The Silent Engine: Why content-led growth outlasts everything

India Gazette

04-07-2025

By Puneet Dua, Cmo And Co-Founder Sportsbaazi
New Delhi [India], July 4 (ANI): In a world obsessed with hacks, virality, and algorithmic tricks, content often feels like the quietest thing in the room. But that's exactly where its power lies. Great content doesn't just get attention, it builds belief. It creates systems of meaning that compound over time, turning casual users into loyal participants, and loyal participants into evangelists.
And in a space like fantasy sports trading, where the product is new, the category is misunderstood, and equity is on the line, content isn't a nice-to-have. It's the strategy.
Content That Explains, Not Just Entertains
Most brands think of content as a campaign. We don't. We see it as infrastructure.
Because here, content isn't about showing off. It's about showing up, again and again, with clarity, relevance, and intent. The trader who's just downloaded the app isn't looking for a reel. They're looking for orientation. 'What am I trading? How do I know when to exit? Why do prices move?'
Every blog post, push notification, explainer video, or insight dashboard becomes a layer of scaffolding, one that translates complexity into confidence.
Glossier understood this before most. They didn't start with products; they started with Into The Gloss, a content engine disguised as a beauty blog. It didn't sell. It shared. It taught. And by the time Glossier launched, they already had a tribe that trusted them, not because of what they said, but because of what they explained.
The Content Loop is greater than The Content Spike
Campaigns give you traffic. Ecosystems give you traction.
SSENSE, the luxury fashion platform, doesn't just push products. It publishes editorials, cultural deep-dives, and brand breakdowns. Their product is commerce. But their advantage is context. It's how they reduced bounce rates by 34% and saw repeat engagement jump 2.5x in one year. Content didn't just explain the inventory, it activated it.
In sports trading, the stakes are even higher. A new user doesn't need another ad. They need orientation. Decision confidence. Context that sharpens instinct. And content is what delivers that, before, during, and after the trade.
This is where content-led growth becomes a financial strategy.
Teach. Don't Tease. That's How You Scale.
The best content doesn't entertain. It equips.
Nike understood this with SNKRS. What looks like product drops is actually a tightly built loop of hype, education, community storytelling, and product purpose. Every drop has a narrative. Every feature release has a why. Nike doesn't just ship shoes, it ships culture.
That same principle applied early in my career years ago on a very different shop floor.
When I used to do sales for Salvatore Ferragamo, I often knew the person browsing wasn't going to buy anything. But I made sure they left with something else, a story. About how Ferragamo handcrafted the first ballerinas for his sister. About how he was once looked down upon for being a shoemaker. About how Maharani Gayatri Devi later sent him jewels to custom-design a personal collection. That story didn't push a product; it created permanence. And eventually, many of those same visitors came back. Because they remembered the brand that made them feel something.
The same is true here.
Fantasy Sports trading needs meaning, not just mechanics.
Think Like a Creator, Operate Like a System
Content-led brands don't just create content. They build content environments, and those environments influence everything from DAUs to D1 retention to net revenue per user.
FARFETCH didn't just create styling guides; they turned their content into a shopper's GPS. Editorials, brand origin stories, and resale tips, all positioned to drive smarter, more confident decisions. Result? AOV in those sections is consistently 20-25% higher.
Duolingo did the same with learning. From memes to streaks to real-time grammar hacks, content is their entire ecosystem. And it's paid off, churn dropped 26% in key user segments after they gamified explanations that made friction feel fun.
Sports trading doesn't need gimmicks. It needs this:
Content is the Growth Loop That Doesn't Expire
The best content doesn't ask for your attention; it earns your belief.
In a landscape where features evolve, ads fatigue, and attention is a currency, content is the one engine that compounds. It's not just scalable. It's sustainable. It's the system behind the spike. The explanation behind the action. The difference between 'I tried it once' and 'I'm coming back again.' Because businesses aren't built on acquisition. They're built on retention. Performance ads expire. Inventories fatigue. But content that teaches? That compounds, and in this world, content isn't the cherry on top. It's the engine underneath. (ANI)
Disclaimer: Puneet Dua is the Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder at SportsBaazi. The views expressed in this article are his own.