10 Lessons ALL Content Marketers Need To Know in 2025

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I was looking at my old Google drive from my agency days and found my 2014 content strategy doc while cleaning out old files.

I'd confidently predicted "blogs will be obsolete by 2017." Ten years and 3,000+ blog posts later, I've compiled what I actually got right.

Here are 10 content marketing truths I've paid for in blood, tears, and client anxiety attacks. No growth hacks – just the stuff that's consistently worked while platforms, algorithms, and buzzwords came and went.

1. The 80/20 Rule of Distribution

Creating great content is only 20% of success; the other 80% comes from how you distribute it. I learned this the hard way after watching countless "perfect" pieces die in obscurity.

We once created over 400 blogs for a client's site and just expected SEO to do the work. Traffic remained modest until we started dicing those same blogs into social content snippets, email newsletters, and guest post opportunities. The audience was always there—they just needed different entry points to the same information.

2. Content Lifespan Varies Dramatically

Not all content is created equal when it comes to shelf life. Social posts might be relevant for just hours, while well-crafted guides can attract readers for years.

I've had LinkedIn posts get thousands of engagements for 48 hours then completely disappear, while SEO-optimized comparison pages from 2019 are still bringing in qualified leads daily. Plan your investment of time and resources accordingly.

I made a whole carousel about this on LinkedIn.

3. People Resist Sales Pitches But Welcome Solutions

When content feels too promotional, people naturally resist it. This explains why educational, helpful content often performs better than direct sales material.

Case in point: A client's "Why Our Software Is Better" page got almost no organic traffic for months. We replaced it with "How to Solve [Industry Problem]" (which mentioned their software as one solution) and saw a 340% traffic increase in 60 days.

4. Platform Adaptation Is Non-Negotiable

While your brand message should stay consistent, how you present it needs to change depending on the platform. What works on LinkedIn will flop on TikTok.

I discovered firsthand how differently LinkedIn and Twitter audiences engage. A single LinkedIn post can be broken into multiple tweets for an effective thread. Interestingly, I found that screenshots of tweets perform surprisingly well across all platforms—a strange cross-platform hack worth testing.

5. The Forgetting Problem Is Real

People forget about 70% of what they consume within 24 hours. Effective content strategies repeat key messages in different ways to help information stick.

This is why we always build content clusters around core themes rather than random one-off pieces. The repetition across formats (blog, social, email, video) dramatically improves retention and conversion rates.

6. Expert Blindness Kills Good Content

The more you know about your field, the harder it becomes to create truly beginner-friendly content. What seems "obvious" to you is revolutionary to someone just starting.

I've come to realize there's a fascinating content paradox—avoid targeting the middle. Content either needs to be accessible for beginners or sophisticated enough for experts.

The "midwit trap" is real—people in the middle knowledge zone often miss the simplicity in things, making them a challenging audience to satisfy.

One of my favourite articles ever happens to be on this.

7. You Can Influence Future Search Behavior

What people read actually shapes what they search for next. Smart content planning can guide customers by influencing their future search behavior.

We've successfully used this technique to help clients own emerging category terms by introducing concepts in easy-to-understand ways that prompt readers to search for more specific information later—information only our client offered.

8. First-Touch Content Gets Undervalued

Content that introduces customers to your brand often gets less credit for sales than content seen right before purchase—despite possibly being more influential.

Attribution models typically overvalue bottom-funnel content while ignoring the blog post that first built trust months earlier. This leads to bad budget decisions and overinvestment in conversion content at the expense of awareness content.

9. Quality vs. Quantity Is a False Choice

The real question isn't whether to produce more or better content—it's how to create systems that allow for both as you scale.

I repeatedly observed that scaling content production almost always results in quality drops. This challenge was so persistent that it actually inspired many of my content frameworks—specifically to solve the problem where more quantity typically means less quality. Great content at scale requires better processes, not just more writers.

This myth is the reason we even started Penfriend in the first place.

10. The Messenger Can Matter More Than the Message

Who delivers your content often matters more than the content itself.

We experienced this firsthand when we began pushing all our content through executive social accounts (CEO/CMO). The content itself remained identical, but engagement and trust metrics significantly improved when the information came from a recognized authority figure rather than the brand account.

What content marketing truths have you discovered in your journey? Hit reply and let me know – I'm always collecting these insights!

✌️ Tim "midwit trapped" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. You want a backlink and some Penfriend credits? I’m building out a new article on the things all beginner content marketers need to know. Reply to this email with your advice and I’ll get you hooked up.