The Kind of Content Marketing that Actually Works in 2025
Marketing isn't simple. But understanding it can be.
I need that reminder now and again. Maybe you do too.
I started my career working for brands like Google as a digital media strategist and two startups, including HubSpot, as their head of content. My last in-house job was a VP role (content and community at a VC firm), and I've spent the last 8 years as a soloist helping others with their marketing in various ways. In all that time, I need to revisit that idea to ground myself and find clarity to inform my actions:
Marketing isn't simple. But understanding it can be. That is, we can remove the overwhelm and articulate clear direction more readily than we think, despite how much "stuff" marketing involves—and how high stakes it might seem.
Because some things never go out of style:
Understand people, story, and psychology.
Know the buyer's questions and problems and needs.
Find the overlap of your communication tendencies and style (assess yours here) and a single message others need to hear from you (here's what the best have in common).
These things might be hard to execute, but they can be simple to understand.
As marketing continues to shift (that's my "in a fast-paced, ever-changing world..."), we can begin to simplify by first understanding a simple but important evolutionary step we're experiencing, specifically with content marketing:
The start of content marketing was about how consistently you shared expertise. Now it's about how effectively you package and communicate that expertise.
The ability to turn your expertise into a platform of impact is now the lone differentiator left to each of us. We're in an era where everyone is sharing their expertise. Sometimes, the competition is actually from worthy experts with genuine substance. Other times, we face an onslaught of pretenders (both people and bots) sharing generalized expertise and mediocre content at greater scale than ever.
Consistently sharing our expertise has become table stakes.
Stop trying to compete on what worked before but doesn't work now.
What you talk about through your content isn't an advantage. How you talk about it and how that makes them feel is why they might trust you, go with you, and refer others to you. We've all encountered dense, dry explanations of things from experts who clearly understand something better than anyone, but if they struggle to help us understand ... we struggle to care.
Despite all the technologies and all the charts showing endless metrics, marketing is an emotions-first job. Because buying is an emotions-led activity.
The old command among content marketers was to become the leading informational source of your field. Now? Everyone is trying to do that. How do you win? How do you separate?
"It's about how we make them feel!" the marketers shout. Yes, but what does that mean? Sob stories? Emotional rally cries? Maybe! Probably not. We have to get away from platitudes to make this a practice.
It's about the careful, strategic, and consistent packaging and communicating of your expertise. It's about resonating deeper than the rest, so they feel a personal connection with you. As a result, they might PICK you.
It's not the depth of your expertise but your ability to make others care about your expertise which separates you.
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I have always believed this was the case. I've always hated the ocean of commodity content most marketers seem intent on creating. When I entered this field in 2011 or so, every blog full of advice felt like shopping at Trips N Tricks R Us. Marketers created an infinite list of listicles and endless "Ultimate Guides" which were far from ultimate and barely guides. They created content anyone could publish. Without much thought about resonance and experience, they shared advice. Because while others could publish that stuff, most didn't. That was their advantage.
Today, that advantage is gone.
To quote my favorite canine detective, Scoobert Joseph Doo: Rut roh!
Look, you seem nice (you're reading my writing so, legally, I am obligated to say that—but I also mean it!). You seem nice. And smart, and creative, and good. So what I'm about to say stings me a little, even as it might sting you:
You're smart enough. You're expert enough. But your IP isn't strong enough to differentiate and resonate.
What you know matters. What you say and how you say it needs to make that clear. It needs to make people care.
This is the era of marketing we're now experiencing. It's the "make me care" era. The care-a, if you will.
(You won't, which is why I did.)
If you, like me, sell services, then you, like me, are monetizing your expertise in some sense. But you, like me, won't succeed by shouting louder and hyping harder when what we're pushing isn't actually built to have an impact. It is much easier to grow something when that thing has been intentionally designed to be growable. Some folks think that means sensationalism or preying on baser instincts. I think that means stronger stories. Yes, small-S stories, as in narratives about a person or group. But also big-S Story, as in the Story you are telling the world about yourself by showing up the way you do, everywhere you go, in each moment they experience of you.
Because merely shoving it at people doesn't work. It barely worked before.
As head of content at HubSpot in 2013, I was so alarmed at how much volume we were told to produce to eke out the results we needed. I always thought, what if we could produce half the material for twice the impact? Why couldn't that work? It didn't even cross the minds of most marketers back then, and it barely does now. But when each and every moment with you hits harder, then your marketing works better.
My singular obsession lately has been a question: "What if I could whisper?" It's the ultimate advantage of someone who knows how to resonate. They matter so much, they need to shout less ... or not at all.
What if you could whisper your message? What would you say? How would you construct the words, the musicality, the look and feel, the stories and the Story? What elements of your IP Pyramid would you create and use (and re-use) for maximum impact?
Your delivery and others experience of your thinking is what separates you. It's not enough to "know stuff." It's also not enough to share what you know. Not anymore. Now it's about how others feel experiencing your stuff.
To do that and do it well, we need to think differently than an expert who publishes endless advice. Instead, we can...
Think like a leader: Identify and develop a clear vision. What's broken, and why? Where are you taking us instead?
Think like an author: Sense what's frustrating or confusing, then investigate. Seek to own a single big idea, not scattered concepts and topics.
Think like a lawyer: Craft a logical, lawyerly case to get buy-in for your ideas.
Think like a comedian: Turn your observations and perspectives into proven material, not by waiting for lightning strike moments, but by actively developing that material through curiosity and constant sharpening of your communication in front of others.
Most simply publish their advice. I'm urging you to develop your thinking for maximum impact.
This shift in focus emphasizes messaging, speaking, thought leadership, and storytelling. Things like:
An underlying, well-developed premise to turn your perspective into a Big Idea you explore, distribute, monetize, and own.
A clear, concise, and memorable message—the articulation of your premise the way others need to hear it to "get it." (Try laddering down your ideas 3 times.)
Signature speeches, signature stories, and signature frameworks and methodologies, all to give people access points and clearer paths forward towards trust and towards action.
Your thinking is worth their time and their dollars. I believe that. My prompt to you and my belief about marketing's main job today:
Can you bring your thinking TO LIFE?
Connect more deeply.
Communicate more memorably.
Make them care.
Great marketing isn't about reach. It's about resonance. It's not about how many see it. It's about how much they care. If they don't care, they don't act. Resonance is the energy to act we give to others when a message or a moment aligns so deeply with them, they feel amplified. We all need action from others, but too rarely do our ideas give them the urge to act. That's not about the depth of our knowledge. It's about the efficacy of our packaging. Our messaging, our projects, our storytelling—our entire platform, built for impact.
Think resonance over reach. That's the most effective way to grow a business or cause.
When people make choices, they play favorites.
Are you one of them?
Don't be the best. Be their favorite.
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Learn how I can help you package and communicate your expertise to differentiate and resonate, so it’s easier to attract more and better clients. The goal isn't "more stuff." The goal is to transform your expertise into a message that moves them, so you can grow from yet-another option into their favorite voice.
Visit jayacunzo.com to see more about my consulting and coaching, and while you're there, consider booking a free IP assessment call.