Why More Content Isn’t the Answer: A Better Content Marketing Strategy

Hey there! 👋

I’ve been in marketing long enough to have lived through the full spectrum of content chaos, both as someone creating it and as a manager responsible for making it all happen.

I’ve worked on teams where leadership understood the importance of a clear content strategy, SEO, and distribution—and on teams where the approach was simply “more content, more often.”

I’ve been told we had to be on every social platform, even when we knew our audience wasn’t there.

I’ve seen teams ramp up to one blog post per day, prioritising volume over impact, watching as engagement plummeted because we weren’t saying anything new, just more.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for marketing and research strategies and insights ➡️

And before AI? It was "just do it yourself." Now, it’s "just use AI."

If you’re leading a marketing team, you’ve probably felt this too. The expectation to scale content production, keep up with every channel, and deliver results - all while juggling a shrinking budget and a growing list of responsibilities.

This isn’t sustainable for our teams, for our leaders, or for our buyers.

So why do we keep doing it?

In this article, I’m digging into why we are creating more content than ever and the impact that’s having. In the next article, I’ll share a better way to plan your content strategy to escape the content hamster wheel.

The Content Treadmill: More, More, More—But to What End?

Marketing leaders don’t push for more content because they want to overwork their teams. They do it because it often feels like the only viable strategy in a high-pressure environment.

The logic seems straightforward: publish more, capture more leads, rank higher, and build brand visibility. And because content output, website traffic, and social media metrics are easy to measure, they become the default indicators of success.

The reality? More content doesn’t mean better marketing. It often just means more work, more noise, and more frustration, with little impact.

 

1. No Clear Strategy = More Content as a Default

Many marketing teams don’t have a clear content strategy tied to business objectives. When leadership wants results but strategy is missing, the burden falls on marketing managers to just make it work.

The default answer just becomes: "Let’s produce more."

• Unclear messaging? Publish more blog posts and hope something resonates.
• No insight into what buyers actually need? Cover every possible topic and hope one hits the mark.
• Lack of a distribution plan? Just keep publishing and assume people will find it.

2. Marketers Are Chasing an Outdated Playbook

Marketing leaders are caught between two competing approaches:

1. The old model: High-volume, inbound-funnel with long-form SEO blogs, gated white papers, and lead nurturing funnels.
2. The new model: Multi-channel presence, short-form content, social-first engagement, and AI-generated material.

Leadership often wants both. They want the high-volume inbound approach that worked 10 years ago and the agility of modern social and AI-powered content. All with the same (or fewer) resources.

This forces marketing managers into constant reactive mode, trying to keep up with outdated playbooks while managing new demands.

3. Fear of Falling Behind Drives Content Fatigue

Even when marketing leaders know more content isn’t always better, the pressure to keep up with competitors makes it difficult to slow down.

• If our competitors are publishing 5X more content than us, won’t we lose visibility?
• If we stop publishing, won’t our search rankings drop?
• If we aren’t constantly posting on LinkedIn, will we disappear from our audience’s feed?

These fears aren’t unfounded. Google’s algorithm rewards fresh content, and brands that publish frequently tend to rank higher.

A study of SaaS companies found that brands publishing 100+ blog posts per year nearly double their organic traffic compared to those publishing fewer than 50. The caveat?

The strategy doesn’t work if you’re just producing content for the sake of creating content. (Source)

4. AI Has Made It Easier to Scale Quantity—But Not Quality

AI has transformed content production, making it faster and more accessible than ever.

• 80% of bloggers now use AI for outlining or drafting.
• 58% use AI to scale blog content, while 55% use it for social media posts.

On paper, this sounds like a win: more efficiency, more output, more reach. Leadership sees these numbers and assumes AI will solve content challenges.

AI hasn’t eliminated the workload. It’s just changed it. Instead of spending time writing from scratch, content teams now spend just as much time editing, refining, and ensuring AI-generated content isn’t generic filler.

And that’s the real issue: AI can’t create true thought leadership. It can only remix what’s already been said. The result? More brands publishing faster—but all sounding the same.

5. Output Is Easier to Measure Than Impact

One of the biggest reasons brands focus on content volume is because it’s easy to track.

It’s simple to report how many blog posts were published, social posts went live, or white-paper downloads were generated. These numbers look good in reports and give leadership a sense of progress.

The problem? They often don’t tell you whether your content is actually driving business results.

Metrics, leads generated, conversions, influence on closed deals, customer engagement, can be harder to track, especially if your team doesn’t have access to the right tools or attribution models.

The Consequences of High-Volume Content Creation

When brands focus on quantity over strategy, the results are predictable, and they’re not good.

 

1. Marketing Teams Burn Out

The pressure to produce more, across more channels, with fewer resources is crushing content marketers, with managers stuck in the middle.

The expectation isn’t just to create. It’s to keep up with SEO changes, AI advancements, social media trends, and shifting buyer behaviour. All at once.

The more content teams are forced to produce, the less time they have to think strategically. Instead of focusing on quality, differentiation, and engagement, they’re stuck in a relentless churn cycle, racing to meet unrealistic expectations.

2. Buyers Tune Out

It’s not just marketers who are drowning in content. Buyers are, too.

The average B2B buyer consumes 13 content pieces before making a purchase decision. 70% of buyers prefer brands that produce high-quality thought leadership, while 75% explored a product they hadn’t considered because of insightful content.

YET….

Mass content production often sacrifices quality. Instead of in-depth, useful insights, buyers get:

• Blog posts stuffed with keywords but lacking substance.
• AI-generated content that sounds the same across multiple brands.
• Repetitive social media posts that add nothing new to the conversation.

This content doesn’t help buyers make decisions—it just adds to their frustration. And when buyers feel overwhelmed, they do the easiest thing possible: ignore it.

3. Brands Focus on Vanity Metrics Instead of Business Growth

High-volume content strategies inflate engagement numbers, which rarely translate into business growth.

• More blog posts ≠ more conversions.
• More social media posts ≠ stronger brand authority.
• More leads ≠ revenue growth, especially if they’re low quality.

A study found that businesses prioritising lead quality over volume saw a 17% higher conversion rate. That means:

• Fewer, more strategic content pieces drive better business outcomes than mass-producing generic blogs.
• Vanity metrics (traffic, likes, shares) don’t equal revenue.

But because lead volume is easier to measure than lead quality, many teams are still pressured to focus on raw numbers, even when those numbers don’t actually mean anything.

4. No One Has Time to Optimise Existing Content

One of the biggest missed opportunities in content marketing? Improving what’s already performing well.

I LOVED this tactic as a content marketer, and would spend time each month tweaking and refreshing existing content. A single well-researched article can generate leads for years, if it’s refreshed, updated, and re-promoted.

That said, I’ve also worked in companies that were only interested in producing new content instead of optimising what’s already working. Instead of cleaning up old, underperforming content, they let it accumulate, diluting their website’s overall SEO strength. Instead of repurposing high-performing assets into other formats (LinkedIn posts, case studies, videos), they wanted "more, more, more" mindset, never stopping to assess whether any of it is actually working.

Wrapping up

I’ve seen content teams run themselves into the ground trying to feed the machine. When you step back, it’s worth asking: Is all this effort actually moving the business forward? Or just keeping us busy?

 

If you’re stuck in this cycle, you’re not alone - and you don’t have to stay here.

Next week, I’ll break down how to shift from reactive, high-volume content creation to a sustainable, high-impact strategy.

I’ll cover:
✅ How to move from content chaos to a clear, strategic approach
✅ How to create less, but better—without losing visibility
✅ How to get stakeholders on board so you’re not fighting for buy-in alone

Because content marketing shouldn’t just be about keeping up—it should be about driving impact.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter for marketing and research strategies and insights ➡️