Most startups are creating content, but chances are that it’s costing more money than it’s worth.

The biggest reason? Lack of strategy and reliance on guesswork.

As a Content Strategist for startups and enterprises, I’ve seen first hand the types of problems that bad content creates. I’ll spare you the horror stories, but the takeaway is that tons of money and talent is wasted—and big opportunities are missed.

The good news is that creating better content doesn’t require a big budget or timeline. All you need is one person on your team to approach content like a strategist.

The first step to better content is ditching the myth that more = better.

Creating content just for the sake of having content is where most people go wrong. Yet, it happens all the time.

The problem often starts when businesses launch social media profiles, then panic when they feel like they don’t have enough content to post consistently. Then, the race to feed the social media beast sparks a furious content creation cycle—but completely ignores research, strategy, and testing.

The result it that businesses end up with tons of content, and not a whole lot of ROI.

More content isn’t better. It’s just more.

Break the habit of creating more, and focus on creating better. If your content isn’t getting plenty of positive engagement from your audience and supporting a specific business goal, it’s not working. In fact, it’s probably costing you more money than it’s worth to produce.

Brainstorming content ideas isn’t creative, it’s gambling your time and effort.

How many times have you seen (or written) this in a content job description:

“This role will brainstorm content ideas for our blog, social media, etc…”

Sound familiar? It should. Personally, I see this all the time for a big variety of content related roles. What’s worse, I know the phrase “brainstorm content ideas” isn’t said in jest; businesses actually investing time and money into content just because someone arbitrarily had an idea.

Failing to research audience needs, what content already exists on the subject, and what the gaps are is a surefire way to create useless content.

The overall result of this approach is a lot of wasted resources for the businesses. If they’re smart, they’ll keep testing ideas until something works then keep repeating it—but there was still a much faster way to find the content that worked.

Stop thinking in terms of, “What content should we create?” and instead think about “What content do people want, need, and how does it support our business?”

A Guide to Strategic Content in 4 Steps

Instead of racing to generate tons of content based on creative brainstorming, take a strategic approach. You’ll likely still need to test and iterate, but you’ll get to your high-value content much faster. It all starts with research.