The 2025 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report, produced by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) with MarketingProfs and sponsored by The MX Group, shares insights into the key challenges facing business-to-business (B2B) content marketers for 2025. Based on responses from nearly 1,200 global marketers, the report covers industries like technology, manufacturing, and financial services, and includes businesses of all sizes. The findings reveal that many B2B content marketing strategies are constrained by familiar issues, often due to agencies lacking the specialised resources, technology, and strategic alignment to deliver impactful results.
Here are the four biggest takeaways from the report:
1. Limited resources and small teams are hindering content strategies
Despite acknowledging content’s role in driving growth, many B2B marketers report being stuck in ‘maintenance mode’, unable to scale efforts or deliver consistent results. Only a few high-performing organisations have overcome these challenges, while most continue to face difficulties. Over half of B2B marketers (58 per cent) rate their content strategy as only moderately effective, often due to agencies lacking the specialised resources needed to adapt to changing demands. This leaves many businesses maintaining the status quo instead of driving real growth.
Even with dedicated content teams, 54 per cent work with just two-to-five people managing the entire strategy. Nearly one in four organisations (24 per cent) have no dedicated content team, relying on multi-functional teams for ad hoc content. This fragmented approach results in inconsistent branding, limited strategic alignment, and less impactful content.
2. Lack of clear goals and alignment weakens content strategy effectiveness
Less than 30 per cent of B2B marketers rate their content strategy as highly effective. Several factors limit the success of B2B content strategies, including:
- lack of clearly defined objectives (42 per cent)
- insufficient use of data-driven insights (35 per cent)
- misalignment with the customer journey (39 per cent).
Content efforts often fall short of desired outcomes without clear goals or alignment with the buyer’s journey. Frequent shifts in messaging and evolving leadership priorities undermine strategy consistency and effectiveness, highlighting a need for a better-aligned agency.
3. Content creation that drives action remains a significant struggle
Over half of marketers (55 per cent) struggle to create content that drives desired actions, a critical aspect of effective marketing. According to the report, MarketingProfs CMO Ann Handley says the B2B buyer journey is rarely linear, complicating content impact tracking. Unlike straightforward consumer paths, B2B journeys involve multiple, overlapping touchpoints. Many B2B marketers find it challenging to demonstrate their content’s true impact. This frustration signals a need for fresh approaches and tools to drive targeted, action-oriented content that resonates with audiences.
The research reports a clear shift emerged in the content marketers find most effective: videos have overtaken case studies as the top-performing format. Fifty-eight per cent of B2B marketers say videos deliver the best results, followed by case studies/customer stories at 53 per cent. Whitepapers, eBooks, and research reports performed well, cited by 45 per cent of marketers, while short articles/posts followed at 43 per cent.
The rise of videos reflects a growing preference for visual, engaging content that captures attention and communicates complex information quickly. Investing in agencies with dedicated design and video production services offers a valuable opportunity to address engagement challenges and inspire action with visually compelling, targeted content that resonates deeply with audiences.
4. Outdated and underused technology stacks limit content scalability and measurement
Nearly half (47 per cent) of B2B marketers report missing essential tools for lead generation, data management, and advanced analytics. Only 26 per cent believe their organisation has the right technology to manage content across teams, and 38 per cent report underusing existing technology, up from 30 per cent last year.
These technology gaps limit growth, with many B2B teams stuck in manual processes that restrict scalability and make accurate measurement difficult. Switching to an agency with a more advanced tech stack can be a game-changer for organisations facing these challenges, offering the tools and specialist expertise necessary to build efficient, data-driven content strategies that drive results.
Moving beyond maintenance mode
For companies whose agencies are still ‘fixing’ rather than ‘doing’, 2025 could be the year to embrace a proactive, results-driven approach. This approach means aligning resources and creating consistent processes for scalable success. Robert Rose, chief strategy advisor at CMI, recommends:
- Implement a coordinated content orchestration approach to improve collaboration between teams responsible for creation, strategy, and analytics for a more cohesive content process.
- Take a structured approach to innovation to enhance content quality and relevance and move away from ad hoc experimentation.
- End ineffective practices by evaluating and discontinuing low-impact content activities and reallocating resources toward goals that support broader objectives.
How The Recognition Group can help
If your agency lacks the necessary industry knowledge or technical expertise, The Recognition Group offers a refreshing alternative. We are technology specialists who understand what makes content valuable in complex technical markets. We built our business from within the technology sector because creating meaningful content for technical audiences requires genuine industry understanding, not just marketing expertise.
Our copywriting experts and marketing consultants bring deep technical knowledge and industry experience to every project. We understand enterprise software architectures, complex technological ecosystems, and the challenges technical decision-makers face because we’ve worked in these environments. This means we create content that speaks directly to technical audiences with genuine authority and understanding.
Other agencies might attempt to adapt generic content strategies to technology markets, but we understand the fundamental difference between general business content and technical communication. We know when detailed technical specifications matter and when to focus on business outcomes. That’s why our content consistently delivers value for technology companies who need more than just standard marketing narratives.
Contact us today to elevate your content strategy with a specialised, results-driven marketing agency.
