Why Most B2B Content Teams Are Writing for the Wrong Funnel Stage

If you look at most B2B content archives, you will find a heavily skewed distribution: 70 percent of content is awareness-stage, 20 percent is consideration-stage, and 10 percent or less is decision-stage. This is almost always the inverse of what should be prioritized based on conversion value. The content closest to the purchase decision is the content that drives revenue. Most teams underproduce it because it is harder to write, harder to scale, and does not generate the surface metrics that awareness content does.

"Most B2B content is written for the person doing the research, not for the person making the decision. Decision-stage content is not more detailed — it is more specific about risk, implementation, and proof. Those are the questions that stall deals, and content teams almost never address them."

— Jonah Silberg, VP of Content, Gong.io, in a talk at Content Marketing World 2023

The awareness trap

Awareness content is seductive. It is easy to generate, it gets traffic from broad search queries, and it makes the team feel productive. It also attracts an audience that is not buying: readers who are generically interested in the topic but are not actively evaluating a solution. High traffic from awareness content that never converts is a vanity metric masquerading as a content strategy.

This does not mean awareness content has no value. It builds brand recognition, grows email lists, and creates the familiarity that makes later-stage content land better. The problem is over-investment: writing ten "What is X" posts when you have zero "How to evaluate X vendors" posts that the buyer reads when they are actually making a decision.

What consideration content actually looks like

Consideration content serves buyers who know they have a problem and are exploring solutions. Comparison posts, detailed case studies with specific metrics, and use-case content that speaks to the exact situation the buyer is in are all consideration-stage content.

The ICP specificity problem: most consideration content is written for a generic buyer persona rather than a specific ICP. A case study about "how we helped a B2B company improve marketing ROI" is forgettable. A case study about "how a 50-person SaaS company reduced CAC by 32 percent in a market with 18-month sales cycles" is memorable to the exact buyer who matches that profile and irrelevant to everyone else. The narrower the case study, the higher the conversion rate for the right reader.

Decision-stage content is almost always underproduced

Decision-stage content serves buyers who are actively evaluating vendors or choosing between a few finalists. This includes implementation guides that reduce the perceived risk of buying, pricing context posts that reframe cost against outcome value, "why we built X" posts that communicate the vendor's philosophy, and ROI calculator tools.

This content rarely generates high traffic. It generates high-quality traffic: the specific buyers who are closest to a purchase decision. Conversion rates from decision-stage content to demo request or contact form are typically 3 to 5x higher than from awareness content. Producing one good decision-stage piece per month is often more revenue-valuable than producing six awareness posts.

Using intent signals to calibrate

Check which content is actually driving pipeline, not just traffic. In most attribution setups, you can identify which pages were in the session history of opportunities that converted. If awareness content is generating sessions but rarely appearing in converting paths, and decision-stage content is appearing in almost every converting path despite low absolute traffic, your content investment allocation is wrong and the data will tell you so.

📊By the numbers