2025 Marketing Trends for Content Success: 40+ Predictions

Sometimes, trends in content marketing last so long that they stop counting as trends and turn into truths.

Here’s one: People need great content in their lives. Not OK content. Not pretty good content.

People need content that makes them feel seen. Content that, yes, stops the scroll. But more than that. People need content that makes them want to do something. Content that guides them to the best option of all the things they could do.

I talked with industry pal Bernie Borges about the need for great content on his podcast at least five years ago. And I believe in its importance more than ever today.

So, to help guide and inspire your teams to create that exceptional content, we asked industry thought leaders (including Content Marketing World and Marketing Analytics & Data Science speakers, and Content Marketing Award winners) to predict what trends will affect your work most in 2025.

Here’s mine:

I predict (and expect and challenge) marketers to double down in 2025 and work harder at creating something great. Maybe that means less content. Maybe that means video instead of articles. Maybe that means real thought leadership. Only you know what your audience needs and craves most.

Yes, it’s harder than ever to stand out. But what’s the price for not doing so? Never being seen or heard. Quick exits, deletes, or unsubscribes.

Marketers don’t often get second chances. So, bring your greatest work in 2025.

Browse these predictions for the 2025 content marketing trends that matter most. And make sure to watch the videos for even more insights (it’s not all about text anymore — if it ever was).

Consider this your invitation to share your take with us by email or on our social channels (tag Content Marketing Institute on LinkedIn or @CMIContent on Instagram).

AI affects (almost) everything

Last year, content and marketing experts correctly predicted that generative AI wouldn’t steal jobs, it would support them. This year’s predictions reveal how that trend will continue and evolve.

Agents step up …

I think we are heading to experts who are creating customized GPT prompts to help with enhanced messaging.

— Michelle Ngome, president, African American Marketing Association

… to take on a very particular set of skills

Time to prepare for agents to do things like creating a new strategy by looking at current content, meeting notes, and email threads, suggesting the best vocabulary for each target audience, and replacing expensive tools.

What do you want your computer to do for you?

— Jim Sterne, president, Target Marketing of Santa Barbara

Automate yourself

Experiment with AI and automation. The tech is constantly evolving.

How can you use it to do what you do, but better? It’s never too late to get started!

— Melissa Leu, senior director of content strategy, Salesforce

Always be … influencing?

The future of influencer marketing is about to get a serious upgrade — meet the era of AI-powered social influencers! Imagine influencer “reps” who don’t sleep, speak multiple languages, and are available 24/7 — even on holidays. They bring a level of efficiency and consistency that human influencers can’t match.

Of course, human influencers aren’t going anywhere. Still, virtual influencers are rising fast, bringing new ways to create connections on a global scale. Here’s how you can start exploring and stay ahead:

• Get curious with research: Begin by researching brands that have ventured into AI influencer partnerships.
• Identify a niche for your AI influencer: Define a potential role where an AI influencer could add unique value — whether it’s answering FAQs, being available 24/7 for international followers, or promoting new product lines.
• Experiment on small campaigns: Test AI influencers on micro-campaigns (for example, a product launch where they help introduce new features).
• Engage your audience’s opinion: Get feedback from your community on how they’d feel about interacting with an AI influencer so you can create an AI personality.
• Define an authentic AI voice: Spend time developing a tone, style, and story to make the AI influencer relatable and ensure they feel true to your brand.

— Ashley Baker, freelance and contract marketer, Coastline Marketing LLC

Plan before you leap

In 2025, AI will shift from being a competitive advantage to a baseline expectation. The most successful marketers will recognize that strategy must come first — clearly defining goals, understanding their audience, and setting measurable outcomes — before identifying where AI can amplify efforts.

Those who have embraced AI will move beyond piloting tools and scaling initiatives; they’ll focus on creating AI-forward strategies that prioritize responsible and ethical implementation. This will mean more robust governance frameworks, deeper integrations with human creativity, and a commitment to using AI not just for efficiency but for creating meaningful connections with audiences.

Marketers who fail to start with strategy and integrate AI purposefully will find themselves struggling to compete in a world where AI is no longer optional but essential for innovation and growth.

— Cathy McPhillips, chief growth officer, Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute

Focus on outcomes and guardrails

In 2025, AI will play an increasingly vital role across all content marketing stages, from creation to performance analysis. As brands explore AI tools and vendors integrate more AI-powered features, marketers will continually assess how to integrate AI effectively into their workflows, adapting and refining their processes to enhance productivity and optimize outcomes.

To prepare for AI’s impact on content marketing:

• Identify areas where AI can streamline processes and improve productivity.
• Equip your team with training, while establishing guidelines for ethical use and transparency.
• Experiment with AI tools on a small scale to evaluate performance, using data insights to refine your content strategy.
• Focus on quality over quantity, adapting processes based on AI-driven outcomes and evolving technology. Continue testing and refining.

— Pam Didner, vice president of marketing, Relentless Pursuit LLC

Don’t expect miracles

Forrester recently published a report called Predictions 2025: B2B Marketing, Sales, and Product, which predicts that more than half of generative AI personalization efforts won’t achieve ROI. Why?

Because technology investment alone won’t be enough. Organizations will need to better understand how to integrate generative AI’s capabilities to create a more complete buyer’s journey that delivers aligned content tuned to buyer needs.

While organizations focus on connecting technologies to provide unified personalization, content professionals should be prepared to fill the gaps with recommendations that include assembly of human-constructed content modules to fuel personalized experiences. They should also recommend experiments that test personalized content in different pilot scenarios, preparing for the time when scale is possible.

— Phyllis Davidson, vice president and principal analyst, Forrester

Let AI find variations on your themes

Modular content creation strategy will focus on short, high-quality content blocks capable of being repurposed by AI to produce an infinite number of outputs.

AI can’t match your expertise, but it can reuse and reinvent things in a way that will help you scale your team’s overall production.

— David Claffey, director, global content strategy, ServiceNow

Come down to AI reality

After a two-year sugar high of embracing (or at least experimenting with) generative AI, content marketers will need to step back and separate the gen-AI hype from genuine hope.

Which activities and tasks truly benefit from an AI assist? What processes and governance need updating to account for the role of AI? Which tools are worth the price? And what skills and training are required to make the most of the capabilities while minimizing or mitigating the risks?

— Carmen Hill, principal strategist and writer, Chill Content LLC

Go with the (work) flow

AI is here to stay and evolving faster than most of us feel like we can handle, which is also bringing the value of content marketers into question.

In 2025, content marketers must focus on demonstrating the value of strategic, audience-driven content marketing by first identifying AI workflows to automate the busy work, and second, relentlessly pursuing data to show the impact of your efforts.

Bonus: Stay close to your content community — we’re all in this together!

— Ali Orlando Wert, content strategist and consultant, Ali Wert Marketing

Human-centric content and storytelling rise up

AI’s role also makes your essential human qualities even more important in your content.

Lead with feelings

In 2025, making an emotional connection is going to be more important than ever, especially considering so much competing content will be lifeless, AI creations.

You’ll be able to stand out even more by making your content unmistakably human and emotionally driven.

— AJ Wilcox, host, LinkedIn Ads Show podcast, and founder, B2Linked.com

Center on your real customers’ very human needs

In 2025, content marketers must prioritize human-centered, customer-first content to succeed in a landscape driven by AI overviews and evolving SERPs.

By creating authentic, authority-building content that addresses real user needs and delivers reliable answers, brands can strengthen trust, improve user experience, and enhance credibility.

— Zack Kadish, senior SEO strategy director, Conductor

Use language to show you understand

We got a taste of it this year, but authentic storytelling will be key in 2025.

To prepare, marketers need to find a friend in sales to get better intel from customers. Understand the language they’re using, the pain points they face, and their experiences with your products and services.

— Morgan Norris, senior brand and content strategist, TREW Marketing

Expect ‘heart’-ier content

I think with the influx of new AI tech on a daily basis, the market uncertainty, and the continuing budget stressors, marketers and brands will have to put in the work a little harder to connect on a more human level with their communities. Marketers will start putting a little more “heart,” for lack of a better term, into their messaging. Content that will connect on a deeper, more understanding level, letting the community know that their pain points are recognized.

— JK Kalinowski, creative director, Content Marketing Institute

Get specific (and vulnerable)

Marketers should expect their competitors to ramp up on storytelling as they try to compete against AI-generated content.

That means smart marketers will need to tell genuine, carefully crafted tales — filled with details, emotions, and even shortcomings — to stand out and connect.

— Nancy Harhut, author, chief creative officer, HBT Marketing

Lead with people

As content marketers use AI to increase efficiencies and expand production, greater adoption will also provide a challenge: How to stand out in a sea of sameness. Leaning into more human-centric storytelling could provide brands with the opportunity to differentiate and showcase products and services in a more authentic way.

— Jim Bentubo, senior director of content and production, Ally

Let your humanity show on screen

Price will always be important to our prospects, but it’s not the only thing that matters to them. They want to work with companies they feel good about, so our companies need to embrace their human side and demonstrate it through their content, especially video.

— Tony Gnau, founder and chief storytelling officer, T60 Productions and T60 Health

Evolution of search and SEO

Almost everything we thought we knew about search and SEO strategies changed in 2024. So, it’s no surprise many of this year’s predictions focus on what marketers should do to adapt in 2025.

Aim to be the AI answer

In 2025, content marketers will start optimizing their content to appear in AI responses. We’ll all suddenly start looking for ways to get our insights and our brands to appear in Google’s AI overviews and AI apps … just as brands started optimizing for search in the late 1990s.

Bonus prediction: Someone will name this marketing strategy … please? AI optimization (AIO)? Generative engine optimization (GEO)?

— Andy Crestodina, co-founder and chief marketing officer, Orbit Media

Head for the middle (of the funnel)

In 2025, search behavior will shift from keyword-based queries (like “ice cream Portland”) to natural conversational questions (“Where can I have a client meeting with a vegan who’s lactose intolerant tomorrow at noon in Portland near the Marriott?”).

According to Microsoft data, traffic from generative AI searches converts significantly better than traditional searches because users are educated within the search platform before visiting your website.

Marketers should focus less on educational content and more on capturing mid-funnel demand with content that targets high-intent searches — like comparison pages, niche buying guides, and interactive tools.

— Dale Bertrand, CEO, Fire&Spark

Own it

While SEO remains an important part of the content marketing mix, the emergence of AI has had a tremendous impact on the search landscape. This will continue to unfold in 2025. Because of this, brands need to diversify their audience growth strategies to include additional owned channels beyond web/blog copy, along with an increase in paid search spending.

— Caila Ball-Dionne, vice president of strategy and editorial operations, Masthead

Ditch the SEO ‘slop’

Embrace the new B2B content funnel. People want to follow people, not brands.

You need to create demand at the top of the funnel with creators who have built trust with your audience, and then capture demand with product-led SEO. No more bleh “informational” SEO slop.

— Joe Lazer, head of content and communications, A.Team

Video stars for visibility

Search engines will continue to enhance multimodal video understanding and context awareness, prompting marketers to shift content priorities toward video.

Improved metadata extraction will make video content more discoverable, encouraging businesses to embed more video in cornerstone content for SEO. Short-form videos will become essential for visibility beyond social media.

— A. Lee Judge, co-founder and chief marketing officer, Content Monsta

Experiences rule: Don’t waste those visits

In the era of click-less search, those website visits you capture are going to be even more valuable. We’re going to see savvy institutions working to create an experience (not a transaction hub) on their sites, extending the vibe and flow from social and campaign pages into their owned platforms. It’s the next level of brand authenticity and intentionality in meeting users where they are.

— Mariah Tang, chief content marketing officer, Stamats

Go beyond SEO basics

Prepare for a significant shift in SEO strategies. Here are five crucial steps content marketers can take to position themselves for success in the sophisticated digital landscape of 2025:

• Optimize for advanced search: Prioritize user intent, content quality, and page experience. Optimize for voice and visual search by incorporating conversational language and enhancing visual content.
• Build expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness: Create high-quality, comprehensive content that demonstrates your industry knowledge and secures high-quality backlinks.
• Embrace semantic SEO: Create content clusters around main topics, use schema markup, and develop in-depth, authoritative content that covers subjects holistically.
• Prioritize technical SEO: Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices, loads quickly, and provides an excellent user experience across all platforms.
• Leverage AI and stay adaptable: Explore AI and machine learning tools to analyze and improve your content strategy and maintain a flexible approach to adapt to new features and technologies across various platforms.

— Juntae DeLane, founder and CEO, Digital Delane

Content strategy, planning, and management persist

The more things change … well, you know the rest of that saying. It’s a great reminder that fundamentals, like strategy and planning, are fundamental for a reason.

Yes, you still need a strategy

Content marketers MUST go back to the basics and stop chasing the bright and shiny object. Who is your audience? And do you have proof points about why they buy your products and services? What are your messages and what channels are you using and why? Clear marketing plans and content strategies will ensure success in 2025.

— Ahava Leibtag, CEO, Aha Media Group

Shore up your foundations

2025 will be the year of AI integration, which will expose the skeletons in every company’s content closet. The rush to integrate AI is going to hit a wall of outdated content, data silos, and poor documentation.

Smart organizations won’t just chase AI — they’ll start by rebuilding their content and data foundations to take full advantage of this technology.

— Brian Piper, director of content strategy and assessment, University of Rochester

Let go of the unworkable

2025 is the year to pressure test your org chart. Every role should have goals that ladder up to the bigger picture, and those goals should drive the majority of daily tasks. Become ruthless about killing “unworkable work” (work not immediately necessary and/or achievable) to laser-focus teams on things that truly move the needle. This should be your main focus as a leader and the first thing content team members should ask their managers.

— Jenny Magic, founder and CEO, Build Better Change

Think beyond the to-do list

Get your content house in order: Start by setting clear goals and tracking progress to optimize workflows, refine roles, and clarify RACIs (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed — the responsibility matrix). Develop a plan to transition from day-to-day operations to strategic orchestration.

By building a solid foundation, you’ll be ready to adapt quickly, harness data insights effectively, and create content that deeply resonates with your audience.

— Cathy McKnight, chief problem solver and lead analyst, The Content Advisory

Declutter your (content) closets

The year of the audit. From tech stacks to content libraries, it’s an opportunity to pull everything out of the closet and learn what’s working, what’s resonating, what can be improved, and what we can help our customers accomplish.

— Jacqueline Baxter, director of content design and strategy, Sitecore

Experience it yourself

Continued AI growth will make first-hand knowledge more powerful than ever.

It will also make your user experience and engagement even more vital.

— Eric Carlson, SEO manager, Siteimprove

Live up to your messaging

The need to practice what you preach is only going to get more critical for your brand’s reputation.

We’re at information overload, so hopping on a trend or making a funny video can only get you so far if your brand’s actions don’t follow through with its messaging.

— Brittany Du Bois, content marketing manager for North America, PlayPlay

All about that process

Content teams will continue to be challenged with a similar or more significant workload in 2025. AI may provide opportunities for efficiency, but only if all stakeholders understand how to integrate this technology successfully.

Content and marketing leaders must ensure processes are refined, documented, and operationalized.

— Pamela Muldoon, content leadership advisor, Content Leadership Advisory

Subscribers still matter

“Every company is a media company” was once a popular refrain. Being a media company means developing useful and relevant content that’s published consistently over time to attract and build a subscribed audience.
In recent years, the pressure on trade publications has intensified.

That means the timing is even better today than when this new marketing idea first really started to grow legs. As a community, we have an opportunity in 2025, or perhaps even an obligation, to seize the moment and get back to the soul of content marketing — and that means returning our focus to building a subscribed audience.
— Frank Strong, founder and president, Sword and the Script Media LLC

Remember to prove your worth

The top priority for content marketers in 2025 must be aligning content initiatives closely with overall business objectives.

Educating company leadership on the strategic role of content and securing the necessary resources (people and tech) will be paramount. Regularly show leadership how content drives results to ensure continued buy-in of people and tech while adapting strategies to meet the evolving needs of the business.

— Bernie Borges, vice president, global content marketing, iQor

Get justified

Content marketers must be able to justify their existence with revenue-based outcomes. This doesn’t mean selling through content; however, it does mean anchoring yourself to quantifiable metrics like qualified leads, demos booked, and (especially) pipeline value generated. Get as close as possible with the sales department — they should become your biggest advocates.

— Aaron Orendorff, vice president of growth, FERMÀT

Content team structure and skills

Once again, for those in the back, AI isn’t edging people out of content and marketing. So, you still need to figure out how to get everyone working at their best, together.

Make time for great work

The biggest question marketers will need to answer in 2025 is, “How are we investing in the increasing value of our team?” Marketing teams are ending 2024 in a state of exhaustion and frustration, and they’re boxed out of anything that resembles creative or innovative approaches.

Marketing has become ever more efficient in maintaining and tweaking the existing engines and has lost sight of doing new things. The current risk of generative AI is that it’s yet another pressure point for marketers to prove to senior leadership that they can become even more efficient and even more agile at managing the mundane.

Successful teams in 2025 will reinvest in themselves to slow down, be more creative, and swing for more trusted, creative branded experiences to create competitive advantage. It’s a new era in marketing. We’re moving from “move fast and break things” to “move slow and invent new things.”

— Robert Rose, chief troublemaker, Seventh Bear, and chief strategy advisor, Content Marketing Institute

Amplify each other

In 2025, silos are out — collaboration is in. This means your content team should be working with your public relations team to get the most out of each piece of content you create.

Did you conduct original research? Factor your PR team in so they can pitch the results to trade media outlets in your space. Have you published a new long-form blog post? Work with PR so they can repurpose it as a contributed article. Or maybe your public relations team has a new executive thought leadership piece you could post as content on your site. Perhaps they’ve written a customer case study that would make a great addition to your content resource library. Don’t overlook opportunities to leverage each other’s work.

— Michelle Garrett, PR consultant, Garrett Public Relations

Offload the drudgery

Content and marketing functions in 2025 will begin to find the balance of using AI without losing talent.

Using AI for mundane and administrative tasks will allow more advanced organizations to focus on improving strategy and more complex work, taking full advantage of their best minds.

— Andi Robinson, content strategist, Hijinx Marketing

Keep learning and adapting

Think of this one as the anti-trend. No matter what comes in 2025, your best path forward involves trying new things. You might even find that you like them.

Take up TikTok

I think that marketers will see the impact of TikTok marketing similar to what happened in 2020. TikTok Shop is completely changing marketing right now, but most businesses have no idea what is happening. Start spending time learning and using it.

— Keenya Kelly, video marketing strategist, If You Create It

Gen Z writes the script

The extremely online generation will raise the bar even higher. They may be relatively new to the workforce, but most are old hands at creating digital content. They also happen to be demanding content consumers with low tolerance for anything boring, manipulative, or inauthentic. So, expect Gen Z to teach the old content pros some new tricks.

— Kim Moutsos, vice president of editorial, Content Marketing Institute

Understand why

2025 is the year content marketers go back to school. No, I don’t mean we’re all going to get MBAs or change fields. Instead, I predict content leaders and creators alike are going to spend some serious time reading, attending master classes, and joining learning-based communities to improve their messaging skills, unlock the advantages of AI, and improve their understanding of the behavioral science elements at play in why our customers make the decisions they do, and what it takes to break through the noise to reach them.

— Erika Heald, fractional content leader and B2B content strategy consultant, Erika Heald Marketing Consulting

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/ Content Marketing Institute