2025 Enterprise Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends

The Content Marketing Institute recently published their latest research on enterprise content marketing, and reveals many insights.  Here are the highlights that we felt important to call out, with Knotch’s take on the implications for marketing and content leaders.

1. Content strategies only moderately effective

Only 28% of enterprise marketers say their content strategy is extremely or very effective. 61% say it’s moderately effective.

Lack of clear goals, not data driven and not tied to the customer journey were the reasons why.

Knotch’s take: 

Be sure to have a measurement framework in place that defines and aligns the business outcomes, objectives and KPIs, and ensure that important stakeholders agree and support. Map the content strategy to the audience journey, and create pilots at new journey stages to unlock opportunities to improve performance.

2. Content performance measurement improves

48% of enterprise marketers agree that their organization measures content performance effectively (12% neither agree nor disagree, 38% disagree, and 2% don’t measure). That’s not to say they don’t encounter challenges: 61%  face difficulty tracking customer journeys, and 63% have difficulty attributing ROI to content efforts.

Knotch’s take: 

Once again, the presence of a measurement framework will ensure it’s clear what to measure.  There should be a mix of both leading and lagging indicators of performance.  Above all, take control of measurement.  Don’t rely on other departments to provide this, where it may be a secondary priority.  It should be your core responsibility.  Nothing else is more important.

3. Top performers truly understand their audience

When asked what they attribute their content marketing success to, 81% of the extremely and very successful enterprise marketers (aka “top performers”) say understanding their audience. 

Knotch’s take: 

‍Audience centricity shines from high performing content teams.  Many of these teams have people who act as audience managers who focus on understanding the important questions that the audience wants and needs to have answered at each stage of their journey.  

4. AI juxtaposition - used by 75%, yet only  1% excellence

75% of enterprise marketers report that their organizations are using it — up from 58% in 2023. With the increased use came an increase in generative AI usage guidelines: 62% of respondents say their organization has guidelines vs. 36% the previous year.

Only 1% described the content output as excellent.  86% describing quality as good or fair.  

Knotch’s take: 

To win in the content arena, good or fair content is not good enough.  Distinct content that wins over the audience’s heart and minds, and delivers business results is hard.  Human expertise is sorely needed to break through.  AI adoption frees up talented thinkers to spend more time on breakthrough ideas, and less time on mundane, repetitive tasks.

Thank you, Content Marketing Institute, for creating this report once again.

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Published April 5, 2025

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