Content marketing has always been about cutting through the noise with precision and purpose to establish a personal or business brand’s reputation and authority. We all take on information differently, and currently audiences are busier, more distracted and less trusting than ever. There’s no doubt AIs increasing influence is shapeshifting how we communicate, consume content and process information, particularly with AI-generated profiles becoming a vomitous norm, imposing further on algorithm reach for us mere mortals too, no doubt.
I rarely get too involved with new year trends and predictions talk, but the fact is things have changed a lot in recent years. Current conversations have me curious and it feels like time for me to pay closer attention. I’m noticing some similar points being spoken about, particularly from marketing industry peeps whose opinion I value.
Quick hits and infotainment still have their place, but praise be, quality blogs, newsletters and ebooks are still proving their worth, offering in-depth analyses and insights that give people something that will satisfy their cravings for realness, longer.
There are several intersecting observations from savvy marketers influencing content marketing as we know it.
The first part is, we need to walk with people for longer before they buy because there is a trust deficit in most marketplaces. Which means long form content (video, podcasts, Lives, blogs, eNews and eBooks) will have a real moment for the foreseeable future. There are the people who mindlessly scroll social media to tune out and be entertained, and others to learn, grow and connect. And it’s those types we have to work harder to prove ourselves if they’re going to spend their money on our products and services (and even spruik us to their friends and family).
I don’t believe the trust deficit talk is just marketing fear programming. Inflation’s got many clutching their wallets tighter than a miser with a gold coin. Eight in ten shoppers are consolidating their spending, making every piece of content we create be built on the foundation of the sincere desire to serve.
It feels like a natural curve in the story arc in these wildly a-changin’ times.
Everything is more expensive, and online hucksters have tarnished the online marketing world, making buyers skeptical about who gets our increasingly devalued coin. It’s hitting businesses where it hurts. So whether audiences are doom scrolling or actively researching, we need to meet them where they are with content that proves we’re worth their attention, time and money.
Every dollar and minute of attention is now a strategic investment. But we need the space, time and repetition to go deep and invite our audience to see there is more beyond the surface.
More visual, comprehensive and interactive content isn’t just another trend prediction either. Videos and infographics do the job of hooking people fast, entertaining, conveying complex ideas rapidly and humanising a brand in ways words alone can’t. Thankfully, blogging remains super relevant as a leading organic marketing format, along with a nurtured email list proving valuable marketing assets for those willing to outsource or put in the effort to make it happen — and adapt in response to this call for more visual and interactive elements.
Long live long form content. Creating the right the mix and balance
It’s always about creating the right content that responds to what the people want, then giving them what they actually need. Amid this mix of skepticism and penny pinching, and content trends to meet it, combining visual flair with real substance is a ticket to creating loyalty and actually connecting with the people you’re trying to serve.
Jerry Maguire called it back in the 90s, and even though it didn’t land with his corporate counterparts, it always felt true for me at least, that business should be about (making money through) personal relationships and giving back. His manifesto, The Things We Think And Do Not Say, was about more than sports. It was about the soul of business, and that’s what content marketing needs in 2025.
The answer is fewer clients. Less dancing. More truth. We must crack open the tightly clenched fist of commerce and give a little back for the greater good. Eventually revenues will be the same, and that goodness will be infectious. We will have taken our number oneness and turned it into something greater. And eventually smaller will become bigger, in every way, and especially in our hearts.
The storyteller in me is stoked that blogs, eNews and eBooks remain a powerful tool for businesses and individuals in driving organic traffic and building credibility. Long form content is like a slow-cooked meal. It takes time, but the flavor, depth and satisfaction makes it something that will ideally linger longer in the reader’s memory and invite them into your world to stay for a while.
Meanwhile your content strategy needs to act like a well-balanced set menu. Visual content is the appetiser—quick, engaging and impossible to resist, and leads perfectly for long-form content to follow as the hearty main course; the substantial, satisfying element that keeps people coming back for more.
