The primary goal of a digital marketing strategy is to figure out how to drive traffic to your website and convert leads into customers. 

Although there are tons of marketing methods, content marketing is especially effective because it draws visitors better than other traditional sales tactics. 

However, it’s not enough to just produce content – you also have to know what to do with these leads once they come to your site. 

That’s where a content pipeline comes in. 

A content pipeline allows your marketing and sales teams to nurture leads and understand their journey from prospect to customer. 

It also allows you to focus on content pieces that gain the most traction, so you can always move the needle forward. 

So, with that in mind, let’s take a closer look at content pipelines, including how they work and how to utilize them to your advantage. 

What is the Difference Between a Pipeline and a Funnel?

Typically, people conflate pipelines and tunnels because they follow similar pathways and may overlap with identical touchpoints. However, the difference is in the perspective. 

A funnel focuses on the customer’s journey and the reasons why they move from one point to the next. A pipeline is from the sales team’s perspective, showing them the actions they need to take at each stage to move a lead to the next section. 

So, while funnels and pipelines follow the same path, they’re from two unique viewpoints. However, both pieces are crucial for ensuring a high conversion rate. 

Ideally, you should create a customer funnel first and then reverse engineer a pipeline afterward. 

This method works well because you can deliver content and messaging based on what the customer is feeling or experiencing. 

Essentially, you want to reach out at the right place at the right time to either move the needle or convert the lead immediately. 

Here’s a quick example to illustrate the difference between the two: 

Marketing Funnel

• Stage One: Awareness – A working professional with young kids sees an ad for your product on Facebook and clicks a link to go to a landing page. They see a product that looks interesting, and they sign up for a mailing list to receive discounts.  
• Stage Two: Consideration – The lead receives regular emails from the company, talking about the product and other similar items that they might enjoy. The holidays are coming up, and the lead is looking for gift ideas. 
• Stage Three: Conversion – The individual decides to purchase the product because of a holiday discount coupon, and they’re thrilled with it. 
• Stage Four: Loyalty – The customer comes back to the company whenever there’s a sale to buy other products for their kids. 

Marketing Pipeline

• Stage One: Lead Generation – Your team receives a new lead from a landing page link on a social media post. Automated software sends a welcome email with a limited-time offer to purchase the product listed in the post. 
• Stage Two: Lead Qualification – New leads are sorted into categories based on their interactions with your emails. Each category is based on a specific product or emotion. 
• Stage Three: Lead Nurturing – Once leads are categorized, the marketing and sales teams can reach out with new materials and offers. Perhaps you send some video content via email, or maybe you send some unique discount codes. 
• Stage Four: Lead Conversion – Once a lead finally buys a product, they’re moved into another category for retargeting and customer marketing. The goal is to keep the individual coming back for more. 
• Stage Five: Customer Loyalty – Perhaps you’ve developed a loyalty program that allows customers to bank points or earn special discounts. You want to keep reaching out to ensure they’ll buy from your business again and again. 

As you can see, there are significant overlaps with each system. Also, you’ll have specific actions and content pieces to develop at each stage of both the funnel and the pipeline.

What are the 3 P’s of the Content Pipeline Process

The three P’s of the content pipeline process are preparation, production, and publication. Here’s an overview of each section. 

Preparation

This is the most important aspect of your content pipeline as it ensures you’re making the best decisions possible for your bottom line. During this stage, you should focus on answering these questions: 

• Who is this content for? 
• Where does it fit in with the marketing or sales pipeline? 
• What is the goal of this content? (i.e., the call to action)
• What tools and resources are necessary to produce this content? 
• How soon do you need this content? Is it a priority? 
• What channels or platforms will we use to publish this content? 

Once you answer all of these questions, you can move to the next phase. 

Production

Depending on the situation, content production can be fast and efficient or lengthy and complex. For example, blog posts are often pretty easy to produce, but video clips and infographics require more people and resources. 

Also, consider who needs to be involved in the production process. 

If you’re using a marketing budget, does the piece need approval? Are there strict limitations regarding what you can or can’t say in the piece? Do you need to use sensitivity readers to double-check your content before publication? 

Not everyone tends to get production right on the first run, so it’s a good idea to leave some space for feedback and iterative changes. Schedules might look neat on paper, but delays happen—maybe half your team is out with colds or a video editor just isn’t available on short notice. In my experience, communicating these bumps early saves a ton of headaches later and keeps things relatively smooth, even when the scope creeps up.

Different industries have their own quirks, too. A tech startup pushing updates weekly will crank things out way faster than a law firm, where every word gets run by five partners before it escapes the building. No point fighting those realities. Instead, it’s about finding a production rhythm that fits both the team and the subject matter. Testing and tweaking until you get something that feels pretty sustainable often works out better than sticking to rigid “best practices” you read in someone’s LinkedIn rant.

Each type of content should have its own production and approval schedule. Then, once a piece is polished and ready to go, it can move to the next part of the pipeline. 

Publication

Before publishing your content, you should know where it’s going and what kind of impact it will have. 

For example, some pieces may be for the sales team to use in their own pipelines. Other content may be used for social media, or it might be best to publish on your own website. 

Publishing is just as crucial as each other step because it determines whether your content will be useful or not. 

For example, if you publish at the wrong time, the piece may not get noticed, so you won’t be able to reach your metric goals. 

Also, keep in mind that you may have to refine your publication process based on user data and feedback. 

If you don’t get it right immediately, you can always re-publish a piece to achieve your goals later.