Content Strategy

Content is the primary way FlowFuse builds an audience, builds trust with them, and ultimately converts interest into pipeline. The content strategy has many channels; our blog, webinars, eBooks and whitepapers, and video content. All of which undergoes the same planning and scheduling steps to combine them into one cohesive strategy.

Content Funnel Stages

Every piece of content we create serves a specific purpose depending on where a prospect is in their journey. We use three stages: TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU. Each content decision is framed and mapped to one of those funnel stages.

TOFU — Top of Funnel (Awareness)

TOFU content is produced to reach people who have a problem but haven't yet discovered FlowFuse as the solution. The goal is to educate, earn trust, and drive traffic to website, social sites, and other FlowFuse properties.

The audience consists mostly of engineers and OT/IT managers exploring IIoT, Node-RED, or industrial automation broadly.

Conent Criterea

  • Broad, educational, and problem-focused — not product (Node-RED or FlowFuse) focused
  • Optimized for organic search (SEO), AOE, and social sharing
  • Answers questions the audience has already been asking, or lower funnel prospects are asking.
  • No sales pressure; value is the CTA

Examples for FlowFuse:

  • Tutorial & Guides: "How to connect a PLC to Node-RED", "Getting started with MQTT"
  • Concept explainers: "What is a Unified Namespace?", "OPC UA explained"
  • Industry trend articles: "How manufacturers are approaching edge computing"
  • Short social video clips demonstrating a built solution with the flow
  • Infographics explaining IIoT architecture patterns

Primary distribution:

  • Blog
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Reddit communities about IIoT, digitalization, and IT/OT Convergence
  • Community forums, discords

MOFU — Middle of Funnel (Consideration)

MOFU content reaches people who understand the problem space and are evaluating solutions. The goal is to demonstrate that FlowFuse is the right choice and to capture leads.

The audience consists of engineers and technical decision-makers comparing platforms or deepening their Node-RED use. Often at Stage 2–3.

Content Criteria

  • Solution-aware and comparison-oriented
  • Often gated (whitepapers, guides) or event-based (webinars)
  • Demonstrates specific FlowFuse capabilities in realistic contexts
  • Designed to capture contact information or deepen engagement

Examples for FlowFuse:

  • Deep-dive tutorials: "Managing 50 Node-RED instances with FlowFuse"
  • Comparison content: "Self-hosted Node-RED vs. FlowFuse Cloud"
  • Webinars: live product walkthroughs, use-case demos
  • Gated content: whitepapers, eBooks, architecture guides, integration checklists
  • Newsletter content nurturing existing contacts
  • Customer stories with technical depth

Primary distribution:

  • Email nurture
  • LinkedIn
  • Webinar channels
  • Gated landing pages

BOFU — Bottom of Funnel (Decision)

BOFU content reaches people who are ready to act. The goal is to remove friction and convert interest into a trial signup, demo request, or contact sales submission.

The audience consists of decision-makers and champions ready to evaluate FlowFuse. Often at Stage 3–4 or actively comparing vendors.

Content Criteria

  • Product and proof-of-value focused
  • Emphasizes ROI, security, and enterprise readiness
  • Social proof is critical: customer stories, reviews, certifications
  • Clear, direct CTAs (sign up, book a demo, contact sales)

Examples for FlowFuse:

  • Customer stories with measurable outcomes (cost savings, deployment time, scale)
  • Pricing page content and comparison tables
  • Free trial onboarding content
  • Demo request pages
  • G2 review campaigns
  • Technical security and compliance documentation for procurement

Primary distribution:

  • Direct sales follow-up
  • Email sequences
  • Website landing pages
  • Paid retargeting

Content Mix Target

A healthy content programme maintains output across all three stages. As a rule of thumb:

StageShare of content outputPrimary goal
TOFU~60%Organic reach and brand awareness
MOFU~30%Lead capture and consideration
BOFU~10%Pipeline conversion

TOFU dominates because it compounds over time through SEO and community sharing. BOFU content is fewer pieces but high-quality and high-impact.

Content Planning & Scheduling

The content calendar

All content, e.g. blog posts, webinars, social posts, gated assets, emails, is tracked in the Asana content calendar. This is the single source of truth for what is scheduled, who owns it, what the goal of the content is, and when it publishes.

Two-week rolling schedule

We plan and schedule two weeks ahead at all times. This means:

  • All content items for the next 14 days have an owner, a publish date, and any required assets (blog tiles, social copy, visuals) in progress.
  • Social posts for the next two weeks are approved and scheduled in the HubSpot social calendar.
  • Any content that requires external input (e.g., engineers writing a tutorial, sales providing customer approval for a story) is flagged with a deadline far enough in advance to not block publishing.

The two-week buffer exists to avoid reactive, last-minute content that lacks context or quality review.

Weekly review

During the weekly marketing team meeting, the team reviews the content calendar for the next two weeks. The marketing manager confirms each planned and scheduled content piece confirms by the requirements, and also confirms:

  1. Is each scheduled item on track.
  2. Sufficient content coverage: missing publish days, imbalanced funnel stages, or channels that have gone quiet.
  3. Scheduling of high-priority items, e.g. product releases, industry news (news-jacking), campaigns, that should be added.
  4. Social posts for the coming weeks are scheduled in HubSpot.
  5. What the week 3, the unplanned week, content demands are (Funnel stage, publish dates, etc).
    • Schedule proposed content where possible.

This review is a standing agenda item, not a special meeting. It takes about 10 minutes.

Future Content Planning

Due to the rolling 2 weeks scheduling, a third week needs content still to be proposed and thought out. Before a piece is scheduled, that is a publish time is set, the content should be planned properly.

To propose new content, create an item in the content calendar with the following clarified:

  • An assigned DRI (usually the content producer)
  • A Content funnel stage
  • A content type (blog, social, webinar, email, etc.)
  • A target publish date
  • Proposed title and summery of content

Proposed content is scheduled when the due date is set, and the content fits the messaging line, funnel stage requirements, and target audience.

Performance of Content

After a piece of content has been live for four weeks, performance data (organic traffic, social engagement, lead conversions) is reviewed in the monthly marketing performance review.

Insights from that review, for example which topics resonated, which formats performed, the stages needing more content feed directly into the next planning cycle. If a content producer's piece performs particularly well or poorly, the Product Marketing Manager shares that context with them to improve future contributions.

Social posts

Social posts are part of the content calendar, not a separate track. Each blog, webinar, or product update on the calendar should have associated social posts planned at the same time.

For social-specific planning, posting hours, etc, etc, see the Social Media handbook.