"Content is king" gets tossed around a lot these days, but what does it really mean to run an effective content marketing strategy? I’ve spoken with over 100 brands this year investing in a range of content strategies, each evaluating ROI in their own way. It’s exciting to see so many organizations hiring journalists and investing in data journalism, thought leadership and other research editorial. But there’s a common trend emerging that’s sabotaging efforts from the start — placing content under performance marketing, and expecting the same return in year 1. It makes sense - a successful performance marketing strategy needs great content. So as brands hire journalists to double down on content, shouldn’t it live in the same department? But in doing so, there's a tendency to lose the forest for the trees, evaluating the return on content based on similarly short-term metrics.
This is a huge mistake, and a surefire way to kneecap an otherwise effective content strategy.
As has been demonstrated by countless market leaders - from Zillow to Hubspot - true success with content takes time, but pays out in droves for those who understand the mechanics. Amongst every brand that’s found lasting value in content, there is one theme - those with the long view are seeing real, meaningful returns.
Content Marketing and Performance Marketing - A Flywheel
Performance marketing focuses on driving immediate sales or actions from customers. It targets those who are right on the verge of making a purchase with a mindset of “put a dollar in, get more than a dollar out, measure immediately, iterate.”
The problem is, not every potential customer is ready to purchase today - conventional wisdom says that about 5% of your market is actually in buying mode at any given time. Unfortunately, performance marketing ignores (or is wasted on) the other 95% - entities that may not be potential customers today, but surely will be sometime in the future.
That’s where content comes into play. Content focuses on nurturing future customers, increasing the likelihood they convert, when they are eventually in the 5% of people in buying mode.
Done right, this is gas to pour on your performance marketing efforts. The problem is… performance marketers aren’t used to delayed gratification.
Winning Examples of Successful Long-Term Content Strategies
Some of the most effective content marketing can take years to pay off - with CMO’s having the shortest tenure of any in the C Suite, it can be hard to get buy-in for such long term tests. Fortunately, there are a handful of companies that have taken the longview, and have the receipts to prove this works.
Zillow
Early pioneers like Zillow were some of the first to show the long term power of effective top of funnel content. Anyone who read their local paper in the early 2000’s remembers seeing Zillow’s “market reports” in the local business or real estate section. Through comprehensive reports on market trends continuously fed to readers, Zillow quickly became the household name in what was an otherwise crowded market.
Did most people read that article, click through, and say “I’d like to buy a home with Zillow today?” Of course not. But over the years, consumers were repeatedly presented with Zillow as the authority in home prices and trends…. You can bet that as families looked to buy over time… Zillow was the go-to.
Doubling down, Zillow recruited a chief economist, Dr. Skylar Olsen, driving further credibility to the market analysis and research arm of the brand. Today, the research team produces extensive reports providing deep insights into various complex dynamics within the housing market, and continues to play an important role in their growth.
HubSpot
For nearly two decades, leading marketing and sales platform HubSpot has invested heavily in becoming a publisher in its own right. Starting in the mid-2000s, as digital media fractured traditional advertising, HubSpot took on the challenge of connecting directly with potential customers through independently produced content.
In 2021, they doubled down with their acquisition of newsletter giant The Hustle, instantly broadening their reach across new verticals and audiences. Today, between the Hubspot Podcast Network, The Hustle, and dozens of other forms of owned media, Hubspot has become a veritable business media giant, holding the attention of millions of current and potential future customers every day.
How do I know this works? First hand experience. A story: I started reading The Hustle in 2017 and was a longtime fan. When they launched the MyFirstMillion podcast a couple years later, I became a religious listener. At the time, I had no idea what HubSpot was or what they did
In 2021, HubSpot bought The Hustle/MyFirstMillion, and doubled down on content. None of the content had anything to do with Hubspot, but they replaced the ads with mentions of HubSpot, and for the next four years, Hubspot quietly whispered in my ear that they were associated with innovative marketing strategies, growth hacks, and entrepreneurship.
Earlier this year when our sales ops team was evaluating a new CRM, and one of the options was HubSpot… “ oh, HubSpot,” I said - “ they seem legit.” Spoiler alert: we went with Hubspot.
It took four years of content to convert me. If you had measured ROI in year 1, 2 or 3, you wouldn’t have seen any results. But now we are a customer, and will be for years to come.
The Danger of Applying Performance Metrics to Content Marketing
Many businesses fall into the trap of demanding immediate results from their content marketing efforts. But focusing only on quick wins can severely limit the true potential of a content strategy.
An organization we spoke with who produces erectile dysfunction medication provides a prime example here. Like many healthcare companies, they have a massive, complex performance marketing strategy. Instagram, Google ads, various lead gen partnerships… you name it.
Realizing that no matter how optimized their ad copy was, no one was going to buy ED medicine from a company they have never heard of, they started investing in brand marketing - bus stop ads, commercials, etc. But taking a step back, they realized they needed to go one step further. To buy something this personal, consumers want more than just awareness, they want trust. And content builds trust like nothing else.
Today, the brand invests in a range of editorial - from healthcare advice to surveys to data journalism on healthcare trends. It works wonders, and they have continuously increased investment in the strategy over time.
The Long-Term Payoff of Content Marketing
We often get so caught up in chasing immediate results that we lose sight of the long game. But some of the most effective marketing strategies aren't speed, they're steadiness. They're the tortoise to the hare.
Content is the King Kong of long term. On the surface, churning out blogs, white papers and data journalism may not seem directly tied to sales numbers. But follow the greats - done right, it's laying the groundwork for tremendous future success.
This long-term approach aligns with recent research from Tracksuit and TikTok that has shed compelling new light on the relationship between brand building and performance marketing. Their findings reveal that these aren't competing forces—they're actually perfect complements. A brand that is known to four out of ten consumers is 43% more successful in generating marketing outcomes on TikTok than a brand that is only known to three out of ten people. It powerfully illustrates how brand awareness creates a foundation for all other marketing efforts to thrive.
The compounding effects are what leaders need to trust - stronger recognition today means better performance for other marketing initiatives down the road. Those initialization costs eventually pay massive dividends.
Content marketing done right works hand in glove with performance efforts to drive maximum results - just over a more elongated time horizon rather than quarterly snapshots.
While immediate metrics tempt short-sightedness, brands must recognize content executed properly cultivates incalculable advantages that strengthen the total impact of marketing for years ahead. By establishing subject matter expertise through continuous and thoughtful publishing, a company nurtures the brand recognition and relationships that prime audiences for high converting interactions down the road.
The leaders who commit to this philosophy will steadily reap compounding rewards reflected in deeper loyalty, higher response rates, and ultimately stronger sustained growth than competitors.
For any brand serious about optimizing performance to its fullest extent, making content marketing a priority investment deserves the same data-backed conviction as paid channels. The payoff is just as substantial and long-lasting as performance marketing when done right.
Noah is the cofounder and CEO of Stacker
Featured Image Credit: Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva