Content Strategy Checklist

What is this page about?

A phased checklist for building a content strategy that actually serves a goal rather than just producing content. It moves through a strategic foundation (defined audience, specific measurable goals, a clear value proposition), planning (a distribution plan and a sustainable calendar), creation (each piece serving a real audience need, in the right format, and differentiated), and measurement (the metrics that matter and an iteration process). It frames the core problem with the finding that most B2B marketers use content marketing but far fewer have a documented strategy, and distinguishes strategy from tactics.

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 30 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   Corrected unverified statistics across six citations, including a study that misrepresented Anita Elberse's real entertainment-industry research as a content-marketing study, and a citation that attributed the wrong paper to Jonah Berger and Eric Schwartz.

   What the page claimed

   Article attributed an unverified '7 percent per year' cost statistic and an unverifiable Nielsen Norman Group citation to Mark Schaefer's real 'content shock' concept. It fundamentally mischaracterized Anita Elberse's real research - her 'blockbuster strategy' work is about the entertainment industry (film, music, sports), not '200 content programs' or B2B content marketing - and attached unverified statistics ('2.8 times more engagement,' 'top 10%/65% of traffic') to it. It cited Jonah Berger and Eric Schwartz's real 2011 Journal of Marketing Research paper by the wrong title and topic - their real paper, 'What Drives Immediate and Ongoing Word of Mouth?', studies conversational word-of-mouth about ~300 products, not a content-decay study of '10,000 pieces of content' with unverified '90% within 3 days/8% sustained' figures. It included an unverified HubSpot statistics ('70% of leads,' '61% lower cost-per-lead,' '4,000 articles,' 'top 50 articles/45% of traffic') attributed to a nonexistent detail in HubSpot's real 2014 IPO filing. It unverified Red Bull Media House statistics (135 staff, 12 languages, 100 million visitors) and an entirely unverified 2015 Millward Brown study with a specific '.4 billion' brand-value figure. And it unverified Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials statistics (900,000 to 30 million page views, 23% appointment increase) that don't match the real, differently-reported figures for that case study.

   What was corrected

   Schaefer passage corrected to remove the unverified cost statistic and unverifiable NN/g citation while keeping the real, accurately-dated content shock concept. Elberse passage rewritten to accurately describe her real entertainment-industry research and its analogical application to content marketing, rather than misrepresenting it as a direct content-marketing study with unverified statistics. Berger/Schwartz passage corrected to the real paper title and topic (word-of-mouth durability) rather than the unverified content-decay study. HubSpot, Red Bull, and Cleveland Clinic passages rewritten to describe the real, well-documented general outcomes of each case study without the specific unverified statistics that don't match real reported figures.

   Why: This continues the established pattern for this batch - every citation anchored to a real person, company, or institution, but the specific quantitative claims were unverified or contradicted the real record. Notably, the Elberse citation represents a more severe distortion than typical: not just unverified numbers, but misrepresenting the entire domain of a real researcher's work (entertainment industry concentration effects reframed as generic B2B content marketing research).

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2. 11 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   HubSpot filed its S-1 and completed its IPO in 2014, not 2013.

   Before

   The company's 2013 IPO filing cited its content library

   After

   The company's 2014 IPO filing cited its content library

   Why: HubSpot filed its S-1 and completed its IPO in 2014, not 2013. Verified fix already live in body; no leftover instances found in faq/excerpt/meta.

   View the full record →

Who checked this page?

1 contributor has checked "Content Strategy Checklist" on When Notes Fly. Each name below links to that person's public CitePep profile, where every contribution they have made is listed with the exact change they proposed.