How to future-proof your 2025 content strategy
Here’s a scary thought for you: we’re a quarter of the way through the 21st century. It’s been 25 years since we were partying like it was 1999 and paying consultants to protect us against the Millennium bug aka Y2K (if you’re too young to know what that is, Google it for a laugh).
So much has changed since 2000. Which begs the question – how will 2050 compare to 2025?
- What will marketing look like? What new technologies will be shaping the way we work, the way we purchase, the way we consume content?
- What will business look like? What regulations will be in place? What practices will have become utterly unfathomable, like smoking at your desk?
- What will the world look like? Will we have managed to avert the climate crisis? Will we be in the middle of another world war? Which parts of the planet will still be habitable?
Within this context, it’s more important than ever to approach our content strategies… well, strategically. With an eye on futureproofing so that what we create today is still relevant tomorrow. With a solid foundation of research, insight and understanding that will steer us through the rough seas of change we can only guess at.
Having been in the brand copywriting and content marketing game for a good chunk of the last 25 years, here’s what we recommend…
TL:DR
- Focus on what doesn’t change
- Focus on what makes you unique
- Make sure you’re joining up your efforts
- Finally, treat silver bullets with the skepticism they deserve
Focus on what doesn’t change
Trends come and go. Channels rise and fall. But people? They don’t really change all that much. Not at a fundamental level. That’s why human psychology and behavioural science are so enormously important within marketing (just ask Rory Sutherland).
Here are some important truths about people that we should bear in mind when creating a content strategy…
We want to take the path of least resistance
If we’re honest with ourselves, none of us want to work harder than we really have to. Especially at stuff we’re not all that fussed about at a personal level, like which consultancy firm or SaaS platform to use, or how to reduce employee churn or prevent a cyber security attack.
So as content marketers, we need to make buying decisions really, really easy. Use content to help your audience understand the challenges they’re facing. Be as concise as possible and cut the hyperbole (they’ll see through it anyway). Be where they are. Serve them content in whatever way they want to consume it: video, audio, visual, written. Make it easier to buy from you than your competitors.
The truth is that content marketing is harder than ever. It’s exponentially more complex than it was 25 years ago, there’s more competition coming from more angles, and change is happening faster than we can hope to keep up with.
We want to know we’re making good choices
We’ve all experienced phenomena like decision-fatigue, analysis paralysis and buyers’ regret. Making choices about how to spend our money (even if it’s a budget we’ve been assigned) is hard! And harder than it used to be because we’ve got so many more choices – and more ways than ever to research them, which is overwhelming.
If you can help your audience understand what a good choice looks like for them, you will go a long way to establishing yourself as a brand they can trust. The trick is… to not use any tricks. Give them clear, unbiased advice about the solutions available and what options might suit them. Demonstrate what makes your offering unique (without exaggerating), and be sure to focus on what’s relevant to them rather than what’s exciting to you.
We want to be treated as people, and with respect
This one is only becoming increasingly important as the world becomes noisier and more cynical. People don’t want to be sold to. They don’t want to be hoodwinked. They don’t want to be treated as sheep.
Consumers – both in B2B and B2C – have become increasingly sophisticated. They’re not satisfied with generic content. They can spot marketing speak a mile off. They know that if they give you their email address, you’re going to try to sell them something.
You’re going to have to work harder to deliver genuine value or they’re going to go and find someone who will. Do not lump them into a ‘target audience’ bucket. Do your research, personalise where you can, and above all, employ empathy.
Focus on what makes you unique
If your content is based solely on information you can Google, anyone can create it. You can still give it your own spin – your own brand personality, if that’s strong and different enough, or maybe you can make the information more engaging or easier to consume. But you’re still leaving yourself open to someone coming along and doing it better.
By far the better option is to focus on what makes your brand unique. The expertise that exists within your teams, the real-life experiences and personal insights. What have you learned that you can share, which no one else can? What anecdotes will bring your content to life? What analogies will make complex thoughts and ideas easier to digest?
Expert is a word that’s thrown about with wild abandon but it takes a lot of time and effort to become a true expert. It also takes a lot of time and effort to use that expertise to build your brand reputation. And to involve subject matter experts in content creation so that it becomes more than a marketing puff piece. (As you can tell, we’ve written a lot about expertise – it’s what we know best.)
Make sure you’re joining up your efforts
This is what puts the strategy into content strategy. We’ve already talked about the importance of your content being excellent. Relevant to your audience. Helpful. Full of unique insights. But unless you’re a publishing house or media platform, creating great content shouldn’t be a goal in and of itself. It needs to link to wider marketing, sales and business goals.
Getting the content right is about what we call Resonance. But there are two other pillars that make up an effective content strategy: Reach and Results.
The Reach pillar is about how you get eyes on your content. Because brilliant marketing content that isn’t read / watched / listened to by anyone (or only by the wrong people) is utterly pointless. The Results pillar is about how you move your audience along the buyer journey. Not all the way from point A to point Z in one go, but gradually through the right stages until they’re ready to buy.
Your 2025 content strategy needs to consider all three pillars if you’re going to successfully achieve your goals for the year and deliver enough return on investment to secure you a content budget for 2026.
Finally, treat silver bullets with the skepticism they deserve
Since time immemorial, inventors and sales folk have been hailing their creations as the one and only answer to whatever problem it is you might be looking to solve. Nothing has changed. But ChatGPT cannot solve all your content marketing challenges (we know, we tried).
That’s not to say you can’t use new time-saving, effort-saving, or budget-saving tools and techniques as they come along, whether that’s AI or whatever is next. But don’t let them distract you from what matters (deeply strategic thinking, creativity, good old human empathy) or fool you into believing you can shortcut the hard work. If you default to average content, you will fall behind. It’s just too noisy out there.
The truth is that content marketing is harder than ever. It’s exponentially more complex than it was 25 years ago, there’s more competition coming from more angles, and change is happening faster than we can hope to keep up with. Sometimes it’s tempting to give the whole lot up as a bad job and become a yoga teacher or a bus driver.
But if you believe in what you’re marketing then put together a content strategy that does it justice. One that will deliver the results you need in 2025… and beyond.
Back to hompeage
