/suede-content-strategy

name: suede-content-strategy
description: "Suede AI content strategy for audience questions, content pillars, topic clusters, AI answer gaps, original-data assets, editorial priorities, cadence, distribution, refreshes, and stop-doing decisions, each tied to a KPI. Use when deciding what to publish, why it deserves resources, and how the portfolio compounds in search and AI answers. NOT FOR: writing an individual asset (use suede-copy); technical or on-page SEO audits (use suede-seo-audit); AI visibility measurement and crawler policy (use suede-ai-seo); social-channel production (use suede-social)."
metadata:
  version: 2.0.0

Suede Content Strategy

Use this Suede content-strategy playbook to plan evidence-backed content that earns search, sharing, trust, or qualified demand.

Before Planning

Read `.agents/product-marketing.md` first if it exists and ask only for what it does not cover; see `suede-product-marketing` for path fallbacks.

Gather this context (ask if not provided):

1. Business Context

• What does the company do?
• Who is the ideal customer?
• What's the primary goal for content? (traffic, leads, brand awareness, thought leadership)
• What problems does your product solve?

2. Customer Research

• What questions do customers ask before buying?
• What objections come up in sales calls?
• What topics appear repeatedly in support tickets?
• What language do customers use to describe their problems?

3. Current State

• Do you have existing content? What's working?
• What resources do you have? (writers, budget, time)
• What content formats can you produce? (written, video, audio)

4. Competitors

• Who are your main competitors?
• What content gaps exist in your market?

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Searchable vs Shareable

Every piece of content must be searchable, shareable, or both. Searchable is the default first priority because search demand is measurable; treat that as a starting rule, not a universal truth, and reverse it when the user's goal or evidence says otherwise (a category with no search volume, a brand-led launch). Record which order you chose and why: it feeds the weights in "Prioritizing Content Ideas."

**Searchable content** captures existing demand. Optimized for people actively looking for answers.

**Shareable content** creates demand. Spreads ideas and gets people talking.

When Writing Searchable Content

• Target a specific keyword or question
• Match search intent exactly, answer what the searcher wants
• Use clear titles that match search queries
• Structure with headings that mirror search patterns
• Place keywords in title, headings, first paragraph, URL
• Provide comprehensive coverage (don't leave questions unanswered)
• Include data, examples, and links to authoritative sources
• Write for answer engines and readers at once: answer the question in the opening 40 to 80 words, use question headings that name their subject, state quotable facts with sources, and add one original data point or first-hand observation. The full standard lives in `suede-ai-seo`.

When Writing Shareable Content

• Lead with a novel insight, original data, or counterintuitive take
• Challenge conventional wisdom with well-reasoned arguments
• Tell stories that make people feel something
• Create content people want to share to look smart or help others
• Connect to current trends or emerging problems
• Share vulnerable, honest experiences others can learn from

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Content Types

Searchable Content Types

**Use-Case Content** Formula: [persona] + [use-case]. Targets long-tail keywords.

• "Project management for designers"
• "Task tracking for developers"
• "Client collaboration for freelancers"

**Hub and Spoke** Hub = comprehensive overview. Spokes = related subtopics. Create the hub first, then build spokes, and interlink them. See "Content Pillars and Topic Clusters" below for the structure and the URL guidance.

**Template Libraries** High-intent keywords + product adoption.

• Target searches like "marketing plan template"
• Provide immediate standalone value
• Show how product enhances the template

Shareable Content Types

**Thought Leadership**

• Articulate concepts everyone feels but hasn't named
• Challenge conventional wisdom with evidence
• Share vulnerable, honest experiences

**Data-Driven Content**

• Product data analysis (anonymized insights)
• Public data analysis (uncover patterns)
• Original research (run experiments, share results). Original data is the asset answer engines and journalists most need to cite, so give each finding a stable URL, method, sample, and date.

**Expert Roundups** A selected set of relevant, verified experts answering one specific question. Distribution depends on contributor permission and actual promotion.

**Case Studies** Structure: Challenge → Solution → Results → Key learnings

**Meta Content** Behind-the-scenes transparency. "How We Got Our First $5k MRR," "Why We Chose Debt Over VC."

For programmatic content at scale, route the data and template system to `suede-programmatic-seo`.

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Content Pillars and Topic Clusters

Content pillars are the 3-5 core topics your brand will own; each pillar spawns a cluster of related content. Most of the time all of it can live under `/blog` with good internal linking. Dedicated pillar pages with custom URL structures (like `/guides/topic`) are only needed for comprehensive resources with multiple layers of depth.

How to Identify Pillars

1. **Product-led**: What problems does your product solve? 2. **Audience-led**: What does your ICP need to learn? 3. **Search-led**: What topics have volume in your space? 4. **Competitor-led**: What are competitors ranking for?

Structure is pillar (hub) → subtopic clusters → articles, each article linking to its siblings and up to the hub. The Topic cluster map in Output Format is the shape to emit.

Pillar Criteria

Good pillars should:

• Align with your product/service
• Match what your audience cares