Technology Content Marketing Research 2025

Let’s talk about a guy in Greek mythology named Sisyphus, doomed to push a boulder uphill only to watch it roll right back down again and again. Sound familiar?

Philosopher Albert Camus saw Sisyphus as the ultimate absurd hero. But he wasn’t fascinated by the repeated act of pushing the boulder. It was the walk back down the mountain. That moment, when Sisyphus faces the futility of his task, is the most human and tragic. Yet, it’s also the moment where hope flickers, not in the promise of escape but in the resolve to begin anew. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” Camus writes.

The parallel for marketers is striking. Content marketing often feels like Sisyphus’ labor: an endless push of creating, publishing, and optimizing only for the efforts to roll back downhill. Teams are stretched thin; strategies are reduced to check-the-box routines, and results struggle to break free from average. Your march-back-down moment is real — conscious of the wretched condition, you begin to wonder, “Why are we doing this?”

But here’s where the story is more than the futile hope of pushing the rock again. What if this moment — the recognition of mediocrity — isn’t a tragedy but the spark of recognition of an opportunity? What if, like Sisyphus, you find freedom not by escaping the work but by finally transforming how you approach it?

For technology marketers, this year’s research shows just how steep the hill is. While 82% of organizations have dedicated content teams, the majority are small — just two to five people — and overburdened. Nearly half of organizations without a dedicated team scatter content responsibilities across departments or outsource it. And while 96% say they have a content strategy, only 29% call it highly effective.

The problem isn’t that content marketing doesn’t work, it’s that too many organizations refuse to treat content marketing as a strategic, transformative function. However, this stagnation creates a rare opening. If most companies are stuck trudging downhill, organizations willing to push with purpose, creativity, and deeper meaning can redefine the game.

For this year’s research, the Content Marketing Institute analyzed the responses from the 274 technology marketers who responded to the annual survey in July and August 2024. (To read the full study of 1,186 marketers, see B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2025.)

My overall take: Despite the “meh” expressed by tech marketers, the new age of content marketing could be here — when organizations treat content as the asset it was always meant to be. Yes, the hill is steep. Yes, the work is hard. But the opportunity is there. And like philosopher Albert Camus, you must imagine how marketers can be made happy.

Team structure: How the work gets done

Eighty-two percent of technology marketers surveyed say they have a dedicated content marketing team or person on staff. Of that group, most (52%) report that they have teams consisting of two to five people. Nineteen percent say one person is dedicated to content marketing. Sixteen percent report teams of six to nine people, and 13% say they have teams of 10 or more people.

Forty-three percent of tech marketers in organizations without a dedicated content marketing team or person say multiple teams across the organization handle the company’s content needs, 6% say the work is handled by outside agencies/vendors, and 51% say “others” handle the needs. When asked to specify who is included in “others,” most indicate internal people who work in the marketing department.

While the majority (64%) of those with content marketing teams think their team size will stay the same, 27% expect them to grow, 4% envision a decrease, and 5% are unsure.

Among explanations of why they expect to see team growth:

“New CMO sees the role of content in growth marketing strategy. He does plan to expand the content marketing team under the umbrella of growth marketing.”

“We are adding more business development reps and growing our content marketing to compete with others in the SaaS field.”

“My current team produces content in a siloed, ticket-taker fashion. As the team showcases more impact through integrated strategy, we will need more support to help the entire company.”

“Revenue has been growing, so that will mean more budget for new hires. Our company greatly values content creation so that would be a prioritized role.”

One tech marketer whose team is shrinking put their reasoning bluntly: “New leadership in marketing views content marketing as a role that can easily be outsourced, allowing us to reallocate head count to other areas of the organization.”

That comment is an extreme version of a troubling trend among average and underperforming businesses: Content marketing isn’t just undervalued; it’s deprioritized to where companies don’t see a need to keep operations in-house.

Content strategy: Results are just average

Almost all (96%) of technology marketers report having a content strategy. Of those, 29% say it’s extremely or very effective, 58% say it’s moderately effective, and 13% say it’s not very or not at all effective. These results mirror the broader B2B marketing research.

Like their B2B peers, technology marketers cite a lack of clear goals (44%) as the most common reason why their content strategy isn’t as effective as it could be. Forty-two percent say it’s because the strategy isn’t tied to the customer journey. Other reasons include:

“Other” reasons include a lack of resources, constantly shifting messaging in response to shifting leadership priorities, too many diverse business units, too many review cycles, and a lack of necessary content.

We asked Jonathan Riemer, director of global content experience team at ServiceNow, for his thoughts on content strategy effectiveness:

By (a lack of) clear goals, I will assume that means “agreed to” goals. I have seen many times in many companies that the campaign (and sales) goal is quite clear, but the “how to achieve that with content” part is vague. It comes down to education. Content marketers need to do a better job of making sure all at the table understand and agree on how and what success looks like from a content perspective.

I think that data and audience research should be the top concern. We are all still too guilty of shooting from the hip or defaulting to what has always worked before. Our audiences are changing and evolving, as are their preferences for how they like to engage and learn. Get that figured out and you’ll take care of the top two concerns around goals and customer journey.

Content marketing challenges: Motivating audiences is a big one

Fifty-two percent of technology marketers say they are challenged with creating content that prompts a desired action (e.g., conversion).

Technology marketers have made strides creating the right content for their audience in the past year. Fewer than half (46%) cite it as a challenge, compared with 61% the previous year. The research also sees big drops in those who are challenged with creating content consistently (38% this year vs. 49% the previous year) and creating quality content (29% this year vs. 43% the previous year).

Among the other content creation challenges marketers cite: content repurposing (44%), differentiating our content (43%), creating enough content (37%), optimizing for SEO (37%), and other (6%).

Lack of resources remains the most frequent situational challenge, cited by 58% of technology marketers. Half say they are challenged to measure the results of their efforts, while 48% say they face challenges communicating across organizational silos.

Among the other challenges: aligning content efforts across sales and marketing (47%), aligning content with the buyer’s journey (43%), accessing subject matter experts (41%), managing workflow issues/content approvals process (37%), keeping up with new technologies/tools (20%), and other (4%).

We asked Amanda Wise, principal product marketing manager at SAS, for her thoughts on these situational challenges:

Customers now expect a self-service journey that permits them to binge tailored content in dynamic formats. The output of marketers has increased significantly over the last few years, while the increase in budgets and head count has stalled or slightly decreased.

While organizations are investing more in martech tools, effectively measuring activities and calculating return on marketing investment (ROMI) across the entire customer buyer journey has still been challenging to achieve.

It’s easier to show value for martech tools that use AI to automate mundane processes because you can quickly see an increase in productivity and a decrease in overhead costs. Finding the right martech tool to help you adopt the most accurate attribution model is daunting, especially as we witness an increased number of customer touchpoints and the length of the B2B buyer cycle.

While marketers continue to refine the attribution models with ever-evolving customer preferences and behavior, it’s crucial to leverage the sales and customer success teams to gather qualitative data from customers that help connect the dots and tell the true story of marketing.

It sounds simple, but collecting qualitative data like “Which collateral resonated most with you?,” “What ROI data were you looking for on our site to add us to the shortlist?,” and “What messaging convinced you that we were the correct vendor?” tells more about the efficacy of marketing than just relying on quantitative data like completed registration forms and time on page. While B2B marketers continue to find the right tools to display ROMI accurately in quantitative terms, it’s important to use qualitative data to display marketing efficacy to company decision makers.

AI use: Most work with generative AI

More technology marketers (87%) use generative AI tools than the previous year (79%). Just 13% say they don’t use them.

Nineteen percent of technology marketers say their use is systematic: AI is integrated into daily processes and workflows. More than half (55%) say the use is ad hoc: The team is experimenting with AI or using it for limited applications. Twenty-six percent say the use is minimal: The team does not formally use AI, but individual staff members may use it.

Technology organizations have made progress with adopting generative AI usage guidelines. Sixty-eight percent say their organization or marketing team has established guidelines. Only 39% say they do not have guidelines, a big drop from the 63% who didn’t have them last year. Five percent are unsure whether guidelines exist.

In a new question this year, marketers detail issues addressed in their organizations’s generative AI usage guidelines. At least half say they include:

Security measures specific to using generative AI (79%)

Data-handling guidelines for generative AI platforms/output (78%)

Acceptable uses of generative AI in content marketing (76%)

Unacceptable uses of generative AI in content marketing (64%)

Purpose/objectives for using gen AI in marketing (58%)

Fewer than half say they include:

Legal/copyright recommendations (48%)

Transparency (i.e., disclosing when content is generated by AI) (45%)

Mitigating bias in generative AI output (28%)

Real-world applications for generative AI (24%)

Most technology marketers (87%) use free tools, while 35% use fee-based tools. Half (51%) say they use the AI features incorporated into their content creation and management tools, a big jump from last year when 37% said they used them.

This year, we wanted to gauge marketer trust levels and opinions on the quality of generative AI output. Most technology marketers (67%) report a medium level of trust, while 4% have a high level. Over one-fourth (28%) have a low level of trust, and 1% have no trust.

Thirteen percent of technology marketers describe the quality of content generated by AI as excellent or very good. Forty-two percent say it is good, 38% opt for fair, and 7% describe it as poor.

Furthermore, we wanted to know about any AI-related impacts on marketing departments. Fifty-seven percent say they noticed fewer tedious tasks, 47% say they experienced more efficient workflows, and 41% saw improved content optimization. Fewer than 40% saw these AI-related impacts:

Improved creativity (33%)

Job anxiety (20%)

Lower-quality content (18%)

Changing job requirements (17%)

More personalized content (16%)

We also asked marketers how their organizations will prioritize AI-powered automation in 2025. Sixteen percent say it is a high priority, while 45% think it’s a medium priority. Eighteen percent say it is a low priority. Ten percent say it is not a priority, and 11% say they’re unsure.

Content management and technology: Missing scalable models and the right tools

In another new survey question, we found that nearly half of technology marketers (45%) — like their B2B peers — do not have a scalable model for content creation. Thirty-six percent do, and 19% are unsure.

Of those technology marketers who have a scalable model, 36% say it’s creating the desired outcome. Fifty-nine percent say it isn’t, but they’re getting there. Only 2% say, “No, we have a long way to go.” Three percent are unsure.

When it comes to content management technology, the needle didn’t move. Technology marketers don’t have the right tech to manage content across their organization (28%), or they have the tech but aren’t using it to its potential (39%). Only 26% say they have what they need and are using it effectively. Seven percent are unsure.

My take? Marketers have hit peak tech in their content and digital management operations. The problem isn’t a lack of tools. It’s that teams are so buried in managing the technology they already have (and how it was originally implemented) that they have no time or interest in improving it. Marketers have no bandwidth to acquire new tools, deepen expertise in existing ones, or even step back and ask, “Are we using this the right way?”

The smartest companies aren’t piling on more tech. They’re hitting pause, reassessing, and figuring out how modern content orchestration can help them automate the right things — so their teams can spend more time on the content and less time on moving it through an assembly line.

Next, we asked technology marketers which capabilities are missing from their marketing tech stacks. Fifty-four percent say streamlined marketing data management and reporting. Five capabilities tied for second most popular, with 45% citing advanced personalization options, data-driven decision-making capabilities, efficient lead generation, nurturing processes, and strong alignment between sales and marketing. Almost the same number cite easy access to enterprise analytics (43%) and the ability to automate repetitive tasks and workflows (41%). Five percent say their tech stack isn’t missing any capabilities.

Metrics and goals: Difficulty attributing ROI to content efforts

Half of technology marketers strongly or somewhat agree that their organization measures content performance effectively. Thirty-three percent somewhat or strongly disagree. Fifteen percent neither agree nor disagree. Two percent don’t measure content performance.

Technology marketers’ most common difficulty is attributing ROI to content efforts (62%), followed by difficulty tracking customer journeys (58%). Less than half cite these challenges:

Data silos within the organization (42%)

Insufficient resources or budget (41%)

Lack of clear marketing goals/KPIs (38%)

Complex or inadequate reporting systems (37%)

Limited access to advanced analytics tools (35%)

Inability to tie performance to business goals (32%)

Inability to extract valuable information from data/analytics (29%)

Lack of data skills/talent (22%)

Regarding goals, 88% of technology marketers say they were successful at using content marketing to create brand awareness in the last 12 months. Eighty-four percent used it to generate demand leads, 70% to nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, 60% to generate sales/revenue, 49% to grow loyalty with existing clients/customers, 37% to grow a subscribed audience, and 11% to reduce customer support costs.

We asked Melissa Leu, senior director of content strategy at Salesforce and finalist for 2024 B2B Content Marketer of the Year, to summarize her company’s success with content marketing:

If done right, content marketing is a massive opportunity to build a relationship with your customer. The best content — like the best products — understands a customer’s problem and solves it. Do that often enough, and you’ll earn their trust (and hopefully their business, too).

Content marketing success: Top performers understand their audiences

Twenty-five percent of technology marketers characterize the success of their organization’s content marketing approach in the last 12 months as extremely or very successful. Another 55% say their approach was moderately successful, 15% say it was minimally successful, and 2% say it was not successful.

We designate the quarter of marketers who say they were extremely or very successful as the “top performers.” Their most common success factors include understanding their audience (85%) and producing high-quality content (85%).

Among other contributors to their top performance:

High-performing team members (75%)

Industry expertise (75%)

Goals that align with their organization’s objectives (66%)

Effectively measure and demonstrate content effectiveness (58%)

Documented strategy (52%)

Those who report moderate, minimal, or no success say they need more resources, clearer strategies, better collaboration, and improved measurements. According to their open-ended responses, these are the areas where they would like to improve their success:

Resources and staff: Increase team size, invest in AI tools and automation to scale operations, and provide more access to subject matter experts.

Team alignment: Break down silos between marketing, sales, and leadership to ensure alignment on goals, strategies, and performance measurement.

Strategic content creation: Develop a clear content strategy aligned with business goals, focusing on the buyer’s journey, content repurposing, and SEO.

Measurement and analytics: Implement better tracking tools and establish clear KPIs to measure content effectiveness and its impact on business outcomes.

Budget for content promotion: Allocate more budget for content promotion and paid strategies to increase visibility and reach.

Education and training: Provide training for teams on content strategy, SEO, and analytics, and educate leadership on the value of content marketing.

Streamlined processes: Establish efficient workflows and consistent messaging to improve content creation and distribution efficiency.

Leadership support: Ensure that leadership provides clear direction, values content marketing, and invests in necessary resources for success.

Content types and distribution channels

We asked technology marketers which content types, distribution channels, and paid methods of content promotion they use and which are most effective.

Ninety-five percent of technology marketers used short articles/posts in the last 12 months. Eighty-seven percent published case studies/customer stories. Eighty-two percent created long articles/posts — the same percentage of marketers who produced videos. Other content types included:

E-books/white papers (73%)

Data visualizations/visual content (60%)

Product technical/data sheets (58%)

Research reports (52%)

Interactive content (27%)

Sixty-two percent of technology marketers say case studies/customer stories are the most effective type of content they use, followed by research reports (55%), videos (53%), and e-books/white papers (50%).

Where do most technology marketers distribute content? Ninety-three percent say blogs on corporate websites. Ninety percent use organic social media platforms, 80% use email newsletters, 76% use webinars, and 73% use email. Other distribution channels include:

In-person events (66%)

Digital events (53%)

Podcasts (33%)

Microsite (32%)

Branded online community (21%)

Digital magazine (21%)

Hybrid events (21%)

Online learning platform (18%)

Direct mail (15%)

Print magazine (8%)

Mobile app (7%)

Separate content brand (5%)

Fifty-nine percent of technology marketers say webinars are the most effective distribution channel, followed by in-person events (58%), blog on a corporate website (46%), and email (43%).

Ninety-one percent of technology marketers say they used paid channels to distribute content in the last 12 months. Of those, 76% used social media advertising/promoted posts. Seventy-three percent used search engine marketing (SEM)/pay-per-click (PPC), 71% used sponsorships, 68% used digital display advertising, 39% used partner emails, 37% used native advertising, 18% used influencer marketing, 14% used print display advertising, and 7% did something else.

SEM/PPC was the most common effective paid channel (56%), followed by sponsorships (54%), and social media advertising/promoted posts (43%).

Social media use: LinkedIn for the win

Like their B2B peers, technology marketers say LinkedIn delivers the best value for their organization (93%). Twenty-four percent say YouTube, 16% say Facebook, 9% say Instagram, 8% say X, 3% say Reddit, and 2% say TikTok.

A comparison of technology marketers’ organic social media use to that of a year ago reveals little change except for a 9-point percentage drop in their use of X. In the last 12 months:

71% increased their use of LinkedIn, 27% stayed the same, 2% decreased, and 0% don’t use.

35% increased their use of YouTube, 43% stayed the same, 10% decreased, and 12% don’t use.

16% increased their use of Instagram, 28% stayed the same, 13% decreased, and 43% don’t use.

13% increased their use of Facebook, 38% stayed the same, 24% decreased, and 25% don’t use.

8% increased their use of X, 33% stayed the same, 33% decreased, and 26% don’t use.

8% increased their use of Reddit, 10% stayed the same, 4% decreased, and 78% don’t use.

5% increased their use of TikTok, 8% stayed the same, 4% decreased, and 83% don’t use.

Budgets and investment: Growth expected

Forty-five percent of technology marketers think their content marketing budget will increase in 2025. Forty-one percent think it will stay the same, while 10% expect a decrease, and 4% are unsure.

Fifty-eight percent of technology marketers say they expect their organizations to invest in videos in 2025, an 11 percentage-point drop from 2024.

About as many expect investment in the following areas in 2025 as in the previous year:

Thought leadership content (52% this year vs. 54% last year)

Paid advertising (43% this year vs. 40% last year)

Webinars (38% this year vs. 41% last year)

Building online community (27% this year vs. 27% last year)

Digital events (22% this year vs. 21% last year)

In-person events investment is expected by 39% of technology marketers compared with 60% in the previous year. Audio content investment is expected by 13% of marketers, down from 22% in the previous year.

Investments in AI for content optimization/performance (35%) and AI for content creation (33%) are new to this year’s survey answer options.

What now: Action steps for technology marketers in 2025

We’ve seen the data. We know the patterns. Most organizations are satisfied to roll their boulder up the same hill — pushing content without a clear strategy, drowning in technology they barely use, and settling for average results.

But if you’re reading this, you’re already questioning that path. You recognize this moment as the opportunity to break free from the cycle, stop treating content as a task, and start using it as a strategic advantage.

Where do you begin? Start with these three actions to build a content marketing approach that delivers continuous upward momentum:

1. Audit your content strategy for real differentiation

Stop creating content where the only objective is to fill the pipeline. Take a hard look at your current strategy and ask, “Does this actually set us apart? Do our content efforts connect to each other?” If your content sounds like everyone else’s — doing the same trends, same formats, same messaging — it’s time to rethink. The most effective brands don’t publish more; they create content that brings a unique perspective, delivers value, and earns attention. Stop pushing your content rock for a moment and ask whether your team spends its time on the most important content experiences.

2. Delegate the mundane instead of the meaningful

Many content and marketing teams are drowning in tasks that feel productive but don’t move the needle. And yet, when faced with being overwhelmed, their knee-jerk reaction is often to outsource the very thing that should be a core competency — quality content.

It’s a strange but common trend: Internal teams get stuck managing operational details, while the most strategic, creative, and meaningful work is handed off to agencies and freelancers. Marketing becomes a machine for maintaining processes rather than driving real impact.

Flip the script. Automate what you can. Streamline what you must. Delegate the work that is mechanical so your team can focus on the content, the experiences, and the distribution that build relationships — content that matters to your audience, not just your internal workflow.

3. Take the time to map your content strategy across the customer journey

Most content strategies prioritize what the business wants to say, not what the customer actually needs at each stage of their journey. Step back and map your existing content to real customer pain points, questions, and decision-making moments. Look for gaps and overflowing buckets. Are you creating content that helps them move forward at every step or just adding more noise on a single step? Do you have too much top-of-funnel content but nothing guiding prospects through consideration? Are there missed opportunities to deepen engagement post-sale?

Filling the gaps with intentional, high-value content and reducing the noisy content with little purpose are where the real impact happens.

Hill is steep, but the view is worth it

Sisyphus’ tragedy wasn’t pushing the boulder. It was his ultimate acceptance that the meaningless effort was all there ever would be. But here’s the thing. When it comes to your content marketing, you don’t have to accept that the endless uphill grind is all that will ever be.

Now is the moment to stop and rethink. Are you just pushing content for the sake of it? Or are you building something that stands out, something that sparks real engagement?

Most brands won’t ask those critical questions. They will keep rolling their rock up the same hill, watching it tumble back down, and feel tragically satisfied that they can keep doing it. But those of you who rethink your approach — who break free from the busy work, automate the right things, and invest in differentiation — will find yourselves at the top of the mountain, looking out at a landscape your competitors will never reach.

Yes, the work is hard. Yes, the hill is steep. But for those willing to push with purpose, the opportunity has never been greater. Trust me, those are the marketers who are happy.

Methodology

Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs surveyed 1,186 global marketers about their content marketing practices, strategies, use of generative AI, concerns, and challenges between June and August 2024. This article presents the findings based on the 274 technology marketers, mostly from North America, who answered the questions.

These technology marketers work for:

B2B companies (86%)

B2C companies (2%)

B2B + B2C companies (11%)

Other (1%)

Their companies have:

1 to 99 employees (29%)

100 to 999 employees (43%)

1,000 or more employees (28%)

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute