The New Rules of Content Marketing
A guide for people trying to make great content inside the corporate machine.
Last month, Kyle Chayka and co. from One Useful Thing wrote one of my favorite posts of the year: The New Rules of Media. It’s incredible advice on succeeding in a media world that increasingly feels like the Thunderdome.
Since then, I’ve been thinking: What’s the version of this for ‘content marketers’—specifically, the media industry refugees who decided to make a living by working brand-side instead of starting a paid Substack? After all, these are my people. They’re why I spent 8 years building Contently and wrote my first book. And they’re facing a lot of the same challenges, but in a much different context. Much of the Chayka and co’s excellent advice applies, but there are always fresh twists when you’re in the corporate machinery, battling some asshole named Theo in “growth” for budget.
After years spent running content teams at tech companies and a half-decade doing the CMO thing, I’ve learned that the hard way — and witnessed some massive shifts. So, to kick off 2025, I give you: The New Rules of Content Marketing.
People want to follow people, not brands, and the algorithms know this. When was the last time you engaged with a post from a brand? When was the last time you even saw one, unless it was sponsored? The only effective way to reach people anymore is through internal and external influencers who have built trust with your target audience.
As the One Useful Thing crew write: “Everything is a personality cult, and maybe just a cult. You have to cultivate your own, no matter how small.”
If you’re running content at a B2B company, your job used to be developing a roster of writers and video editors; now, your job is to develop a roster of creators/influencers your audience trusts. The best ones work at your company. If your target audience is marketers, tap your CMO and other marketers on your team. If your target audience is engineers, those people should be engineers. The founder / CEO always works, too, if they’ve got a little bit of rizz. (Watch May Habib of Writer or Kieran Flanagan of Zapier do their thing — it’s a masterclass.)
That content needs to come directly from your internal influencers' personal accounts. Your most challenging job is teaching these people how to be creators with compelling perspectives. Most smart people have strong takes on their industry, but you need to suck it out of them like you’re their underpaid therapist. It’s like one big episode of Shrinking, except with way less day drinking.
You can’t outsource this to GenAI. Everyone will say you can, but that’s BS because a) prying your CEO with alcohol really does help and b) ChatGPT is too chickenshit to politely tell them that their writing sucks.
Every substantial piece of text content should also be a video, and that content should be made by a savvy 23-year-old on their phone.
That video-savvy 23-year-old is the most important person on your team. Hire them today. They’ll keep you from getting old. It’s like having a blood boy for your content brain.
Partner with external influencers your audience trusts, ideally creating an ecosystem where they benefit from one another. Hubspot’s podcast network works brilliantly because the creators grow their audience by being part of it.
Passion matters. You have to love creating and be genuinely interested in your company’s industry. People can tell when you’re mailing it in — it’s like when you get set up on a blind date and two minutes in, you’re like, “Oh no, she’s just here because our Jewish moms play pickleball together.” No one wants to be there if you don’t want to be there. If you’re bored, get out. It’s not worth it.
The old SEO playbook is dead, thank god. For two decades, marketers have been obsessed with creating generic blog posts like “What is Content Marketing?” in hopes of driving cheap traffic that rarely converts. But now, 99.2% of informational searches return an AI Overview, which means that creating informational content is pointless; it won’t drive clicks.
No one wants to download your e-book. No piece of content is worth the price of being harassed by a desperate 22-year-old SDR terrified that their desperate manager will replace them with AI if they don’t hit their inbound lead quota. You’re self-sabotaging by putting your best content behind a form.
You need to play the attribution game. That means learning to use Hubspot, Marketo, Salesforce, or whatever your marketing automation and CRM system is. If you don’t, you’ll watch a growth marketer swoop in, ransack your content program, and churn out awful ChatGPT-produced content that looks successful because it’s rigged to get credit for leads and revenue no matter what. (This is way more common than you think. Marketers love to say, “The data doesn’t lie!” when they secretly know the marketing and sales data is almost always lying.) The only way to win is to learn how your attribution system works and fight back. It’s the best way to get the budget to create content that people actually like.
The second-best way to get budget is to make your CEO feel loved on LinkedIn. They almost certainly didn’t get enough unconditional affection as a child. Use that.
People will tell you to “be everywhere on social!” but 99% of the time, the result is thin content littered around the web that makes your brand look like it was hijacked by the free version of ChatGPT. Unless you have a massive team, focus on being great at a few channels where your audience spends most of their time.
One of those channels better be email because email will never die, and the social platforms will betray you. It’s only a matter of time. Don’t rent, own.
Stop saying “snackable content.” It’s not 2014. You sound ancient. And like an asshole. This is important enough that it gets its own rule.
Automate the BS. Most marketing work is a soul-sucking time pit. Persona documents. Decks. Landing page copy. Email nurtures. List cleaning. Claude and ChatGPT can do most of that at a B+ level. Reinvest that time by telling great stories that your audience loves and gives you pride.
Always ask yourself: Would I read this? No one wants to read your event recap blog post. 5 Takeaways From Our CFO Roundtable. Unless that takeaway is a giant Hamburglar bag of Big Macs, go away. Seventy-five percent of the content marketers create is useless and created out of habit.
Original research and data storytelling still works. More people are creating content than ever, but fewer people are creating something new. Create the fuel that powers your industry’s content machine. Original research is surprisingly inexpensive — I just ran an in-depth survey of CTOs for less than $6K. But if you want it to take off, you need to package it in a way that’ll get attention — graphics, reels, and soundbites with a clear hook.
The Substackification of Media is peaking. Press from Substacks, podcasts, and industry influencers drive more interest and influence than brand-name pubs. Again, people want to trust and follow people, not brands. Adjust your media outreach strategy accordingly.
You’re more valuable than ever. It may not feel like it, but corporate marketing teams and social platforms are suffocating themselves with AI slop, and the backlash has just begun. Audiences will seek curated content from people they trust. People with great taste and storytelling skills will see their value skyrocket. Hang in there. This is your year.
If you made it to the end, you may also like:
Recommended Reads
I Kinda Hate the Internet Now (Stephen Moore / Trend Mill): A thoroughly cathartic rant on how we’ve ruined the internet. You’ll enjoy it.
A Time We Never Knew (Freya India /After Babel): A fantastic essay that’s left me talking to everyone I know about anemoia. How do I have any friends?
The Guest (Emma Cline): There’s nothing more escapist than a great beach read in the winter.
I’m the best-selling author of The Storytelling Edge and a content nerd. Subscribe to this newsletter to get storytelling and audience-building strategies in your inbox each week.
How I used GenAI in this post (Read this post for why I think disclosing this is important / useful):
Not much for this one. I asked Claude for B2B influencer marketing examples, and ultimately realized that I had better ones than anything it suggested.
Bravo! This is one of the most honest, accurate, and flat-out "on" posts I've seen in a very long time!
Loving your substack. Finally reading something sensible on AI usage. Thanks much!