How To Turn Your Business Goals Into A Content Strategy That Drives Revenue

What to Write When You Want Results, Not Just Posts

You finally found the time. You’re sitting down to write the content you swore you’d get to “once things slow down,” which has never actually happened in the history of your business, but today’s the day! You open a blank doc, ready to go, and start to type uhhhhhhhhhh… content?

You know you should be creating content, but right now it feels like a chore you’re squeezing in between real work, not something that actually helps your business grow, even though you know it does.

The strange part? It’s not that you’re out of ideas. You already know what the business needs this quarter: 

• More qualified leads

• Bigger average deal size 

• Shorter sales cycles

• Stronger positioning

• Better retention

What’s missing is the connection between those goals and your content.

When content isn’t aligned with your business objectives, it becomes a painful obligation instead of a growth engine. You post when you have time, the team scrambles for topics, and nothing you do is tied to revenue, pipeline, or performance. Before long, content planning becomes something you feel guilty for not doing instead of something that drives revenue. 

Today, we’re going to fix that.

Plenty of marketers will tell you to “post every day” and trust that consistency solves everything. Consistency matters, but only if the content actually moves something that matters in your business. We’re not here to help you feed the algorithm. We’re here to help you publish content that builds authority, closes gaps in the sales process, and pushes qualified buyers closer to a “Yes!”

So instead of trying to figure out what to write, you’re gonna learn how to connect your business goals to a content system that attracts the right buyers, answers their objections before a sales rep ever speaks to them, and turns interest into revenue.

Yes, we’re going deep. 

You’ll know how to turn content from a random task into a predictable growth system with our step-by-step framework. Whether you’re running a one-person operation or a marketing department for an enterprise business, you can use our framework to map your goals to content pillars, turn those pillars into clusters that compound traffic and authority, and build a repeatable production plan that doesn’t collapse the moment things get busy.

1. Start With Business Goals You Can Actually Measure

Content only works when it is designed to move something specific, like a customer behavior or a stage of the funnel. “Grow brand awareness” is not an actionable goal. “Get 40 sales calls per month through inbound channels by June,” on the other hand, is an achievable goal. 

A content-aligned business goal should follow the SMART rule:

• Specific: Clear enough that no one can interpret it differently.

• Measurable: Tied to a number you can track and report.

• Actionable: Something the business has the ability to change.

• Revenue-Relevant: Connected to pipeline, sales efficiency, or market position.

• Time-Bound: Has a deadline, not a vague “eventually.”

If a goal can’t pass the SMART test, content can’t support it. Most businesses have two to four SMART goals that content should be responsible for influencing.

Here are some examples of SMART, content-moveable goals:

• Increase demo requests by 25% in Q2 without increasing ad spend

  
  

• Rank top three for three high-intent keywords that lead to qualified buyers by the end of the quarter.

  
  

• Reduce the average sales cycle from 70 days to 45 days by giving prospects stronger proof assets earlier.

  
  

• Replace eight residential jobs per week with three commercial contracts per month by educating a new buyer segment.

  
  

Once those goals are set, the real strategy question becomes:

• What does my buyer need to know, believe, or trust before they take the action tied to this goal?

Whatever stands between the buyer and the goal is where your content work starts.

Quick Exercise: 10-Minute Goal Audit

Write down your top three business goals for the next 3–6 months. Under each one, answer:

• What exact action do I need buyers to take?

  
  

• What stage of the buyer journey does this goal depend on? (Awareness, consideration, decision, post-sale?)

  
  

• What is stopping buyers from taking that action right now? (Lack of proof, unclear value, wrong audience, unanswered objections, etc.)

  
  

• What would buyers need to see, understand, or believe before saying yes?

  
  

• Which type of content could remove that friction fastest? (Case study? Comparison guide? ROI breakdown? How-to? Something else?)

Those missing pieces are your content opportunities.

2. Map Each Goal to Buyer Behavior, Not Just “Topics”

Content doesn't move revenue because it exists. It moves revenue because it influences what a buyer does next. Instead of thinking in topics (“We should write about X”), think in transitions (“We need prospects to stop doubting X, so they will request Y”).

The simplest way to do that is by building a Buyer Outcome Map for each goal:

Step	What You Write Down
Problem the buyer feels	Be specific: Cost, time, frustration, risk
Outcome they want	What “better” looks like in their language
Obstacles preventing action	Budget, fear, confusion, alternatives
Proof or content required	Case studies, benchmarks, demos, guides

Once you define the shift the buyer needs to make, you can build content that walks them through it instead of hoping they magically jump.

Use Keyword Research to Understand Buyer Intent (Not Just Traffic)

The next step is figuring out how they actually search for answers along the way. That’s where keyword research becomes more than an SEO task. It’s a window into buyer psychology.

Search behavior tells you what stage a buyer is in before they ever speak to sales. Someone searching “what is invoice automation” is at a very different stage than someone searching “best invoice automation software for small agencies.” The first person needs education. The second person needs comparisons, proof, and urgency. If you publish the wrong content for the wrong stage, the buyer moves on, and the sale does too.

High-intent keyword research will help you understand:

• The exact language buyers use before they convert

  
  

• The questions, comparisons, and hesitations you must answer in your content.

  
  

• The content pillars and clusters around demand

  
  

• What topics will “perform”

  
  

Keyword research is how you stop publishing content about your offer and start publishing content that supports the buyer’s decision to choose you.

A simple way to break down search intent:

Search Type	Buyer Stage	Example Queries
Problem-aware	Early awareness	“Why are commercial contracts so slow to approve”
Solution-aware	Consideration	“How to speed up commercial vendor selection”
Product/vendor-aware	Decision	“Commercial facilities bidding template”
Risk-aware	Objection handling	“Are commercial cleaning companies insured”

If your content doesn’t cover all four stages, your marketing will attract attention but not revenue. If you do cover them, you build a guided path from search → trust → action—without forcing someone into a sales call before they’re ready.

Quick Exercise: 5-Minute Buyer Intent Scan

Pick one of your business goals and do this fast check:

1. Google the primary problem your buyer has before they need you.

   
   

2. Look at “People Also Ask” and write down three questions buyers are asking.

   
   

3. Scroll to the bottom and note the “Related Searches.”

   
   

4. Open the top 3 ranking competitor pages. What content formats are they using?

   
   

5. Circle anything you could explain better, prove more clearly, or turn into a downloadable asset.

   
   

You now have the beginning of a content cluster based on real demand.

3. Build Pillar Content That Anchors the Strategy

Most businesses skip straight to blog posts and social content, which is like decorating a house before pouring the foundation. If your goal is revenue-aligned content, the foundation is pillar content.

A pillar is a deep, high-value asset that solves a major question, objection, or decision point for your buyer. It ties directly to one business goal, one core audience, and one stage of the funnel.

Here are some examples of strong content pillars:

• A full “How to Choose a Vendor” guide that establishes your decision criteria

  
  

• A cost breakdown or ROI calculator with real numbers

  
  

• A “Blueprint” playbook with repeatable steps and visual frameworks

  
  

• A commercial proposal template bundle that replaces 10 sales emails

  
  

• A benchmark report or case study library with named examples

A pillar should teach, prove, and convert. Everything else you create later, like blogs, social posts, webinars, short videos, and emails, will point back to that asset.

Quick Exercise: Pillar building prompt

For each business goal, answer:

• “What is the single most valuable asset we could publish that would remove friction for our buyer and support this goal?”

Whatever you write down is a pillar worth producing.

4. Surround Each Pillar With Content Clusters That Drive Traffic and Trust

Once your pillars exist, you don’t “hope” people will find them. You build a system that sends them traffic and authority called “content clusters.”

A content cluster is a group of smaller pieces, like blogs, videos, social posts, and email content, built around that main pillar. Each one answers a narrower question, objection, or nuance and links back to the pillar.

Here is an example of a content cluster for a commercial services company:

Pillar: 

• “Complete Commercial Proposal Toolkit: Templates, Pricing Logic, and Timeline Examples”

Cluster content:

• “How to estimate labor costs for 10k+ sq ft commercial jobs”

  
  

• The one mistake facility managers make when evaluating vendors”

  
  

• “What commercial contracts actually require for compliance and insurance?”

  
  

• “Before and after: turning six residential crews into one commercial project team”

  
  

The pillar earns trust, the cluster earns visibility, and together, they earn revenue.

Quick Exercise: Build A Content Cluster

Pick one pillar idea. Write 10 questions your buyer Googles or asks in sales calls. Each of your questions is a cluster topic.

5. Turn Strategy Into a 90-Day Content Plan You Can Execute

Content fails when it’s random, delayed, or built around ideas instead of priorities. A 90-day content plan keeps things tight: 3 months, 3 pillars, ~15 cluster pieces, all tied back to 1–3 business goals. Start with this content cycle:

• Month 1: Publish first pillar + 5 cluster pieces

  
  

• Month 2: Publish second pillar + 5 more cluster pieces

  
  

• Month 3: Publish third pillar + 5 more cluster pieces, then repurpose/update month one assets

Your content plan is where the consistency marketers praise most matters. With a 90-day strategy, you have three months of consistently publishing content that supports your business goals. 

Roles also matter. Make sure that someone owns the strategy, someone owns writing, someone owns approvals, and someone owns promotion. If one person owns everything, content will always lag behind revenue priorities.

Quick Exercise: Content Planning

Make a simple content plan to get started:

1. Open a blank doc or spreadsheet. 

2. Create three columns: Goal, Pillar, and Supporting Content.

3. Fill in one row per business goal.

If you can’t fill in all three columns, you’ve just found the gap that’s been slowing down your marketing.

6. Measure the Right Things (Not Everything)

If your only metrics are views and likes, you're tracking popularity, not performance. The only metrics worth watching are the ones that predict revenue:

• How many people reach your pillar pages?

  
  

• How many take the next action (download, book, request, calculate)?

  
  

• How many of those become real pipeline?

  
  

• Which content assets show up most often in closed-won deals?

  
  

Consider this simple scorecard for measuring your content’s performance:

Stage	What to Measure
Discovery	Organic traffic to pillars, branded search trends
Consideration	Time on page, downloads, repeat return visits
Decision	Demo requests, pricing page clicks, sales-qualified leads
Sales enablement	Shortened sales cycle, fewer objections, higher deal size

If a piece of content can’t influence one of those stages, it’s not strategic content. It’s just noise you worked hard on.

Quick Exercise: KPI reflection prompt

Ask your sales team: 

• “Which questions slow deals down the most?” 

• 
  

If you don’t have content that answers those questions, you are creating your own bottleneck.

Stop Brainstorming Posts and Start Building a Pipeline

The system is simple: 

1. Goals first

2. Buyer behavior second

3. Pillars third

4. Clusters fourth

5. Execution with a real plan

6. Metrics that prove your content is earning its keep

Most businesses flip the order and start with “What should we post on LinkedIn next week?” So their content feels like a treadmill instead of a revenue engine.

When you build the strategy first, your content starts doing what it’s meant to do: 

Reduce friction, increase trust, and create opportunities your sales team doesn’t have to chase down manually.

If you’re ready to get started, you can build this system yourself, or you can bring in a team that already has the playbook, the writers, the strategists, and the workflows in place. Borrowed Pen has helped dozens of B2B teams turn scattered content into a measurable pipeline driver.

We will help you turn your business goals into content that drives pipeline, not just traffic.

Ready to build a content engine that earns revenue instead of attention? Let’s talk about your first 90 days.