Brand Design Masters Podcast

Brand Design Masters podcast
with Philip VanDusen

Episode 151
Best Content Marketing Strategy for 2025

===

Philip VanDusen: Hey everybody. Welcome back. If you're trying to build a business or a personal brand or a career with content, you have to understand something really important.

And that is that content marketing has changed in many cases, what used to work then, Doesn't work so well now. So staying up to date on what works means the difference between getting results and spinning your wheels for nothing. Over the last 10 years, content marketing has undergone a massive transformation.

What worked just a few years ago, that is cranking out as much content as possible and pushing it everywhere just doesn't cut it anymore. The landscape has shifted. And to succeed, you really need to evolve your strategies and adopt new tools and most importantly, rethink your mindset. So I'm going to cover both the tactical actions you can take to apply these changes to your business and career and the mindset shifts that creative professionals need to embrace.

These tips aren't the usual hacks you hear everywhere else. They're rooted in what I'm seeing work right now based on where the market's headed and how audience behavior is evolving. And by the end of this video, you're going to have a clear understanding of how to modernize your approach to content marketing and get a real return on your investment and position yourself for success in 2025 and beyond.

All right, you ready? So let's jump in. All right. Number one, you want to shift from volume to value. Quality over quantity. The first big shift in content marketing is that it's no longer about volume, it's about value. If you go back five years, the game was all about publishing as much as possible. Blog posts every day, videos every week, content calendars filled to the brim.

The belief was, The more content you put out, the more chances you had to capture attention. But here's the reality today. Attention is scarce and people don't have time for content that doesn't deliver real value instead of pumping out tons of posts, the most successful creators and brands are now focusing on creating high quality, impactful pieces that offer depth and insight and practical solutions, less frequent, but more meaningful.

The main problem is that AI has made it incredibly easy to churn out content, but let's be honest, a lot of it is really mediocre, with tools automating everything from writing blog posts to creating social media captions, it's still tempting to think that more is more. And letting all these machines do all the work.

But when everyone is doing the same thing, what actually will stand out is not more content, but better content. And here's what this looks like tactically. If you're creating blog posts aim for fewer, but longer research driven articles that answer big questions or provide really actionable advice. If you're making videos, focus on evergreen content.

Evergreen content is content that remains useful for months or even years. Look at my videos on this channel. I've got over 550 videos and a lot of them I did five, six, seven, eight years ago are still getting tons of views now because the content that I covered. is really meaningful and it's really tactical and you can still use the ideas and the processes today.

Tutorials, strategy guides, inspirational case studies are great examples. Think of it this way. One high impact piece of content can generate traffic and trust and authority for years while low value posts barely last a week. Here's the mindset shift. You need to think of yourself as a trusted source of value, not a content factory.

For example, I know several businesses that stopped posting weekly and started focusing on monthly deep dives and their engagement actually went up. It's a case of quality over quantity, less noise, more substance. All right. The second strategy is community centric content, building loyalty, Not just traffic.

The second big change is that content now needs to build community, not just traffic. For years, the primary goal of content was to generate views and clicks and traffic. And while those things are still important, the real game changer today is creating a sense of connection. People want to belong to something.

They want to engage with content that feels personal and makes them feel part of a conversation or a community. And here's how you can do that. You engage with your audience directly. You run live Q and A's, you respond to comments, you create polls or gather input. This makes people feel seen and included.

For example, when I started my YouTube channel, the first three years, I responded to every single comment I got tens of thousands of comments. And this really differentiated me from other people who did videos about the sort of content that I do. And it made my audience feel really seen and really heard and valued.

This is exactly. What I'm talking about. You want to encourage user generated content too. You want to ask your followers to share stories or photos or experiences that relate to your brand or your business. And then you want to highlight their contributions. Ask them to tag you when they do so you can track how effective this is.

You can also build spaces where your audience can connect with Each other like private Facebook groups or private LinkedIn group or discord servers or slack channels or mastermind communities. Here's the mindset shift. Your content is no longer about broadcasting. It's about connecting and nurturing relationships.

Here's another example of what I'm doing to address this change in the market. My own business and my bonfire community. I'm really seeing firsthand how people thrive. When they're surrounded by like minded creatives, they're part of a true community. It's not just about content that you're pushing out.

It's about building connections and lasting relationships that people make with each other. Moving on to number three, content as a customer journey, not a quick sales pitch. The third shift is that content has become a journey. Years ago, marketers use content to push products and services directly right away.

Here's what we're selling. Click here to buy. That approach doesn't work anymore because audiences are savvier. They don't want to be sold to, they want to be guided. Today, content needs to nurture your audience through the entire sales journey. At the awareness stage, you need to provide educational content like Blog posts and videos and free downloads that help people discover your brand for the first time.

And then at the consideration stage, you create content that builds trust and positions you as the solution to their problem that you have now clearly articulated like case studies and testimonials and webinars. And at the decision stage, you offer proof and a clear action step like detailed demos and client success stories or targeted or strategic calls to action.

Here's the mindset shift here. Content isn't about pushing people to buy. It's about earning their trust. And helping them solve their problem. Here's an example. HubSpot does this really brilliantly. Their entire content ecosystem from blog posts to free courses, guides prospects through their journey.

And by the time someone buys, they already completely trust the brand. And I'm not getting paid to say that, by the way. As a creative entrepreneur, I know from personal experience, it can feel isolating to go it alone. So, I want you to take a second and imagine being surrounded by other accomplished creatives who are just as eager to accelerate the growth of their businesses and personal brands as you are.

And if you've been following me for any length of time, you know I'm a huge advocate of mastermind groups and what they can do for you. both personally and professionally. And because of that, I wanted to let you know I've launched a mastermind membership community called Bonfire for creative professionals.

Bonfire is a hybrid group coaching, training, networking, and accountability community. It's a place for you to make meaningful industry connections and build knowledge so you can really achieve your full potential. The best part about it is that you aren't alone anymore. When you join literally overnight, you're part of a group of people who would do everything they can to help you succeed and build a level of confidence in what you're doing that you've never felt before.

In Bonfire, you get bi weekly video coaching sessions, a private online community, a deep resource library of downloads, templates, tools, and tutorials, and you also get exclusive access to me as a mentor and a coach. So, I want you to come check out Bonfire. Just go to philipvandusen. com slash bonfire and learn more about it.

Again, that's philipvandusen. com slash bonfire. B O N F I R E. I hope to see you beside the bonfire very soon.

All right, moving on to number four, leverage micro content from multi channel strategy. Another huge evolution in content marketing has been the rise of micro content and a multi channel distribution strategy. People consume content in smaller snackable pieces on multiple platforms, like Instagram reels and TikTok and LinkedIn carousels and YouTube shorts.

But here's the key. You don't have to create brand new content for every channel or for every piece of content. Instead, you do some long form content and you repurpose it. For example, a 10 minute YouTube video can become a series of 60 second clips for Instagram Reels or TikTok. A blog post can be turned into an email series, or a threads thread, or a LinkedIn post series.

The mindset shift here is that you want to think about your content like Lego pieces. That it's modular, and it's adaptable. The one big idea that you have can fuel a week's worth of micro content across platforms. Gary Vaynerchuk's team does this really well. They take long form keynote speeches and they cut them into really short highlights.

for every platform. The result is that they have a presence everywhere without reinventing the wheel every time. And I know, Gary Vee has this huge team, and in fact, an entire marketing agency behind him to do that work, which makes it look really easy, but it's still very doable by an individual. Number five is storytelling with purpose.

Authenticity and transparency. This is the big shift. Audiences want authenticity and purpose driven storytelling. Overly polished corporate messaging is really out. Audiences today want value that feels human and real and relatable. Here's how you can embrace this. Share behind the scenes moments of your brand's origin story or highlight challenges and failures as well as wins because your audience is going to connect with your vulnerability.

Use real stories from customers, from employees, from team members to illustrate the impact of your work, the impact of your products and services. And the mindset shift here is that you want to stop curating. Perfection. I'm going to say that again. Stop curating perfection. Start sharing stories that reflect who you really are.

Patagonia is a really great example of this. They're not afraid to share real world environmental challenges and their role in addressing them. That kind of transparency builds trust and loyalty with their audience. Number six is data driven content. Personalization and AI insights. Your goal needs to be creating personalized but data driven content, and that's really so much easier to do now that AI is so available.

With all the tools available today, you can create hyper relevant content tailored to specific segments of your audience. Here are some tactics. Using tools like HubSpot or Kit or MailChimp, you can track your audience's behavior, and by using Email list segments, you can deliver really personalized emails to each of those segments and personalized offers.

Another tactic is to leverage AI tools like Gemini and Clawed and ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas to generate online content and to also automate repetitive tasks for yourselves. The mindset shift here is you want to approach content like a scientist. You want to test and measure and refine based on what's resonating with your audience.

Think about platforms like Spotify and Netflix, right? Their recommendations feel incredibly personal because they're tracking you and they're segmenting you. This keeps users coming back for more, and that's the power of personalization. Number seven is trust building through individual voices. Another big trend is that individual voices are now more trusted than corporate voices.

People trust people, not faceless brands. That's why showcasing individuals, your team, your customers, even yourself. Is so important. That's why the influencer marketing business is so incredibly successful right now. And particularly micro influencers who don't have gigantic followings. That's because people also trust the people they already trust to make product recommendations to them.

As opposed to blanket advertising campaigns that feel really generic. Now, here's what this can look like. Feature your team member stories and expertise in your content. Highlight customer stories and give them a platform to share their experiences. You can build your own personal brand alongside their business.

Human faces. Your face, the face of the brand, are more trusted than faceless corporations. Now, here's the mindset shift to focus on. Your brand is a network of real people, not a corporate machine. Think about it that way. Adobe does this really well by featuring the creatives who use their tools and sharing their stories.

It's more relatable, it's more human, and far more effective than some big corporate message. Also, in the past, brands like Apple have done this incredibly well. by building a personal brand around Steve's jobs with his visibility and his personality. Number eight is interactive and experiential content.

Finally, content today is becoming far more interactive and experiential. It's about creating content That your audience actually participates in, not just consumes. Now this could be live streams. It could be polls. It could be challenges or even augmented reality experiences. So here's how you can do this.

You can run interactive quizzes or contests to engage your audience. You can host live sessions. where people can ask questions and participate in real time. And this builds a feeling of community, too. You can use tools like augmented reality to offer really immersive experiences. Now the mindset shift here is you want to treat your audience like co creators and not passive viewers or passive consumers of your content.

Now brands like Nike do this really well when they use AR for trying on shoes and clothes. And sometimes other creators run interactive polls during live sessions, and they can really see engagement skyrocket from running those polls. You can do polls on LinkedIn or Facebook or Threads or almost any other social platform too.

Okay, so those are the best ways to improve your content marketing strategy. And that is by recognizing, number one, that the market has changed and number two, that you need to adapt so you can thrive. So here's the recap. Number one, you want to shift from volume to value. Number two, you want to build communities instead of just traffic.

Number three, you want to use content as a journey, not just a one off sales pitch. Number four, you want to leverage micro content for multi channel impact. Number five, you want to embrace authenticity and purpose driven storytelling. Number six, personalize your content with data and AI. Number seven, you want to build trust through featuring individual voices.

And finally, number eight, create interactive experiential content. Okay, now I want to hear from you. What changes have you noticed in content marketing? Are there areas where you're actually struggling to adapt? Drop your questions in the chat and let's talk about it. And if you want more support or strategies or coaching like this, consider joining my Bonfire community.

It's where a bunch of creative pros like you come together to grow and share insights and succeed. Just go to philipvandusen.com/bonfire to learn more about it. So that's it. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, stay inspired and I'll see you in the next one. If you'd like to help support the Brand Design Masters podcast, please rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Also, if you wanna stay up to date on all our content products, courses, and live video shows, head over to philip van dusen.com/muse and sign up for the Brand Muse Newsletter. That's where we share all the latest resources, articles, books, and videos that we recommend to help you build and improve your creative practice, personal brand, and business.

That's philipvandusen.com/muse. Thanks again for listening. Bye for now.