Key Metrics, Budgets, and Marketing Trends in Manufacturing Content in 2025

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Assessment of Achievements and Main Challenges of Content Marketing in the Manufacturing Sector

New research shows that CMOs in the manufacturing sector, like most B2B marketers, evaluate their content marketing efforts as “average.”

The Content Marketing Institute conducted its annual survey. Results:

• 13% of marketers consider their strategy ineffective or completely ineffective;
• 20% report high effectiveness;
• 67% vote for moderate effectiveness.

Reasons for insufficient effectiveness:

• lack of connection to the customer journey (47%);
• no data orientation (46%);
• unclear goals (40%).

Less than half indicated the following problems:

• Ineffective audience research (25%).
• Inability to change or adapt (22%).
• Inconsistency of brand voice (21%).
• Prioritizing quantity of content over quality (18%);
• Unrealistic expectations (18%);
• Other (16%);
• Low-quality content (11%).

Thus, marketers in the manufacturing sector need to review their strategies. It is advisable to focus more on customers and set clearer goals.

Marketing Tasks for 2025: How to Create Content That Drives Customers

66% of marketers consider creating content that prompts the desired action a difficult task. 54% note that the problem lies in regularly producing content, and 46% in its quantity.

Other challenges include:

• Aligning content with audience needs (45%);
• Making branded content stand out from general information noise (44%);
• Adapting or repurposing already created materials (42%);
• SEO (34%);
• Ensuring high content quality (32%);
• Internal issues (6%).

Morgan Norris, Senior Brand and Content Strategist at TREW Marketing, believes that technical marketers should participate in several phone calls with clients. This way, they will better understand what users feel and which products or services solve business problems.

Marketing specialists encounter difficulties when it comes to creating content that truly sells. To successfully overcome these challenges, professionals recommend two strategies: 

• engage more actively in direct dialogue with consumers;
• use specialized technical tools to analyze why potential customers abandon purchases.

Give it a try!

Situational Content Challenges in the Manufacturing Business in 2025: Lack of Resources

The primary acute problem for marketers in the manufacturing sector is a lack of resources (57%). In addition, half of them note difficulties in aligning content with the customer journey. Other challenges include:

• Aligning content strategies between sales and marketing departments (47%).
• Communication between organizational units (47%).
• Evaluating the effectiveness of efforts (46%).
• Managing workflows and content approval (41%).
• Engaging industry experts (38%).
• Timely updating knowledge about new technologies and tools (29%).

To overcome the problem of resource shortages, marketers should focus on improving internal collaboration and more efficiently managing existing capabilities.

Measurement, Analysis, and Evaluation Challenges in Content Marketing 2025: Alignment With Business Goals

Marketers in the manufacturing sector assess the measurement of their work differently: 45% consider it effective, while 34% disagree. At the same time, 17% of respondents have no clear opinion, and 5% do not consider effectiveness at all.

What difficulties arise when trying to understand how effective our content is? The main problem is the inability to clearly connect the ROI of content efforts with tracking the full customer journey to conversion (64% of respondents).

Among the less prominent problems:

• Inability to link effectiveness with business goals (53%).
• Lack of clearly defined marketing goals or KPIs (48%);
• Difficulty organizing data within the company (40%);
• Insufficient resources or budget (39%);
• Complexity or inadequacy of reporting systems (36%);
• Inability to extract useful insights from data/analytics (32%);
• Low skill/talent level in working with data (32%);
• Limited access to effective analytical tools (31%).

Seeing the real impact of content marketing in the industrial sector remains a major challenge. To improve the situation, it is essential to enhance evaluation methods and more closely link content plans with key business objectives. After all, success lies in the details – in constant analysis, assessment, and timely adjustment of actions.

Content Management in Industrial Marketing (2025): Technology-Related Challenges

Only 21% of marketers have sufficient technology. At the same time, 36% of them underutilize its potential. 35% admit they lack modern tools, and 8% are not sure of their necessity at all.

Currently, marketers face difficulties in creating content that can grow with business needs. More than half, namely 54% of specialists, admit they lack a streamlined system for mass content production. Only a third, 31% of teams, have such a clear model, while 15% do not understand how these models work or how to adapt them to current tasks.

Given these data, it becomes clear: it is necessary to actively improve technological equipment for effective content management. It is also extremely important to develop flexible, scalable, and change-ready approaches to creating informational materials. This will significantly enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and directly their content component.

Technological Obstacles in Manufacturing Marketing: Lack of Key Functions for Task Execution in 2025

58% of marketers in the manufacturing sector noted that their technological tools lack capabilities for automating routine tasks and workflows. The same number indicated the absence of functions for effective management of marketing data and reporting. Other shortcomings include:

• Inability to make decisions based on data (57%);
• Ineffectiveness of tools for lead generation and support (52%);
• Narrow personalization capabilities (49%);
• Limited access to corporate analytics (39%).

At the same time, 8% of marketers state that their technological platform has no necessary functions at all.

Serious technological obstacles faced by marketers in the manufacturing sector significantly limit the ability to optimize workflows and manage effectively. But is it possible to overcome such obstacles through the application of AI?

The Significance of Artificial Intelligence for Manufacturing Marketing: Adequacy of Integration Into Processes in 2025

Indeed, 76% of marketers report using generative AI tools. This is not surprising, as this figure is comparable to the level of adoption among other B2B marketers, according to the results of a broader annual content marketing survey.

Specifically regarding content, 57% of marketers in the manufacturing sector rate its quality as excellent, very good, or good. At the same time, 43% consider it satisfactory or low. Members of the latter group may approach AI-generated content more cautiously, which is logical given the technical specificity of some products.

Only 7% reported that artificial intelligence is integrated into daily processes and workflows. About half (51%) noted that their teams experiment with using AI from time to time. Another 42% stated that AI is not officially used, although individual employees may use it independently.

Craig Coffey, Content and Marketing Strategy Manager at Eaton, shared his thoughts on the future use of artificial intelligence and attitudes toward it. In his opinion, marketers in the manufacturing sector think ahead — they make informed forecasts about which AI products may be implemented by major marketing technology providers. Only after that do they begin using the available features.

Thus, although many marketers use generative AI tools, the level of their integration into daily processes remains low. This is explained by the fact that not everyone is ready to widely apply this technology due to the technical specifics of their products.

At the same time, marketers plan to use AI in the future, expecting further improvements in its capabilities. In particular, it still matters whether competitors, who have proven more successful in the market, will implement specific applications.

Popularity of Content Formats in the Manufacturing Sector in 2025: Video Leads in Demand and Effectiveness

Over the past 12 months, the most frequently used content formats among marketers in the manufacturing sector were short articles and posts (89%) and video (85%). Other common formats include: technical documentation and product datasheets (71%), case studies and customer success stories (70%), in-depth articles and publications (57%), data visualizations and graphic content (53%), e-books and guides (44%), interactive content (19%), and analytical reports (14%).

Among content types, according to marketers in the manufacturing sector, the most effective are video (74%), followed by case studies and customer stories (45%), e-books and technical documentation (43%), as well as short articles and posts (36%).

Pete Grasso, Head of Marketing Communications and Technical Training at Heatcraft Refrigeration Products, explains why video works so well. In his opinion, it allows complex topics to be simplified into engaging, easily digestible content, ensuring not just information but real care for the audience. The integration of video into marketing has changed the way technical knowledge is shared, making it more relevant and accessible. Therefore, the shift to video formats is a necessary adaptation for modern CMOs and marketers, allowing them to maintain influence and relevance in their communication strategy.

Over the year, video has become the leading content format in both popularity and effectiveness. Marketers recognize it as the most effective tool for explaining complex topics and engaging the audience. In addition, video marketing is extremely popular with the modern generation.

Distribution of Manufacturing Sector Content in 2025: Organic Social Media and In-Person Meetings

Over the past year, 95% of marketers in the manufacturing sector used social media for organic content promotion. Specifically, 76% published blogs on corporate websites, and 71% participated in offline events. Other channels included:

• email newsletters (64%) and their personalization (62%);
• webinars (42%);
• digital (40%) and print (36%) magazines;
• virtual events (31%).

Microsites were used by only 23% of marketers, 16% used online learning platforms, the same number used podcasts, 14% direct mail campaigns, 10% branded online communities, and 7% hybrid events. Only 3% engaged mobile apps or other specific content formats.

The most effective distribution channels are:

• offline events (51%);
• corporate website blogs (49%);
• webinars (49%).

Email is also evaluated by experts as an effective tool (45%) along with e-newsletters (40%) and organic social media (39%).

Budgets and Spending in 2025: Steady Growth With Focus on Video and Thought Leadership

Research results show that 37% of marketers in the manufacturing sector expect an increase in content marketing budgets by the end of 2025. A significant portion (46%) believes that the budget will remain unchanged. Only 11% forecast a decrease, and 6% have no clear expectations.

By the end of 2025, most marketing professionals expect a noticeable increase in investments in creating video content (62%) and materials highlighting thought leadership (50%). This indicates a shift in promotional strategy priorities, where visual components and expert perspectives will play a key role.

Additionally, increased investments are expected in the following areas:

• artificial intelligence for improving content quality and process optimization (35%);
• branded events (35%);
• paid advertising campaigns (35%);
• using AI for content generation (33%);
• conducting webinars (31%);
• creating and developing online communities (21%);
• production of audio content (18%);
• organizing digital events (13%).

These trends indicate that companies are increasingly focusing on interactive formats, personalized approaches, and the use of modern technologies to achieve marketing goals.

Forecast for industrial marketing in the second half of 2025: conclusions and recommendations

In the second half of 2025, marketers in the manufacturing sector should focus on ensuring that their content strategy is closely aligned with the customer journey. This means that each stage of a potential buyer’s interaction with a product or service should be supported by appropriate content.

It is also extremely important to improve access to audience data, because the better you know your consumers, the more effective your content will be. Equally significant is collaboration with other internal teams to jointly define clear goals for content marketing.

To ensure a sufficient volume of materials that meet the company’s needs, marketers need not only to work closely with sales departments but also to develop content creation models that are easily scalable. This will allow rapid adaptation to changing conditions and ensure a continuous flow of high-quality materials.

Given that resources are often limited, in the second half of 2025, the ability of marketers to manage their content budgets as efficiently as possible will become extremely important. This is especially relevant when most professionals expect that content marketing budgets will remain at the same level as before.

Result-Oriented Approach in Content Marketing and the Manufacturing Sector

Most marketers recognize the importance of content in achieving business goals. They face difficulties at the stages of content creation, performance evaluation, and scaling. This is reflected in insufficient strategy effectiveness, misalignment with audience needs, lack of resources, and technological and budgetary constraints.

DriveFoxCopy Studio specializes in developing diverse content for the construction industry, the automotive segment and other B2B sectors. In our work, we take current trends into account. Our team of copywriters can prepare both video scripts and presentations for various events. Contact our manager right now, and together we will develop a content strategy that will bring long-term results!