5 Content Marketing Ideas for February 2025

Content drives search engine optimization and email and social media marketing, providing the fuel for each.

In February 2025, content marketers will almost certainly address Valentine’s Day, but they might also consider the “Peanuts” cartoon creator, Pet Rocks, movies, “Cinderella,” and shopper engagement.

What follows are five content marketing ideas for your business.

Remember Charles M. Schulz

American cartoonist Charles Schulz passed away on February 12, 2000.

Schulz created the beloved comic strip “Peanuts” in 1950, introducing the world to Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock, and many other engaging characters.

The anniversary of Schulz’s death presents a content marketing opportunity for retailers of licensed “Peanuts” products. For example, publishing a commemorative blog post seems appropriate for knitting supplier Stitch & Story, which has a “Peanuts” collection.

The “Peanuts” connection, however, can go beyond licensing. Nearly any content marketer should be able to find a connection, publishing what-if articles or nostalgic essays.

For example, an online store selling musical instruments could publish a new review of the late pianist Cinve Guaraldi’s “Peanuts Greatest Hits” jazz album.

Moreover, any Schulz or “Peanuts” content published in February 2025 may also be helpful on October 2, when the comic strip itself celebrates its 75th anniversary.

Propose a Pet [insert product] Video

In 1975, Gary Dahl had an idea that demonstrated the power of advertising and copywriting. Sell rocks.

According to published reports, Dahl conceived the “Pet Rock” fad while chatting with friends about pets at a bar.

Soon, he sourced small, smooth stones from beaches in Mexico, wrote a 32-page instruction and care manual, and secured two investors to launch the products. By February 1976, more than a million “Pet Rocks” had been sold at an average price of $4.

Dahl was an instant millionaire.

In February 2025, clever content marketers might borrow from Dahl’s ideas and create videos about their pet products. The content doesn’t need to be about a real “pet,” but it should be a fun way to promote the products a store sells.

Global Movie Day

Celebrated on the second Saturday of February (the 8th in 2025), Global Movie Day aims to promote the film industry and recognize the influence movies, such as Captain America, have on culture.

For content marketers, the event is an opportunity to include movie-themed keyword phrases in articles that feature the products a store sells and the markets it serves.

Content could take a few forms.

• Articles about how a specific film influenced products,
• Movie reviews,
• Videos, posts, and podcasts about the film industry’s cultural impact.

Disney’s Cinderella Turns 75

First released on February 15, 1950, Disney’s classic animated film “Cinderella” was an instant hit with parents and children alike.

The story features themes of love, home, and transformation, which still resonate with consumers.

Content marketers could take a few approaches with “Cinderella,” but one of the best might be how-to posts and tutorials. Here are some example article titles. Each could provide detailed instructions and a recommended product list featuring items the store sells.

• Kitchen supply store: “Create an Anniversary Dinner with Cinderella-Inspired Table Settings.”
• A lady’s apparel shop: “Incorporate Princess Elements into Modern Wardrobes.”
• A garden supply retailer: “Landscaping Inspiration from Cinderella’s Castle Grounds.”
• A cleaning supply shop: “The Art and Science of Floor Scrubbing.”

Start a Monthly Update

This idea comes from the software-as-a-service industry, where lifecycle marketers share statistical and performance updates with customers.

For example, the clothier Men’s Warehouse regularly sends a reward points message, updating shoppers on their points balance and encouraging its use.

In February, content marketers could launch a monthly update personalized to loyal shoppers. It could include reward information, similar to Men’s Warehouse, but go further, with blog posts, discounts on new products, and early access to items.

The aim is to give shoppers an ongoing reason to engage.

Revolutionizing Marketing: The Rise Of Situational Content Strategies via @sejournal, @Juxtacognition

Content marketing is experiencing a paradigm shift.

For decades, marketers have relied on the traditional funnel – a linear model designed to move consumers from awareness to action. But, as consumer behavior evolves, so must the strategies that guide them.

The rigid structure of the traditional funnel no longer aligns with the complexities of modern decision-making.

Enter situational content marketing – a dynamic approach that recognizes the nuances of consumer contexts and tailors content to specific moments within their journey.

This method doesn’t just target audience segments based on demographics or personas. It considers the situations consumers find themselves in, the decisions they need to make, and the triggers influencing those decisions.

The result?

A more adaptive, empathetic, and impactful content strategy that resonates with audiences in real-time.

The Evolution Of The Marketing Funnel: The Rise Of Situational Targeting

Traditional marketing funnels rely on broad audience segmentation – grouping individuals by demographic or psychographic traits and attempting to guide them through predefined stages: awareness, interest, decision, and action (AIDA).

However, this static model assumes that all individuals in a segment behave uniformly and progress linearly.

The reality is far more nuanced.

Consumer journeys are shaped by their immediate circumstances:

• Are they in a hurry, or do they have time to research?
• Are they making a routine purchase or evaluating a significant investment?
• Are external factors like social influence or emotional states affecting their choices?

Recognizing these factors, situational content marketing shifts the focus from targeting broad audience types to addressing specific contexts within the funnel.

This strategy allows brands to engage consumers with content that aligns with their immediate needs, emotions, and priorities.

Read More: What Is A Conversion Funnel? Optimize Your Customer Journey

High-Effort Vs. Low-Effort Purchases

A cornerstone of situational content marketing is understanding the effort a consumer is willing to invest in a decision.

Purchases fall along a continuum:

• High-effort purchases require significant cognitive, emotional, and time investment. These include major financial or lifestyle decisions like buying a car, choosing a college, or purchasing a home.
• Low-effort purchases are quick, habitual, or impulsive, involving minimal thought or research. Examples include grabbing a candy bar, choosing a subscription service, or buying a soft drink at a convenience store.

This distinction influences the type of content required to guide consumers.

High-effort decisions demand detailed, trust-building content, while low-effort decisions benefit from simple, emotionally engaging messages.

Rethinking The AIDA Funnel: The Reality Of Consumer Behavior

The traditional AIDA model suggests that marketing moves consumers through a sequential process:

• Awareness: Capturing attention with ads or promotions.
• Interest: Engaging the audience with content or messaging.
• Decision: Influencing choices through comparisons or benefits.
• Action: Driving conversions through compelling calls to action.

Limitations Of The Traditional Funnel

Unfortunately, the AIDA model doesn’t account for the dynamic and situational nature of modern decision-making.

Instead of progressing step-by-step, consumers:

• Combine new information with pre-existing mental databanks.
• Use shortcuts (heuristics) to simplify decisions in overwhelming or high-choice environments.
• Respond to external triggers, such as ads or social recommendations, that bypass some funnel stages entirely.

The Complex Reality Of Consumer Journeys

Instead of following a clear progression, consumers often take fragmented paths influenced by their unique situations and prior knowledge.

Key behaviors that disrupt the AIDA framework include:

• Skipping Stages: A consumer might move directly from awareness to action if they encounter a strong emotional trigger or social proof.
  • Example: A social media ad for a trending product might lead to an impulse purchase without requiring further engagement or research.
• Looping Back: Consumers may revisit earlier stages, such as moving from decision-making back to interest as they seek additional information or alternatives.
  • Example: A potential buyer researching laptops might decide on a brand and then return to exploring reviews after discovering a competitor’s offer.
• Blending Stages: Awareness, interest, and decision-making often happen simultaneously as consumers interact with multiple touchpoints.
  • Example: A targeted Instagram ad may simultaneously capture attention, spark interest, and showcase key benefits, collapsing multiple AIDA stages into one interaction.

Situational Content Marketing: A Fluid Alternative

In contrast to the rigid AIDA model, situational content marketing aligns with the fluid, dynamic nature of consumer journeys.

This approach acknowledges that decision-making is rarely sequential; it is situational and influenced by context, timing, and triggers.

Mental databanks act as the foundation for choices, pulling in impressions and associations from past experiences. Each interaction is an opportunity to build or strengthen these databanks, making the brand more memorable and accessible.

Instead of methodically weighing options at each stage, individuals rely on mental shortcuts shaped by numerous factors, including:

• Prior Experiences: Positive interactions with a brand, product, service, or experience can solidify loyalty and trust.
• Emotional Triggers: Nostalgia, humor, memories, or fear can drive decisions without detailed deliberation.
• Environmental And Social Factors: Recommendations from friends or influencers, the opinions, values, and morals of a society, and other external factors can heavily influence choices.

These factors create a mental databank of brand impressions and associations that consumers draw upon when making decisions.

What Are Mental Consumer Databanks?

Mental consumer databanks are what I call the wide range of information, behaviors, attitudes, judgments, and experiences stored by a consumer that are relevant to a buyer journey, including:

Emotional Associations

Consumers often tie products and brands to memories, feelings, or experiences.

Emotional connections are powerful because they create deep, lasting impressions that don’t require logical reinforcement.

Example: A favorite chocolate bar may evoke nostalgia for childhood or comfort during stressful moments.

Brand Impressions

Consistency in positive experiences builds strong brand impressions over time.

Positive impressions ensure a brand becomes synonymous with certain qualities, making it an easy choice during decision-making.

Example: Tesla is often associated with innovation, sustainability, and cutting-edge technology due to its consistent branding and messaging.

Social Identity

Brands often act as signals of group membership or personal values.

Consumers align with brands that reflect their desired self-image or societal affiliations.

Example: Wearing a Rolex conveys sophistication and success, while using a reusable water bottle might signal environmental consciousness.

How Mental Databanks Influence Recall And Decisions

Consumers don’t start from scratch when they encounter a need or situation that prompts a decision.

Instead, they draw on their mental databanks to identify familiar brands and options. Several key factors influence this process:

• Habitual Recall: Familiarity breeds preference. Consumers are more likely to recall and choose brands they’ve interacted with regularly.
  • Example: A shopper craving chocolate automatically reaches for a Mars bar because it’s a habitual choice, even if there are new or similar options available.
• Preference Formation: Past experiences and comparisons shape preferences. Over time, these preferences dominate decision-making.
  • Example. A consumer who consistently chooses Apple products because of their reliability may skip evaluating competitors entirely when upgrading their phone.
• Memory-Based Connections: Mental databanks link brands to broader networks of concepts, enhancing recall speed and confidence.
  • Example: Coca-Cola might be linked to happiness, holidays, or refreshing moments, making it the first brand a consumer considers when thinking about soft drinks.
• Social And Situational Triggers: External cues, such as group behavior or advertising, can activate mental databanks, prompting recall.
  • Example: Seeing an influencer wear a particular sneaker brand might remind a consumer of their own desire to belong to that social group, leading to a purchase.

Building And Strengthening Mental Databanks

Brands that consistently reinforce positive associations are more likely to occupy a strong position in consumers’ mental databanks.

Here’s how:

• Emotional Storytelling: Craft narratives that evoke emotions and create memorable connections.
  • Example: A pet food brand shares real stories of rescued animals thriving after being fed its products, tying its brand to compassion and care.
• Consistent Brand Messaging: Maintain a uniform tone, imagery, and message across all platforms and campaigns.
  • Example: Nike consistently reinforces its “Just Do It” mantra, linking the brand to motivation and achievement.
• Repetition With Variation: Regular exposure to a brand strengthens recall, but variation keeps it engaging.
  • Example: A beverage company creates multiple ads around the theme of “refreshment” but tailors each to a specific situation, like a summer picnic or a post-workout moment.
• Social Proof: Use testimonials, reviews, and endorsements to build trust and credibility.
  • Example. A software company highlights customer success stories, showing how its product solves specific problems.
• Category Dominance: Ensure the brand becomes synonymous with a product category by consistently outperforming competitors in visibility and messaging.
  • Example: Google’s consistent dominance in search engines has made its name interchangeable with the act of searching online (“to Google”).

Mental Databanks In Action

Wrong Approach

Scenario: The same agency runs a generic ad saying, “Get the best SEO services here.”

Outcome: Without addressing the specific needs or context of ecommerce businesses, the ad fails to resonate.

The lack of tailored messaging means the agency doesn’t establish a strong position in the mental databank of potential clients, making them less likely to be recalled during decision-making.

Right Approach

Scenario: A digital marketing agency wants to be the go-to choice for ecommerce businesses looking for SEO services.

Strategy:

• Use targeted ads that highlight specific pain points, such as “Boost your holiday sales with tailored SEO strategies.”
• Leverage search and display ads on platforms like Google Ads to ensure visibility when users search for terms like “ecommerce SEO help” or “SEO for online stores.”
• Reinforce the message by running retargeting campaigns with testimonials or case studies that showcase results (e.g., “See how we increased XYZ Store’s traffic by 150% in 3 months”).
• Build situational relevance by timing ads during peak planning periods, such as before major shopping seasons or when Google algorithm updates are announced.

Why Mental Databanks Are Essential For Situational Content

• Improved Recall: Consumers are more likely to recall brands that occupy a strong position in their mental databanks when facing decisions.
• Reduced Decision Fatigue: Familiarity reduces the cognitive load of decision-making, making consumers more likely to choose a brand they know well. For example, a busy parent will use Cheerios for their child’s breakfast without comparing it to other cereals because it’s a trusted choice.
• Enhanced Emotional Engagement: Brands tied to positive emotions or memories are more likely to generate repeat purchases. This is why Coke releases holiday ads each year. They reinforce happiness and nostalgia, prompting loyal purchases during the festive season.

Maximizing The Impact Of Situational Triggers

Effectively leveraging situational triggers requires marketers to tailor their strategies based on the decision-making context, consumer behavior, and external influences.

By incorporating insights into how and why people make choices, brands can craft campaigns that resonate deeply and drive action.

1. Analyze The Decision Context

High-Effort Decisions: Provide detailed, logical, and emotionally compelling content that addresses the consumer’s need for thorough research and justification.

Tactics:

• Use in-depth resources like whitepapers, detailed case studies, or comparison charts.
• Highlight long-term benefits, such as cost savings, increased efficiency, or alignment with values like sustainability.
• To empower informed decision-making, provide interactive tools like ROI calculators or product demos.

Example: A SaaS company offers a downloadable ebook titled, “How to Choose the Right CRM for Your Business,” comparing features, costs, and user reviews.

Low-Effort Decisions: Focus on convenience, simplicity, and immediate gratification to capture impulse purchases or habitual behaviors.

Tactics:

• Leverage quick calls-to-action, such as “Sign Up in Seconds” or “Try Free Today.”
• Position products as easily accessible, with minimal effort required to get started.
• Use repetition and visual cues to reinforce brand familiarity.

Example: A subscription box service runs ads with, “Start Your First Box for Only $5 – No Commitment,” simplifying the decision.

2. Leverage Emotional And Cognitive Factors

Human decisions are rarely purely rational. Emotional and cognitive elements, such as trust, nostalgia, and perceived value, play a critical role.

Emotional Factors:

• Build Trust: Highlight endorsements from trusted figures, such as industry experts or well-known influencers. Use real testimonials to build credibility and authenticity.
• Evoke Nostalgia: Incorporate imagery or messaging that taps into positive past experiences.
• Utilize Emotional Contagion: Align your brand with trending movements or shared cultural values. For example, a fitness platform connects its messaging to self-improvement trends with, “Achieve More Every Day with Our All-in-One Tracker.”

Cognitive Factors:

• Simplify Information: Use short, clear messages that are easy to recall. Present information in lists, mnemonics, or frequently repeated formats for memorability.
• Enhance Perceived Value: Highlight the benefits in direct comparisons to competitors. For example, a hosting provider might advertise, “Faster Speeds, Unlimited Bandwidth – 30% Cheaper than the Competition.”

3. Emphasize Relevance

Relevance is one of the most critical factors in capturing consumer attention and aligning with situational triggers. Ads and content should feel timely, personal, and well-placed.

Timing

Serve ads during key decision-making moments or leverage real-time data to align with situational needs.

Example: A coffee delivery service offers geo-targeted promotions during morning rush hours.

Placement

Ensure your ads appear where consumers most likely need or notice them. Or, use contextual relevance to align with immediate consumer behavior.

Example: An ecommerce platform runs retargeting ads for abandoned cart items during payday periods.

Personalization

Tailor messaging to specific audiences based on their behaviors, demographics, and locations.

Example: A digital marketing agency might create dynamic ads targeting ecommerce businesses during Black Friday with messages like, “Optimize Your Campaigns in Time for the Big Sale.”

4. Build And Reinforce Mental Databanks

Effective use of situational triggers strengthens a brand’s position in the consumer’s mental databank.

Once your brand occupies a dominant position, it’s more likely to be recalled during decision-making moments.

• Repetition: Repeat key messages across channels while maintaining consistency in tone and visuals.
• Association: Pair your brand with positive emotions or aspirational goals. Use evaluative conditioning to link your product with other trusted or well-known elements.
• Social Proof: Display testimonials, user reviews, or real-time activity.

5. Engage Consumers Across Stages

Situational triggers can vary throughout the buying journey. Marketers should align their strategies with the various stages while maintaining situational relevance.

• Awareness: Capture attention with emotional, engaging content. Here, we might create a PPC ad for a graphic design tool that uses humor and vibrant visuals to stand out in crowded feeds.
• Mental Databank Building: Provide informational content that builds trust and showcases benefits. For this stage, we’d recommend that a webinar platform offers a video guide, “5 Steps to Increase Your Virtual Event Attendance,” for businesses exploring new solutions.
• Buying Decision: Highlight urgency and ease of adoption to nudge consumers. A prime example of this would be a direct email that says, “Sign Up Today and Get 3 Months Free – Limited Offer.”
• The Purchase: Remove friction by simplifying processes. Here, for example, the message above the conversion (sign-up form) might be, “Start Your Free Trial in Under 60 Seconds.”

Practical Applications Of Situational Content

The success of situational content marketing hinges on its ability to respond dynamically to consumer behaviors, needs, and external contexts.

Here are some key practical applications and provide actionable tips to maximize the impact of your situational content.

1. AI-Driven Personalization

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, brands can analyze consumer behavior, preferences, and location to deliver hyper-personalized messages in real-time.

AI tools analyze browsing history, past purchases, and engagement patterns to predict what a consumer is likely to want or need next.

Recommendations, dynamic ads, and email campaigns are tailored to the individual consumer’s behavior or preferences.

Tips For Implementation

• Use AI to create product recommendations that reflect a user’s recent interactions with your site or app.
• Employ personalized email campaigns triggered by specific actions, such as abandoned carts or product views.

Examples

• Wrong Approach: The same platform sends a generic email blast promoting unrelated products, which fails to engage the consumer based on their unique behavior.
• Right Approach: An ecommerce platform uses AI to send a personalized email saying, “You left this in your cart!” with a discount code, increasing the likelihood of purchase.

Pro Tip: Combine AI personalization with location-based targeting to deliver even more relevant content. For example, promote rain gear to users in regions experiencing bad weather.

2. Dynamic Messaging

Dynamic messaging allows content to adapt in real-time to external factors like weather, trending topics, time of day, or even breaking news.

It ensures that marketing messages remain timely and resonate with the consumer’s immediate environment.

Dynamic ads adjust text, visuals, or offers based on triggers like location, time, or current events. Social media and display ads are updated to reflect relevant, real-time events.

Tips For Implementation

• Create ads that adapt to weather patterns. For example, promote warm drinks during cold weather or sunscreen during a heatwave.
• Use trending hashtags or cultural moments to tailor your messaging for relevancy.
• Update homepage banners or promotional content based on calendar events, such as holidays or major industry conferences.

Examples:

• Wrong Approach: The same service uses generic messaging like, “Order now!” that doesn’t reflect the immediate weather conditions or consumer needs.
• Right Approach: A food delivery service runs geo-targeted ads that say, “Craving something warm? Get 20% off soup deliveries during today’s snowstorm.”

Pro Tip: Monitor consumer sentiment around trending events to ensure your messaging aligns with the mood and tone of your audience.

3. Lifecycle Strategies

Tailoring content to match the consumer’s position in the customer journey, from initial discovery to post-purchase retention, ensures relevance and nurtures long-term relationships.

Map out the stages of the customer journey: awareness, education/information gathering, consideration, decision, and loyalty.

Then, align messaging, offers, and content types to each stage, addressing specific needs or pain points.

Tips For Implementation

• Awareness Stage: Create engaging, informative content to introduce your brand and attract new audiences. Focus on content that builds brand visibility and educates potential customers about their problems.
  • Examples: Blog posts, social media campaigns, SEO-optimized articles, or short-form video content (e.g., TikToks or Reels).
• Education/Information Gathering Stage: Provide content that educates your audience and helps them understand potential solutions. Focus on addressing common questions or misconceptions.
  • Examples: Educational webinars, ebooks, guides, and detailed FAQ pages that position your brand as a thought leader.
• Consideration Stage: Offer comparative resources that help prospects evaluate their options and understand how your product or service stands out. Emphasize credibility and value.
  • Examples: Case studies, video tutorials, product demos, and side-by-side feature comparisons.
• Decision Stage: Encourage conversions with content that reduces risk and creates urgency. Highlight why your offering is the best choice and provide incentives to act.
  • Examples: Limited-time offers, customer testimonials, free trials, or discount codes.
• Loyalty Stage: Focus on retaining customers and fostering long-term relationships. Deliver content that rewards loyalty, introduces additional offerings, and keeps your brand top-of-mind.
  • Examples: Personalized rewards, upsell opportunities, exclusive offers, and invitations to community events or feedback surveys.

Examples

• Wrong Approach: The same platform uses a single, generic campaign across all stages, offering no differentiation between audiences. This fails to meet specific needs, leading to disengagement and missed opportunities.
• Right Approach: A project management software platform creates content tailored to each stage:
  • Awareness: Blog articles like “Top 10 Project Management Challenges (and How to Solve Them).”
  • Education/Information Gathering: A free webinar titled, “How to Streamline Your Workflows with Modern Tools.”
  • Consideration: A downloadable comparison chart showing how their platform stacks up against competitors.
  • Decision: A limited-time offer of “50% Off Your First 3 Months” for trial users.
  • Loyalty: Regular newsletters highlighting new features and exclusive discounts for annual renewals.

Pro Tip: Use automated workflows to trigger lifecycle-specific messaging at the right time. For example, send a “How-to” email series for new users and a renewal reminder with perks for long-term customers.

4. Retargeting Based On Consumer Behavior

Retargeting uses tracking data to re-engage consumers who have interacted with your brand but haven’t converted yet. It’s particularly effective for aligning situational content with high-intent audiences.

Display ads or email campaigns are triggered based on behaviors like abandoned carts, product views, or site visits. Dynamic retargeting serves ads featuring the exact products or services the consumer explored.

Tips For Implementation

• Offer exclusive discounts or limited-time offers in retargeting ads to create urgency.
• Showcase customer reviews or testimonials to address lingering concerns.

Examples

• Wrong Approach: The same retailer runs retargeting ads featuring unrelated equipment, missing the opportunity to personalize.
• Right Approach: A fitness equipment retailer retargets users who viewed a treadmill with ads featuring a discount and testimonials from satisfied customers.
  

Pro Tip: Use retargeting not just for abandoned carts but also for upselling or cross-selling related products to existing customers.

5. Context-Aware Content Placement

Placing content in environments where it feels natural and relevant enhances consumer engagement and reduces the likelihood of being ignored.

Identify consumer habits and behaviors to determine the best platforms and moments to engage them. Use tools like heatmaps, traffic data, and social listening to pinpoint where and when your audience is most active.

Serve ads on platforms where your target audience spends the most time. Use platform-specific features, such as Instagram Stories or LinkedIn carousel ads, to tailor your message.

Examples

• Wrong Approach: The same agency runs generic ads on a gaming website, where their target audience is unlikely to engage.
• Right Approach: A digital marketing agency uses LinkedIn ads to promote a whitepaper about SEO strategies for businesses targeting B2B audiences.

Pro Tip: Match the tone and format of your content to the platform. Professional content performs better on LinkedIn, while visually engaging content thrives on Instagram.

The Future Of Funnels: From Funnels To Ecosystems

The traditional marketing funnel is being transformed. In a world where consumer behavior is more fragmented and situational than ever, marketers are reimagining this framework into something more fluid, adaptable, and human-centric.

The future of content marketing recognizes that consumers don’t follow predictable paths. Instead, they jump between stages, influenced by shifting priorities, real-time needs, and external triggers.

Rather than moving consumers step-by-step through awareness, consideration, and decision, the funnel is evolving into an ecosystem – a dynamic model that recognizes the interconnected and iterative nature of consumer behavior.

Success is no longer defined by immediate conversion. The goal is to create value at every stage of the journey, building relationships that transcend individual transactions.

As we enter 2025, marketers must embrace flexibility, leveraging technology and empathy to adapt to the complexities of real-world consumer behavior.

More Resources:

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Featured Image: Jack_the_sparrow/Shutterstock

Large Reasoning Models Speed Content Marketing

New generative AI models capable of problem-solving and complex reasoning can streamline content planning and creation. Even marketers who are reticent to publish AI-generated articles may find the new models make excellent research assistants.

Google Gemini’s Deep Research and OpenAI’s o1 represent a new category of generative artificial intelligence called large reasoning models (LRMs) or sometimes long-reasoning models.

LRMs for Marketing

LRMs are trained to approximate reasoning and decision-making based on logical sequences. LRMs “think” before generating — different from their close cousins, large language models.

LRMs assist in tasks requiring logical analysis — i.e., research — such as collecting and organizing information, which is especially useful for content marketers.

To illustrate, consider three content marketing needs for my online print-on-demand t-shirt business. I publish articles on that site to garner search engine traffic and encourage newsletter subscriptions. Then I use the newsletter to promote t-shirts.

The business needs:

• Topic ideas,
• Article briefs,
• Social media planning.

Topic ideas

A content-then-commerce model such as my t-shirt shop requires nonstop publishing and hence a near endless supply of search-engine-friendly article topics.

I asked Gemini to create a list of topics related to Superman and current events (an odd combination, but it makes sense for the site), as follows.

Research Superman comics, television shows, and movies identifying plots and themes which are similar to current events or trends.

For each of the top five trends you discover, create three article topics for a science fiction website. These topics should reflect the intersection of the Superman plot or theme and the current event.

Gemini then scoured the internet, fetching content that might have taken hours for a human. The LRM responded with a plan of action. It would find articles on the internet that described common themes in Superman stories and compare them to articles about current events:

Superman’s Reflection in Modern Times

8 Research Websites

Research Superman comics, television shows, and movies identifying plots and themes which are similar to current events or trends.

For each of the top five trends you discover, create three article topics for a science fiction website. These topics should reflect the intersection of the Superman plot or theme and the current event.

(1) Find articles and analyses discussing recurring themes and plots in Superman comics, television shows, and movies.
(2) Find articles and analyses discussing current events and trends in various areas such as politics, technology, social issues, and the environment.
(3) Compare the themes and plots identified in (1) with the current events and trends identified in (2) to find similarities or parallels.
(4) For each of the top five trends identified in (3), create three article topics for a science fiction website that explore the intersection of the Superman plot or theme and the current event.

In 3 minutes, Gemini reviewed 71 websites, analyzed them, and returned five themes:

• Superman as a Reflection of Societal Anxieties
• Superman in the Age of Technology
• Superman and Social Justice
• Superman and the Environment
• Superman as a Symbol of Hope

Each theme included three topic suggestions. The best came from “Superman in the Age of Technology”:

• What if Superman Had a Smartphone? (No More Phone Booths). Humorous take on a classic Superman trope and modern technology.

• Did Superman Comics Predict the Metaverse? (It’s the Phantom Zone). Draws a parallel between a Superman concept and a current tech trend.

• Superman’s Super-Speed vs. Elon Musk’s Hyperloop. Who’s Faster?. Pits Superman against a modern technological innovation in a lighthearted competition.

Article briefs

My content-then-commerce website retains freelance writers who receive a topic and an article brief as a guide. Yet even a brief requires a fair amount of research, so I asked Gemini’s Deep Research model for help.

First, I prompted Gemini to investigate the topic. In this case, I requested broad info on the evolution of military science fiction novels, prompting, “Research the military science fiction sub-genre from 1890 until 2001 and identify how military sci-fi has evolved.”

Gemini responded:

Here’s the plan I’ve put together. Let me know if you need any changes before I start researching.

Evolving Military Sci-Fi

Research Websites

Research the military science fiction sub-genre from 1890 until 2001 and identify how military sci-fi has evolved by:
(1) Find books and articles discussing the history of military science fiction.
(2) Find lists of military science fiction works published between 1890 and 2001.
(3) Read and analyze a selection of military science fiction works from different periods within the specified timeframe…

As with the topic example, Gemini offered a research plan, which I approved. About 4 minutes later, the AI produced a 3,091-word research summary backed by 25 sources.

Next, I prompted Gemini to produce an article brief to provide clear, focused direction to the writer while giving him creative flexibility to craft an engaging piece.

The AI then produced a brief complete with target keywords, demographic data, a list of reader interests and concerns, several key themes to cover, and sources.

The brief is a gem because this ecommerce shop attracts shoppers via informational or entertainment intent search traffic.

Social media planning

My t-shirt business’s third need is help with publishing on X.

I surveyed top customers — men over 50 — and learned that many use X as their primary social media platform. Unfortunately, the t-shirt business did not have an X account.

Thus I asked Gemini to research the best ways to grow an audience on the platform. Following the now familiar pattern, the AI model created a plan I could accept or edit to ensure the model was on track:

Here’s a research plan for that topic. If you need to update it, let me know!

Growing an Audience on X

Research Websites

Research publisher best practices for the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform and report on the best techniques for growing an audience on the platform by:

(1) Find articles and guides on publisher best practices for X. If there are too many articles, limit to a couple that are most relevant.
(2) Find case studies of successful publishers on X.
(3) Find information on the X algorithm and how it affects content visibility.
(4) Find information on the different types of content that perform well on X.
(5) Find information on the best times to post on X.
(6) Find information on the best ways to engage with other users on X.
(7) Find information on the best tools and resources for growing an audience on X.
(8) Based on your research, write a report summarizing the best techniques for growing an audience on X.

Content Research

LRMs are among the most recent AI tools and a significant time saver for research-heavy content. Used well, the models speed up time-consuming and repetitive tasks to get more work done.

5 Content Marketing Ideas for January 2025

January is a month of new opportunities. In 2025, content marketers can kick the year off right, focusing on resets, AI-driven repurposes, cheese, hobbies, and even opposites.

Content marketing is the act of curating or creating articles, videos, or podcasts to attract, engage, and retain customers.

For merchants, content is often a key to successful search engine optimization and the foundation for social media marketing.

What follows are five content marketing ideas your business can try in January 2025.

January Reset

The new year is synonymous with fresh starts. Roughly 30% of American adults set resolutions to be healthier, more productive, or better organized.

Ecommerce marketers can publish articles, podcasts, and videos to support those resolutions. The content could be both uplifting and promotional to a store’s products.

Here are a few examples.

• A DTC fitness brand might publish a blog post titled “10 Simple Ways to Stick to Your Fitness Resolutions in 2025.” The post could feature the brand’s products, such as yoga mats and resistance bands.

• A home organization retailer could create a short-form video series showcasing “decluttering challenges” that include helpful tools and products.

• A woman’s apparel boutique might write “How to Refresh Your Wardrobe for the New Year,” an article linking to blouses, skirts, or shoes.

AI-driven Repurposes

OpenAI released ChatGPT on November 20, 2022, and in surprisingly little time, generative artificial intelligence has become an almost unreplaceable tool for some content marketers.

Many businesses avoid using AI to produce entire articles but often deploy it to reuse or repurpose content.

With the spirit of resets and resolutions in January, content marketers might resolve to remake some content with AI. Here are three examples.

• Convert videos into text. Multiple AI tools can convert a video into blog posts, email newsletters, or social media posts.

• Spotlight written content for social media. Marketers use automation workflows with tools such as Zapier, ChatGPT, and Buffer to generate and schedule dozens of X, Threads, and Facebook posts from a single article.

• Transform chat into FAQs. Another technique is employing AI to anonymize and remake customer chats into FAQs.

National Cheese-lovers Day

January 20, 2025, is National Cheese-lovers Day and an opportunity for content marketers to celebrate shoppers who thoroughly enjoy that item.

This pseudo-holiday is often confused with its close kin, National Cheese Day, which is in June, but there are differences. National Cheese Day commemorates the longstanding (perhaps 7,000 years) cheese-making tradition and celebrates a beloved food. Meanwhile, January’s National Cheese-lovers Day focuses on folks who eat cheese.

While this particular celebration will make the most marketing sense for retailers and ecommerce shops in the food or kitchen supply segments, clever marketers from nearly any segment should be able to produce some tasty content about cheese consumption.

Here are a few potential article ideas.

• Kitchen supply shop: “10 Perfect Recipes for the Cheese Gourmond.”
• Pop-culture store: “Which Celebrities Love Cheese? These 20 Sure Do.”
• Luggage merchant: “15 Destination Vacations for Traveling Cheese Lovers.”

‘What If’ Articles

While entertainment is certainly a valid form of content marketing, most folks working in the retail and ecommerce businesses rarely aim to amuse.

January 25, 2025, however, might be a rare opportunity to do just that. National Opposite Day is a whimsical event based on the children’s make-believe game.

To celebrate the occasion, folks might wear clothes backward, walk in reverse, or behave unexpectedly.

Interestingly, a literary form that feels like Opposite Day is the “what if” article, which explores hypothetical scenarios and asks “what if” questions about almost anything one could imagine.

For example, a pet supply store could publish an entire series on the premise “What if dogs owned humans?”

National Hobby Month

January is National Hobby Month. It is a time for folks to embrace new interests, rediscover forgotten pastimes, or tackle a hobby they’ve always wanted to try.

Hobbies provide relaxation, personal growth, and even social connections. It’s an excellent opportunity for ecommerce businesses to inspire customers while showcasing products that make it easy to start or improve hobbies.

Hobby-focused content might include articles, videos, or even online courses. Each could be associated with a product bundle or “starter kit” connecting content and commerce.

5 Content Marketing Ideas for December 2024

Christmas is the culmination of December holidays for retail marketers, but little-known occasions can attract shoppers, too.

Content marketing is the art of creating, publishing, and promoting articles, podcasts, and videos to attract, engage, and retain customers.

Think about using the following ideas in email campaigns. December emails often lead with promotions, but a message with helpful, informative, or entertaining content might be just what shoppers need.

Repeal Day

December 5, 1933, marked the end of Prohibition in the United States — the period from 1920 to 1933 when the 18th Amendment banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.

Despite good intentions, Prohibition led to the rise of bootlegging, speakeasies, and a thriving black market for alcohol.

The 21st Amendment, which repealed the 18th, restored Americans’ legal privilege to purchase and consume alcohol.

Since 1933, Repeal Day has become a celebratory holiday for bars, distilleries, and enthusiasts, who toast the return of the freedom to imbibe.

Content marketers could combine responsible alcohol consumption and the holiday season for how-to articles, Christmas party theme ideas, and even last-minute gift-giving ideas.

Here are a few example titles.

• Men’s clothing shop: “What to Wear and Drink This Christmas”
• Home decor store: “Need a Christmas Party Theme? Try Repeal Day”
• General merchandise store: “How to Celebrate Repeal Day and Christmas in Style”

Christmas Card Day

Americans send roughly 1.5 billion Christmas cards annually, mainly via the U.S. mail. But not everyone who intends to send a card does. Shoppers get busy and forget.

Enter Christmas Card Day on December 9, which aims to help us remember to gather stamps, envelopes, and cards and start sending the holiday cheer.

Content marketers can use Christmas Card Day to nudge their audience of shoppers not just to send cards but to buy the right gift, too.

Here are a few potential titles.

• “10 Reasons to Add a Gift to 2024 Christmas Cards”
• “15 Gifts That Are Way Better Than a Christmas Card”
• “The 2024 Christmas Card Readiness Guide”

White Elephant Day

Celebrated on the second Wednesday in December, White Elephant Day falls on the 11th in 2024. It is an opportunity to give odd, extravagant, and — to quote Wikipedia — “useless” gifts.

The pseudo-holiday’s origins are unclear, but a theory goes something like this: When the king of Siam wanted to discipline or punish a courtier mildly, he would give that individual a rare albino elephant. These animals were a treasure and treated like art, making them expensive to maintain and useless for work or transportation.

From the content marketer’s perspective, one could publish:

• A white elephant gift guide,
• An article about setting up a white elephant exchange,
• A post about the history of white elephant gifts.

National Free Shipping Day

December 14, 2024, is National Free Shipping Day. The founders of FreeShipping.org and Coupon Sherpa created the event in 2008 to promote ecommerce. At the time, shoppers feared online purchases after about December 10 would not arrive by Christmas. Offering free shipping would extend ecommerce orders.

But consumers in 2024 believe they can order just about anything at seemingly any time to arrive in 24 hours or less.

That is largely true unless a purchase is for, say, print-on-demand services or drop-shipped goods via DSers or elsewhere. Those items won’t arrive by Christmas day if ordered much past the 14th.

Content marketers can use National Free Shipping Day to make last-ditch pitches to shoppers, publishing articles about deadlines or explaining why print-to-order is good for the environment but not last-minute shopping.

National Whiner’s Day

Content marketers usually focus on utility and information, leaving entertainment to influencers and creators. Yet National Whiner’s Day on December 26 is an opportunity to entertain.

National Whiner’s Day recognizes that some folks are sad the day after Christmas. It aims to poke fun at the many things we whine about despite being very blessed.

The goal is humor. Here are some example titles.

• “The Whiner’s Guide to Appreciating the Christmas Haul”
• “The Subtle Art of Regifting”
• “Socks Again?”