can content marketing build brand in 2025

Clayton Smith
Nov 3, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Jan 5

From the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

While the overwhelming majority of marketing messages that customers receive are directly related to sales, content marketing allows for brand building communications that support all stages of the customer journey as well as internal culture initiatives.

From high level metrics around awareness and trust, to direct revenue operations across sales, lead generation and customer loyalty, all the way through to non-revenue related areas like human resources.

I call this 'brand depth'.

Content marketing offers a mechanism to translate everyday operations into sustained brand brand building communications.

content marketing's effect on brand foundations

brand awareness & recognition

Billions are spent every year to ensure that brands are seen.

Sponsorship is a massive brand awareness channel. From sports teams and stadiums to product placement to events and more, keeping a brand name at the forefront of community consciousness is a key plank of any brand operating at scale, especially in b2c markets.

Content marketing offers a fresh approach for brand marketers to build awareness, and not just of the logo and the main tagline.

Whether it's a well executed set of posts on social media, to a set of long form video series or a full brand documentary, messaging not focused on sales is powerful awareness building.

Pitch: for Australian companies looking to tell brand stories, we've pioneered a longer storytelling approach we're calling Brand Documentaries.

brand authority & trust

While advertising and sponsorship can build awareness, authority and trust is a higher bar.

Content provides a vehicle to showcase the expertise behind the brand.

As an example, let's imagine a local florist.

An advertising campaign for a local florist needs to be focused on an event like Valentines Day, or a special deal on a certain product that may be in season.

A small percentage of the market will actually convert to sales. But we can use this chance to communicate more about the brand.

A short video series that showcases the process of preparing for the busy undertaking that is Valentines Day would be an excellent campaign aligned content initiative, that would showcase the amazing people and processes of the business.

brand differentiation

In crowded markets, the differentiator is often not just product but story, aesthetic, values, tone. Content gives you the vehicle to express brand personality, ethos, and style.

I'm sure almost every business in the world would lay claim to some level of differentiation.

What is usually lacking is the way these differentiators are communicated to market, both to loyal customers and potential customers.

Content allows for much broader and deeper communication across customer segments.

Take an music instrument store. While they may stock mandolins and acoustic guitars, this does little to communicate their deep knowledge of bluegrass music.

A series of instrument reviews focused on bluegrass style instruments and suitability and quality for that style of music would communicate true brand expertise.

engagement, loyalty & advocacy

Brand building isn’t just about first-time or one time purchase. Repeat business, referrals and word-of-mouth are crucial.

What is communicated to a customer after a sale a massive brand building opportunity.

Any product with any level of complexity provides a clear opportunity for content; simple how-to's, product care and repair, use case inspiration, the list is endless.

This is absolutely one of most under-utilised aspects of content, reflecting the fact that brand loyalty is under-estimated.

Interestingly, those brands with the most loyal customers are the most valuable.

long-term return on investment

Unlike a one-off ad campaign which stops at campaign end date, evergreen content continues to drive traffic, awareness and leads, along side brand depth.

A content library becomes a repository that adds value over time, strengthens brand presence, and differentiates from competitors who might only transact.

content marketing potholes to avoid

inconsistent messaging

Without a clear and consistent brand voice, content will feel scattered and brand identity will weaken.

low-quality or too sales-heavy content:

Content must deliver on the promise of value, as opposed to a thinly veiled sales message.

lack of audience focus

Lack of focus equals lack of relevance for all audience segments.

neglecting measurement and iteration:

What gets measured gets managed.

no distribution

spending time and money creating content that doesn't get distributed is a fastest way to kill a content initiative.

confusing content marketing with SEO

Content can play important part in search engine optimisation strategies, but the two should not be conflated as the same strategy. I've written a full article on this issue, read it here - Content marketing is not SEO.