Dear PMM: You can’t build a content strategy on a generic story

Everyone wants their content strategy to work. To drive awareness. To build credibility. To generate demand.

But here’s the truth: content strategy doesn’t work without differentiation. And differentiation isn’t something your content strategist can invent for you.

If you’re a PMM wondering why your product content feels flat, forgettable, or indistinguishable from what your competitors are saying, the problem isn’t in the plan. It’s in the story you’ve given them to tell.

Most content strategies are (hopefully) built on positioning inputs. But if those inputs are vague, safe, or indistinct, then the outputs will be, too. That’s not a failure of execution. It’s the inevitable result of trying to scale a story that never had a point of view in the first place.

Here’s the uncomfortable part: it’s entirely possible to build a content strategy that looks great on paper. It has a thoughtful calendar. Clear personas. A matrix of funnel stages and content types. Distribution channels, metrics, workflows. All the right scaffolding.

And yet, the content falls flat. Not because the team isn’t executing, but because it’s all built around a hollow center. No real perspective. No strong thesis. No sharp differentiation that gives the audience a reason to care.

You can’t fix that with formatting or frequency. You fix it by going back to the source—your positioning—and asking one brutal question: what, exactly, are we saying that no one else can say?

That’s your job as a product marketer. You’re the bridge between product truth and market relevance. You translate features into value, and value into story. If you don’t have a differentiated position, your content team is stuck polishing sameness. And they know it.

You might think your differentiation is clear. You might even have a beautifully written messaging doc that outlines benefits, pillars, value props, and a tagline that’s been through three rounds of executive feedback. But differentiation isn’t what you write in a doc. It’s what your audience understands without being told. It’s what they remember when you’re not in the room. And it only works if it’s both true and meaningfully different.

This is where a lot of B2B tech companies get stuck. They confuse description with differentiation. “We offer a unified platform for X.” “We help teams collaborate more effectively.” “We’re the only solution built for [broad persona category].” None of that is enough. It doesn’t give your content team anything to build on. It doesn’t give your buyers a reason to believe. And it certainly doesn’t give you a durable content strategy.

Because when your positioning isn’t differentiated, your content becomes reactive. You start chasing competitors—mirroring their themes, topics, and thought leadership angles, then trying to one-up them with SEO or design. You build messaging that says “us too” and hope to win on polish or personality. But polish doesn’t build authority. And personality without perspective is just noise.

Strong content strategy depends on a strong story. And a strong story depends on a clear, defensible, differentiated position. That doesn’t mean being contrarian for the sake of it. It means having a sharp point of view on the problem your product exists to solve, and the shift you’re helping your audience make.

Great PMMs know this. They know their job isn’t just to write messaging—it’s to clarify meaning. To make strategic choices about who the product is for, what makes it different, and why that difference matters now. When you do that well, content strategy becomes easy. You’re no longer generating ideas from scratch. You’re scaling a story with a spine.

But when you skip that step—or when you try to keep everyone happy by writing to the middle—you end up with content that no one remembers. Safe. Generic. Vaguely impressive. And instantly forgettable.

The irony is, many PMMs are asking their content teams to “do thought leadership” when their own positioning isn’t bold enough to lead with. You can’t outsource your differentiation. You have to decide what you believe, and then build content that reflects that belief over time, in different forms, across different moments in the buyer journey.

That starts by getting honest. Ask yourself: If a competitor published this exact same story tomorrow, would I be surprised? Would I feel like they stole something? Or would it blend right in with the rest of the noise?

If it’s the latter, you have work to do.

This doesn’t mean your story has to be loud or dramatic. Some of the most effective differentiation is quiet but specific. A particular insight. A unique bet on where the market’s going. A conviction about how a certain type of team should work. What matters is that it’s yours. And that it’s worth repeating.

The best content strategies are built on repeatable ideas. Things your company can say again and again, in different ways, without losing power. But repetition only works if the idea itself is strong. If the positioning is vague, the repetition just accelerates irrelevance.

And here’s the deeper truth: in the age of generative AI content, differentiation isn’t optional—it’s everything. Anyone can publish more. Anyone can say it faster. But not everyone can say something true, sharp, and hard to copy. That’s where your moat is. That’s where your strategy starts.

So if your content team is struggling, don’t hand them another brief. Sit down and revisit your positioning. Is it clear? Is it focused? Is it bold enough to exclude the wrong audience while drawing in the right one?

Because if the answer is no, you don’t have a content problem. You have a clarity problem.

And clarity isn’t a downstream deliverable. It’s upstream work. It’s product marketing work.

Your content strategist can build a strategy. But only you can make it worth building.