Publishing 3x per week and still no leads? Your content strategy is broken.
Your website traffic is cratering. AI is eating your SEO lunch. And you're sitting there scheduling more blog posts for next Tuesday.
Throw out your content calendar. It's too late.
You cannot compete by publishing more. Layering a calendar on top of your broken system is like scheduling more trains on broken tracks.
Something deeper is broken with your website and user acquisition. Your content doesn't match how buyers evaluate, learn, or make decisions anymore.
I know it's sad…but you'll get over it.
The questions nobody's asking (but should)
Before you jump into action and create more content nobody reads, step back and ask yourself:
What content actually helps people buy from us?
What are we selling that has any traction right now?
If you don't know the answers, stop creating content and figure that out first.
You don't need to shift from "not enough content" to "more content." You need to build a system that generates leads, supports sales, and accelerates decisions.
Content calendars can't fix foundational funnel issues.
The vanity metrics that are killing you
Content teams measure the wrong things:
How many posts went live
How often they're publishing
How long the queue is
How many people clicked the link
None of that creates momentum or generates leads.
Pull up your last five published pieces. Imagine you're a buyer evaluating options, trying to make a good decision, presenting to your boss.
Would any of these pieces move you closer to saying yes?
If the answer is no, a content calendar will do nothing for you.
The "Get Started" button nobody wants
Look at your website. Can you map a journey from visitor to customer?
If the first steps are buttons saying "Get Started" or "Talk to Sales," ask yourself: How many times have you wanted to talk to a salesperson 30 seconds after landing on a website?
The first steps in a funnel activate interest. There are many ways to do that. A "Learn More" button ain't it.
Will more content fix this? Of course not.
Build a parallel universe instead
What you need is a sales content system. It starts with what I call a content stack—documents built around a specific topic that engages a segment of your audience.
Here's what I build:
Lead magnet (5-page solutions guide)
3-4 one-pagers
Email sequence
Landing page with contact form
Ads and social posts driving to that page
I call this the parallel universe. It keeps people off your broken website and in an alternate universe where content is engaging and targeted.
It's not a small amount of work. But it's nowhere near as much as redoing your website. Plus, you can run small, inexpensive experiments. Test hooks, ad copy, target lists.
Your goal isn't to fill a blog archive. It's to build a library of assets your team can use in conversations, emails, follow-ups, and demos.
The obvious thing nobody does
Your business exists to solve a problem. So show people how to solve it with your product.
I know this sounds obvious. Companies skip it because it seems too obvious.
Do the obvious thing.
Put yourself in a customer's shoes. Finish these sentences:
"How do I fix..."
"How do I stop..."
Say you compete with Amazon, Adobe, or Google, and your customer is an enterprise IT leader. They're wondering:
How to save costs
How to renegotiate contracts
How to switch to something cheaper
That's three solutions guides right there. Don't overcomplicate it. Start simple and brainstorm from there.
If you still have no ideas, ask ChatGPT. That's why it exists.
The one-pager strategy that actually works
You've found someone interested in your solutions guide. Congratulations, you have a lead.
Instead of designing a slick 45-minute sales deck, build one-pagers that summarize your value in plain language—documents that can be forwarded without context.
If someone can read your one-pager without a demo, without being convinced, and still get the gist, you've done your job.
I always recommend at least three one-pagers to complement a solutions guide. Why? You can follow up three more times via email with helpful content:
First email: Here's the solutions guide
Next three emails: Your one-pagers
The more helpful your follow-ups, the more likely your content gets shared, which means you're more likely to earn a sale.
The self-contained landing page that converts
Build a landing page with one intention: getting people to download your guide. Not become a customer. Download the guide.
Self-contained means no context or prior knowledge needed about your product. Someone lands, gets marketed to from top to bottom.
The selling isn't about credit cards. It's about exchanging contact information for a solutions guide.
We want to prove we have language that works, doesn't depend on website traffic, and entices interested people into an email sequence.
These are baby steps toward a sale. But remember—your website isn't working. Traffic is gone. Blog content isn't moving the needle. You've already proven you need to rethink everything.
The FAQ hack for the AI age
LLMs are eating your SEO lunch. So feed them what they want.
AI crawlers scour the web for question-and-answer content. Take advantage by adding FAQs to pages relevant to your solutions guide and one-pagers.
Frame questions that link to your new assets and address prospect concerns. Include hard questions and provide answers that make you look squeaky clean.
The AIs will often cite your documents and parrot your answers.
You're not building new content. You're adding to what's already there. Addressing new market conditions while making articles more helpful.
Start with sales, not analytics
Don't start with Google Analytics or search data. Start with your sales team.
Ask them:
Where do deals stall?
What questions do they answer repeatedly?
What PDFs are they sending most?
What do they wish they had to explain complex ideas?
Sit in on sales calls. Review follow-up emails. Shadow onboarding and support. Identify real gaps.
Every time you hear a question your website doesn't answer, you have a new post. Doesn't matter if it lands Wednesday at 4 PM. What matters is whether your salesperson can email that article as follow-up.
Build for the evaluator, not the calendar
Walk through the buyer journey as a first-time evaluator. Imagine you're someone who:
Just heard about the product from a friend
Has 20 minutes to check out your website
Is comparing you to three other vendors
Needs to show their boss a shortlist
Wants to avoid looking stupid in the decision process
Found you on page two of Google
What would help that person? What would make their life easier?
Build that instead of a calendar.
The forcing function you need
Sales content is a strategic asset, not a side project or ticket from the sales team you'll eventually prioritize.
Sales content is reusable, measurable, and directly impacts revenue. It makes you look better when you produce stuff that helps the company sell instead of digital marketing theater.
It's also a forcing function. It reveals:
Weak spots in messaging
Gaps in differentiation
Confusion in your offer
Teams that build strong sales content systems don't just help reps. They get clearer, faster, and sharper across the whole company.
If you're staring at a content calendar wondering why none of it feels useful, stop.
The answer isn't to publish more. Take a step back. Look at how people actually buy and consume content. Then build content that meets them where they are.
If they're on Reddit doing all their shopping, go write Reddit posts. Get active. Share your content. Tell a subject matter expert to address threads.
There are a million ways to do this. But if you're stuck with a content calendar, you've gotta rethink what you're doing and why.
Need a sales content system that actually generates pipeline? We build parallel universes that convert. anthony@edifycontent.com
