails or add a CTA in your content. If you are creating blog posts, you can strategically place CTAs in them.

Ensure that the CTA is well aligned with your post. You can do that by highlighting the text in bold and centering it on the page. The CTA should also direct the reader to the next step. You can also optimize your content by providing gated assets, such as templates or spreadsheets, that users can use to deliver emails.

Choose Your Distribution Channel

After creating your marketing assets and optimizing them for lead generation, you need to choose a distribution method. This will enable you to reach your target audience easily. Remember that high-quality, well-optimized content will appear in search results. You want to ensure you also get people who may not be active on search engines. 

Therefore, make sure you promote your content across different platforms. There is a wide range of distribution channels, including email marketing, social media platforms, Quora Threads, and Reddit. You may even use the content for your conference materials or webinars.

To ensure maximum redistribution, you can repurpose your content for different media. Some of the ways to do that are by:

  • Scripting a video out of a blog post.
  • Creating a guide from multiple blog posts.
  • Using a data project to create a chart that can be turned into Infographics.

When you do that, you can create four or five content types out of one or two content pieces. Remember that not all changes are suitable for every content. A good idea would be to continue testing and analyzing the content’s performance across different platforms to identify which platforms your content is most engaging on and well-received on. 

Here are several ways to promote your content:

Influencers and Brand Ambassadors

You can leverage brand ambassadors and influencers to distribute your content. Since these may already have an audience in your target market, they can help increase the credibility and reach of your content. However, make sure you collaborate with influencers who align with your audience’s needs and brand values.

Paid Ads

You can also use paid promotions to drive traffic to your content. Platforms like Meta, YouTube, and Google Ads have detailed targeting options. This makes them suitable for running PPC campaigns that can direct users to your content. When using paid ads, make sure you also check the campaign's ROI.

Community Building

Another great way of distributing your content is through community building. You can engage with your audience and industry professionals to bring their attention to your content. When you share other people’s content, they are also likely to share yours, growing the reach of the content.

Track and Optimize

As with other marketing programs, a content marketing strategy cannot be complete without measurement and analysis. You need to begin by setting clear, measurable goals to determine whether your content is paying off. Since you are using content marketing for lead generation, you need to have data to track your progress. For instance, you can use various tools to determine how much traffic a particular piece of content is bringing.

After users visit your page, you also want to know whether they stay or bounce. Consider whether they are taking the necessary conversion steps, such as acting on the call to action, buying a product, or signing up for your email list. Consider also the level of engagement your content will be receiving.

A key metric you shouldn't overlook is content engagement, which indicates the volume of interactions. If you are getting a high number of comments and shares, this could indicate that your content resonates with the target audience. The analysis should also incorporate qualitative data. You can gain insights from social media comments, feedback forms, and customer surveys to understand the content your audience truly wants.

Remember that digital marketing is an ever-shifting landscape, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Therefore, you need to keep experimenting with various types of content, promotional strategies, and distribution channels. Make sure data drives your decisions, but also test new ideas.

Through A/B testing, you can gain valuable insights into your audience's content preferences. This usually involves testing two pieces of content to determine which resonates more with your target audience. You can test various elements of your content piece, such as the headline, image, CTA, and more, to determine which is most effective. 

Keep Updating

The fact that you are distributing your content and counting leads doesn’t mean the work is done. With ever-changing content marketing trends, you need a plan to keep your content up to date, so make sure you track the performance of your old content and update it as required. 

Doing that will ensure you have content that consistently generates leads for your business. A good idea would be to start with a content audit, which will help you refine your content strategy and improve SEO, user experience, and ROI.

Tips for Success with Lead Generation Content Marketing

To increase your chance of success with lead generation content marketing, use the following tips:

Create Multiple Content Formats

Nowadays, social media users consume content in a wide range of formats. This is why a good content marketing strategy should include a variety of content formats, such as videos, images, GIFs, and more. Create content in various formats, not just desktop, but also other digital tools. You can also mix traditional content with print content using various interactive formats, such as PDFs.

Do It Correctly

An old saying goes that you only have one chance to create an impression. If you create poorly written or produced content, it will leave a bad impression. Your goal should be to show the leads that you are an expert. You can do that in several steps, such as:

  • Using the correct language.
  • Using good-quality productions.
  • Showing your expertise level.

Remain Relevant

The only reason your target customers will stick with you in the long term is if you are providing them with relevant content. They want to see you give a solution to their problem. You can do that by showing them you feel their pain and understand how to relieve it. The right lead-generating content will show the actual benefits of your products and services. Therefore, instead of just listing features, you can show how your company can help with the specific issue.

Show Proof

Your audience wants to know whether your product will solve their problem. You can use a wide range of content to show proof, such as:

  • Customer reviews. Reports indicate that modern customers don’t trust ads. This is why you should incorporate customer reviews into your content marketing to reassure prospective customers of your products' effectiveness. This can be a good strategy for converting customers who may be on the fence.
  • Customer testimonials. Another way to add authenticity and credibility to your content is through customer testimonials. This is an effective strategy because it shows your customers have done business with your brand.
  • Brand mentions. When your previous customers share about your brand on social media, you can include that in your content marketing. Social sharing is not legitimate, but it also helps build trust in your brand. This is mainly because user-generated content is an effective strategy for ensuring you have fresh content on your site.
  • Badges and certifications. If there are some badges and courses you have earned, you can display the certificates on your site.
  • Celebrity and influencer endorsement. When you ask celebrities to endorse your product, it can provide another level of social proof that increases engagement and drives conversions.

Get Ideas From Online Communities

To better understand your target audience's pain points, you can join the online communities where they are. These can consist of various platforms such as:

  • Facebook group. While many people join them to learn from like-minded people, they can also be a great source of ideas about your target audience's pain points. However, you want to ensure you start by joining the most relevant groups for your audience. Go through the comment section to find some insightful comments.
  • Reddit. Another great platform where you can find relevant content on nearly every topic under the sun. It will provide essential insights into what is working. Simply begin by searching for your preferred topic, then explore the subreddits. You will see the most popular issues among readers.
  • Amazon. The review section of Amazon can provide you with valuable insights into your audience’s pain points. 

In Conclusion

Content marketing can help share your brand's story, build brand awareness, and increase conversions. For it to work for your brand, you need to define your goals, determine your target audience, and then focus on creating content that resonates with them. You also need a plan for distributing the content across different social media platforms. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can have a content marketing strategy that brings the desired results.