2024 was a “meh” yr for content material and advertising.
That pronouncement comes from entrepreneurs, not grumpy, underwhelmed enterprise execs. In fact, that doesn’t imply nice work didn’t occur. Loads of corporations produced spectacular content material. Simply have a look at these award-winning examples.
Lots of the almost 1,200 entrepreneurs surveyed for our annual B2B Content material Advertising and marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Traits examine, carried out with MarketingProfs and sponsored by Storyblok, didn’t really feel nice about their methods or outcomes.
They didn’t really feel horrible, both. They simply felt “meh.”
However what if we glance solely at entrepreneurs who work for organizations with greater than 1,000 staff? Absolutely, enterprise entrepreneurs with their bigger groups and probably bigger budgets suppose extra positively about their work final yr?
Sadly, they don’t.
Like their B2B friends who work at corporations of all sizes, lots of the 310 enterprise entrepreneurs within the examine felt simply common about their content material methods.
Let’s dig into why and what elements distinguish enterprise content material and advertising success, spending, and different plans for 2025.
What retains content material methods caught at ‘reasonably’ efficient?
An efficient technique underlies any success. But solely 28% of enterprise entrepreneurs say their content material technique is extraordinarily or very efficient. Sixty-one % say it’s reasonably efficient. Eleven % say it’s not very efficient. The excellent news is that nobody says their technique is in no way efficient.
Let’s have a look at areas the place enterprise entrepreneurs wrestle.
Lack of clear objectives
Why do enterprise entrepreneurs wrestle with technique? Forty-seven % say it’s an absence of clear objectives. Forty-five % say the technique just isn’t data-driven, and 45% say it isn’t tied to the client journey. Different causes embrace:
- Ineffective viewers analysis (34%)
- Failure to iterate/adapt (27%)
- Emphasizes content material amount over high quality (26%)
- Unrealistic expectations (22%)
- Inconsistent model voice (21%)
- Different (20%)
- Poor content material high quality (11%)
Creator & VP of Content material, Workday
Michael Brenner, writer and vp of content material at Workday, introduced a content material technique workshop at Content material Advertising and marketing World 2024. He’s not stunned by this discovering: This can be a reflection of the unhappy fact that behind each dangerous piece of content material is an government who requested for it. Information is all the time the important thing as a result of it could possibly present you the way nicely the content material strains as much as buyer wants, together with the key phrases they use, the subjects they’re in, the marketing campaign property they want, and the social conversations they’re having. Information additionally reveals you what works so you possibly can align the content material technique to the highest enterprise objectives. Backside line is content material methods are both aligned to clients’ wants or inner executives’ whims.
Communication points
As in previous years, the most well-liked non-creation problem for enterprise entrepreneurs is speaking throughout organizational silos (61%). Subsequent, they cite an absence of sources (56%), which is the most typical problem their B2B friends face.
Different situational challenges embrace measuring the outcomes of their efforts (54%), aligning content material efforts throughout gross sales and advertising (52%), and aligning content material with the customer’s journey (50%). Fewer than half cite:
- Managing workflow points/content material approvals course of (47%)
- Accessing material specialists (36%)
- Maintaining with new applied sciences/instruments (34%)
- Different (3%)
Creation challenges
Greater than half (58%) of enterprise entrepreneurs say crafting content material that prompts a desired motion (e.g., conversion) is a problem, making the brand new response on this yr’s survey the most typical hurdle.
The second most cited problem – which was No. 1 final yr – is creating the proper content material for the viewers. Nevertheless, enterprise entrepreneurs have made strides, with 49% reporting it’s a problem vs. 61% the earlier yr. They’ve additionally completed a greater job of:
- Differentiating their content material (47% for 2025 report vs. 57% the earlier yr)
- Creating content material persistently (37% for 2025 report vs. 46% the earlier yr)
- Optimizing for search engine marketing (37% for 2025 report vs. 42% the earlier yr)
- Creating high quality content material (30% for 2025 report vs. 46% the earlier yr)
Content material repurposing (47%) and creating sufficient content material (34%) are new problem choices on this survey.
Content material efficiency measurement
Forty-eight % of enterprise entrepreneurs agree that their group measures content material efficiency successfully (12% neither agree nor disagree, 38% disagree, and a pair of% don’t measure).
That’s to not say they don’t encounter challenges: Sixty-six % face issue monitoring buyer journeys, and 63% have issue attributing ROI to content material efforts. Different challenges embrace:
- Information silos throughout the group (55%)
- Incapability to tie efficiency to enterprise objectives (49%)
- Lack of clear advertising objectives/KPIs (46%)
- Inadequate sources or funds (43%)
- Advanced or insufficient reporting programs (40%)
- Restricted entry to superior analytics instruments (40%)
- Incapability to extract worthwhile info from information/analytics (36%)
- Lack of knowledge expertise/expertise (33%)
Scalable fashions for content material creation are lacking
Almost half of enterprise entrepreneurs say they don’t have a scalable mannequin for content material creation. Thirty-three % say they do, and 21% are not sure.
Amongst those that do have a scalable mannequin, 40% say the mannequin creates the specified outcomes. Fifty-five % say it doesn’t create the specified outcomes, “however we’re getting there.” 4 % say no, “Now we have an extended option to go.” Two % are not sure.
Director of Content material Advertising and marketing, Hilton
Of their Content material Advertising and marketing World 2024 session, Calming Content material and Artistic Chaos with Strategic Content material Mastery, Cathy McKnight, chief drawback solver and lead analyst, Seventh Bear, and Shannon Doubleday, director of content material advertising, Hilton, demonstrated how vital a repeatable course of mannequin is to content material advertising success.
Chief Drawback Solver, Seventh Bear
By treating content material as a strategic operate and getting the mannequin in place, Hilton was in a position to go from a number of methods to a centralized operate, from bought inventory footage to hours of reusable property, from 10K hours watched to 100K hours watched (natural content material), and double its content material schedule through the use of content material property in an clever method.
Lack of efficient content material administration expertise
The needle didn’t transfer a lot on this report on whether or not organizations have the proper expertise to handle content material throughout the group. Solely 22% say sure (similar because the earlier yr). Thirty-eight % say, “No, we’ve the expertise however aren’t utilizing it to its potential” (up from 34% the earlier yr). Thirty % say, “No, we haven’t acquired the proper expertise,” (down from 34% the earlier yr). And just like the earlier yr, 10% are not sure.
Particularly, 55% of enterprise entrepreneurs say their advertising tech stacks lack superior personalization choices. An identical quantity (54%) say their tech doesn’t have the flexibility to automate repetitive duties and workflows, and 53% cite an absence of data-driven decision-making capabilities. Different lacking capabilities embrace:
- Quick access to enterprise analytics (51%)
- Streamlined advertising information administration and reporting (51%)
- Robust alignment between gross sales and advertising (46%)
- Environment friendly lead technology and nurturing processes (45%)
4 % say no capabilities are lacking from their advertising tech stacks.
Prime performers perceive their audiences
With all of the challenges enterprise entrepreneurs face, what number of are reaching success with their content material advertising?
Given that nearly two-thirds of enterprise entrepreneurs say their content material technique is just reasonably efficient, it’s no shock that 22% characterize the success of their group’s content material advertising method within the final 12 months as extraordinarily or very profitable. Fifty-seven % say it was reasonably profitable. Sixteen % say it was minimally profitable. One % says it was in no way profitable, and 4% are not sure.
When requested what they attribute their content material advertising success to, 81% of the extraordinarily and really profitable enterprise entrepreneurs (aka “prime performers”) say understanding their viewers. Different elements embrace:
- Excessive-performing group members (78%)
- Trade experience (74%)
- Excessive-quality content material (73%)
- Targets that align with our group’s targets (70%)
- Efficient measurement and demonstration of content material efficiency (58%)
- Documented technique (51%)
Advertising and marketing Strategist, Federal Reserve Financial institution
The significance of understanding your viewers is one thing Michelle Lazette, advertising strategist on the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Cleveland, is aware of nicely: Our audiences at this time aren’t captive in methods audiences was once. Their solely information supply isn’t the newspaper that lands on their garden with adverts positioned by and tales knowledgeable by organizations like ours. They’ve selection upon selection upon selection, and the place one creator isn’t delivering content material that helps, entertains, or in any other case serves them, they’re going to search out one other who’s.
I’m reminded of a convention speaker who requested these within the viewers to fake they have been liable for advertising socks. “Not one particular person wants your socks,” she stated. “They want their ft to be heat.” This evokes me to ask by way of surveys, brainstorms with colleagues, monitoring the panorama, and extra what does our viewers want and need, and the way can that Venn diagram of their wants overlap with how we wish to present up for others?
We created our long-form storytelling about how entry to little one care impacts the economic system as a result of neighborhood members instructed our employees that some individuals who wish to work can’t as a result of they don’t have care for his or her dependents. And our examine of viewers wants and needs doesn’t finish as soon as a narrative is printed: In monitoring reader behaviors with a special piece, we realized asking people to click on greater than as soon as for the multimedia expertise we promised them turned away half our would-be readership (ugh!). The lesson there (for us, and perhaps you) is once we inform our viewers to return see images, firsthand tales, and information visualizations, we have to ship them on to that work, not a touchdown web page.
Targets achieved
No matter their general success, most enterprise entrepreneurs do a formidable job utilizing content material advertising to create model consciousness (86% say they’ve completed that within the final 12 months). Different objectives achieved embrace:
- Generate demand leads (71%)
- Nurture subscribers/audiences/leads (56%)
- Develop loyalty with present shoppers/clients (49%)
- Develop a subscribed viewers (35%)
- Cut back buyer assist prices (11%)
Crew construction: How the work will get completed
This yr, we requested enterprise entrepreneurs if they’ve a devoted content material advertising group or employees particular person. Eighty-six % say sure. Who handles content material advertising for the remaining 14%? Most say “advertising.”
Of the 86% with devoted groups/individuals, 7% have one particular person. Thirty-five % have a small group (two to 5 individuals), 23% have a medium group (six to 9 individuals), and 35% say they’ve a big group (10 or extra individuals).
Whereas most enterprise entrepreneurs (64%) anticipate their content material advertising group measurement to remain the identical in 2025, 24% anticipate it to extend, 5% suppose it’s going to lower, and seven% are not sure.
When requested why they thought their group measurement would improve, we principally heard that progress would require extra advertising assist. And whereas 25% say they’ve seen job anxiousness inside their organizations due to AI (see beneath), nobody says they anticipate job cuts ensuing from AI’s implementation.
AI use
Talking of AI, 75% of enterprise entrepreneurs report that their organizations are utilizing it — up from 58% the earlier yr.
With the elevated use got here a rise in generative AI utilization pointers: 62% of respondents say their group has pointers vs. 36% the earlier yr. As well as, 25% say their advertising group has its personal set of pointers (25% say they don’t have both, and 4% are not sure.)
What do the utilization pointers tackle? Most (80%) say they tackle acceptable makes use of of generative AI in content material advertising, 77% cite safety measures particular to utilizing generative AI, 71% say unacceptable makes use of of generative AI in content material advertising, and 70% cite data-handling pointers for generative AI platforms/output. Different parts embrace:
- Objective/targets for utilizing generative AI in advertising (62%)
- Authorized/copyright suggestions (54%)
- Transparency (48%)
- Mitigating bias in generative AI output (32%)
- Actual-world purposes for generative AI (32%)
When it comes to maturity, most enterprise groups (57%) experiment with AI on an advert hoc foundation. One other 15% say AI is built-in into their every day processes/workflows. Twenty-eight % say their group doesn’t formally use AI, and employees might select to make use of it individually.
As they stated final yr, most enterprise entrepreneurs use free generative AI instruments (80% this yr vs. 87% final yr). Nevertheless, we see a giant leap in those that say that instruments are embedded of their content material creation/administration programs (53% this yr vs. 33% the earlier yr). About the identical proportion of enterprise entrepreneurs (25%) as final yr pay for instruments.
This yr, we requested about entrepreneurs’ belief and notion of high quality in AI outputs. Most enterprise entrepreneurs (70%) place a medium stage of belief in them, whereas 3% report a excessive stage, and 27% say a low stage. Nobody says they haven’t any belief in AI outputs.
Enterprise entrepreneurs have combined ideas in regards to the high quality of content material generated by AI. Sixty % say it’s wonderful, excellent, or good, and 40% say it’s honest or poor.
Half of enterprise entrepreneurs surveyed (50%) say the affect of AI instruments consists of having fewer tedious duties. Forty-three % discover improved content material optimization, and 40% expertise extra environment friendly workflows. Different results embrace:
- Improved creativity (34%)
- Job anxiousness (25%)
- Altering job necessities (20%)
- Decrease-quality content material (14%)
- Extra personalised content material (13%)
9 % say they don’t discover any affect.
Seeking to 2025, 57% of enterprise entrepreneurs say their organizations would place a excessive or medium precedence on AI-powered automation. Seventeen % say it might be a low precedence. Solely 11% say it was not a precedence, and 15% have been not sure.
Content material techniques, distribution channels, and social media
Now that you just perceive higher how enterprise entrepreneurs see technique, encounter challenges, acquire success, and expertise AI, let’s discover the sorts of content material produced and the way it will get to audiences.
Brief articles exchange movies as the most well-liked content material sort
How did enterprise entrepreneurs attain their audiences within the earlier 12 months?
Brief articles/posts (92%) changed movies (85%) as the most well-liked sort of content material. (Final yr, 94% reported utilizing movies.) Use of different content material sorts stayed in step with the earlier yr, with 75% utilizing case research/buyer tales, 73% publishing lengthy articles/posts, 64% utilizing information visualizations/visible content material, 55% doing e-books/white papers, 51% creating product technical/information sheets, 40% creating analysis studies, and 34% crafting interactive content material.
As they did final yr, most enterprise entrepreneurs say movies produce good outcomes (55%), adopted by case research/buyer tales (48%), e-books/white papers (48%), quick articles/posts (48%), and analysis studies (45%).
Social media platforms, blogs, and e-mail favored for distribution
Enterprise entrepreneurs’ distribution channels additionally stayed constant yr over yr. Ninety % use natural social media platforms, 80% use blogs on company web sites, 76% use e-mail newsletters, 69% use e-mail, 69% use in-person occasions, 61% use webinars, 51% use digital occasions, 41% use microsites, and 31% use podcasts.
Lesser-used channels embrace hybrid occasions (26%), digital magazines (25%), junk mail (21%), on-line studying platforms (20%), branded on-line communities (18%), print magazines (17%), cellular apps (15%), and separate content material manufacturers (7%).
Just like the earlier yr, enterprise entrepreneurs say their efficient distribution channels embrace webinars (52%) and in-person occasions (48%). Forty-three % say natural social media platforms are efficient, 41% say e-mail is efficient, and 40% say blogs are efficient.
Nearly all use paid distribution channels
Ninety-three % of enterprise entrepreneurs use paid distribution channels. Right here once more, use has stayed constant when in comparison with the earlier yr. Seventy-nine % use social media promoting/promoted posts, 76% faucet into digital show promoting, 69% put money into search engine advertising (SEM) and ppc (PPC), and 66% have interaction in sponsorships. Far fewer use native promoting (44%), companion emails (30%), and print promoting (28%). Twenty-one % use influencer advertising, a brand new choice on this yr’s survey. Seven % use different strategies.
As we noticed the earlier yr, the three hottest efficient paid channels are SEM/PPC (58%), social media promoting/promoted posts (53%), and sponsorships (46%).
LinkedIn offers one of the best worth
Like their B2B friends, enterprise entrepreneurs say that LinkedIn offers one of the best worth for his or her group. Fb got here in at 33%, adopted by Instagram (26%), YouTube (24%), X/Twitter (7%), TikTok (6%), and Reddit (1%).
X use continues to say no
Enterprise entrepreneurs’ social media use patterns are much like the earlier yr with one notable exception: Those that use X decreased by eight proportion factors (71% this yr vs. 79% the earlier yr).
- LinkedIn: 63% elevated, 32% stayed the identical, 3% decreased, and a pair of% don’t use
- YouTube: 30% elevated, 45% stayed the identical, 9% decreased, and 16% don’t use
- Instagram: 29% elevated, 35% stayed the identical, 9% decreased, and 27% don’t use
- Fb: 17% elevated, 51% stayed the identical, 18% decreased, and 14% don’t use
- TikTok: 12% elevated, 8% stayed the identical, 4% decreased, and 76% don’t use
- Reddit: 7% elevated, 6% stayed the identical, 1% decreased, and 86% don’t use
- X/Twitter: 5% elevated, 29% stayed the identical, 37% decreased, and 29% don’t use
Budgets and spending
Thirty-nine % of enterprise entrepreneurs say they anticipate their content material advertising budgets to extend in 2025 in contrast with 2024. Forty-one % suppose it’s going to keep the identical. Fourteen % anticipate it’s going to lower, and 6% are not sure.
So far as tactical budgets go, 54% of enterprise entrepreneurs anticipate their group to extend funding in video in 2025 (67% thought that within the earlier yr). Different notable decreases from the earlier yr embrace in-person occasions (30%), a 22-percentage-point drop from the earlier yr, and audio content material (14%), which dropped 9 proportion factors from the earlier yr.
New choices on this yr’s survey record, equivalent to investments in AI for content material optimization/efficiency (39%) and AI for content material creation (37%), are anticipated to extend.
Areas the place enterprise entrepreneurs anticipate funds will increase as they did final yr embrace thought management (47%), paid promoting (38%), webinars (27%), constructing on-line neighborhood (23%), and digital occasions (18%).
Transfer forward in 2025
What does this complete understanding of enterprise entrepreneurs imply for you in 2025? The findings reveal areas to discover inside your model’s content material and advertising operations.
How are you going to enhance the effectiveness of your technique?
Have a look at the analytics and ask your self two questions:
- What’s the group doing an excessive amount of of?
- What ought to the group be doing extra of?
Now, you know the way to realign how your group invests its work time to ship higher on the objectives recognized within the technique, which is (or ought to be) carefully aligned with the enterprise’s objectives.
On a extra granular stage, this analysis reminds you what — or higher but, who — ought to be on the heart of any profitable content material advertising technique: your viewers. Think about the facility in case your group may simply reply these questions earlier than any content material challenge started:
- What’s in it for our viewers?
- What do they need at this time?
- What’s going to they want subsequent week, subsequent month, and subsequent yr?
I lately challenged entrepreneurs to double down in 2025 and work tougher at creating one thing nice. Sure, it’s tougher than ever to face out. However what’s the worth for not doing so? By no means seen or heard. Fast exits, deletes, or unsubscribes.
Entrepreneurs don’t usually get second possibilities. So, convey your best work in 2025, and let me know the way it goes.
Content material Advertising and marketing Institute and MarketingProfs carried out the fifteenth annual content material advertising survey. The survey fielded 1,186 international responses between June 25 and Aug. 16, 2024, and was sponsored by Storyblok. This text studies on the 310 respondents at enterprises (1,000-plus staff), primarily from North America.
The character of the enterprise firm:
- B2B (60%)
- B2C (5%)
- B2B+B2C (25%)
- Nonprofit (6%)
- Public sector (4%)
Among the many industries represented:
- Know-how (25%)
- Banking/finance/insurance coverage (17%)
- Manufacturing (17%)
- Healthcare/med/pharma/life sciences (12%)
- Skilled providers (7%)
- Schooling (6%)
- Different (16%)
The enterprise entrepreneurs surveyed work in these organizational sizes:
- 1,000 to 4,999 staff (44%)
- 5,000 to 9,999 staff (17%)
- 10,000 or extra staff (39%)
Due to the survey individuals who made this analysis attainable and everybody who helps disseminate these findings all through the advertising trade.
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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute
About Content material Advertising and marketing Institute
Content material Advertising and marketing Institute (CMI) exists to do one factor: advance the observe of content material advertising by on-line training and in-person and digital occasions. We create and curate content material experiences that train entrepreneurs and creators from enterprise manufacturers, small companies, and companies methods to entice and retain clients by compelling, multichannel storytelling. World manufacturers flip to CMI for strategic session, coaching, and analysis. Organizations from all over the world ship groups to Content material Advertising and marketing World, the biggest content material marketing-focused occasion, the Advertising and marketing Analytics & Information Science (MADS) convention, and CMI digital occasions, together with ContentTECH Summit. Our neighborhood of 215,000+ content material entrepreneurs shares camaraderie and dialog. CMI is organized by Informa Festivals. To be taught extra, go to www.contentmarketinginstitute.com.
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Builders thrive with the liberty to construct higher, sooner, extra versatile content material experiences utilizing their chosen tech stack. Entrepreneurs transfer with agility and independence, effortlessly enhancing, personalizing, and publishing content material throughout each channel.
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