Imagine you’re planning a cross-country road trip. You’ve booked the hotels, packed the snacks, and cleared your calendar. You pull up your GPS… and all you see is a blank screen. No landmarks, no roads, no directions.
That’s exactly how your buyers feel when they visit a beautiful website with no real content. They came looking for guidance and clarity—and instead, they’re stranded.
The “I” in our GUIDE™ Marketing Framework—Inform with Content—is about making sure your prospects never feel that way. It’s about pairing strategy and content so your marketing becomes a reliable, trustworthy guide that answers questions, builds confidence, and leads buyers toward a decision—often before your sales team even gets involved.
Before we dive into the “I” in GUIDE, let’s take a quick look at the big picture so today’s ideas click into place.
New to the GUIDE Framework? Start Here.
The GUIDE Marketing Framework is our proven five-step system for helping growth-minded CEOs stop guessing and start growing with clarity and purpose.
GUIDE stands for:
That’s why we start with the big picture:
- G – Generate Your Story and Strategy
- U – Upgrade Your Online Presence
- I – Inform with Content (that’s today’s focus)
- D – Develop and Execute a Sales Plan
- E – Evaluate and Adjust
If you’re new to GUIDE, you might want to read the full overview first—it’ll give you the complete roadmap for how all five steps work together.
Why Strategy and Content Belong in the Same Room
Good content without strategy is like a car with no GPS—it might move, but it won’t get you where you want to go. And strategy without content? That’s just a plan collecting dust in a drawer.
When your strategy and content work together, you stop guessing. You know exactly what your buyers care about, and you have the articles, videos, and resources to meet them there—whether they’re searching at 10:30 pm on a Tuesday night or scrolling LinkedIn over morning coffee.
This starts with the most fundamental move in your content playbook—answering the questions your buyers are already asking.
Rather listen? Check out our podcast episode on this topic! 👇
1. Answer the Questions Your Buyers Are Already Asking
Every great content plan starts with curiosity—not creativity.
Talk to your sales team. Ask:
- What do prospects keep asking about?
- What objections come up again and again?
- What do you wish they knew before your first meeting?
Most companies skip these “obvious” topics—pricing, timelines, comparisons—because they feel risky. But buyers are asking those questions somewhere. If you’re not answering them, a competitor will.
When you address these topics openly, you’re not “giving away too much”—you’re proving you can be trusted. Transparency is magnetic.
And once you start answering the right questions, the key is to make sure your audience knows they can count on you to keep delivering.
2. Show Up Consistently
Trust isn’t built in one interaction. It’s built over time—by proving you’ll be there when your audience needs you.
Consistency doesn’t mean cranking out content every day. Even two strong pieces a month can build momentum if they’re rooted in real buyer needs. And when time is tight, create content that your sales team can use right away. That way, your investment works in two ways: attracting leads and helping close deals.
Consistency also becomes easier when you realize you don’t always have to start from scratch.
3. Repurpose What You Already Have
Your next month of content might already exist—it’s just hiding in plain sight.
Sales decks, webinar recordings, client emails, even meeting notes can be reshaped into new formats:
- Turn a how-to email into a blog post
- Break a webinar into five short videos
- Pull FAQs from sales calls and post them on your site
When you repurpose strategically, one good idea can become five or six assets—each reaching your audience in a different way. And no, that’s not redundant—it’s reinforcing your message. That repetition is exactly what buyers need in a noisy, distracted world.
If you’re worried about the time it takes to do this well, there’s a tool that can help.
4. Use AI to Work Smarter, Not Harder
AI isn’t a magic wand, but it is a remarkable power tool—especially when it’s guided by a clear strategy and content plan.
Train it on your brand voice and audience, and it can:
- Brainstorm blog topics from your FAQ list
- Outline articles from transcripts
- Reformat a white paper into LinkedIn posts
AI can get you 70–80% of the way there fast, but your stories, expertise, and perspective are what make content resonate. Think of AI as your co-pilot—it helps you navigate faster, but you’re still the one steering.
And when you combine AI’s efficiency with your insights, you’re in a strong position to claim the highest ground in your industry: thought leadership. Swipe these AI prompts and get started now!
5. Build Trust Through Thought Leadership
The long-term payoff of informing with content is thought leadership—becoming the voice people look for when they want clarity.
That means:
- Offering original takes on industry challenges
- Anticipating what’s next and helping your audience prepare
- Answering the hard questions others avoid
Sometimes that even means mentioning competitors in your own content. We have a post listing the best marketing agencies in Memphis—and we didn’t include ourselves. Why? Because prospects ask us that question, and answering it honestly builds credibility.
Your Next Step: Start Small, Start Now
If you’re not sure where to start, ask your sales team:
“What’s one question you’re tired of answering that most prospects ask?”
That’s your next blog post, video, or podcast. Record it, write it, publish it. Don’t wait for perfect—the magic happens when strategy and content meet action.
Your buyers are already searching. The question is: will they find your competitor’s answers, or yours?
If you found this helpful, this is just the beginning.
What you just read is based on one part of our full GUIDE Marketing Framework—a proven system to simplify your marketing and help it run like a well-oiled machine.
The next step? Take our free B2B Marketing Assessment.
In just five minutes, you’ll see where your marketing is strong, where it’s holding you back, and how you stack up against the GUIDE Marketing playbook. After you complete the assessment, you’ll get instant access to the full playbook, packed with practical examples and actionable steps you can start using right away.
