The builder's guide to content. How to turn your expertise into a growth engine.

I asked ChatGPT a question: "How do I do content marketing for my startup?"

The response it gave me was a generic list of SEO tactics and keyword strategies.

Screenshot: ChatGPT recommending standard, soulless SEO tactics.

Here’s the thing: that advice is a trap for builders. It assumes your advantage is out-optimizing massive content teams and marketers who love obsessing over internal link structures and domain authority. It's not. Your advantage is that you know your customer's problems better than anyone. And you can help solve them.

Do that. Write that content. Make those videos.

That’s builder-led content in action.

Organic traffic is getting harder to win. Large Language Models (LLMs) are now answering your audience’s questions directly, quietly hijacking the clicks you used to count on.

I asked Google when Google released AI overviews. 

Google answered with an AI Overview.

Screenshot: Google AI Overview answering a question about Google AI overviews is more meta than Meta.

Maybe you’ve already seen the dip. Maybe you see the writing on the wall.

(The wider rollout of AI mode for everyone happened on May 20th of this year. That’s when most people started seeing the traffic drop. Us included. There’s a chart further down.)

Either way, it’s kind of a relief. The best practices are no longer best practices, and what works is what has always been working. A strategy built on authenticity, not keywords.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What to write so you solve real problems (and build trust)
• How to write it without sounding like a corporate robot
• And how to build a system to do it consistently, then get back to building your product

Get your voice into the conversation now.

What exactly is builder-led content?

Builder-led content is the practice of systematically turning your unique expertise and customer knowledge into articles that solve real problems your audience is already asking for.

In other words: You’re not just optimizing for Google.

You’re optimizing for trust.

Here's how it works:

1. You create content that directly answers customer questions, using your support tickets and user interviews as the source.
2. You write with an authentic, expert voice, sharing stories and contrarian takes the AI can't replicate.
3. When people search for solutions, they find your answers, building a relationship with your brand before they even think about buying.

Builder-led content vs. traditional content marketing

3 big benefits of builder-led content

Still chasing keywords? According to industry studies, organic click-through rates are declining as AI search summaries become more common.

Chart – showing the decline in organic traffic for top search results following the May 20th update.

Shift your focus to builder-led Content now to stay competitive.

1. Build trust before the sale

Here’s the problem: Your customers are skeptical. They've been burned by marketing fluff. You’ve been burned by marketing fluff. We all have. The only way to cut through the noise is by being genuinely helpful.

"Trust first, then the pitch."

When you solve a real problem for someone, you earn their attention and their trust. They see you not as a vendor, but as an expert guide. Even if it’s for a very narrow topic.

2. Attract highly qualified leads

Keyword-focused content attracts a broad audience. Problem-focused content attracts people with a specific, urgent need - the exact people your product is built for.

Instead of "high-traffic, low-intent" visitors, you get "low-traffic, high-intent" visitors who are practically pre-sold on your solution. They just need to know it exists. (It helps if they can see you share their passion for solving the problem.)

3. Create a moat the competition can't cross

Anyone can hire an agency (or a bot) to target keywords. They can't replicate your brain, your experiences, or your company's unique point of view. (If you have proprietary data, even better. Make charts and graphs and do research-y things.)

First-hand stories, contrarian takes on your industry, and deep dives into customer problems are things only you can provide. That is your moat.

What to write (so you solve real problems)

Answer questions that already exist

Forget SEO tools. Your best content ideas aren’t hiding.

For example, we noticed builder customers of ours (non-marketers) asking how to do content marketing for their startups. 

That became our next article. 

This article.

Self-referential screenshot of this article. You are here.

To get started, you just have to listen:

• Explain your methodology: Go through your last 50 support tickets. Identify the top 5 most-asked questions. Those are your first five articles. Don’t have support tickets? Think about why you started building what you’re building to begin with. What was the real challenge for you? Talk about that!
• Talk to your users: Ask your best customers about the "dumb workarounds" they used before they found you. Their pain is your content. And don’t fall into the trap of “alternative = competitor”. The alternative to Whalesync is manually copying and pasting content between Notion and Webflow CMS. Why? Because that’s what most people are doing. (How and why I do not know. Writing this in Notion and editing it whenever I want is a brilliantly frictionless experience. If we didn’t use Whalesync ourselves, I probably wouldn’t be writing this.)
• Give it a human title: Title your article based on the problem, not the keyword. "How to Fix the Annoying X in [Your Industry]" beats "Top 10 X Tips" every time. Make it as specific and concrete as possible. But specific like you’re giving someone directions.

Write like a human, with an ai assistant

Staring at a blank page is the worst. So don't. Use an AI to create a soulless, C-minus first draft. Just don’t publish that. Your job is to inject the humanity. And improve on everything the AI did poorly. 

• Get granular with your story: Add a personal anecdote about why you created this feature. People connect with stories, not features. Real pictures are nice. Maybe add a picture.
• Add your secret sauce: What’s your company’s weird, contrarian take on your industry? Put that in there. That is your voice. (Note: weird take on your industry. Keep it related.)
• Show, don’t just tell: Instead of saying your product is "easy to use," show a 20-second GIF of it in action. Let the product be the hero. And please don’t use a fancy editor or cool transitions. (If you’re on a Mac, [Command+Shift+5] is your friend.)

Where to seed your content for maximum impact

Your articles are assets. You need a system to publish and distribute them without driving yourself crazy.

The one-click publishing dream

The goal is to write, set a status, and have it appear on your blog automatically.

• Your brain (Notion): Create a simple database to track articles: Title, Status, Audience.
• Your billboard (Webflow/WordPress/SSG): This is where your brilliant words will live.
• The automated connection (Whalesync, obviously): Connect your Notion database to your blog. When you change an article's status in Notion to "Published," it automatically syncs and goes live. (The best part is that edits to your content in Notion take zero additional seconds to publish to your site.)

User-generated content hubs

Go where people are already asking questions.

• Reddit: Find relevant subreddits and answer questions thoughtfully. Drop a link to your full article when it adds value.
• Discord: Provide the best, most comprehensive answer to questions about your niche. Be the go-to for what you do.
• YouTube: Arguably the most sophisticated people-finding algorithm on the planet. Use it! Make content for the people you seek and them only.

How to track builder-led content success

Understanding the impact isn’t about chasing vanity metrics. Here’s how to see if it’s working.

Branded and direct traffic growth

The signature pattern is stable or growing branded searches and direct traffic, even if your broad organic traffic dips.

Here's how to spot it:

1. Open Google Analytics: Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. Look for an increase in Direct and Organic Search traffic where the user searched for your brand name.
2. Check Google Search Console: Go to Performance > Search results. Is the number of people searching for your brand name going up?

Caption: Direct and branded search – increasing over a 9-month period.

Quality of signups

Are you getting more signups who say, "I read your blog post on X, and it felt like you were reading my mind"? Or “I found you on YouTube?” Track this. Add a "How did you hear about us?" field to your signup form.

Make the machines work for you

Moral of the story? Don’t fight the machine. Feed it something better.

AI isn’t coming. It’s here.

The brands that build trust by solving real problems will win. Always. Hopefully. Even if they never rank #1 for a vanity keyword.

That’s what builder-led content is about.

You’re not optimizing for clicks. You’re engineering trust.

So, if you want to stay relevant, get your brand into the conversation now.

Disclosure: This content was written based on our own experiences building our company and our product. It's the system we use every day.

Builder-led content FAQs

What is builder-led content?

Builder-led content is a strategy where the builder of a company, or a key developer or PM, creates content based on their own expertise, experiences, and deep understanding of their customers. It prioritizes authenticity and trust over traditional SEO keyword stuffing.

How is builder-led content different from content marketing?

Traditional content marketing often focuses on ranking for high-volume keywords, which can lead to generic, low-quality content. Builder-led content focuses on solving specific customer problems with in-depth (maybe concrete and specific is clearer?), pragmatic answers. The goal is to build trust and attract people who want what you’re building, not just drive traffic.

Why should builders create content?

Builders have a unique advantage: they know their customers and their problems better than anyone else. Sharing that expertise builds a powerful moat that competitors can't replicate with a bigger budget. It establishes the builder as a thought leader and the company as a credible, trustworthy resource. 

How do I find topics for builder-led content?

Your best content ideas come from your customers. Look at your support tickets, read what’s being written in forums, and talk to your users. Every question is a potential article. The goal is to answer the questions that people are already asking. Bonus: creating content from this perspective is high leverage. You’re answering questions and solving problems at scale.

How can I create content if I'm not a writer?

Don't let the “writing” part intimidate you. Use AI to create a first draft, then add your own stories, insights, and examples. By the time you’re happy with it, you’ll have rewritten the whole thing anyway. Just focus on being helpful and authentic. Your voice is more important than perfect prose. You can also record your thoughts and have them transcribed. 

The point is, you’re important, and you know things a small subset of people want to know. And those are the exact people you want to get to know your product. 

So go open up a text editor and write something real.

Next steps: start building your content engine

Now that you understand the "what" and "why" of builder-led content, it's time to build the "how." The right system can turn content creation from a chore into a seamless part of your workflow, letting you focus on sharing your expertise.

Here’s how to put these principles into action:

1. Set up your one-click publishing system

I mentioned earlier how dreamy it is to write in one place and have it published automatically. Whalesync makes this possible by connecting your favorite writing tool to your website's CMS.

• For Notion users: Learn how to manage your Webflow blog directly from Notion and automate the entire process from draft to published post.
• Watch the video tutorial: See just how fast it can be to connect Notion and Webflow for automated blog publishing.

2. Dive deeper into content strategies

While this guide focuses on authentic, problem-solving content, understanding other scalable content models can be valuable. If pSEO is works for your niche, try it!

• Learn About Programmatic SEO: Explore our Ultimate Guide to Programmatic SEO to see how you can create hundreds of data-driven pages.
• See it in Action: Watch how Coinbase uses a similar strategy to get millions of visitors.

3. Explore the tools

Ready to connect your apps? See how Whalesync can be the engine behind your builder-led content strategy.

• Explore Connectors: Check out our connectors for Notion, Airtable, and Webflow.