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Content Marketing (SEO / YouTube)

Publish the answers your customers are already searching for, with your product as the natural way to act on them. Slow to start — then it compounds for years.

Cost
Free
Time to results
Months
Difficulty
Hard
Best for
B2B + B2C
0/7

Proof first

6 companies already did this.

Search traffic takes 6–12 months to build. Each of these teams kept publishing long before it paid off.

Deep dives

Two case studies, start to finish.

Ahrefs — only write what you can sell

Ahrefs · PRODUCT-LED CONTENT

Score every topic 0–3

What they built: a topic list scored for "business potential"

What they didAhrefs scores every possible blog topic from 0 to 3 for "business potential" — how naturally the product fits into the answer — and prioritises topics scoring 2 or 3. "Best coffee grinder" scores 3 if you sell grinders; "does decaf have caffeine" scores 0 or 1.

Why it workedTraffic only matters if readers can become customers. Tutorials that use the product to solve the reader's problem turn every post that ranks into a product demo.

Copy thisScore your topic list 0–3 before writing anything. Skip the 0s, however much search volume they have.

Buffer — write for other people's audiences

Buffer · 2011

Guest posting · ~100K users

What they built: ~150 guest posts for other blogs

What they didCo-founder Leo Widrich wrote around 150 guest posts for other people's blogs in less than a year — useful articles about social media, each with a short bio linking to Buffer.

Why it workedA new blog has no readers; established blogs do. Borrowing their audiences brought Buffer around 100,000 users in that period, by Widrich's account.

Copy thisBefore you build your own blog's audience, write your best posts for the blogs your customers already read.

The guide

7 steps, each anchored to a real example.

Tick each step off as you go. Your progress is saved in this browser.

Step 1 · ~Half a day

List what customers search before they buy

Collect the questions people ask on the way to needing you: "how to…", "{competitor} alternative", "{task} template". Use a keyword tool for volumes, but start from your customers' own words.

Ahrefs / SemrushGoogle autocompleteSearch Console

How HubSpot did this step

Illustration

HubSpot's founders named the shift they were betting on — buyers finding companies through search and blogs instead of ads — and called it "inbound marketing".

Source [3] ↓

Step 2 · ~2 hours

Score each topic for business potential

Rate every topic 0–3 for how naturally your product helps the reader. Start with the 3s and 2s, even if their volume is lower.

Spreadsheet

How Ahrefs did this step

Illustration

Ahrefs prioritises topics scoring at least 2, so every mention of its product in a post is natural, not forced.

Source [1] ↓

Step 3 · ~1–2 days / post

Write the best answer on the internet

Answer the question completely, with real examples, screenshots and numbers. Use your product where it genuinely helps. Better than page one — not just longer.

Google DocsScreenshotsLoom

How Plausible did this step

SUBJECT LINE

Illustration

With no advertising budget, Plausible grew through blog posts. One post, "Why you should stop using Google Analytics on your website", changed its traction — and the company reached $1M ARR.

Source [6] ↓

Step 4 · ~1 week

Build pages from your own data

If your product connects, lists or compares things, one template can create a genuinely useful page per item — integrations, locations, templates. Each page must help on its own.

Webflow CMSNext.jsAirtable

How Zapier did this step

Illustration

Zapier publishes a page for each app it connects and for pairs of apps — like "Gmail + Slack" — each matching something people really search for.

Source [2] ↓

Step 5 · ~Ongoing

Borrow audiences while yours grows

Guest posts, podcast appearances and newsletter swaps put your best ideas in front of readers who already exist. Link back to something useful, not a homepage.

Guest postsPodcastsNewsletters

How Buffer did this step

SUBJECT LINE

Illustration

Buffer's co-founder wrote about 150 guest posts in under a year — and says that period brought around 100,000 users.

Source [4] ↓

Step 6 · ~1 hour / post

Distribute every post three ways

Publish, then send it to your list, share it where it genuinely helps, and rewrite the core idea as a native social post. Content nobody sees can't rank.

NewsletterLinkedInCommunities

How Mint did this step

"We didn't have money for advertising, so we started a blog."

Exact quote — see source

Mint couldn't afford advertising, so it started a blog — mostly guest posts from other personal-finance bloggers at first. It had 1.5 million users when Intuit bought it for $170M.

Source [5] ↓

Step 7 · ~Monthly

Keep your best pages fresh

Every quarter, update your top posts with new data and examples, and fix what's out of date. Improving a page that ranks #6 often beats writing a new one.

Google Search Console

How Ahrefs did this step

Illustration

Because Ahrefs only writes posts with business potential, every post that ranks is also a sales page — worth keeping accurate and current.

Source [1] ↓

Before you start

Pros & cons.

Works in your favour

  • Compounds: posts keep bringing visitors for years
  • Cheap per customer once it works
  • Builds authority that makes every other channel easier
  • You own it — no ad spend to switch off
  • Every good post doubles as sales material

Go in with eyes open

  • Slow: expect 6–12 months before search pays off
  • Hard to do well — mediocre content doesn't rank
  • Search engines and AI answers keep changing the rules
  • Traffic without business potential is a vanity metric

Make it yours

Three ways to run it.

The Ahrefs model

Product-led tutorials

Teach the job using your product. Best for tools with a clear workflow.

The Zapier model

Pages from data

One genuinely useful page per integration, location or template. Best when your product has many combinations.

The Buffer model

Guest posts first · ~100K users

Write for other people's audiences before you have your own. Best for new companies with no readers yet.

Copy and paste

Templates & resources.

Topic scoring sheet

modeled on Ahrefs' business potential

Topic | Monthly searches | Business potential (0–3) | Difficulty | Priority
"{competitor} alternative" | | 3 | |
"how to {job}" | | 2 | |
"what is {term}" | | 1 | |

3 = product is the best solution · 2 = helps a lot · 1 = a passing mention · 0 = no fit

Post outline

the best answer, not the longest

Title: How to {job} (with {N} examples)

1. The short answer (2–3 lines)
2. Step-by-step, with screenshots
3. Real examples / numbers
4. Common mistakes
5. Doing it faster with {product} (only if it truly helps)
6. FAQ from real customer questions

Guest post pitch

modeled on Buffer's guest-posting run

Subject: Post idea for {blog}: {specific title}

Hi {editor} — I read {their post} and noticed your readers ask about {topic}.

I'd like to write "{title}": {3 bullet outline}.

Previously I wrote {link}. Happy to adapt to your style.
— {you}, {role} at {product}

From the showcase

Be the first founder featured here.

The famous examples above are proof it works. The next founder reading this wants proof it works for someone like them — that could be you.

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Discussion

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Receipts

Sources & references.

Last reviewed

  1. 1.
    Product-led content and "business potential" (opens in a new tab)

    Ahrefs blog

  2. 2.
    Example of a Zapier app-pair page (Gmail + Slack) (opens in a new tab)

    Zapier

  3. 3.
    HubSpot's founders coined "inbound marketing" (opens in a new tab)

    Wikipedia (Brian Halligan)

  4. 4.
    How Buffer's blog posts get shared thousands of times (opens in a new tab)

    Contently, 2014

  5. 5.
    Mint's founder on starting a blog instead of advertising (opens in a new tab)

    Aaron Patzer, via TechCrunch, 2009

  6. 6.
    How we built a $1M ARR open source SaaS (opens in a new tab)

    Plausible blog, 2022

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