Content First: The Ecommerce Growth Strategy That Pays You Back

Every morning, ecommerce founders face the same choice: reach for the ad budget or reach for the keyboard.

Most choose the budget. Fire up Facebook Ads Manager, tweak some campaigns and hope today's spend converts better than yesterday's. It's immediate. It's measurable. It feels like progress.

But what if I told you there's a growth strategy that gets cheaper over time instead of more expensive? That builds value instead of burning budgets? That works while you sleep and compounds like interest?

Welcome to content-first growth.

Here's how most ecommerce growth strategies work:

This isn't strategy, it's rent-paying. Every month, you pay platforms for the privilege of reaching customers. Stop paying? Does your growth stall immediately?

You're not building a business. You're building a very expensive habit.

Content-first doesn't mean "never run ads." It means leading with value creation instead of attention buying.

Instead of asking "How can I reach more people?" you ask "What can I create that makes people want to find me?"

The difference is profound:

Ad-first thinking: "I need to interrupt people scrolling Facebook with my product."

Content-first thinking: "What problems do my customers have that I can solve with helpful information?"

Ad-first thinking: "How can I outbid competitors for keywords?"

Content-first thinking: "What questions are my customers asking that I can answer better than anyone?"

Ad-first thinking: "I need more traffic to my product pages."

Content-first thinking: "What content would make someone excited to discover my brand?"

Here's the beautiful thing about content: it stacks.

That blog post you write today? Still working for you next year. That helpful video you create this month? Still attracting customers in 2026. That email sequence you build this quarter? Still converting subscribers into customers long after you've forgotten about it.

Compare this to ads, which stop working the second you stop paying.

Ads depreciate. Content appreciates.

A £1,000 ad spend is gone forever once the campaign ends. A £1,000 investment in content creation can drive traffic, builds authority, and generates customers for years.

Beardbrand built a multi-million dollar grooming company not by outspending competitors on Facebook, but by creating genuinely helpful content about beard care. Their YouTube channel became the go-to resource for men's grooming, making their products the obvious choice.

Glossier revolutionised beauty retail not through aggressive advertising, but by creating content that made customers feel like insiders. Their blog, Into the Gloss, built a community that naturally evolved into customers.

These two companies didn’t start with massive ad budgets. They started with valuable content.

Start with customer problems, not product features.

Don't create content about how great your product is. Create content about the problems your product solves. If you sell skincare, don't write about your ingredients, write about treating acne, preventing aging, or building a simple routine.

Answer the questions only you can answer.

You know your customers better than any competitor (or agency for that matter, but that’s a whole other conversation). What unique insights do you have? What mistakes do you see people make? What misconceptions exist in your industry?

Embrace the formats that fit your strengths.

Hate writing? Try video or podcasts. Camera-shy? Stick to written content, voice overs or infographics. Create the narrative. That’s the content! The best content format is the one you'll actually create consistently.

Distribution is part of creation.

Great content that nobody sees is worthless. Plan your distribution strategy alongside your content creation. Email lists, social media, partnerships, SEO, how will people actually find what you're making?

"Content takes too long to work."

So does building a sustainable business. Quick fixes lead to quick failures. Content builds slowly but lasts forever.

"I don't have time to create content."

You have time to manage ad campaigns daily. You have time to answer customer service emails. Creating content is just redirecting that energy toward something that compounds.

"My industry is too boring for content."

No industry is boring to the people who need your products. Industrial cleaning supplies might sound boring to you, but it's fascinating to facility managers. Accounting software might be dry, but it's life-changing to small business owners. Look at what Brian has created. He’s a pen expert who’s built an audience of 225k subscribers on YouTube. Pen enthusiasts. Nearly a quarter of a million of them. Think your audience is niche? Good.

"I'm not a good writer/speaker/creator."

Neither were most successful content creators when they started. Skills develop through practice. Your first content won't be perfect, but it will be uniquely yours.

Week 1: List the ten most common questions your customers ask. These become your first ten pieces of content. Struggling? Use a tool like AlsoAsked.com and find out first hand from Google what are the common questions in your niche.

Week 2: Choose one content format and commit to it for 90 days. Blog posts, videos, podcasts, email newsletters… pick one and stick with it.

Week 3: Set up your distribution channels. Email list, social media accounts, SEO optimisation, you need to make sure people can find your content.

Week 4: Create and publish your first piece of content. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be helpful.

Then repeat. Every week. For months.

Use a tool like SEOtesting (which is quickly becoming my favourite app in the history of useful apps) to monitor your organic growth and begin to optimise your content for Google and AI (yes AI…)

Content-first growth isn't about instant gratification. It's about building something that lasts. While your competitors burn through ad budgets, you're building assets. While they fight for attention, you're earning it.

Six months from now, when iOS updates tank their Facebook campaigns or Google changes its algorithm, your content will still be working. Your email list will still be growing. Your community will still be engaged.

That's not just better marketing. That's business freedom.

You don't need a content team. You don't need expensive tools. You don't need a massive strategy document.

You just need to answer one simple question: "What's one thing I know that would help my customers?"

Write it down. Hit publish. Do it again tomorrow.

That's content-first growth. Simple, sustainable, and compound.

Your future self (and your bank account) will thank you.

Ready to flip from ad-first to content-first? Start with one piece of helpful content this week. The compound effect starts with a single post.